Managing operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing operations - Essay Example The notion includes the process of delivering the services to the customers with the products. With the changing time the aspects covered are increasing, the process now also includes R&D, value creation, marketing management, sales activities, accounting and finance. Most of the physical assets remain unchanged. These include buildings, land, manufacturing plants, warehouses etc. Planning, operating and controlling are the important constituents of transformation process. The improvement in the system is also an important aim of the model. Outputs consist of products and services and may even be information, such as that provided by a consulting organisation. (Koontz and Weihrich, 1994; p 633, 634) Time network analysis is a logical extension of the famous Gantt chart. Often referred to as the program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) an in its essentials as the Critical Path Method (CPM), this technique of planning and control has wide potential use in many applications. But PERT and its various refinements, like PERT/COST, have considerable potential for use in many aspects of planning and controlling operations. (Koontz and Weihrich, 1994; p.648) A product can be improved and its cost lowered through value engineering, which consists of analysing the operations of the product or service, estimating the value of each operation, and attempting to improve that operation by trying to keep costs low at each step or part. The following specific steps are suggested: Work methods can be improved through work simplification, which is the process of obtaining the participation of workers in simplifying their work. Training sessions are conducted to teach concepts and principles of techniques such as time and motion studies, workflow analyses, and the layout of the work situation. (Koontz and Weihrich, 1994; p.648) A quality control circle, or simply quality circle (QC); is a group of people from the same organisational area who meet regularly

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices - Essay Example This essay stresses that intense competition plays a crucial role in creation of sustainable development practices and enhancement of the quality of products and services. Corporate responsibility is regarded as the degree to which an organisation complies with the legal guidelines and looks after the welfare of the society. The contemporary business practices show significant levels of understanding between the responsible and good corporate practices. Stakeholders and shareholders have understood the value of CSR and are focused on integrating business activities with huge societal concerns that can lead to good management practices. CSR is regarded as a technique which helps the organisation in evaluation of the business activities and its impact on the society and environment through ethical and transparent decision making. This paper declares that the World Business Council for Sustainable Development states that the CSR approach is a ‘business contribution to the sustainable economic development’. CSR includes activities such as health and safety, corporate governance and ethics, environmental stewardship, human rights and sustainable development. It focuses on aspects such as community and societal involvement, development and investment, corporate philanthropy, employee volunteering, customer satisfaction, anti-bribery, anti-corruption measures and adherence to the principles of fair competition. Business activities play a pivotal role in wealth and job creation, but the central management concern of CSR would be efficient utilisation of natural capital. (Halal, 2000). CSR activities help in efficient utilisation of human resources and capital and increasing the employee retention rate. The brand image of the company is enhanced because of the CSR activities performed by the organisatio n. Companies which recycle their products can effectively lower their expenditure. Customers are attracted towards companies which perform CSR activities efficiently. Whether or not a company implements CSR tools and techniques, the way it performs its business activities signifies clear intentions of the company. According to Hopkins (1999 cited in Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001), business organisations need to perform commercial and non-commercial responsibilities with an equal amount of importance. The non-commercial responsibilities undertaken by the company should include the well-being of the society, community, environment, government etc. The stakeholder’