Introduction to Operations Management. Business & Marketing Essay

Introduction to Operations Management
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Introduction to Operations Management
Question 1
Explain the concerns of any FIVE of the kinds of stakeholders connected with a business.
The customers form an essential part of the stakeholders since they purchase the goods or services offered. Quality thus becomes a primary concern for customers who expect both high-quality products and services in addition to excellent customer service. This determines customer loyalty and retention to the business in the long run.
Employees depend on the business for income and benefits that enable them to support themselves. Therefore, concerns on the sufficiency of such income and benefits determine the amount of motivation and loyalty to the business by employees. More so, the working conditions must be conducive to encourage optimum working from the employees at all times.
Apart from that, investors stake the finances as capital for the business hence, a major concern lies in the return of investment. The business losing money affects their ability to invest further in the company due to the increased risk.
Suppliers provide goods and services to the business and assist in helping the company meet its obligations to other parties. As a result, suppliers need constant cash flow since they depend on the business for survival. Delayed payment of contracts thus raises significant concerns for suppliers and vendors.
Lastly, communities surrounding the business play an essential role in supporting the business. Consequently, the impact of the business on the environment, job creation, and economic development affect the community. Therefore, the lack of investment by the business into the community in terms of human resources and economic development may raise concerns for communities (Carroll et al., 2017).
Describe Porter's Cost and Differentiation strategies for the manufacture of a product
Porter's cost refers to a company's ability to create economies of scale through the employment of efficient operations to reduce the cost of the product to consumers. As a result, such companies must exploit any cost advantages to sustain production to command the prices in the industry. On the other hand, differentiation refers to the uniqueness of a company's product in a given market niche (Tanwar, 2013). In this case, the company can concentrate on specific attributes of the consumers and position itself accordingly to meet such demands.
Explain order-winning and order-qualifying criteria as put forward by Hill
Order-qualifying criteria refer to the minimum characteristics of products that enable them to be considered by consumers in a given market. In this case, such criteria must be met to stay afloat by maintaining the standards of the competitors. On the other hand, order-winning criteria refer to the traits that push consumers to purchase the product. This means that such a company must be better than competitors to guarantee the sale of the product or service (Hill, 1995).
Question 2
Explain with examples the concepts of Quality, Flexibility, Dependability, and Speed
Quality refers to the conformation of the product or service to standa...