Strategic Operations Management - Essay Example

“Operational activities are central to the provision of services and /or goods. Every organization provides a product and service combination. A meal in restaurant, a visit to the hospital, buying a pair of Levi 501s, making a pair of Levi 501s, insuring an automobile, staying in an hotel, going to the cinema,; all have operations activities and their management is central to the successful provision of goods and services.” 1 In this example, we are examining the operational activities of a small manufacturing company engaged in the production of automotive components.

It is a known fact that small scale manufacturing companies undertake many diverse activities in providing different types of products and services. Modern organizations are complex entities, especially the small scale enterprise, and there will be many different types of operation, both in individual firms as well as across different industries. This clearly reveals that the types of operation vary across different sectors, and there are external factors that influence the organization in many ways.

Over the past two decades, leaders of virtually all organizations -- big and small -- have come to understand that external forces can exert more influence over an organization than management itself does. Legislation and public opinion, for example, can greatly expand or restrict what an organization can do and how it does it. As a result, many organizations now try to monitor these external forces, looking for signs where new controversies or new opportunities may be brewing on the business horizon.

In today’s competitive and highly sophisticated business world, awareness of those external factors is crucial for a business entity. These factors also determine the sustenance of an organization. Generally speaking, these factors exist both at ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ levels. At a closer micro level, the external elements include suppliers, competitors,