Management Extra: Quality and Operations Management
Exploring the associated concepts of quality and operations, this book fuses key ideas with applied activities to help managers examine and improve how they work in practice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Management Extra: Quality and Operations Management
Better by Design
Operations management starts with design. Unless you design, and design well, later planning and control will be hampered by the limitations built into your products and services and operations processes.
The French TGV ( Train Grande Vitesse) is the fastest train in the world with a world record speed of 320.3 mph and a regular speed of 186 mph. It incorporates new product design features in aerodynamics, coupling, power supply, braking and computerised signalling. It has also set new standards of design in comfort, convenience, safety and the environment. However, its performance on cost-tracks and signalling estimated at $33 million per mile to build-is less impressive.
The design of products and services is a process involving a number of sequential or concurrent stages. Typically, they include the following:
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Developing a concept-a concept is generated from the ideas that people have. These can be ideas from customers, suppliers, staff, marketing research or from benchmarking competitors-for example, using suggestion schemes to involve employees.
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Making an initial design-this involves specifying the components and processes involved in the concept-for example, to design a new car you would have to specify the material components, visual design elements, manufacturing processes, and so on.
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Creating a prototype-this is a working model of the finished product to test the design. It may be a clay or plastic model, or even a virtual prototype such as a computer-aided design (CAD) model.
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Agreeing a specification-after various testings and evaluations, a final specification is agreed.
Evaluation,...
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