An effective operations management strategy (OMS) improves the ability of a business to achieve its objectives. It captures all essential elements of the business’ operation, including supply chain management, forecasting, inventory, quality control and product management in real time in order to drive improvements in quality, cost and customer satisfaction.
The essential elements of an OMS include:
1. Senior management oversight.
For an OMS to be successful, it must be coherent with the aims and objectives of the organisation and driven from the top. A senior responsible owner must remove barriers to success and motivate their team to work collaboratively to achieve a shared goal. They must set milestones and regularly review progress to ensure that their team remains on track to achieve agreed KPIs.
2. Cross functional input.
An organisation’s OMS will only succeed in achieving its objectives if every element of the business is bought into it and working towards the same outcome. Therefore, it is essential that the delivery team is made up of members of all functions of the business in order that nothing is missed, double-tapped or affects the performance of the plan.
3. Future proof the plan.
Use accurate and reliable data derived during the pilot period to introduce manufacturing intelligence in order to develop the ability to predict outcomes and make recommendations at an earlier stage in order to improve business operations.
4. Use the data effectively.
Generating data is only useful if it prompts action. The data collected must be meaningful and enable senior personnel within the business to make appropriate decisions regarding inventory, such as hydraulic power unit purchases, financial strategy, improved manufacturing performance and other actions that will improve the productivity, efficiency or output of the business.
5. Embed the strategy.
Once the pilot study demonstrates that data is being collected that is reliable and driving positive change, it should be embedded into company processes and maintained accordingly. Organisations such as hydraproducts.co.uk/Hydraulic-Power-Units/Standard-Power-Units use OMS very effectively to deliver a dependable and repeatable outcome to their customers.
When designed and implemented effectively, an operations management strategy can significantly improve business output.