Production and Operations Management Assignment

Examination Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 78/100, The University of Surrey (Surrey University), course: Production and Operations Management MBA P/T, language: English, abstract: Operations strategy can be defined as the strategic decisions and tactics which set the role, objectives and activities of a firm. It derives from the firm's capabilities, resources and processes, seeking to deliver competitive advantage to winning customers through meeting their needs. Competitive factors that are significant in winning customers' business are order winners. Improvements of these factors will likely result in gaining more business to the firm. In order for a firm to have a competitive advantage, it must understand and provide products and services whose factors create order winners for its customers. As a precursor, factors which customers have a certain minimum expected level from are defined as order qualifiers that firms should conform to. Therefore business decisions should be thought of in terms of order winning and order qualifying criteria, designed to win customers and drive business growth to the firm. A firm can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve. This could be delivering great value to customers or creating comparable value at a lower cost, or both. Such differentiation arises from both the choice of performance objectives activities and how they are performed, or deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value or perform similar operational activities better than rivals. Operations managers should decide on which of the sub-dimensions of these five performance objectives (Figure 1) they wish to excel at, and how they are going to configure the operation to do so. Figure 1: The Multiple Dimensions of the Five Operations Performance Objectives The goal of this paper is to investigate and compare operations strategies of two manufacturing-based and two service-based companies. The paper takes an integrated evaluation approach of each firm's prioritised performance objectives from a requirements and operations capability point of view, as well as focusing on line of fit strategy and tactics to achieve competitive advantage through examining their process design, capabilities management and resources management.

Commercially driven customer-obsessed digital marketing strategy leader with solid hands-on experience in digital marketing, video content, paid social, PPC and ecommerce activation. Works closely with brands to drive online revenue growth and conversion through innovative strategies. Crafts user experiences that ensure a seamless journey from discovery to conversion while raising consumer engagement across all channels. Solid understanding of direct response, media planning, customer insights and analytics. Leads media planning and creative execution for online campaign activation while monitoring key metrics. Deep knowledge of digital content, multichannel campaigns including paid social media, display, video virals, organic, native and SEO. Experienced in stakeholder management in complex matrix environments with deep passion for the latest digital trends. Takes ownership and moves quickly to deliver measurable results, while owning campaigns performance and driving P/L in an ecommerce environment. Known for simplifying the complex with strong ability to come up with innovative and boundary pushing creative concepts and solutions. Worked on both client-side and agency-side managing profitability while influencing different cultures up to C-suite level through a light touch collaborative approach and working closely with business and technical teams as well as experience managing relationships with media and creative agencies. Adopts an insight-driven performance marketing approach focusing on persona targeting, journey mapping with proven high conversion rates. MBA focusing on social media monetization strategies for multinational brands, Mo is also a speaker in conferences and is passionate for photography, videography and latest technology trends. Retail, Telecom, FMCG, Luxury Goods, Automotive, Tech, Energy and Apps.