Operations Management & Supply Chain Management

Define the term operations management

According to Baltzan, Phillips, Lynch & Blakey, operations management  is the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources (including human resources) into goods and services. This system is responsible for managing the core processes used to manufacture goods and produce services.

 Explain operations management’s role in business

The role of operations management in business can be summed down to supplying certain activities for the business. These are:

·         ForecastingEstimating demand, conditions and growth

·         Capacity PlanningPlanning amounts

·         SchedulingCreating and maintaining schedules

·         Managing InventorySelf-explanatory

·         Assuring QualityQuality is indispensable. Customers expect high-quality products and services. This focuses on efficiency and courtesy

·         Motivating and Training EmployeesAlso self-explanatory

·         Locating FacilitiesFinding places to situate your business and its resources

Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology

The correlation can be seen through this quality:

·         IT is able to influence operations management decision easily through productivity, costs, flexibility, quality and customer satisfaction

Explain supply chain management and its role in a business

A supply chain includes all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in the procurement of a product or raw material.

Supply chain management (SCM) involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximise total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.

SCM’s role in business is to follow its five components to benefit both the company and its customers.

List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain

The five components of a typical supply chain are:

·         PlanThis is where the company plans its strategies for supply. Companies need to have plans for managing resources and meeting customer demand.

·         SourceCompanies choose suppliers that will deliver the goods and services required for making their own product.

·         MakeThe company manufactures its products. It goes through the phases: production, testing, packaging and preparing for delivery.

·         DeliverAKA ‘logistics’. The set of processes that plans for and controls the efiicient and effective transportation and storage of supplies from suppliers to customers. Companies receive orders from customers, fulfil them, pick transport options and deliver the product.

·         ReturnReceiving defective and excess products. Supporting customers who have problems with delivered products.

Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain.

The relationship between these two can be seen through the role of IT in the supply chain. This role includes:

·         The creation of the integrations or tight process and information linkages between functions within a firm (between marketing, sales, finance, manufacturing and distribution).

·         It helps the supply chain through it’s three integration platforms: planning and control supply chain integration, information integration and business process integration. Which are also made up of the five components of the typical supply chain.

·         IT is also a major influence on the factors that drive supply chain management: visibility, consumer behavior, competition and speed.

Networks, Telecommunications and Mobile Technology

1. Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.

Wireless technology is a communications and data exchange and resource-sharing system that has a  wireless network infrastructure. Wireless refers to any type of electrical or electronic operation that is accomplished without the use of a hard wired connection. The benefits are:

• ·       Universal access to information and applications - People are mobile and with wireless technology, they can access networks and the Internet wherever they are, whenever they want.

• ·       The automation of business processes - Information can be centralised and wireless technology can eliminate redundant technology.

• ·       User convenience, timeliness and ability to conduct business 24/7, 365 days a year - Information can be accessed anytime, anywhere.

2. Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP
Voice over IP is a system that uses TCP/IP technology to transwit voice calls over Internet technology. With new and improces technology and IT infrastructures, Internet phone calls now offer similar quality to traditional phone calls. The benefits of VoIP are:

• ·       Business application integration (databases)
• ·       Calendar integration
• ·       Call waiting and caller ID
• ·       Simple usability (click-of-a-mouse simplicity), easy navigation
• ·       Conference call capability, three-way calling
• ·       Comprehensive information with each caller
• ·       Desktop application integration
• ·       Dial-by-name capability
• ·       Mobility (users can work from anywhere)

3. Compare LANs and WANs

• A LAN is a local area network. This network is designed to connect a group of computers in close proximity to each other, for example, at school, university, at an office. It’s useful for sharing resources. They connect to other LANs, to the Internet and WANs.
• A WAN is a wide area network. This network is designed to span across a large geographic area, for example, a state or country. It’s useful for sharing everything and accessing information. They connect to multiple smaller networks, such as LANs.

4. Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.
RFID is radio frequency identification. Its technologies use active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers.
RFID can help make a supply chain more effective by:

• ·       Cutting costs by requiring fewer workers for scanning items
• ·       Providing more current and more accurate information to the entire supply chain

5. Identify the advantages and disadvantage of deploying mobile technology

The advantages of deploying mobile technology are:

• ·       Social networking gets mobilised
• ·       Multi-function devices become cheaper and more versatile
• ·       Location-based services
• ·       Mobile advertising
• ·       Wireless providers move into home entertainment
• ·       Wireless security moves to the forefront
• ·       Enterprise mobility
• ·       Mobile TV

The disadvantages of deploying mobile technology are:

• ·       Mobile advertising

Databases and Data Warehouses

1. List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information.

The five characteristics of high quality information are:

1.    Accuracy
Whether or not the information displayed is correct.
Eg. Customers details being inputted correctly into the database.

2.   Completeness
If the data is complete.
Eg. The customer’s address is fully put into the system, including the street name, the postcode, etc.

3.   Consistency
Whether or not all the data in the system is in agreement with each other.
Eg. All transactions from a customer’s file add up to their total.

4.   Uniqueness
When any business process is represented only once in the system.
Eg. Each customer is given an individual customer number in the system.

5.    Timeliness
Whether or not the information in the system is current.
Eg. Customer’s details are updated monthly.

2. Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.

A database is something that maintains information about various types of objects (such as inventory), events (transactions), people (employees) and places (warehouses).

A database management system (DBMS) is software that is used to manage and query a database.

The relationship between these two is that they both depend on each other. A DBMS couldn’t exist without databases. And the use of databases would be very difficult without them being properly managed.

3. Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.

An organisation can benefit from databases in these ways:

·      Increase flexibility
A good database can adjust quickly with the business changes. Therefore keeping all their data readily accessible.

·      Increased scalability and performance
Scalability and performance would increase once all their information is easier to access and stored logically.

·      Reduced information redundancy
Information redundancy would decrease because redundancy is the duplication of information. Once the information has been stored in the database it would be less likely to be entered in twice.

·      Increased information integrity (quality)
Information integrity is a measure of the quality of information. The quality of information would increase with the use of a database because of the introduction of integrity constraints – which are rules that ensure information quality.

·      Increased information security
Information security with increase because of protection measures that will be put in place to protect the databases – including passwords, antivirus software, access levels/controls. These things all ensure authentication.

4. Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.

The concepts are:

·      Entities
A person, place, thing, transaction or event about which information is stored.

·      Attributes
(AKA fields or columns) Characteristics or properties of an entity class.

·      Keys & Relationships
Developers need to identify keys and create relationships between them. These keys include:
- Primary keys: a field (or group of fields) that uniquely identify a given entity in a table.
- Foreign keys: a primary key of one table that appears as an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationship between the two tables.

5. Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.

The benefits include:

·      Development
Website owner is allowed to make changes any time they want. These websites allow updating to occur with little/no training.

·      Content management
Changes can happen automatically.

·      Future expandability
The site can grow faster than a static website.

6. Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organisation.

The roles and purposes of data warehouses are:

·      A data warehouse is a logical collection of information. It’s gathered from different databases.

·      The role of a data warehouse is to store all the data from several databases.

·      The purpose of a data warehouse is  for all the information that it collects, to come together and support business analysis activities and decision-making tasks.

The roles and purposes of data marts are:

·      A data mart is an object that contains a subset of data warehouse information.

·      The role of a data mart is to store subsets of data warehouse information.

·      The purpose of a data mart is to make it easier to find and access information from data warehouses.

Enterprise Architecture

What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other?

Information Architecture works to identify where and how important information is maintained and secured. This information includes customer records. The three primary areas of information architecture are backup & recovery, disaster recovery and information security. These areas all come together to help a company prevent losing data and having to spend time and money on either restoring or recreating it.

Information Infrastructure is also known as infrastructure architecture. It includes all the hardware, software and telecommunications equipment that provides the underlying foundation to support the organisation’s goals. As an organisation changes its systems must be able to change to support its operations.

Differences	Similarities
Information architecture (IA) concerns itself with just the data systems of a company, whereas information infrastructure (IF) is involved in all the systems of a company.	Both a part of Enterprise Architecture.
IA is an approach to information while IF is a foundation for the delivery of foundation.	Both work together to secure the company’s systems.

Describe how an organisation can implement solid information architecture.

An organisation can implement solid information architecture by paying close attention to the three areas:

·       Backup & Recovery
A backup is an exact copy of the system’s information.

Recovery is the ability to get a system up and running in the event of a system crash or failure and includes restoring the information backup.
Businesses lose money and time when their systems crash or fail, therefore there must be systems in place to aid the company when this happens.

·       Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery plans are a detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster.
Disasters can include power outages, natural disasters and external forces such as hacking. Companies need to create disaster recovery plans to prepare the company for such occurrences.

·       Information Security
Information security, such as antivirus software and passwords, is key when protecting a company. The company needs to take such measures to secure and protect their information in case of external threats.

List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture.

The five required characteristics are:

·       Flexibility
The company’s ability to be able to meet all types of business changes.

·       Scalability
Scalability is how well a system can adapt to increased demands. These demands come from organisational growth.

·       Reliability
This ensures all systems are functioning correctly and providing accurate information.

·       Availability
This addresses when systems can be accessed by users. High availability occurs when a system that is continually operational for a desirability long length of time.

·       Performance
This measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction. Not having enough performance can be devastating on a company.

Describe the business value in deploying a service-oriented architecture.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a ‘business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business as linked, repeatable tasks or services’.

The business value in deploying a SOA can see these benefits:

·       The SOA enables businesses to address the new business requirements, provides the option to make the services consumable across different channels and exposes the existing IT infrastructure investments.

·       SOAs are capable of sharing data and resources between two or more systems.

·       Loose coupling – ‘the capability of services to be joied together on demand to create composite services, or disassembled just as easily into their functional components’.

What is an event? 

An event can be defined as the ‘eyes and ears of a business’. They detect threats and opportunities and alert those who can act on the information. Companies use IT systems to look at business process for events that can help.

What is a service?

A service can be defined as something that appeals to a broad audience and is reusable. These to characteristics are vital if the company wants a long-term impact on productivity. Services are like valuable business processes. Modern day services include ‘Credit Checks’, ‘Customer Information’, ‘Process Payment’ and ‘Print/Save’.

What emerging technologies can companies use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?

Companies can use:

·       Interoperability
The company’s capability of sharing data and resources between two or more systems.

·       Loose Coupling
‘the capability of services to be joied together on demand to create composite services, or disassembled just as easily into their functional components’.

·       Virtualisation
The framework for ‘dividing the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments’. It potentially increases physical resources to maximise the investment in hardware.

·       Grid Computing
An ‘aggregation of geographically dispersed computing, storage and network resources, coordinated to deliver improved performance, higher quality of service, better utilisation and easier access to data’.