Operational Management For Improved Performance: A Case Of Fakir Fashion Limited

Factors affecting operational management in the RMG sector

Question:

Discuss about the Improvement of Operational Management related to Fakir Fashion Limited Case Study.

Operational management is referred to as one of the most important actions that is strictly required to be undertaken by any business organization to increase their revenue structure. This particular research paper focuses on those factors those are necessary to improve the operational management of a company in the RMG (Ready Made Garments) sector named as Fakir Fashion Limited. This report depicts the efficiency of operational management that might improve the operational performance in the RMG (Ready Made Garments) sector of Bangladesh in Fakir Fashion Limited.

Different reasons have been identified by the system developers while analyzing the effective factors of production efficiency in the garment sector of Bangladesh. If proper tools and technologies are not used then the companies will fail to meet the shared goal of the business organization. Operational factors might affect both positively as well as negatively the performance of a business organization (Dessler, Sutherland and Cole 2005). It has been found that the garment manufacturing industry of Bangladesh is facing different material and production level issues throughout and in order to mitigate the issues the company should improve the operational management so that the organizational performance within the RMG (Ready Made Garments) sector could be enhanced, these are prominently elaborated in this research paper.   

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of operational period briefing management, most of the times the members of the management team of different business organization fail to understand the role of operational management and strategies as well. However, the function of operational management forms the lynchpin of businesses all over the world. Considering the context of production and services as well it is determined that with the help of operational management the inputs could be efficiently converted to effective outputs (Richard et al. 2009). The logical principle for operational management in Fakir Fashion Limited is as follows:

Reality principle: It has been found that not all the constraint theories, lean principles and the Total Quality Management (TQM) could mitigate all identified organization level issues.

Organizational principle: Manufacturing is referred to as one of the major set of interconnected processes (Akhter 2014). However, if any sort of changes occur in a single process then again huge issue might occur.

Accountability principle: The finance manager of the organizational management authority decides the total budget that is needed to improve an entire project. Project forecast and inventory level accuracy is the main factors those are needed to be considered before improving the operational management of the garment manufacturing company.

Role of operational management in Fakir Fashion Limited

Variable consideration: Before deployment of the project it is necessary for the management authority to identify two different variables of the particular project and for this research the independent variable is efficiency of operational management and the dependent variable is the performance of the business organization (Dessler, Sutherland and Cole 2005). It has been identified that the performance of an organization is dependent on the performance of every individual.

Principle for success: In order to gain measurable success form the competitive marketplace it is necessary to define all constitutes of success.  

Change principle: After considering both the long term and short term stability the manager should install certain disciplinary process and procedures as well

For improving the operational management the sources to be used by Fakir Fashion Limited are as follows:

1. Asset optimization
2. Process improvement
3. Project execution
4. Supply chain management
5. Customer relationship management
6. Inventory management
7. Safety performance

• How the existing operational management strategies and tools used in Fakir Fashion Limited could be improved?
• The machinery technologies, competitors and the financial strength of the company are profitable to the company or not?
• Whether the supply chain management used by the company is beneficial enough from the business perspectives or not?

• To identify the operational tools and strategies those are necessary to improve the performance of Fakir Fashion Limited.
• To investigate on the resources those should be utilized to improve the current organizational structure
• To analyze the operational factors for improving the service and performance of Fakir Fashion Limited.

Literature review is referred to as a text scholarly paper that holds set of current knowledge along with substantive findings. This secondary resource also includes methodological and theoretical contribution from the experimental resultant done by different authors.  However, this review does not include the experimental resultant and new reports directly in the paper.  

Fakir Fashion Limited, a Bangladesh based, readymade garment industry, was established in the year of 2016, 1^st April. As per the generated rules and policy the company is facing measurable benefits from the competitive marketplace. However, the responsibilities that are divided for all the employees are not accomplished accurately by them, thus the company is facing major level issues from the competitive market (Dessler, Sutherland and Cole 2005). In order to mitigate theses issues proper operational management for improving the organizational performance of Fakir Fashion Limited are needed to be implemented.

Explanation of operational management

According to Richard et al. (2009), nowadays operational management is one of the most widely used disciplinary factors for various organizations. Both the external and internal changes occurring in businesses are positively and negatively impacting the operation of the business organizations. In order to achieve the research objectives of an organization it is necessary to maximize the market value with competitive advantages with survival strategies. On the other hand Rubel (2015) stated that, lots of heterogeneous activities are included in the operational management considered by a business organization. These activities are required to be reached properly such as effectively and efficiently by considering the environment of the organization.  Spekle and Verbeeten (2014) stated that the complexity of different business organizations and operational activities must not damage and distress the business environment. In order to reach the strategic goals and objectives it is very much necessary to improve the product manufacturing in terms of primary services (Chaudhry and Faran 2015). The methods of operation management and organizational sustainability environmental protection are needed to be delivered.

Sources for improving operational management in Fakir Fashion Limited

Enhancement of operation management

In order to achieve the primary goals of the organizations in terms of service and product it is necessary to create proper balance between the input and output of the system. Two different categories are there for inputs like material and information whereas; production and services are the output for the management system. According to Rahman and Qi (2016) resource transformation is referred to as a conversion process, where inputs are the employees and processing equipment on the other hand the outputs are the production and services. The main focus of operation management is to satisfy the consumers with strategic tools and technologies. Continuous competitive advantages and advanced market strategies are the two main factors those are needed to be considered by the management authority of any business organization to improve their existing business environment.

Figure 1: Components of organizational performance

(Source: Asgari and Hoque 2013, pp-54)

Operational management is a referred to as combination of both art and science that were dated in the pre industrialization stage (Akter 2016). The operational management includes planning, sourcing, financing as well as product distribution maintaining every individual factors of the operation. Today’s operational management and the traditional operational management are completely different from each other (Rahman, Hossain and Hasan 2016). In order to improve the quality of production with high quality material and compatible technology, different factors of organizational performance are needed to be considered by the management authority of businesses. The total cost and time allotted for designing and material processing can be reduced with proper operational management (Quddus and Ahsan 2014).  Selection of proper workshop layout and innovative thinking are part of the operational management. Operational management of a business organization includes the below criteria and managerial factors:

• Innovative products could be designed; those are helpful to make discrimination between the nominated company and its competitors.
• It provides properly educated, trained as well as dedicated employees those are helpful to reduce the total time, cost and waste as well (Nyakwara, Shiundu and George 2014).
• It provides enough financial support to the employees and company management authority to make avail required resources.
• It helps to create a completely distributed network for the employees who have been working for the company throughout.

Factors of operational management

According to Rahim (2017) the three main factors of operational management are inputs, outputs and transformation process. The inputs for readymade garment manufacturing companies are information, material, staffs, consumers, facility, capital support and energy. On the other hand, the outputs of operation management are services and production. After using the input of operational management in the business system with the help of transformation process in terms of tools and technology design activities could be designed with planning and control activities. With the help of different conversion methods, consumer satisfactory product and services could be generated. Asgari and Hoque (2013) opined that, feedback from the output is another important thing that is strictly needed to understand the quality of the service and product. Evaluation, competitive analysis and objective comparison are components of feedback processing.

Components of organizational performance

Figure 2: The operational transformation process

(Source: Chaudhry and Faran 2015, pp-183)

Methods used by operation management in enterprises

Two major fields of activities are managed by the operation managers of a business organization. The initial ranges of tasks those are needed to be solved by the manager include operating system and the second task is planning for controlling the business operations properly (Fang and Stalker 2016). The operation management system holds high range of tasks and activities. Decision making is another important thing that must be considered to facilitate and influence the manufacturing process and services. The factors those influencing the manager to make effective decision for the organization include cost, sales, competitiveness and profit as well. The other intangible factors those are effective part in operation management are industrial attitude, legal regulation, and recreation facilities (Sarker and Afroze 2014).

Benefits of operation management

Profitability management: The organizational profit could be managed properly with the help of leadership and conventional challenges (Anisul Huq, Stevenson and Zorzini2014). In order to monitor the revenue and expenses the operation managers adept experiences of the companies and competent operation manager at the same time.  

Competitive advantages: Due to lack of tools and manageable technologies most of the business organizations are currently facing major management level issues, in order to mitigate this issue proper factors in terms of operating policies, attrition rate are required to be considered by the management authorities (Melnyk et al. 2014). By understanding the internal and external condition of the companies, the managerial department of the companies will be able to gain competitive advantage from the marketplace. The other benefits of operation management are regulatory compliances and manufacturing edge.

For improving the organizational performance it is very much necessary to develop the current operational management of the enterprises. For this assignment, organizational performance is the dependent variable and efficient operational management is the independent variable (Landy, Zedeck and Cleveland 2017). In the readymade garment manufacturing industry, the variables are complimentary to each other.   

Independent variables cannot manipulate and affect directly the other factors whereas; the dependent variables could directly change the other variables. Both the dependent and independent variables are operational variables in nature. Independent variables could be developed or improved by its own without any kind of external influences (Van Dooren and Van de Walle 2016). However, the dependent variables are completely dependent on other influence of the independent variables. The efficiency of operational management could be developed by involving different advanced tools and technologies in the business organizations (Spekle and Verbeeten 2014). However, the performance of an organization cannot be improved without the help of independent variable. The measurement of dependent variable is easier but the independent variables cannot be measured that much easily.  

Fields of activities for operation managers

For Fakir Fashion Limited the identified variable are as follows:

In order to improve the performance of the business organization it is necessary to develop its operational management system (Rahman, Islam and Qi 2017). Different tools, theories and models are associated to both of these dependent and independent variables.

Tools related to dependent variable (operation management)

Different tools relevant to operation management are:

Process flow diagram: Continuous operational development could be represented with the help of process flow diagram (Koufteros, Verghese and Lucianetti 2014.). This diagram represents all the components those are involved in the process and the operation manger should ensure that all the members associated to the operation are fulfilling their job roles according to the need. The project team members must understand the basics of individual processes at the primary stage to meet the project objective.

Histogram: In order to display all data properly in an organized manner histogram is used. It helps to display the measurement frequency to represent the process distribution. The distribution of operation processes could be shown in a histogram diagram. From the rest of the information identification and outlining become easier.

Pareto chart: This bar chart is used to display certain problems occurring events. The vital events those mainly cause maximum number of issues, could be instantly identified and recognized with the help of Pareto chart.

Control chart: For monitoring and controlling the operational and organizational processes statistical control chart is used (Wu, Straub and Liang 2015). In order to show particular measurement those are generally taken over time could be shown with the help of the line graph, and most common SPC control chat tool. For monitoring the processes to get to know that whether the processes are performing accurately or not, could be measured with the help of control chart.

Two popular operation management theories those helps the management to develop the organizational performance in terms of service and production.

Six Sigma: With the help of this strategic design approach, the business organizations become able to process quality output for the consumers. By resolving the identified errors and specified issues the manufacturing and business processes could be developed (Akhter 2014). This particular theory is based upon different quality management methods like statistical analysis and special employee infrastructure.  

Lean: This process is almost similar to six sigma approach but it is lesser focused error reduction and much focused on waste management. All the expensive steps are eliminated from the organizational operation (Sarker and Afroze 2014). The component on which this particular production theory focuses includes waste elimination and value creation.

1. Fordism
2. Post Fordism
3. Flexible accumulation
4. Nikefication

Profitability management

Fordism is referred to as a mass of production and developed consumption and at the same time it is used as an overriding production form. Again the post Fordism is an overriding production form from the past 20^th Century. In the globalization era the most of the companies used to utilize innovative technologies and communication processes to increase the operational flexibility. These strategies are known as flexible accumulation. On the other hand, Nikefication is an outsourcing production process and distribution as well to all the other organizations.

Tools needed for measuring organizational performance are as follows:

1. Control charts: These graphs are used to track the performance of the processes after each span of time. Considering both the current as well as historical data the managers are able to define whether the outputs of the processes are beneficial or not.
2. Pareto diagram: The defects and the cost frequency of operation are determined through plotting the readings on the bar chart.
3. Cause and effect diagram: With the system or processes all the defects could be easily identified with the help if the cause and effect diagram. Through this diagram the problem statement can be analyzed properly. The managers could investigate the deficiencies and its solution.
4. Process mapping: The decision points of different processes are depicted formally with the help of process mapping.

1. Taylor’s scientific management theory
2. Weber’s approaches
3. Administrative theory
4. Principles of neoclassical approach
5. Contingency and situational theory

Different organizational theories are there such as Classical theory, humanistic theory and contingency theory. The factors of all of these theories are planning, organizing, staffing, directing and coordinating (Chaudhry and Faran 2015). However, for making research on readymade garment manufacturing industry the most relevant theories are system model, strategic constituents model competition model and ineffective model. Though, certain critics have identified different disadvantages of the models and theories.

According to Rahim (2017), if the components of operation management and process are not implemented properly due to lack of expertise, length of the operation and complexity then the employees might suffer from the low self esteem. If the components of operation management and process are not implemented properly due to lack of expertise, length of the operation and complexity then the employees might suffer from the low self esteem. Due to improper communication management approach the employees might not be able to communicate with the project managers (Asgari and Hoque 2013). If the employees fail to plot the performance evaluation points accurately then the entire operation management will be affected.  

In order to improve the performance of the organizations the operation management is needed to be enhanced and developed considering different tools, theories and models. With the help of different kinds of graphical representations and bar chart the performance of both the dependent and independent variables can be determined accurately.

Conclusion

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that the organizational performance can be improved with the help of proper operation management tools and theories. The Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) approaches used by Fakir Fashion Limited are not at all beneficial from the business and consumer perspectives. In order to mitigate the issues proper identification of both the dependent and independent variables have done in this report. Based on the developed questionnaires different tools and theories are developed and in this report all the issues are diminished properly. The existing operation management strategies and tools are improved for improving the organizational performance. On the other hand, with the help of proper tools the machinery technologies, competitors, and financial strength of the company are also determined properly. Accurate resources are also determined those are needed to improve the company performance of the business organization.  Even, in order to improve the existing performance of the company, proper operational management is needed to be improved. The conclusion statement, scope of the research study, limitation of the research work and a conceptual framework is also developed in this report.

Competitive advantages

Conclusion statement

After considering the organizational structure and functional limitations it has been found that due to lack of management approaches and professionalism in the industries enterprises might face major troubles. In order to combat that, operation management in terms of different tools, models and theories are needed to be adopted by businesses. Therefore, it can be said that, for improving the organizational performance, operation management should be improved.

The current research identified different criteria of individuals, group innovation and consumer satisfaction. However, further research work is needed to make innovative changes in organizational structure. Besides qualitative research, quantitative research work is also needed to done. Top management study and variable related creation should be done for further research work.

Due to lack of time and budget as well the required research work has not been done for improving the organizational performance with advanced operation management. Issues have occurred while formulating research aims and objectives. Choices of proper data collection, implementation of data collection, discussion scope are another limitation. The research limitations are elaborated below:

Research aim and objective formulation issue: Aim and research objective formulation are the man things those are strictly required to be formulated properly in order to satisfy the consumers. If the research aim is too broad or too narrow then also issues might occur.

Data collection choice limitation: Two different kinds of data collection processes are there such as primary and secondary. The primary data collection is done based on survey questionnaires on the other hand the secondary data collection is done considering the published journals and books. In this research method primary data collection method applied. However, mixed data collection is found to be mush beneficial. If proper data collection approach is not applied for depth data analysis then major issue might occur.

Implementation limitation: If the collected data are not implemented properly the also research limitation might rise.  

The operation management needed to improve the organizational performance is represented below:

Figure 3: Improved Organizational Conceptual Framework

(Source: Created by author)

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