Operations Management For Operating Or Subdivision - A Wison Offshore And Marine Perspective Essay.

Discuss about the Operations Management for Operating or Subdevision.

Wison Offshore and Marine is a subdivision of the Wison Group that is responsible for operating in the upstream oil and gas sector. The services developed by the company effectively form an entire life cycle related to the delivery of product from designing and engineering facility to managing projects, construction, operations, and commissions (Kelland 2014). By investigating the mentioned services, the company employs its expertise to all the types of oil and gas development works including marine and offshore support vessels, LNG facilities, entire floating production, and mooring and drilling systems. From the particular understanding, it can be stated that Winston Offshore and Marine is vitally contributed from one of the most experienced teams for executing their projects in the oil and gas industry. From the internal investigation to the company, it has been observed that the members of project execution team involve in designing and supplying nearly 100 floating systems while adopting the use of technology to counter the challenges associated with the offshore operations. Such factor significantly facilitates the company to become one of the frontrunners in the private oil and gas sector in China.

Therefore, the services of Wison are based on providing engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning (EPCIC) processes within the market with the capability of building marine based vessels and offshore installations (Kelland 2014). Such services are largely influenced by the vision statement of the company suggesting the delivery of world-class EPIC solution and services to the global oil and gas industry. Apart from that, the excellence of the services is influenced by the relative market driving the company to produce market-driven packages complemented by the project management and modern fabrication facilities (Revie 2015). The particular features support the business to ensure a timely delivery of services other than maintaining the budget and meeting the agreed requirements of the clients.

Project Management

The vision and mission of the organization are the foundations of the entire operations and activities carried out by Wison. The core business operations of the chosen company are largely controlled and monitored by the application of three independent divisions called Project Office, Finance, and Sales & Marketing (Bhattacharjee, Prakash, and Mohanty 2015). Project office is treated as the operational arm of the organization responsible for controlling activities of engineering and construction departments. In order to develop a superior control and monitoring of system, the involvement of other supporting departments can be observed within the business including the human resource, procurement, information technology management, Quality, Health, Safety, and Safety (QHSE), and legal. Based on the positive acknowledgement, the organizational set up of Wison can be elaborated by using the following diagram.

Built to Order

Figure 1: Organizational Setup of Wison

(Source: Ford, Steen, and Verreynne 2014)

Therefore, it can be observed that project management process, as part of the business is an ideal factor influencing service or manufacturing activities. To explore further, Bhattacharjee et al. (2015) have indicated that the types of activities and products associated with the operations of a company should need to be investigated. Concerning the suggestion, the organizational structure and operations of Wison are based on manufacturing marine products, which is perceived as a unique activity due to the nature of the involving industry. However, it is importantly observed due to the investigation that life cycle of the service begins with understanding the diversified queries of the clients before executing the proposed set of activities.

In order to gain a precise level of insight regarding the needs and requirements of the clients, the enquiries are embarked on by the sales and marketing team (McLeod 2015). The evaluation of the activities performed by the department is essentially done by the management of the company for ensuring the achievement of criteria potentially recognised by the core business activities and existing resources. Based on the suggestion provided by Reive (2015), it is essential for the oil and gas industry to measure the availability of resources. The particular study further cited the application of yard resource planning as a crucial tool for determining the adequacy of resources within the organization to match the ongoing and impending requirements related to the adopted set of activities. Based on the enquiry process, the chosen activities are carries out by Wison by ensuring the requirements of the clients match the organizational capabilities.

The service designing process performed by Wison broadly matches with the comprehension regarding process selection indicated by Wawuda and Mungai (2016). With reference of the indication provided by the study, it is observed that the service designing process of Wison is fundamentally influenced by review undertaken by the management for ensuring the appointed works are suitably fitting with the vision and mission of firm. The particular observation has further revealed that the project management team resourcefully source or systematize it forthcoming projects while evaluating the existing services that are appropriate to the capabilities of the organization (Wawuda and Mungai 2016). The identified feature successfully allows the execution of its resource planning and ensures the process maintains under the superior capacity. Additionally, the queries not meeting the established criteria of Winston are rejected by the project management team for minimising the risks.

Quality, Health, Safety, and Safety

Figure 2: Process Selection and Capacity Planning influencing Designing of System

(Source: Wawuda and Mungai 2016)

Based on the identified set up, it is be clarified that a hybrid project build is deployed by Wison comprising of the batch production, job shop manufacturing, and repetition of certain processes. With reference to the particular situation, McLeod (2015) argues that processes do not usually present in their pure form, which causes the unusual involvement of the setup to be hybrid. Since the uniqueness of the entire project, conducting reviews during the definition stage of the project lifecycle and engineering phase is highly decisive prior to the formation of project proposal (Dholakia et al. 2015). As reflected by Kelland (2014), it can be uttered that proposal for each project undertaken by the organization will fundamentally include but not limited to the principal scheduling, engineering, cost, and contract. Considering the overall discussion, one of the viable statements revealed by Shuen, Felier, and Teece (2014) is worth to mention that claims, “As systems approach, it integrates resources and enables simultaneous emphasis on the “whole” project goal – time, cost, and performance requirements.”

Built to Order

It is formerly discussed that the products and services of marine and offshore industry are unique from the perspective of their nature. The marine vessels and offshore installations are built in compliance with the quality of order requirements associated with the organization (Naiyeju, Ogedengbe, and Aderoba 2013). Often these requirements are interchangeably centred on the particular kind of jobs, cargos, operations, and service deliveries related to the company. Based on the suggestion provided by Dholakia et al. (2015), every client has their specific set of requirements suitably complies with the business needs. As a project management company, Wison understands the liveliness of such understanding as a project management company for assisting the clients to achieve the preferable deliverables from the identified services.

According to Saad et al. (2014), one of the most essential practices for designing the services related to the offshore platform is based on identifying the specific volume of works to be executed and deciding upon the facilities to be maintained and commissioned. With reference to the particular study conducted by Saad et al. (2014) the activities and facilities of offshore oil and gas industry and designed by depending critically on the size and content of reservoir, availability of technology, and location of the intended facility. The implications of the identified factors are the eventual means of identifying the quantum of work. From the certain perception, it can be signified that more outsized the reservoir requires larger facilities. The application of the work also suggests that content of reservoir plays a vital role in deciding the overall design of the services and associated facilities. For example, dirtier oil as part of the content of the reservoir would require the company to arrange an increasing number of equipment for cleaning and making it ready for sale or export (Shuen, Feiler, and Teece 2014).

Procurement Process

Shuen, Feiler, and Teece (2014) have noticed one of the valuable characteristics associated with the certain industry claiming that the competitive advantage of the business depends on the useful availability of product customisation. Moreover, the study has reflected that the customised or modified products are often built by considering the requirements of the clients and confirmation of order. On the other hand, similar product units are produced and delivered based on the ordered quantity at a certain time for to achieve the economies of scale and reduce the cost associated with designing and manufacturing phase (Saad, Mohamed Udin, and Hasnan 2014). However, the likelihood of such occurrence is practically very low from the context of the chosen industry. Camuzeaux et al. (2015) products that are commissioned by the clients are required meeting the deadlines, as it is assumed that the particular products are an essential part of the larger facility fundamentally. In this case, it the certain fact is elaborated by the study with considering the manufacturing and designing cost of products and services of the industry as the capital expenditure for most of the organizations. From the application of the study, it is determined that a unique characteristic of a product or service is a practical measure to determine the utilisation of project process design.

Involvement of Various Talents to Achieve One Goal

One of the practical reflections provided by Munir Ahmad et al. (2014) indicating the application of awards will deeply create a motivated and committed employee base from all the departments of a firm to achieve a common goal. From the example of Wison, the involvement of awards offered to the employees enabled the company to form a skilled and committed team where each department is essentially monitored and supervised by the functional managers. The primary role of these functional managers is providing support to the team members to the respective project teams for ensuring the quality of service delivery (Ford, Steen, and Verreynne 2014). In order to maintain such process and ensure the delivery favourable outcomes from the project team, the required authority and control is offered to the designated project managers for empowering them to achieve successful delivery. Citing the finding of the investigation undertaken by Wawuda and Mungai (2016), the complications of the project governs the size and experience of a project team. The study further details that the role of project managers is one of the most important features of complete project management activities practiced in an oil and gas company. Explicitly, project managers are responsible for planning, directing, and integrating all the efforts to the key stakeholders associated with the project for ensuring the attainment of the identified goals. However, it is worth to mention that the empowerment and responsibilities of project managers fundamentally vary depending on the situation experiencing by the business in the oil and gas segment (Camuzeaux et al. 2015).

Engineering Process

Reive (2015) find out that the involvement of various disciplined personnel supports the formation of a project team regardless of their sourcing internally or externally. Hence, it can be stated that the participation of these talents in the organisational teams of Wison decidedly influences the success of the entire manufacturing or service process design.

Project Control – Variation Control

According to McLeod (2015) planning, documentation, and management of all the contractual deliveries associated with the project or service are conducted by the project control mechanism. The study further highlights that a higher variation can be maintained throughout the project resulting in the accumulation of exceeding profit if the procedures are managed efficiently. The diverse requirements of the oil and gas industry are encouraging nature of the projects to be radically altered over the time to cause inevitable changes or alterations. Such changes are responsible for shedding numerous effects on the outcome of the service from multiple perspectives like schedules, time, quality, and efforts (Munir Ahmad and Elhuni 2014). Therefore, these vital areas must need to be controlled adequately by the project control mechanism for satisfying the requirements related to the multiple key areas from trade-offs to manufacturing. Due to the application of the identified scenario, often the project-based outcomes demonstrate a widespread degree of variations from all levels of the process. Consequently, the particular picture drives project control system as another valuable factor supporting the maintenance of competence in the course of undertaking a suitable manufacturing design and delivering effective services to the end-users.

Risk Management

Due to the market instabilities of the oil and gas sector, different projects and solution services encounter a substantial amount of time in the course of time encouraging the company to opt for trading off the project rather than low-risk manufacturing process to gain higher profit margin (Tordo et al. 2013). Naiyeju et al. (2013) state that risk is inherent in every project management process enabling the necessary involvement of risk identification, tracking, mitigation, and response planning for the corporations operating in the oil and gas industry. Due to the dynamic requirements of the clients and industry and vibrant nature of the projects, risks create a considerable amount of issues in the effective project management of the company (Berk and Rauch 2016). Based on the scenario of Winson, risks are handled by the project team during and after the completion of each project. The managers of the team provide superior importance to the learning of lessons from the failures of previous projects accomplished by the company for achieving the responses of future projects (Moura et al. 2014).

Construction Process

Concerning the work of Tordo et al. (2013), the field of operations objectives is broad influencing the five broad categories of stakeholders in any organization. Considering the projects or services of Wison, customers, suppliers, shareholders, employees, and the respective market are the five primary categories of stakeholders on which the performance of the overall project delivery depends.

Quality

Citing the work of Berk and Rauch (2016), quality is known as the foremost measure of the performance objectives because of its importance in the project delivery process. Quality can be described largely as the effective mean of conformance as defined by multiple studies (do Canto Cavalheiro et al. 2014). Quality helps to maintain the expected value in the product or service offered by the company. The team performance of Wison is largely influenced by the fundamental application of quality, as the factor forces the team members to focus on the changing needs and demands of the consumers continuously for maintaining the relevancy and sustainability of the business.

Speed

Based on reference obtained from Berk and Rauch (2016), speed refers to as the promptness of response between the internal or external customer requesting a product or service and the organization addressing such requirement. Like quality, the involvement of internal and external factors is also present in this particular objective. Externally, speed is important for generating a quick response to the clients’ demands and internally, speed is responsible for cost reduction (Yusuf et al. 2014). The project team of Wison stresses more on the internal aspect of speed, as the particular priority helps the company to reduce their inventories while countering the associated risks carefully. The company decides to leverage more on the internal benefits of speed to enable a faster throughput of information to the customers as one of the effective means for reducing the entire cost while satisfying the requirements of the external aspects.

Dependability

As dictated by the study produced by Moura et al. (2014), dependability deals with the timely delivery of products or services to the customers where the particular objective may sound simple but difficult to measure. Externally, dependability is positively regarded by the customers as a good factor, and internally, dependability helps the firm to cut costs by saving time and money while providing stability to the organization (Onwe 2014). The project management team of Wison works hard to establish a reliable system within the organization for increasing the overall performance.

Installation Process

Flexibility

According to do Canto Cavalheiro et al. (2014), flexibility is the most complex performance objective, as it incorporates several different things to allow the organization change the entire operation by adopting the current market trends. Externally, multiple types of flexibility allow the companies to produce fitting products and services according to the customer needs, and internally, it is directly associated with the performance of the organization (Burnett and Williams 2014). Based on the certain understanding, the project management group of the company decides to speed up the response time and flexibility of the services for enhancing the dependency.

Cost

Cost is the final objectives associated with highlighting the performance of an organization. Yusuf et al. (2014) have dictated that variations in cost structure of the companies can be greatly observed over the time while the other four performance objectives are hugely devoted to decreasing cost of operations. Over the last two decades, the particular perception represents one of the valuable revelations in the area of operations management (Chowdhury 2016). The processes as part of a certain project of Wison are undertaken based on the complicated decision-making, which is driven by the useful factors, such as maintaining high quality, promptness, elevated dependability, and excellent level of flexibility.

Conclusion

From the overall efforts put forwarded within the paper, the extracted information suggests that operations cover most of the functions of a project-based organization like Wison. The particular organization can be referred to as a project management firm, where the nature of projects is versatile in relation to the availability of resources. The vision and mission of the organization greatly contribute towards the process and involving activities allowing the efficient delivery of projects. From the analysis of the factors affecting the manufacturing or service process design or the assessment of performance objectives influencing the decision-making related to the delivery of services, it is observed that the skills of personnel, versatility of the facilities, and up to date systems are all in place for Wison. The combination of these factors has enabled the company to develop a sustainable project management activities and services within the respective marketplace while assisting the proper management of risks inherent to each process.

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Commissioning Process

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