Operations Management Highlighting the Critical Arguments

Question: Discuss about the Operations Management for Highlighting the Critical Arguments. Answer: Introduction The intension of developing this essay is highlighting the critical arguments regarding the operational issues experienced by Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. For achieving the identified goal, the major discussions as part of the essay are formed by conducting a thorough review and analysis of the case related to Hawkesbury Cabinets. From the analysis of the given case study, it is determined that Hawkesbury Cabinets was initially established to manufacture only the custom-built kitchen cabinetry. The business was effectively managed by the two siblings Fung and Mei Chen. With the diverse needs of the clients from the communities, the sale of custom-made kitchen increased resulting in the growing reputation of the company (Wong, et al., 2012, PP. 285). During the time, the firm had decided to manufacture and supply standard builders while maintaining the high quality in the operations. In modern day business world, operations management in the production area has been emerged to be a ce ntral topic of business research and practices (Kastalli Van Looy, 2013, PP.173).Operations management is one of the major growth drivers for the business of Hawkesbury Cabinets. There are some special issues associated with the production operations of Hawkesbury Cabinets like production planning and execution and design and location of the production facilities. The consequent portion will be developed to form critical arguments by focusing on these issues critically related to the operations of Hawkesbury Cabinets. These arguments involve the current production system adopted by the company, effects of the new production line to the operations, and the impact on financial structure of the business if the entire focus is provided to the production of newly identified product. Analysis and Argument In order to investigate the challenges faced by the manufacturing operations of Hawkesbury Cabinets, it is required to study the current production system and procedures adopted by the company by conducting a technical analysis. As reflected by the case study, the manufacturing operations were developed to focus entirely on the custom-made kitchen to serve the needs of the local Chinese community as a small business unit (Stadtler, 2015, PP.21). Later, in the course of time, the increasingly diverse needs of the community and the growing financial position of the company had driven it to take the decision of manufacturing the builders kitchens in the small volume contracts. Subsequently, the production of both categories had become significantly important for the company to retain or enhance the growth regarding the amount of revenues and profit in the identified market (Baines Lightfoot, 2013, PP.13). From the initial understanding, it is quite clear that the business is experienci ng challenges to maintain the production of both items. The current production process is using Job Shop manufacturing process to produce builders kitchen (Golicic Smith, 2013, PP. 86). With the help of the job shop manufacturing process, the small batches of the new products are produced by the company to meet the demands of the market. However, the identified manufacturing requires the presence of a unique set-up and sequencing of the methods, which is not present in the production facility of Hawkesbury Cabinets. Different departments like assembly facility or painting and finishing area are not close to each other causing the hamper in sequencing process. From the former understanding, it can be informed that the decision of manufacturing the new builders line of kitchen by Hawkesbury Cabinets was primarily responsible for the problems. Therefore, the problems must need to be identified by the effective evaluation of the major implications (Tseng Hu, 2014, PP, 839). Though the manufacturing decision of builders kitchen line by the company had contributed the successful growth in the sales volume of the business, it was observed that the business failed to meet the expected profit in the contemporary operating period. The sale of builders line was increasing due to the rising demand in the particular market (Qrunfleh Tarafdar, 2014, PP. 345). At the same time, the business was facing the critical challenge of the escalating cost associated with the production of builders line because of the increasing amount of capital tied up with the raw materials. Significantly, it can be argued that the effect of new builders kitchen can provide crucial implications to the numerous factors of Hawkesbury Cabinets, such as delivery of products, factory overhead, equipment, roles played by the individuals in the production facility, and the need of special parts in the process (Smith, Maull, CL Ng, 2014, PP.250). The production of new builders kitchen had caused the firm to maintain additional supply of raw materials from the external sources. The decision led the company to install complex machines in the manufacturing facility, where the high chances of production malfunction or breakdown can be observed. In this particular situation, the decision regarding moving on to the production of builders kitchen line would provide drastic impact to the production cost and profitability of Hawkesbury Cabinets. The new production would drive the company to capitalise fully on the establishment of job shop manufacturing process (Liu, et al., 2013, PP.1455). The situation would lead the company to rent new production storage unit, as there is no space left in the current facility of the company for ensuring further expansion. Therefore, the production cost associated with the operations would increase dramatically causing the profitability of Hawkesbury Cabinets to be hampered critically (Roh, Hong, Min, 2014, PP.206). Hence, it can be stated that the overall scenario will significantly slow down the current rate of profits acquired by the firm by the way of its operations. As a result, the overall financial structure of the company will be affected primarily due to the effect of such decision. Conclusion From the overall information outlined by the analysis of the case study involving Hawkesbury Cabinets, it can be proposed that the degree of operational issues depends on the operating decisions taken by the operating managers of the company (Jabbour, et al., 2013, PP.137). The challenges experienced by the identified firm resulted due to the ineffective operating decisions taken by the manager. References Baines, T., W. Lightfoot, H. (2013).Servitization of the manufacturing firm: Exploring the operations practices and technologies that deliver advanced services.International Journal of Operations Production Management,34(1), 2-35. Golicic, S. L., Smith, C. D. (2013). A meta analysis of environmentally sustainable supply chain management practices and firm performance.Journal of Supply Chain Management,49(2), 78-95. Jabbour, C. J. C., de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L., Govindan, K., Teixeira, A. A., de Souza Freitas, W. R. 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