Operation Management

Introduction

Operation management is very important for any company that needs to improve its position in the market as it has many areas that requires to be focused on by the organization. The current paper is a critical analysis and discussion for three areas of operation management in ORPIC company which are quality, location and human resources and job design. The paper also provides a critical analysis of the relevant activities of ORPIC to the three operation management areas suggesting ways for improving performance. The paper also provides a critical evaluation for how the five performance objectives will enhance the company's competitive advantage. The case is ORPIC Oman which is a great Omani company in the oil filed in Oman and in the Arabian Gulf. The company has different refineries in Sohar and Muscat in addition to the plants related to the company for producing aromatics and polypropylene and for producing chemicals, plastic and petroleum products that are used in Oman and in other countries. (orpic, 2016)

Discussion

Orpic gives much interest to quality in all the activities of the company; this applies on the products the company delivers to the oil market related to the way they are performed and the last materials delivered to customers as there are quality specifications and measurements that need to be cared for when manufacturing and delivering such products. The quality standards Orpic follows are always identical with international standards of quality as the company is keen on ensuring high quality levels in all its plants and refineries so as to ensure a high quality product and high quality levels of safety and efficiency in manufacturing processes. Contracts, delivery dates and energy usage are all under high quality specifications known and agreed internationally as working in petroleum and oil products make it important to raise the levels of safety and quality in all the activities of the business. Local and international relevant laws and legislations are all regarded by the company in production processes because general and particular safety measurements are highly considered and followed by the company through a very precise quality control. Inspection operations are always done over products before delivery to ensure quality as unneeded or poor products are not delivered to the market and discard. According to Hiraishi and Nyenzi (2016), quality is a main business component for success and managing quality should be made by special teams who understand methods of quality assurance. This was confirmed by Brennan, (2012) who added that all activities related to production have to be set under high levels of quality to ensure competitiveness. In Orpic; this is really done and the quality teams always ensures quality in all production and delivery procedures in addition to a supervision team that compares levels of quality to international standards such as ISO and SQ systems to ensure the date of validity and accurate data and specifications about each product.

The second operation management area in Orpic is location, the company considers it very important in order to reach competitive advantage as locations where the company's activities are done are highly carefully chosen and this includes the work environment and the different facilities needed to be existed in these locations. According to Kumar and Suresh, (2009)location is very important for business organizations that seek success and high levels of competitiveness as location decision should be made after studying the locations where the business is going on and identifying the conditions that make it a good location for successful businesses. In Orpic, the company depends on a specific location strategy and sets a number of conditions and specifications for these locations in order to ensure safety and comfort of all stakeholders. The company also chooses vivid places for building its plants and at the same time to be away from harm others such as its Sohar plants and refineries in Muscat and in Mina Al Fahl. The company also chooses these locations in a way that reduces cost and ensures profits. Wild, (2002) confirmed that the location should be well chosen to suit the type of business and should be equipped with the needed facilities for making the business easy and effective. In Orpic, the location strategy of the company ensures enough and suitable facilities to be existed in all its locations as equipments are always to be ensured and existed at the time of needing it. The company also gives interest and care for delivery locations and transportation used in it in order to deliver products in the correct locations agreed on in the contracts with clients. Locations in Orpic are chosen based on its location strategy for finding locations that can reduce in costs of delivery and transportation as the company's plants and refineries locations are connected in an intelligent way that ensures this. The company's supply chain locates the best materials and stores them in the most suitable locations to ensure their safety and quality. Location is also regarded in distributing the products of Orpic as the company chooses Oman and other areas in the world where the company's products are highly needed. 

Regarding the third area of Orpic's operation management; it is human resources and job design. Orpic gives this area great care and interest as the company considers its human resources and job design as a basic asset that deserves to be invested in. Talents and special employees are usually sought by Orpic to ensure having the high efficiency workforce and this begins from selecting to recruiting. According to Wild, (2002), any business organization that wishes to succeed and reach competitive advantage is in need for having motivation for its human resources and should ensure that its human resources are on the right and proper jobs where they can feel satisfied and appraised as this can help the organization reduce the conflicts and turnover rates in it and retain the employees who can benefit the organization more than others. Wilson et al, (2013) confirmed this and added that there should be specific strategies for retaining and motivating employees as jobs should be well designed and roles should be well portrayed to each position in order to ensure effective operation management. In Orpic, human resources and job design receive a great part of interest as the company gives much care to interpersonal issues, satisfaction and motivation in addition to making the proper analysis that enable management to choose the most suitable employees to be recruited in the company and then there is a retention plan that depends on motivating and recognizing employees. Job design issues include making the needed analysis for requirements of recruitment such as analyzing the shortage after retirement or quitting and preparing the layouts related to each job to state clearly the requirements of the new jobs and who is best suiting them. Orpic management tries to find creative solutions for different conflicts and encourages effective communication between its human resources and their managers in order to maintain high retention of employees.  

Orpic can improve its organizational performance by many ways such as focusing on its decision areas and identifying each of them deeply in order to improve it and reach better level of performance in this area. According to Shaheen et al, (2013), Orpic can improve performance if different analysis are made to operation management areas such as analyzing quality and deciding its real level and then to compare this level and details of quality application with levels of quality in other organization working in the oil field and producing the same products and try to find out weaknesses in the current quality level in order to improve them. This can be applied on other different areas of operation management such as human resources and job design and location and others. Improvement of performance can also be applied on different areas of the business such as packaging, delivery, distribution and promotion as the company has to develop its operations and encourage employees to improve their performance which in turn improves the organizational performance as well. Employees also need to be trained in order to gain more skills and experiences that enable them to be more efficient and effective which improves performance.  

The five performance objectives can enhance the company's competitive advantage as according to Greasley, (2007) when a business organization defines its operational performance objectives; this helps it recognize them well and find measures to check if they are met and then to identify methods to  improve and accomplish them in is working environment based on each operation management area. The five objectives are quality, speed, dependability, flexibility or costs.

Quality Performance Objectives

Quality performance objective can help the company improve its quality levels not only based on quality measurements and specifications but on seeking quality in all details and activities of the business as products should meet the functions they are manufactured for and should meet and exceed customers' expectations. Orpic should make investigations about its products and find out customers' expectations in its products in order to improve the quality of the products and meet them. Quality should also cover service such as delivery and durability of the products and should be of good value to their prices to reach competitive advantage in the market.

Speed Performance Objectives

Speed objectives are those objectives representing the rate that sales quotes of the company are generated with and the rapid the company delivers its products at. Speed can also refer to any operations and activities that are timed and needed in specific deadlines as these deadlines should be exactly met by the company and it also refers to times of producing and manufacturing certain products and the time needed to achieve each procedure of manufacturing. Opric can apply this through time management schedules included within its operation management systems.

Dependability Performance Objectives

Dependability here as a performance objective refers to the degree of the company's ability to manage its operation in an dependable way which means to keep all the business operations to be done dependably such as time of delivering products, following certain set procedures, achieving goals, working according to the set objectives and follow designed missions in order to meet expected performance and exceed it as well.

Flexibility Performance Objectives

This refers to the different operations of the organization and how far it is flexible in dealing with clients, requirements of different products and in making the products adaptable and adjusting to the markets' needs as change can help in improving the company's performance. For example, in Orpic, the company can check the market needs and be flexible in adding new oil products and making them suitable to the needs of the market and customers as this level of flexibility can raise sales and increase customers' trust in the company.

Costs Performance Objectives

Cost performance objectives represent the unit cost variations as a result of the change occurring in the volume of products based on the variety of delivered products in the market and on the demand on products as the company has to produce more varied products to boost the market and should be able to manage cost with price units in order to achieve reasonable success and profits. Neely, (2007)

Conclusion

In conclusion operation management is a very important part of any business organization because it can help the organization succeed and reach competitive advantage if all areas are properly dealt with by the management. Orpic company in Oman can deal with its operation management areas such as quality, human resources and job design and location in a way that ensures success and competitiveness. Organizational performance can be improved by focusing on the different areas of operation management and making the required analysis for them and to compare them with other competitors in order to improve any weaknesses in them. Performance objectives can help the business succeed and can enhance the organization's ability to reach competitive advantage if each of them is well managed and met.