Product or Service Design and Process Selection
Can the products/services be designed to satisfy the needs of both the market and the producers/providers? For example, it may be possible to design a limited range of components, which can be assembled in different combinations to provide a wide range of different products. What sequence of processes should be used to transform the inputs into the desired outputs? Type of operation system? Levels of automation? Make or buy - can some of the products or services be bought for less than they can be provided in-house? Of the sequence of processes required to create the product or service, which should be carried out within the organisations operations system?
- Organisation of work - use of methods to establish most efficient working practices.
- Design of facilities: location and layout - single large site or several smaller sites? Site close to suppliers or to customers?
Regional warehouses? Product-type layout or process-type layout or group layout? Assembly line balancing? Stores? Materials handling?
- Business process reengineering (BPR) - organisations in their drive to remain competitive have adopted a philosophy of 'leaning'. The approach seeks to align key business activities to business goals. It does this by scrutinising the function and performance of essential activities in a radical review of overall system performance. Looking at processes rather than individual jobs and taking the perspective from the customer through the functions of the organisation. This approach is advocated by Hammer (1990). He argues that as a result of the opportunities offered by Information Technology, 'Don't automate, obliterate'.
Most manager's view reengineering as a watch word to ensure that they haven't allowed inefficiency to creep into their organisation which would necessitate radical improvement.