Importance of operational management in BMW Essay

An effective operation can give four types of advantages to the business: Operations management can reduce the cost of products and services by being efficient. Operations management can increase revenue through increase customer satisfaction in producing quality goods and services. Operations management can reduce the amount of investment (capital employed) necessary to produce the goods and services by being effective and innovative in the use of resources. Operations management provide the basic for innovation by building a solid base of operations and knowledge. IMPORTANCE OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT FOR BMW For diverse firms such as BMW, the field of operations management is extremely important. Following points stress the importance of operations management in BMW: Team Management: Team management is an important aspect of Operations Management as it outlines the working methodologies of an organization (McDonald, 2005). Further, this aspect gains even greater importance in context of multidimensional organizations like BMW as it largely supports cross functional teams in order to better solve problems (McDonald, 2005). BMW believes that just by looking at it, cross functional teams often look inefficient and messy but they are extremely efficient at solving problems that require diverse thinking. Change Management: Change Management forms another important aspect of Operations Management in an organization related to the automobile sector. This is in order to manage the lightening fast changes that are currently taking place in the auto  industry. BMW predicts that currently, around 20 percent of a car’s value is driven by electronics (this level is continuously raising. Strategic Management: This category of operations Management concerns itself with various strategies that are formulated by an organization in operational context. The importance of this category in BMW lies in the effectiveness of strategy implementation and the efficiency with which various organizational processes work. Process Management: The importance of process management in BMW lies in maintaining effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. BMW when dealing with the efficiency aspect concerns itself with optimum utilization of human, financial and other resources (this deployment is irrespective of the original purpose of bringing these sources into the organization). Product Management: This category of Operations Management concerns itself with managing a product (or service) right from the stages of idea generation to providing after sales services. According to the management at BMW, there are various aspects to product or service management. Quality Management: The field of Quality Management refers to meeting the pre-defined standards in terms of products and services. This category holds its importance for BMW as the organization is extremely critical about the various products that it develops for customers in the marketplace. Having appropriate operations management strategies is important in order to make a steady progress and continuous improvement to match the tastes and preferences of its consumers. BMW has recently made advances in quality management by implementing changes in operations management such as adopting total quality management and benchmarking, reengineering and outsourcing. Through the implementation of these activities BMW is aiming for market leadership. For BMW, the process of benchmarking serves as an internal audit and is employed to diagnose the weaknesses and then turning them into strengths of the company (Payne, 2005). Management control and coordination: In an organization like BMW coordinating management functions is extremely important in order to make various organizational functions work in an efficient and transparent manner. In essence, these functions are utilized in order to keep a track of its goals and the extent to which they are achieved. Other organizational activities that form a part of coordination and control are product evaluation, distribution, promotion and advertising. With appropriate operations management strategies in place, BMW continually ensures that its products are in the minds of customers while they are making a purchase (Payne, 2005). For this purpose, BMW continuously uses advertising and promotion.