Operations Management
Introduction
Management plays a pivotal role in the performance of any organization. It involves optimization of a company’s performance and the minimization of cost. Such optimization involves the management of actions such as selling, buying and trading of services and goods. Particularly, operations management is at the core of an organization’s activities and helps in the attainment of maximal earnings and company growth. Analysis of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has revealed that it is underperforming in regard to its objectives due to issues on operations management.
Key Term and Area of Interest in issues regarding the Key Term
The key term in Satterlee’s article is operations management. Satterlee (2014, p.246-262) depicts operations management to be at the core of a company’s operation that determines how efficient its activities in production or service delivery occur. Given the importance of the operations management to a company, it would be prudent to determine if the education system equips students with the required skills in this area. Operations management has been shown to comprise hard skills such as planning and implementation of the plans and soft skills such as communication and leadership. It would be critical to determine the extent to which the education system meets these requirements. Proficiency in these skills determines the effectiveness of the operations management. For instance, teamwork and participation are of critical concern in operation management according to Satterlee (2014, p.254) and these may be affected by interpersonal skills.
Explanation of Key term
Operation management refers to the organization, planning, controlling and directing of an organization to meet certain goals with the application of relevant ideas and technology in the aspects of production and/or service delivery. Key issues that are involved in operation management involves such as planning and the designing of a system that will meet a set of goals depending on challenges and opportunities in the market. Moreover, operation management also entails issues of production such as inventory and supply chain management.
Summary of the Major article
Wood (2014) covers three areas that are hindering trade within NAFTA. He accounts for three areas that ought to be reviewed to improve the effectiveness of the trade agreement. One of the areas involves infrastructure for better logistics. The region should also ensure that it has the necessary skilled manpower through vocational training and manpower. The other aspect involves resource allocation in which the regional free trade fails to ensure cooperation in resource sharing. Lastly, Wood advices that the regional trade should seek for improvement to allow for trade in services.
Discussion
Wood (2014) gives an evaluation of issues regarding operations management that need to be addressed within NAFTA. He considers the issues of resources, improvement, total quality management and participation. All these issues are aspects of operation management that have been the core of this week’s module. The other articles that are considered below revolve around similar issues of operations management as discussed in the following paragraph.
One of the areas that Wood highlights pertains resource availability or provision. Olive (2015, p.166) accounts for the role of governance in resource management and control in NAFTA. Olive pays close attention to environmental degradation due to resource misappropriation. Jinnah and Lindsay (2015) evaluate the issue of production of teamwork and participation in the protection of the environment to improve NAFTA’s benefits. Anderson (2012) considers the role that the various governments involved in NAFTA have played in total quality management. Novy (2013) seeks to explore the role of trade agreements in the improvement of production and delivery of services using NAFTA as his case study. Such evaluation can be perceived as an aspect of total quality management. The article by Alvarez-Medina and Carrillo (2014) evaluates the various effects NAFTA have had on the automobile industry. The article considers issues of planning in operation management in the automobile industry.
Biblical Integration
The issue of operations management has been shown to be pertinent to business. It is also shown to be an aspect of humanity. In 1 Corinthians 14;40 (King James Version), Paul says that “Let all things be done decently and in order.” This directive by Paul indicates that it is prudent to have a plan of how things are done to ensure diligence and achieve success. In an earlier discussion, it was stated that operations management involves formulation of a plan and executing it. In regard to this, the verse emphasizes that it is essential to ensure operations management in resource use and service delivery to achieve positive effects as required in NAFTA. Operations management requires the development of a plan for execution in the production of production and services. Therefore, it would be prudent to infer that operations management is a requirement for humanity.
Conclusion
As stated earlier, efficiency of a company, organization or process can be improved through effective operation management. NAFTA was designed to promote block economic development of the three countries involved. However, the agreement has been faced with various challenges that have adversely affected its performance. The analysis given in this paper indicates that the agreement is failing due to issues pertaining operations management. The operation management in the agreement ought to be streamlined to ensure that there is maximal performance and also ensure proper environmental protection.
References
Alvarez-Medina, L., & Carrillo, J. (2014). Restructuring of the Automotive Industry in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Region from 2007 to 2011. International Review of Management and Business Research,3(4), 2120. Retrieved from http://www.irmbrjournal.com/papers/1421125971.pdf
Anderson, G. (2012). NAFTA on the Brain: Why Creeping Integration Has Always Worked Better. American Review Of Canadian Studies, 42(4), 450-459. doi:10.1080/02722011.2012.73232. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=78382010-42f6-45f8-abe4-c69125f8e1cc%40sessionmgr113&vid=0&hid=111
Jinnah, S., & Lindsay, A. (2015). Secretariat Influence on Overlap Management Politics in North America: NAFTA and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Review Of Policy Research, 32(1), 124-145. doi:10.1111/ropr.12106. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=45125e05-2a51-412a-bc5f-f618012a4635%40sessionmgr120&vid=1&hid=111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=100299553
Novy, D. (2013). Gravity redux: measuring international trade costs with panel data. Economic Inquiry, 51(1), 101-121. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00439.x. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=777c414c-432c-4207-970e-52fd8fdc30bd%40sessionmgr4002&vid=0&hid=4202
Olive, A. (2015). Assessing Intergovernmental Institutions and Transnational Policy Networks in North American Resource Management: Concluding Remarks.Review Of Policy Research, 32(1), 163-169. doi:10.1111/ropr.12113. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5fa53fea-8b26-4dfd-a367-66508a45a265%40sessionmgr4004&vid=0&hid=4202
Satterlee, B. (2014). Cross border commerce: With biblical worldview application. (2nd ed.). Raleigh, NC: Synergistics International, Inc. ISBN: 9781934748121.
Wood, D. (2014). Championing North America’s potential. (cover story). Ivey Business Journal, 1. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=378d17c5-d753-426e-b1e7-baf09fcd2c56%40sessionmgr4001&vid=0&hid=4202
