Operations and Information Management Of Danem Group - Samples

Question: Discuss about the Operations and Information Management Of Danem Group. Answer: Introduction Process design is termed as alignment of the processes for satisfying the requirements of customers while at same time meet with set of objectives. Designing of new products and services in the market is considered as biggest challenge which is faced by the organization based on their size and complexity of products. The main focus of the organization is to meet with customers expectations. The selected organization for this report is Danem Group, which is operated in Qatar (Danem Group 2015). The services selected for this paper is steel fabrication services. Each of the business organization has to design product and develop services as their growth strategy. The selected organization can gain of competitive edge throughout their design. The manufacturing or service process design is based on various variables and represents a number of tradeoffs (Slack, Chambers and Johnson 2007). There are two types of design approaches used in process design such as serial and parallel. Serial a pproach is involved of alignment of activities in defined sequence while parallel approach is involved with execution of two and more processes into simultaneous manner. The report is aimed to provide a critical discussion on the key factors which influence selection of service along with manufacturing process designing. It also discusses the principles of lean manufacturing aids operation manager to introduce the changes to operational processes and systems. Background of the selected organization Danem Group is established in the year 1998 which is a rapidly developed leading company providing professional services into Engineering, Construction and Project Management Enterprise with operated in Middle East region. The organization is involved into expansion of oil as well as gas sector (Danem Group 2015). The main service of this organization is steel fabrication. Danem Group has to design new services for some of the reasons such as: To satisfy unfulfilled requirements of their clients To raise the existing product line of the company and declining sales To enter into new business throughout unrelated diversification To compete into existing product line To raise the declining profit The operation of company is based on steel fabrication with combining engineering, quality assurance and supplier management. The vision of Danem Group is to prefer world class service solutions for the worldwide oil and gas industry. The mission of the organization is to provide market solutions by effective project management and fabrication facilities to deliver proper projects on time and budget. According to Zhang, Williams and Polychronakis (2012), the section of process is based on nature of market, business along with their products and services. Discussion on the main factors influence the manufacturing or service process design Before analyzing the factors influence manufacturing or service process design, it is required to analyze types of process design as discussed below: Products focus process design: This manufacturing and service process design is arranged as per sequence of the operations that are required for production of product and service (Martin et al. 2010). It is termed as production line. Processes focus design: It is such a process design where the processes are being arranged based on type of process which is undertaken. In this process, the products and services are moved from one of the department to other to process the job requirements (Yuan and Polychronakis 2012). It is termed as job shop. Based on the process selection, Damen Group is carried out their work to fit with the vision and mission of the organization. Forecasting from the sales as well as marketing on offshore projects and reviewing of existing projects are in the ability of the company (Polychronakis and Syntetos 2007). There are various factors deduce to influence manufacturing as well as service design applied to produce particular services. Following are the factors which influence the manufacturing or service process design of Danem Group as: Cost: Bartis and Mitev (2008) stated that cost is the fundamental consideration into selecting structural frame material in the design process. The selection is based on costing, and it is the challenge of cost consultant to identify the fluctuations into materials prices. The key cost drivers are identified to make steel frame rates projects properly. The key objective of Danem Group is to maximize the profit and sale of their business and services by offering quality services to them (Zhang, Williams and Polychronakis 2012). One of the strategies which are used to meet the objective is that processes should be taken cost effective. At Damen Group, the main services are steel fabrication, oil and gas production. The other oil and gas industry slightly more expensive in production, therefore the company also raises throughout cutting cost of production. Galliers and Leidner (2014) defined that cost of the process is required to incur into the manufacturing processes. It comprises of expenditures incur with purchase of equipments, raw materials along with capital cost. The cost of processes is cut by outsourcing as it helps to reduce the manufacturing cost and designing of new products and services. Quality: The operation manager plays a key role to make sure that services that are offered by Danem Group to their clients are of optimum quality. After reduction of cost for gaining profitability, the company selects to manufacture their process design based on service quality (McArthur 2015). At Danem Group, there is higher level of quality services are provided to the clients enable them to perform well among Qatars oil and gas industry with larger number of clients are ready to purchase their produced products. In case of machine tools, the quality is affected at the time of surface finish, dimensional tolerances. The steel fabrication is based on quality of scrap. Therefore, fluctuations in scrap affect the quality of service. Kato et al. (2010) argued that quality issues should be mitigated before services are provided to the clients. It will become more productive when the production process is perfect. In order to ensure that the company maintains quality in steel fabricatio n, the staff members are encouraged to become innovative to come up with better quality services. By incurring extra cost to make sure that manufacturing process is needed of better quality (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The company satisfies the clients and builds strong brands in respective of industry operations. The company adopts state-of-the-art technologies to perform steel production processes for making improvement over service quality. Flexibility: In order to maintain relevance, the organizational operations of Danem Group should be flexible. Flexibility into steel fabrication is based on shape, used of raw materials to produce the product and surface finish. Lack of flexibility into process of manufacturing is difficult for the company to satisfy the clients (Reeves and Deimler 2015). It is expensive to replace existent processes with new one. The supplier flexibility helps Danem Group to manage their market volatility to survive dip into demand. It is analyzed that flexibility is tend to receive more attention as compared to other factors such as cost and quality. Although steel is flexible, therefore steel fabrication services meet with various needs of clients. Steel allows providing design flexibility inherent of strength (Kalpakjian and Schmid 2014). It makes sure that the architects introduce of long spans along with curves for structural design. Therefore, flexibility is required by Danem Group concerned i nfluences the process design it adopts. The manufacturing process of the company is on line with product and service designing. Degree of vertical integration: Jacobs, Chase and Lummus (2014) implied that extent to which the production along with distribution chain is owned by same organization. This factor provides a direct influence on which the products are produced and services are provided internally. Sorrentino et al. (2016) argued that one of the reason that Danem Group adopts of line production process design is higher vertical integration. It implies that the organization is carrying manufacturing as well as distribution processes at own. Therefore, the company has great control over their operations of oil production and steel fabrication. Turner, Strong and Gold (2014) stated that there are two types of vertical integration such as forward and backward. Kloepffer (2008) discussed that forward integration means expansion of production ownership to distribution chain in the market. The backward integration is expansion towards the suppliers sources. Concerning on Danem Group, the company adopts of ve rtical integration for flexible in manufacturing and service process. It results into raise into profit, sales, economics of scale along with pooling of research and development (Ullman 2015). When there is lower degree of integration, outsourcing is the process for performing the manufacturing activities. Nature of service demand: Into the production process, the customers are playing a key role. Danem Group is producing products as well as services with consideration of requirements along with preferences of customers. The manufacturer should schedule and design production to meet with both current plus future demands of their clients. The company structures their production design in such a way that it should meet with customers demands and requirements. Raoufi et al. (2017) illustrated that the methods which are used to meet with the current demand of the client are growth trends as well as patterns of demands which provide an influence on future. Influence on demand patterns: According to Brandenburg et al. (2014), the demand of the products as well as services fluctuates into different market based on the industry. There is fall into demand and rise over period. It is influenced by means of seasonal fluctuations that provide a significant influence on the process design applied for production process of the service provided by Danem Group. The demand of products and services by clients experience fluctuations which affects the price (Upadhyayula et al. 2018). Choice of process design meets with capacity of volume of products required by the customers. The process design offers room for expansion to keep into line by means of demand patterns. Environmental sustainability: The operation manager also puts into consideration the potential impact which the process design has on the environment (Zhang, Williams and Polychronakis 2012). With focused on the international business community, the company ensures that they select such a process which will not affect the environment. External regulations: The organizational standards along with regulations set various governing bodies which affect selection of manufacturing processes (Yuan and Polychronakis 2012). Regards to cost effective, flexibility of process design, the company has obligations to adhere set to standards in order to avoid any issues. Implementation of Lean Principles assists the Operations Manager in optimising efficiencies while minimising cost and improving customer service levels Lean management is the approach to run the organization which supports concept of improvement into the service design process of Danem Group. It is such an approach which seeks to achieve and makes changes into the process to improve efficiency as well as quality. Lean management seeks to eliminate of wastage of time, effort by identification of the steps into the business process (Raoufi et al. 2017). The principles of lean manufacturing are referred to as lean production which implies techniques to eliminate waste into the manufacturing system. Those principles minimize the cost and improve customer service levels with minimizing of waste. According to Zhou (2016), lean principles provide value to the customers throughout value creation process that has zero waste. In order to meet with the organizational goals, the operation manager focused on optimization of various assets, vertical departments along with technologies for optimizing flow of manufacturer machines (Center 2015). Th e project management principles ensure that the offshore projects in Danem Group are run confined. The established criteria are budget, schedule and improvement of customer services. Danem Group adopts and implements of five lean manufacturing principles which are discussed as below: Identification of customers and specification of customers value: It is the starting point of the company which incorporates recognition that accounts and adds value to end users. The company should define their steel fabrication, oil production to their clients from the perspectives of their clients. The company manages to target the customer and remove the wastes to value their customers expectations. Jacobs, Chase and Lummus (2014) stated that the company is required to evaluate expenditure of customers by analyzing their value to low cost. The operation manager relies on taking interview of customers, their feedback and other survey sources to determine their expectations and if the company is able to meet with requirements (Reeves and Deimler 2015). The company is responsible to determine the cost along with waste that is eliminated such that the product is delivered at that price the customers can pay. Identify and map value stream: Zhang, Williams and Polychronakis (2012) illustrated that value stream is ser of activities within the organization which involved with delivery of product and services to the customers. It represents of comprehensive end-to-end processes which incorporate to deliver services to the customers. The company should require understanding preferences of the customers based on quality of services, economy and others. This process is ranged from raw material to final use of product (Yuan and Polychronakis 2012). This process consists of steps to add value to the customers requirements. One of the best ways to identify value steam is departmentalisation which helps to choose staffs from various functions. Create flow by elimination of waste: Sorrentino et al. (2016) discussed that mapping of value stream confirms that nearly 5 percent of the companys activities should add value to the customers requirements. Polychronakis and Syntetos (2007) indicated that waste elimination ensures that products and services are produced into the organization which portrays significant flow to the customers. This lean principle is most significant for Danem Group as the company is mostly focused on elimination of waste and result into increase into value of customers. This principle occurs regards the functional boundaries that the process is crossed. Lean improvement is done to eliminate the batch processing and manage it to minimize the cost. Response to customer pull: Danem Group concentrates on process to understand demands of their customers to products and services. The company responds by design manufacturing process and delivery of the services which satisfy and meet requirements of their customers (Galliers and Leidner 2014). This principle is required to set the way which makes the customers look for the product rather than push product. The pull system is responded to the customer demand as well as produced what the customer requires when they require it. Pull seeks to eliminate over production that magnifies the type of wastes. Pursue perfection: Yuan and Polychronakis (2012) represented that lean principle into the company creates flow along with pull starts throughout radical organizations of individual process systems. Adoption plus implementation of lean manufacturing principles assist the operation manage to optimise efficiencies along with minimise cost furthermore improve customer service levels (Raoufi et al. 2017). Removal of waste from this process provides a better products and the products are also delivered within proper time. Reeves and Deimler (2015) stated that lean principles help the operation manager to introduce of changes into the processes of the organization. The operation manager requires creating avenue throughout employees to provide feedback, elimination of barriers which exist to hamper ease of flow of communication into the organization. The above five principles are applied directly to steel fabrication to eliminate of waste. Nesting software prepares to reduce the waste. Coupled with software tools track the steel inventory, program components help Danem Group to optimize the materials usage (Zhang, Williams and Polychronakis 2012). With use of automated approach, it eliminates waste of the defective parts as design information covers of various fabrication processes. Fabrication of various sizes is benefited from application of lean manufacturing principles. Upadhyayula et al. (2018) argued that the principles are difficult to apply on machines as it is hard to balance processing time fo r various machines. At the end, the company can automate structural steel processing system for elimination of waste. Galliers and Leidner (2014) stated that lean manufacturing process is focused on elimination of waste, excesses of the materials and streamlines the manufacturing system to make it efficient, greater efficiency, lower the cost along with faster production time. The research shows that the five principles of lean manufacturing leads to reduce lead time, floor space requirements and increase into productivity (Kalpakjian and Schmid 2014). The benefits of lean manufacturing into steel fabrication are optimal inventory, reduction of rejections, quick changeover, and spare management in addition to high organized. Conclusion It is concluded that process design is implied of process to determine workflows, equipment needed and implementation needs for process of production of the product and process. There are two concepts of process design such as process and design. It is analyzed that design is implied of process of orientation along with development of plan in order to develop product and service. Process is analyzed of utilizing input resources required to transform the output of services and products. From the report analysis, the factors which are taken into account for influencing the process design are cost, quality, flexibility, and degree of vertical integration, nature of service demand, influence on demand patterns, environmental sustainability and external regulations. The strategies which are used to meet the objective should be cost effective. It contains of expenditures acquire with acquire of equipments, raw materials next to capital cost. Flexibility into steel fabrication is dependent on shape, utilization of raw materials to make the product moreover surface finish. Lack of flexibility into procedure of manufacturing is complicated for the company to convince the clients. Implementation of lean principles assists operation manager to optimize efficiency while minimize the cost and improve the customer service levels. It is achieved of value stream across different technologies. Those five principles are consisted of identification of the customers in addition to specify the value, response to customer pull, pursue of perfection. It also includes of identify and map the value stream and create flow to eliminate the wastes. Danem Group manages to maintain a brand reputation due to effective selection of manufacturing processes. The future research should address the challenges that operation manager undergoes to select manufacturing in addition to service process design. The operation manager relies on taking discussion with the customers, their response and other review sources to conclude their expectations. The company should need considerate preferences of the customers based on excellence of services, and also economy. The organization is therefore focused on elimination of waste plus resulted into raise into worth of customers. References Bartis, E. and Mitev, N., 2008. A multiple narrative approach to information systems failure: a successful system that failed.European Journal of Information Systems,17(2), pp.112-124. Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J. and Seuring, S., 2014. Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions.European Journal of Operational Research,233(2), pp.299-312. Center, A.T., 2015. 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