Discuss about the Modern Business in Comparative Perspective.
Production and operation management is a process of combination and transformation of several resources used in the organizations. Therefore, it can be referred to the part of the organisations, which deals with the transformation of a range of inputs into required products and services. Production management can be termed as the set of management activities that are interlinked and involved in the manufacturing of certain products. Whereas, the interrelated management activities that work towards the manufacturing of certain services is called operation management.
Major economies or developed countries are ahead of the other countries in terms of resources, technology, strategies and another requirement. These advantages support the economies to gain a competitive advantage. Moreover, the competition in the economy is rising and thus the economies compete with each other to achieve the sustained position in the market. The economy, therefore, uses different approaches to production and operation management that significantly influences the competitive advantages between the nations.
The purpose of this essay is to focus on the reasons, which ensures that different approaches are implemented for production and operation management by the organizations in major economies. The influence of different approaches on the competitive advantages between nations is also discussed here. Hence, the essay magnifies the importance of incorporating diverse production and operation management approaches in the economies.
The operation is a part of the business that is involved in producing goods and services. In the opinion of Wagner III and Hollenbeck (2014), the operation function is viewed from a far-reaching perspective. The organisations collaborate with each other and the success or failure of organisational operation functions, significantly influence the ability of the economies to compete. The ideal situation for the economy is where the supply and demand matches. If an economy produces more and has excess supply, there is a waste of resources and money. On the other hand, if the economy produces less, it indicates lost opportunities and customer dissatisfaction. Thompson et al. (2013) added that the operation management is responsible for producing goods and services. The operation management thus needs to the support and input from other areas of the organisation.
The economies do not exist in a vacuum. It is dependent upon the external environment and is a part of a larger global system. The organisations working in a particular economy receives inputs from the external environment following the institutional guidelines. The inputs are then transformed and exported as output. The economies are different from each other in terms of available resources, labour, capital and other inputs. Thus, the capability of producing goods and services of the economies are different from each other. As the availability of resources, capabilities and environment are different, the major economies thereby generate different approaches to production and operation management. The approaches that the economies adopt are according to the suitability of the approaches with the economy. The different approaches have helped the managers to shift their attention from the technicalities of a planning process to substantive issues that affect the well-being of the organisations in the long run (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston 2013). Nations likewise vary particularly in the objectives that organizations and its people try to accomplish. Organization objectives mirror the qualities of national capital markets and the wage practices for managers. Companies do well in develop economies, where ongoing investment in R&D and new facilities is important. However, the returns might be at a moderate level. Taking for example dnata Singapore Pte Ltd, in Singapore, which is a ground handling provider at Singapore Changi Airport have different approaches for handling the operation system (Dnata.sg. 2017).
National prosperity cannot be inherited, it is created. The prosperity of an economy does not grow because of the natural endowment of the economy, its rate of interest, labour pool or the currency value. According to Canen and Williamson (2013), the competitiveness of a nation depends on the capability of the organizations to innovate and upgrade itself. The presence of pressure and challenge between the economies helps the companies to gain an advantage against the competitors. The strong domestic rivalries, demanding local customers and aggressive home-based suppliers are beneficial for the economies.
The nations have become more important with the growing global competition. The economies now play an important role as the basis of competition has changed. The changes have moved towards the creation and incorporation of knowledge. McGrath (2013) further mentioned that the highly localized process of the production and operation management helps to create competitive advantage. The economic structures, national values, culture, institutions and histories further support the competitive success. The pattern of competitiveness is different for different countries. It is not possible for an economy to be competitive in all its industries. The economy succeeds in some particular industries due to the environment in which it operates. The forward-looking, challenging and dynamic environment helps the economies to achieve the advantage.
According to the prevailing conception, the potent determinants of competitiveness of an economy are labour cost, economies of scale, exchange rate and interest rate. In the modern days, the merging, alliance, collaboration, strategic partnerships and supranational globalization are some strategies used by the organisations in the economy. These strategies are beneficial for both the organisations and government. The true source of competitive advantage is fundamentally misperceived (Govindanet al. 2015). The organisations in the economy need a new perspective and new tools or approaches to competitiveness that helps the companies to succeed.
All over the globe, the companies employ production and operation strategies that differ from each other in every sphere. However, the mode of operation and characteristics of the organisation are fundamentally the same, although the companies follow their particular strategies. The economies achieve a competitive advantage with the implementation of innovative ideas into the operation system. Saeidiet al. (2015) mentioned that approaching the innovation with a broader sense is beneficial. This includes involving new technologies and adopting new ways of performing organisational activities. To gain competitive advantage and sustain in the global market, it is important that the organisations perceive a new basis for competing and obtain better ways for competing in old ways. The organisations can adopt new production strategies that will help them to make use of the resources to maximum level (Olhager 2013). Furthermore, the organisations will be able to produce goods and services at a lower operational cost. The organisations are capable of bringing innovation in the economy by introducing a new design for the products, new marketing approach, and new processes for production and new methods for conducting the production and operation management. Following the institutional perspective, it can be said that these changes will improve the productivity of the economy. The changes, done by the organizations, help the government in making future policy measures. If the authorities of an economy are looking for an increase in the productivity level of the workers, the efficient allocation of human resources will be the answer that will be prescribed from institutional perspectives.
As per the words of Barney (2015), competitive advantage is achieved by an economy though perceiving a completely new market opportunity or by choosing to serve a market segment that other economies have been ignoring. The innovation helps the economy to achieve competitive advantage when the competitors respond slowly. Moreover, the information plays an important role in providing a competitive advantage to the organisations in the economy. Sometimes, the economies are able to achieve huge information from the simple investment in the research and development of the market (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). This is one of the reasons behind why the innovators are often hired from a different industry or a different country.
The competitors will overtake the economies that stop improving and innovating their production and operation process. Thus, adopting unique approaches always help the economies to stay different and benefit from the difference. West, Ford and Ibrahim (2015) failed to mention that in a certain situation, the early mover advantages such as the relationship with the customers, scale economies in present technologies and the loyalty of the distribution channels help to provide the competitive advantage. Anderson et al. (2015) further opined on this perspective that the rival economies will find alternative ways to innovate their production and operation process around the advantages of the economy. From the analysis, it can be stated that the economies need to continuously develop their management process in order to match the demand and supply of the economy in which it operates. Hence, by developing more differentiated process, approaches and products, the economy will be able to gain an advantage.
Ultimately, one of the way to sustain in the market and maintain the competitive advantage is to upgrade the existing the production and operation process. As the economies tend to adopt different approaches for the operation management, it is capable of penetrating foreign markets with labour-cost advantages. The level of customer satisfaction increases when different approaches are used in the organisation. The sustaining competitive advantage helps the economies to sustain in the global market. The economies need to sell its product worldwide through international marketing channels. There may be a need for a global approach for locating production or R&D facilities in the other economies. The strategies allow the economy to take advantage of improved market access, foreign technology, and low wage rate. As opined by Heizer, Render and Munson (2016), it is important for the economy to make the existing advantages obsolete.
Major economies tend to develop a bias towards stability and predictability and perform accordingly to defend the resources they have. David and David (2016) argued that the change in the organisational production and operation is mainly restricted because of the fear of losing the position in the global market. The internal system of an economy acts like an immune system that challenges the present direction or builds up the thinking capacity. As the level of innovation in the economy decreases, the economy tends to follow a stagnant growth rate.
The three strategies that the economies use to gain competitive advantage are cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The economy utilizes the cost leadership strategy to become low-cost producers with respect to the competitors. Bharadwaj, Varadarajan and Fahy (2015) mentioned that the strongest competitive advantage is establishing a strategy that cannot be easily copied by the competitors. The competitive advantage can be considered as an activity that helps to create enhanced value for the goods and services, which is above the rivals. The institutional perspective focuses on several factors like ownership level, policy measures, and others. The fiscal and monetary policies of the governments are considered as institutional perspectives. The economy of a country depends highly on the institutional variables as the organizations and their strategies vary with the changes in the variables. This capacity requires more than delivering awareness regarding social, political, lawful, monetary and innovative patterns of the economy (Khanna 2015). For any organisation, certain natural impacts will constitute intense powers which influence decision making significantly. For some producing and manufacturing organizations, the most capable drive will be clients while for others it might be the rivalry.
From the detailed study of the essay, it can be concluded that the major economies all over the globe use different approaches to production and operation management. The economies adopt different approaches due to a number of factors. The differences in the available resources, types of labour and capital give way to the introduction of new and different approaches to the production and operation management. The procedures in the management help to enhance the item quality, customer satisfaction, and desirable consumer loyalty appraisals over what the competitors or other nations have. This study further states that the advancement and change are inseparably related to each other. Nevertheless, change is an unnatural demonstration, especially in successful organizations or economy. It provides capability and strengths to escape and wipe out the risk from the economy.
The approaches have a significant influence on the competitive advantages between nations. The competitive advantage helps the economy to achieve product differentiation, service differentiation, target differentiation, image differentiation, and quality and innovation differentiation. The economy is able to understand the industry in which it operates in a better ways and thereby develop a stronger action plan or strategies in the operation process. The chances for success in the competition also increase when the economy achieves a competitive advantage. The economies need to have faith in change. The managers of the organisation stimulate their company to develop constantly and thus perceive the significance of the nation in which they operate. Therefore, adopting different approaches to production and operations management by the major economies affects the competitive advantages between nations to a great extent.
References
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