Developing Good Business Sense

DEVELOPING GOOD BUSINESS SENSE

The three companies that I choose for this project was Burger King, Barnes & Noble, and McDonalds. I observed how the employees do their tasks. I will discuss the main kinds of OMM costs companies have and how does this affect their OMM operations. Also will be discussing how do companies design their operating systems to give them a competitive advantage. I will identify which five main components of operations and materials management costs and the methods companies use to reduce them.

The primary goal of the operations manager is creating happy and loyal customers. By effectively analyzing and managing their business's operations, they created the right products with the right features at the right cost. This can not be done without operations and materials management, it is vital function.

Barnes & Noble is a chain of bookstores that carries thousands of titles. They also offer the largest in-stock selection of in-print book titles for fast, easy, secure ordering and delivery on the internet. To reduce plant cost they lease their buildings, rather than own them. Barnes & Noble OMM has developed an IT system. This IT system is the flexible production that allows mass production at a lower cost. They continually upgrade its storefront to create a better shopping experience for its customers. They also adopted new methods to allow it to control the way it stocks, and ships the thousands of their products it currently is selling. They use its materials management expertise to keep the books, CDs, and electronics in inventory that most appeal to customers. They take advantage of the vast warehouses to store products. They offer fast and free delivery when you order $25 or more of eligible items to cut delivery costs. They rely on how quickly it can ship its books and other products to customers. To further speed up delivery, they outsource by using UPS. The growth of the Internet has been a major source of revenue for companies like Barnes & Noble. They have find ways to reduce their own operating costs and pass the savings on to their customers. Customers can also pick up the books in their local Barnes & Noble instead of having to wait for the products to be mailed to their homes. Barnes & Noble business uses both the Internet and store front to give it a competitive advantage over other bookstores. Flexible production helps to ensure that the books are always in stock when customers request them. But if not in stock they can predict delivery times, respond to changes, and have better control over the various phases of production. The employees must know all the hottest and latest books that are added to their title list every week. Their employees are organized by the software designed for locating and/or shipping of a product a customer may be looking for.

Burger King (BK) and McDonalds is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants that primarily selling burgers and french fries. Burger king and McDonalds works with hamburger bun manufacturers and beef producers to make sure the fast food it produces is as fresh as possible. Both fast-food companies’ are franchisees, which keep plant cost to a low, this way they avoid the high plant and capital costs. They rely on delivering customer’s tasty fast food quickly. BK and McDonald’s use JIT system to keep the food fresh. This system lets the inputs and components needed to deliver the products to the operating