Production and Operations Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd

Question: Describe about the Production and Operations for Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. Answer: Case Study: Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd Operation management has often proved to be instrumental in helping business enterprises control their production processes, and the fundamental business operations efficiently while guaranteeing their long-term prosperity. If a given business entity duly observes the prescriptions of the principles of operation management, they often find it easy to secure huge profit margins while ducking loopholes and potential risks in the process (Kast Rosenzweig, 2013). Any deflection from these principles has proved costly for the given organizations since in most cases they are forced to close business or rescale in order to survive the market demands. Apparently, Hawkesbury Cabinets Company is accompanied with immense potential to grow but due to a variety of issues, the enterprise is not living up to its bidding. They range from management to the manufacturing process. It is understandable that the pioneers of the business company did not presage its future profile and as a consequence did not install good plans on tapping on the future expansion. Thus the company has found itself in a conundrum on a daily basis since the management is often caught flat foot by the new developments.They are often forced to make required adjustments to rearrange the company set up and restore the equilibrium. They did not establish a neat management framework. The two founders of the organization- Fung and Mei Chen-established the basic functional and production management frameworks at the beginning which often riddled the decision-making process. Initially, it worked well for them since the assumed flat organizational structure enabled them to make decisions relatively quickly. But, they ought to have diversified it with the enterprises expansion so that it can fit the increased demands. It could have enabled the company to easily meet the clients expectations as well as quick adjustment to the daily changing organizational and market trends. The founders of the company did not have a good business plan for both the current and future prospects of the company. Good planning in business operation management provides the roadmap to both the present and future endeavors of a given business entity. According to Stefan Topfer, dividends of good business planning often outweigh the temporary loss of business revenue (Meredith, 2014). All successful businesses attribute their milestone achievements to good planning and due strategizing. The companys owners ought to have envisaged the potential future expansion and employs good strategies to tap on the advantages of the companys expansion. For instance, the company was overwhelmed by the increased patronage and thus introduced the manufacturing of standardized kitchens without visualizing on how to make good use of this opportunity. It forced it to use the same tools and staff to come up with the new product at the same time. They ought to have planned on recruiting new staff and expanding the manufacturing infrastructure to maintain the quality of the products as well as the operation efficiency (Voss, Tsikriktsis Frohlich, 2013). There is also the problem of the manufacturing facilities and space. After realizing the increased expansion and demands of the companys operations, they ought to have established a separate workshop for both products so as to increase the working space. It has subsequently led to the manufacturing process to be grueling and thus decreased efficiency. Consequently, the delivery time was prolonged thus reducing client confidence on the companys services and a palpable waste of resources. Even after renting the neighboring warehouses space could not be enough thus limiting the companys expansion. Such an impact will seriously dent the company reputation if it continues uncontrolled. Poor planning made the company to fail in making decisions regarding priority in its operations since the management was confused on what to prioritize and what not to. For example, the workload significantly increased after the introduction of the builders line of kitchens as a consequence of lack of prior ity in the companys operations. Introducing a new product or service for a manufacturing enterprise is often associated with risks, uncertainties and inconveniences to a given companys business operations (Soteriou, Hadjinicola Patsia, 1999). However with good planning and implementation of the premeditated strategies, this adventure can be very beneficial in the long term. For the case in point, the introduction of the new builders kitchen made it necessary that the company recruits new staff members so as to meet the demands of an enhanced manufacturing process. Also, the financial budget was significantly stretched since an enhanced investment towards funding the increased operations. The space of operations also had to be expanded due the fact that the new product demanded equally the same space as the previous operations. Generally, the whole companys scale of the operation was enhanced thus increased demands. However, this was not the case since the companys administration did not see the necessity to do thi s. Contrary, they felt that they could continue to operate within the same means as they used to do in the past which was a huge disadvantage to the chances of expanding the companys profitability and diversification. Consequently, the companys lead time increased, the workload burgeoned delayed delivery time, as well as the current operations systems pushing manufacturing capacity of the company to the limit. Also, the prevailing layout guaranteed lessor no space for the expansion of the plant. To a great extent, this can be termed as the single biggest undoing of the company since it cannot benefit from the numerous opportunities presented (Meredith Shafer, 2013). Adding a new product line is often viewed as the best way to building sales and moving any business entity forward in a new dimension and direction. According to Khosrow-Pour, having multiple product lines will enable a business that is growing to diversify ways of escaping risks as well as capitalizing on the already well-established name (Coe Weinstock, 2013). For the case of Hawkesbury Cabinets Company, the management may have realized that introducing the production of builders kitchens would be profitable to the business operations. But, this might not be the case in the short term since an increased scale of operation will demand an enhanced financial investment. It will greatly reduce the profit margins since a lot will be dedicated to enhancing and facilitating the new adventure. The company could need to hire new staff and also a big expenditure will be directed towards the purchase of raw materials. Also, a huge percentage of the companys resources will be siphoned off the slower movement of the products which will result in over-extension of the new product to cannibalize the sales (Lu Huang, 2013). However, this product addition will definitely increase the companys customer base in the long term by attracting customers with different tastes and preferences which will amount to huge profit margins. It is due to the market segmentation as well as seasonal sales patterns (Ahire, Landeros Golhar, 2014). This introduction also will help the company wield and edge in the market by presenting different product propositions as opposed to its opponents. Apparently, the company is not late in implementing the recommended changes so as to guarantee long-term profitability and security of its operations since it has not lost its customer base. The nature of the adjustments is radical as it will involve redesigning the majority of the management and production structure so as to accommodate the daily demands of a growing organization. However, they should be carefully tailored to avoid alienation and redundancy. References Ahire, S.L., Landeros, R. Golhar, D.Y. (2014). Production and Operations. From: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1937-5956.1995.tb00057.x/abstract Coe, R. Weinstock, I. (2013). Evaluating the Management Journals: A SecondLook. From: https://www.jstor.org/stable/256053?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Kast, R.E., Rosenzweig, J.E. (2013). Organization and management. from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/255141.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Lu Huang, L., Song, J., Tong, J. (2013). Supply Chain Planning for Random Demand Surges: Reactive Capacity and Safety Stock. From: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/msom.2016.0583 Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M. (2013). Operations management for MBAs.Meredith J.(2014).Building operations management theory through case and field research. Journal of operations management. Volume 16, Issue 4, July 1998, Pages 441454From: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6963(98)00023-0 Soteriou, A. C., G. C. Hadjinicola, and K. Patsia, 1999, Assessing Production and Operations Management Related Journals: The European Perspective, Journal of Operations Management, 17(2), 225-239. Voss, C., Tsikriktsis, N. Frohlich, M. (2013). Case research in operations management. From: https://www.feg.unesp.br/~fmarins/seminarios/Material%20de%20Leitura/artigos%20m%E9todos/Estudo%20de%20Caso.pdf