Operations Management Custom Made Kitchens

Question: Discuss about the Operations Management for Custom Made Kitchens. Answer: Introduction The case study under analysis is for the business operations of an organisation named, Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. The business operations of the organisation aimed at the manufacturing of custom-made kitchens for the customers based on their needs. These kitchens were being manufactured by the organisation with the unique specifications as per the needs of the customers or clients. Gradually, the organisation started getting orders for various standardised kitchens from the builders in lots. These standardised kitchens werent unique in terms of their specification but allowed the builders to have them manufactured in small lots to be placed in their houses. The essay analyses the impacts of the manufacturing of the standardised kitchens on the actual business operation of the organisation of manufacturing the custom-made kitchens as per the needs of the clients. Even if the manufacturing and selling processes of the standardised builder kitchens made some profit, they gradually led to the increase in the costs of manufacturing and maintaining the inventory of the standardised kitchens. This in turn affected the performance of the organisation in manufacturing the custom-made kitchens and drove the profits down by increasing the costs associated with various business processes (Khanna, 2015). Analysis The current production systems and processes used by Hawkesbury Cabinets can be divided into the two categories of the products sold by the organisation i.e. the custom-made and standardised kitchens. The production systems used by the organization include saws, cutting tables, routers and shapers. All of these production systems are kept in close proximity to each other in the manufacturing facility. Some of the other production systems like lathes and other less used systems are kept in close proximity to each other in another part of the facility. The painting and furnishing activities on the products are carried in controlled environment towards one of the ends of the facility. This entire layout of the manufacturing facility makes it difficult for the organisation to expand its business operations. In such a situation, the manufacturing of the builders standardised kitchens cramps up the entire space, which in turn decreases the quality of the workplace for the custom-made kitch ens and increases the costs of maintaining the inventory of the standardised kitchens (Brown, 2013). The business processes of the organisation include the cutting, sawing, bending and routing of the materials to manufacturing either the custom-made or standardised kitchens along with the painting and furnishing of the products. These business processes being repeated for the two categories of the products in turn increase the resources and material requirements of the entire business model of the organisation. The increased magnitude of the business processes, in turn, increases the costs of the manufacturing process along with the decrease in the profits of the organisation (Slack, 2013). As mentioned in the case, the organisation started the manufacturing process of the builders standardised kitchens after manufacturing the custom-made kitchens for quite a while. In the past couple of years, the organisation has seen steady increase in the number of orders for the builders standardised kitchens. This in turn allows the organisation to start the manufacturing process of these standardised kitchens in order to match the demand of the corresponding products in the market of operation. But the business model of the organisation always focuses more on the manufacturing of the custom-made kitchens over the standardised ones. This in turn interrupts the manufacturing process of the standardised kitchens, if the orders for custom-made kitchens come in the middle (Walker, 2014). This in turn clutters up the manufacturing facility of the organisation by maintaining the unfinished standardised kitchens in the workplace of the organisation. This in turn increases the costs of ma nufacturing costs, which includes the costs of maintaining the unfinished products in the workplace and costs of compromising with the manufacturing process of the custom-made kitchens due to the unavailability of the space in the manufacturing facility to expand the business operations (Mahadevan, 2015). The increasing number of orders for the builders standardised kitchens also affects the promised delivery times for the custom-made kitchens to the clients. So the problem with the inclusion of the manufacturing of the builders standardised kitchens along with the custom-made kitchens is the increasing costs of the manufacturing process along with the decreasing profits of the business processes (Chase, 2012). The issues of including the manufacturing process of the builders standardised kitchens along with the manufacturing of the custom-made kitchens introduce a wide range of operational management issues in the workplace of Hawkesbury Cabinets. These operational management issues are related to the usage of the available resources and materials to the organisation along with effective design of the business model to manufacture the products from both the categories. The operational management issue of order acceptance is one of the most significant issues arising from the inclusion of the manufacturing of products from both the categories in the business model of the organisation (Handfield, 2012). The orders for the products of the organisation should only be received when the manufacturing process of the existing orders can be completed before starting the manufacturing process for the new orders. If the major focus or priority of the business model of the organisation is the manufact uring of the custom-made kitchens, then the orders for the builders standardised kitchens should be limited to a certain quantity (Gunasekaran, 2012). Another operational management issue is the management of the inventory for both the materials and the unfinished products of the manufacturing process of builders standardised kitchens. The unfinished products should be managed in the manufacturing facility in an efficient manner in order to ensure efficient manufacturing process for the custom-made kitchens. The manufacturing process of the custom-made kitchens should be efficiently planned with the scheduled manufacturing of the builders standardised kitchens. So the evidences from the case study suggest that the inclusion of the manufacturing of the builders standardised kitchens clearly affects the major business process of manufacturing custom-made kitchens as per the needs of the clients (Krajewski, 2013). Conclusion The case of Hawkesbury Cabinets clearly shows some of the operational issues in the workplace and manufacturing facility of the organisation. The inclusion of the manufacturing of both the custom-made kitchens and the builders standardised kitchens in the business model of the organisation leads to a number of operations management issues. These operations management issues of the organisation can be defined in terms of the overlap in the manufacturing processes of the both the types of products and the undivided focus of the organisation to manufacturing process of the custom-made kitchens in the manufacturing facility of the organisation. The business focus on the custom-made kitchens hampers the swift flow of the manufacturing of the builders standardised kitchens. This in turn increases the magnitude of the inventory in the manufacturing facility for the unfinished products of builders standardised kitchens, which in turn increases the overall costs of manufacturing process and h ence decreases the profits realised from the sale of the products (Hill, 2012). References Brown, S., Bessant, J.R. and Lamming, R., 2013. Strategic operations management. Routledge. Chase, J., 2012. Operations management. Tata McGraw-Hill. Gunasekaran, A. and Ngai, E.W., 2012. The future of operations management: an outlook and analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 135(2), pp.687-701. Handfield, R.B. and Bozarth, C.B., 2012. Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management. Pearson Higher Ed. Hill, A. and Hill, T., 2012. Operations management. Palgrave Macmillan. Khanna, R.B., 2015. 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