Technological changes have to be factored in. Other factors (internal or external that might affect the company conditions, including external factors such as economic, political, legal environment, technology, competition, as well as markets. Internal conditions that affect operations include human resources, facilities and equipment, financial resources, customers, products and services, technology, suppliers and some other reasons. The chapter also lists other strategies including modification of the supply chain strategy, sustainability strategies that lower the impact upon the environment, etc. And global strategies that take into account the international nature of the present economy (ibid., 51). Chapter 2 goes on in the discussion about operations strategy (narrow in scope, internal to the company), with its being distinct form organizational strategy which is broader in scope. For the operations strategy has to be linked to the organizational strategy. Unfortunately, this is often neglected by companies in favor of marketing and financial strategies. However, by the 190s and 1990s, business failures caused many companies to change tack and to focus on operations strategy. A key element of both operations strategy and organization strategy is strategy formulation. If its well designed and executed, these strategies can have a major improvement in operations. The strategies depend heavily upon quality and time strategies and not just upon efficiency and cost minimization (ibid., 52-54). Productivity and the factors that improve makes up most of the rest of the chapter. These include multi-factor productivity issues such as labor and material costs and overhead. This leads into the mathematics of forecasting, upon which strategies can be based ibid., 55-71).

Chapter 3 of the text expands upon the mathematics of forecasting and way that it ties together HR, marketing, MIS, operations and product service and design. Once put together however, good forecasting can not do the job alone. It also has to be carefully managed in detail. One can not just assume that computers and forecasting models will do the job on their own. Features common to all forecasts include timeliness, accuracy, reliability, expressed in meaningful financial units, forecasts need to be in writing, should be simple to understand and use and also be cost-effective. Forecasts drive the supply chain. The approaches to forecasting can be either qualitative...

(ibid., 73-77). Forecasting methods can include focus forecasting ("best performance") and diffusion forecasting which is based upon past historical data, market potential and word of mouth (ibid., 89). Associative forecasting methods rely upon linking together related variables. In this, simple linear regression relates two variables for analysis (ibid., 98). The results of the forecasting can be enhanced by computer processing. A forecasting strategy needs to be based upon cost and accuracy (ibid., 107). Strategies can be based upon the forecasting (ibid., 109-110).
Certainly, forecasting and design require an integrated operations and organization framework if the efforts are going to be successful. Simple linear regression can be tied in to the rest of the operations and organizational strategy with the aid of computers in real time to aid the management in their decisions. All issues, including are related into an integrated organizational plan, including critical functions such as supply chain management, for example. Use of an MIS approach allows the balance of various factors such as supply chain management and converts them from simple numbers to a form that the management can analyze (Bhagwat & Sharma, 2007, 44).

Conclusion

To sum up, operations and organizational management provides a rational plan to make a company successful and allow the management to do its job well. In this essay, we have reviewed the tools such as forecasting and design that make this possible.

Appendix

Organizational and Operations Management

Link these functions together.

(Stevenson, 2011, 15).