The duties and responsibilities of an operations manager in today's business environment require a very competent and capable person who is well versed in everything from person-to-person communication to advanced software functioning. This paper uses the literature to describe the job of operations manager, and uses Riordan Manufacturing as an example of a company where the duties of an operations manager must be excellently performed.
¶ … Role of Operations Manager in Business
The Operation Management's Role in Business Today
The role of an operations manager is an important one in any business no matter how big or small the business is. According to the Houston Chronicle, the operations manager needs a "wide range" of interpersonal and professional skills in order to do the job (Farnen, 2010). The operations manager handles the management of raw materials and personnel, and -- in many cases -- the operations manager conducts the interviewing and hiring of employees and oversees the actual assigning of employees to specific tasks (Farnen, p. 1).
Operations managers also play an important part in the budgeting process, and it other aspects of a company's finances, Farnen continues. Also, operations managers are part of the goal-setting process in a business, and operations managers cooperate with other department managers to coordinate sales promotions and they typically help resolve disputes or disagreements in their companies. The operations manager needs good communication skills because they are asked to "facilitate communications between employees and departments" (Farnen, p. 2).
Meanwhile Fatat Bouraad writes in the Project Manager Journal that in terms of "know how" an operations manager must have: a) good interpersonal skills; b) a "holistic vision"; c) "long-term vision"; d) effective leadership abilities; e) a "propensity to innovation"; and f) a good work ethic (Bouraad, 2008).
The knowledge that an operations director must have is complex and diverse; he or she must have: managerial knowledge; internal business knowledge; external business knowledge; and technical knowledge (Bouraad, p. 75). In addition the operations manager must be trained in technical matters, in planning capabilities, and must have "…organizational impacts assessment capability" (Bouraad, p. 75). To be fully up to speed with today's advanced technological advances an operations manager should have good working knowledge of information technology, according to Bouraad. In other words, the operations manager doesn't have to be an information technology expert, but he or she should be conversant with IT because hiring an IT manager doesn't release the operations manager from responsibility vis-a-vis making decisions that impact the organization in the technological aspects of today's business world.
Riordan Manufacturing -- The Role of Operations Manager
The operations manager for Riordan Manufacturing has plenty of work to do and the learning curve is dramatic for an operations manager just taking on new responsibilities in a new position. He or she must get up to speed with inventory when it comes to digital hardware; each location where Riordan operates must have secure Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Network (LAN) connections in order for the smooth functioning of online activities. Also, because each Riordan site is constantly getting requests from workstations (each workstation at Riordan has ten or more users on the WAN or LAN), the company cannot tolerate lapses in technology. What this means is the operations manager (at each Riordan site) must be very knowledgeable about all things related to information technology; at the very least, he or she must know the right questions to ask of technicians who are applying for jobs at Riordan.
Because Riordan has many locations, operations managers must have the interpersonal skills that allow for constant and complete communication with employees from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Hang Zhou location in China, for example, requires an operations manager with a holistic vision and a long-term vision for success; dealing with workers in China is vastly different from dealing with African-American -- or Latino -- employees in Pontiac Michigan or in Albany, Georgia. This is where effective leadership comes in to play, because the employees working for Riordan (whether in a union or not) deserve outstanding leadership, which Bouraad explains this way: "The ability to empower, motivate, and organize people to achieve a common objective" (Bouraad, 75).
Because Riordan's customers -- for the plastics products Riordan manufacturers -- are widely varied (the U.S. Defense Department, automotive and aircraft parts manufacturers, beverage companies and manufacturers of appliances) the operations manager must have good planning capabilities, the ability to assess timing of production, and excellent external business knowledge (what the market and competitors in the market are doing or planning).
The abilities that an operations manager must have include "the ability to evaluate the consequences of long-term decisions and the strategic opportunities given by innovative technologies," Bouraad asserts. In the Riordan milieu, this means keeping the technologies current and leading the way for good, easy-to-understand instructions and training for employees about how to operate the constantly upgraded technologies.
It may seem like stretching an operations manager's responsibilities to almost extreme ends when the multitude of duties and responsibilities of this important manager are viewed thoroughly. But that is what is expected of an operations manager -- competence and knowledge in a variety of corporate environments. For example, an operations manager must be familiar with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), a system that improves "business processes, including strategic planning, management control and operational control" (Riordan, 2008).
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