Operations and Project Management

Operations and Project Management
1
The World Economic Forum defines productivity as “the amount of output per worker” (Jahchan, 2016). Productivity is not, however, the same thing as efficiency—which is a mix-up of terms that some companies frequently make (Mankins, 2017). Efficiency, as Mankins points out, is about doing more with less, whereas productivity is simply about taking the inputs and getting the desired outputs. Productivity is measured by “comparing the amount of goods and services produced with the inputs used in production” and is about “doing more with the same”—i.e., taking what you have and making it work well. Productivity is not about cutting costs by cutting inputs: it is about maximizing the juice that can be squeezed from those inputs.
This distinction matters because some companies will think that if they only cut costs—i.e., inputs that do not seem to have any significant impact on production output—they can be more efficient. Instead of maximizing the potential that they have with all of their inputs, they undercut their own potential in an effort to succeed by being pennywise. One example of how a company can make sure it is actually being productive is a restaurant: it can look at all its employees—staff, managers, waiters, etc.—its venue, its menu, its drink list, and so—i.e., its inputs—and then it can compare its outputs, how many tables are seated every night, how many drinks sold, how much visibility the restaurant gets in the press, etc. and determine based on comparison with the inputs whether the restaurant is actually being productive.
2
Technology has a major impact on companies’ operations in the global environment today. Technology has impacted transportation, communication, and security with digitization removing time and space barriers and tracking allowing monitoring and security operations to be more effective. But most of all, technology has improved communications and has enabled distance work environments to be utilized so that companies can hire workers from halfway around the world and set them to work without ever requiring the worker to relocate. The Internet has made so much possible simply in terms of accessing and sharing digital information so that companies are truly global today since the Digital Era has eliminated the traditional notion of borders. This all has the impact of making the operations more competitive and efficient. An example of this can be seen in the way companies can outsource the IT departments to teams on the other side of the planet.
3
In personal event planning, which is a service I provide, the six constraints that impact project management are: 1) schedule, 2) customer satisfaction, 3) quality, 4) scope, 5) risk, and 6) resources. Of these six, the most impactful from the word go is the first—schedule. When this constraint changes, it alters every other constraint because it affects the time allotted to a project. If the schedule is moved up or moved back, it can impact the scope, the risk and resources in terms of what is possible to achieve, what options are available within this new time frame. Questions must then be asked, like: what will the quality be of the event, or will the customer be satisfied? Schedule is a major constraint.
4
Forecasting is the process by which the project manager makes a prediction about the future performance of the company or project. The forecast gives the project manager a better macro perspective so that a decision can be made regarding the present project and whether it should be continued or halted as well as whether other projects should be given the green light. Forecasting lets the project manager consider the factor of time and how it might impact events related to the project. An example of forecasting for personal event planning would be time series analysis, and I would use it for scheduling purposes—looking at past years to see when the calendar season was busiest and what I should expect plan for the summer heading into the fall. As Chambers, Mullick and Smith (1971) note, time series analysis forecasting “focuses entirely on patterns and pattern changes, and thus relies entirely on historical data.”
5
The product life cycle of classes provided by Webster University is like the product life cycle of anything else. There are always trends in the marketplace that are accompanied by new products and services: their novelty attracts consumers who are interested in a new trend (Levitt, 1965). The product or service sells initially well. The product or service then matures and plateaus—the growth phase is over and no new consumers will be attracted. Then begins the decline phase, as the product or service begins to finally stale and consumers turn away from it in search of a new trend.
Classes have the same sort of life cycle in many ways because they reflect trends that are important to students, who want to learn subjects that relate to the real world. And since much of the real world is dictated by business and business by consumer trends, what marketers are focusing on in business will trickle down eventually to be focused on by teachers and classes.

References
Chambers, J., Mullick, S. & Smith, D. (1971). How to choose the right forecasting
technique. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1971/07/how-to-choose-the-right-forecasting-technique
Jahchan, P. (2016). What is productivity, and how do you measure it? Retrieved from
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/07/what-is-productivity-and-how-do-you-measure-it/
Levitt, T. (1965). Exploit the product life cycle. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/1965/11/exploit-the-product-life-cycle
Mankins, M. (2017). Great companies obsess over productivity, not efficiency.
Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/03/great-companies-obsess-over-productivity-not-efficiency