MGT613 Assignment # 2 Solution

TENTATIVE SOLUTION OF ASSIGNMENT # 2
MGT613 (PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT)
Question:
HiStars a manufacturing company deals in manufacturing computers. Marketing,
Finance and Operations are three important departments of the Company. The
functions of these departments are interrelated and can’t carry without each other in
maintaining their production process.
1: Describe the importance of each department to the other.
2: Describe why it is necessary for an Operations Manager to have the knowledge of
Marketing and Finance.
SOLUTION
For Question # 1
Organizational goals are achieved more efficiently by the concerted efforts different
departments and functions. A business organization has three basic functions: finance,
marketing, and production/operations. These three functions perform different but
related activities necessary for the operations of the organization and each makes an
important contribution. For instance, unless production and marketing work together,
marketing may promote goods and services that production cannot profitably deliver, or
production may turn out goods or services for which there is no demand. Marketing
division is the front end of any because it gathers information about customer’s
requirement, creates demand forecast for the product or service in order to plan
production. The basic function of finance is allocation of resources, so, unless finance
and production people work closely, funds for expansion or new equipment may not be
available when needed.
For Question # 2
Operations Manager needs to have knowledge of budgeting, budgets are periodically
prepared to plan financial requirements. Budgets are sometimes adjusted and
performance relative to a budget must be evaluated. Moreover, evaluation of
alternative investments in plant and equipment requires inputs from both operations
and finance people.
Operations manager needs to have the information about demand of a specific product
in the market so that it can plan for the material to be purchased and work to be
scheduled. Business organizations compete with one another in a variety of ways like
price, quality, product or service differentiation, flexibility and time to perform certain
activities, so, it is important for an operations manager to have knowledge about all of
these areas in order to know “what do the customers want” .And “how we are going to
deliver that to them”.