TOW#525 — Operations management
Tip of the Week is a collection of texts written by various authors, dealing with everyday topics, that can help you to make improvements in both your personal and professional life. New tips are sent out every single Thursday, and you can comment on them at: www.facebook.com/tipoftheweekPriracnik. A selection of the first 100 tips was published as a handbook on personal and professional development.
When we talk about ‘Operations Management’, it basically refers to the whole business model and operational functioning of a company. Process or Operations Management covers the overall functioning of the business, from setting the company’s basic principles and operating processes, strategy, organisational set-up, supply chain, to location, stock management, sales and marketing, resource planning, finance and distribution. In essence, it forms and represents the entire ‘system’ of a company.
The most interesting thing is that most of the elements that represent Operations Management are behind the scenes of the business. A car’s chassis is what everybody sees, but the engine and everything that gives the car its solidity, power and performance are the operations that are happening in the background. However, regardless of whether you know or can see the processes going on behind the scenes of a business, it’s always very easy, just from looking from the outside, to see if (and what) working systems / procedures are in place.
So, the idea for this week’s tip came to me while I was in SILBO (for those who don’t know, a bakery in Skopje), which works 24 hours a day and where 90% of the time there are at least 15 customers waiting in line. It’s something of a miracle that no matter how much the hustle and bustle, it always takes only a few minutes to get what you came for. About the same time it takes in other places where there are only one or two in front of you. But the thing is, why are we even surprised by such quick service?! It’s just down to good organisation of the work and processes behind the counter:
· There are two people working at the till who only collect payment. In addition to being more efficient, it’s also more hygienic;
· The other employees only take and process orders, and the stock is constantly monitored and refilled accordingly. You can never (rarely) miss out on the baked good that you came in for;
· The wide range of goods on offer is a burden on operations, but it’s not felt in the work;
· The bakers are also constantly buzzing behind the sales team, carrying and refilling the stock. Sometimes there are 5–7 employees behind the counter, but it never appears as if they’re in each other’s way;
· The hygiene, taking into account how busy it is, is at an extremely high level. The sellers use gloves, while there’s also always someone cleaning on the customers’ side of the counter.
I don’t know the owners, nor have we worked together, so I don’t know how things are working in the background. In the list above I just allowed myself to interpret what I see from the outside. This is just one part of Operations Management that’s working in this company. I’m sure that if they work like this at the counter, they’re also successful in other aspects of the business. I wish them success.
I once heard somewhere a smart person say that “the biggest difference between a successful and a failed (less successful business) is in the strength of the system”. Create your own operating system, workflow processes, and maintain / supplement it. It’s the only way you can build a successful and long-term business.
Exercise: In order to see immediately the importance of well-organised work processes, here’s a little game or exercise you can do with your colleagues. In any case, you’ll need to have more colleagues (7–10) in order to feel the difference:
· Sit your colleagues down at the tables at work. It’s not important who sits where and how many people sit down on the same table.
· Give everyone a piece of paper.
· You sit a bit further away from the rest.
· TASK 1: ask everyone to come and give you their piece of paper. Start a stopwatch and time how long it takes for the task to be completed (when the last person gives you the paper).
· TASK 2: return the papers to your colleagues. Instruct them to bring them to you again, only this time under a different work process. This time they won’t get up, but they’ll pass the papers, starting with the last one (the person furthest away from you), handing them towards the first one (closest to you). Then the last one to receive the papers, the person closest to you, will get up and bring them all to you. Of course, this time too you’ll time them with a stopwatch. I promise you that you and your colleagues will be surprised by the result.
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
Petar Lazarov
Member of the Team
MACEDONIA-EXPORT Consulting
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