Strategy And Operation Management In Business Commerce Essay

Companies and organisations are making and delivering products, whether it is for profit or not for profit it relies on the processes to get their products manufactured properly and another thing that is kept in mind is that the products should be delivered on time, and every process acts as an operation for the company. To the company this is essential, that is why managers find operation management very attractive.

Operations Management objectives

Operation management objectives is a very broad term for any business, which has a great impact on categories like Shareholders, customers and employees. Following are the main categories

Suppliers – operations of a company has a great effect on its suppliers, as to have a supplier network which is more effective which can help in improve busienss.

Customers – Customers is the most important part for business as they are ones through which company makes profit, management of operation should always be done keeping in mind the target market.

Shareholders – shareholders can only get the benefit if the business is making good money which can only be achieved by proper management of processes at each level. Employees – employees are the one who makes a company and runs it so in order to make their job easy and keep them motivated towards work a company should have a proper management of operations in every department and at every level.

Society – Scoiety effects any business externally though it might not have any direct relation with the company economically. But over the recent years social responsibility has become a part of business world and now being socilally responsible is important for almost every company which is why most of the companies now manage their operations keeping in mind their social rexponsibility. (Slack,N., et al. (2004) 4th Ed)

Operation Management in Exxon Mobil

History

Exxon mobil operates its petrochemical facilities or marketing product worldwide and its industry leader almost every aspest. Exxon mobil was created by the marger of Exxon (Esso parent company) and its idea is nothing new.

The corporate entities that one day Exxon and Mobil become a common share ancestry. The Standard Oil Trust founded by John D Rockefeller in 1882.  Under this umbrella, two organisations , the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and the Standard Oil Company of New York ware formed. Jersey Standard and Socony, as they were commonly known, were the predecessors of Exxon and Mobil. In early years both companies expanding their oil and petrochemical business around the world. Finaly they realised that they can operate more competitively and effectively as an organisation. Its merger completed on 30 Nev, 1999.

(http://www.exxonmobil.com)

Operational Management in Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil conducts business in such a way that is compatible with the environmental and economic needs of all communities in which they operates safety, health and security of their employees, those involved in their operation, customer and public. These policies put into practice through a disciplined management framework called operation management.

Its reflect their health, safety,environment and product saftey policies to commitment of highest operational standerds and performence. They use a systemetic approach called Operational Integrity Management System (OIMS). They developed this system to provide strong and healthy framework for managing healthy environment, safety and security risks. They used thier facilities worldwide to measure progress and ensure management accountability for best result in oil and petrochemical.

Operation Competitivness

Exxon Mobil has a long history of leadership in the petroleum and petrochemical industries. They follow discipline and commitment in performing their business strategies have led to sustainable competitive aspects.

Technology; They maintain a unique commitment for advancment in technology in all their business functions consistently investing more than the competition.

Integrity; Their approach is very clear to ethics and business integrity is reflected in all their activities. Their goals to report that are clear to understand by investors.

Capital Discipline; They take a disciplined, long-term approach to making investment decision.

Operational Excellence; They maintain a clear focus on the performance of their business.

Employees; Their exceptional quality of their workforce is a long-standing competitive advantage.

Worldwide Experience; Their globaly presence allow them to build a existing business experience to capture opportunities in higher-growth region to attrect mor business.

Diversity of Operations; Their geographic diversity and complementary nature of Upstream, Downstream and Chemical business mitigate sensitivity to fluctuation in individual business line and market.

Financial strength; Their cash flow and financial position, combined with a good credit rating allow them to pursue all profitable opportunities.

ExxonMobil increases global capacity

Its started its newest high efficiency co-generation plant at its Antwerp refinery in Belgium.

Co-generation is process of producing both electricity and steam or heat at the same time which is then used for production or running factories. In addition to that the new plant will also help in reduction of carbon dioxice which is being omitted by approxmately 200000 tonnes per year. The top management at ExxonMobil is well aware of the of energy and cost which go hand in hand, the management has been able to produce energy at low cost and they have also kept in mind the importance of being environment friendly. As the improtance of business ethics is increasing the management at ExxonMobil is also trying to preform their part in being social responsible.

The new plant has also allowed to produce enough energy which can then be used to rum compressors, pumps and any other equipment. The plant also produces heat and steam which is used to convert crude oil into different refinded petrolium products. (http://www.businesswire.com)

ESSO

Esso Service Station throught out UK are owned by Exxon Mobil, which is one of the biggest chain of service station in the UK.

There are about 196 Tesco Shops at Esso Service Stations throughout Uk Which provide service and make their life more convenient.

Location

For any business location is very important for success that is why many businesses put so many emphases on location. In retail business there are three main factors for success and they are location, location and location,

Management in Esso also understand importance of location in business that is way location for each Esso`s outlet has been very well planned. Esso has outlet in all major cities and try cover maximum amount of customer in particular region. For any outlet the management of Esso conceder following factors.

Accessibility

Feasibility

Convenience

Competitor

Target market

Process

Business process is the way in which a company do its business and there is different levels which need to have a different process i.e. each level requires a different approach and every level has different tasks. Business process can be a key to success for any business as it helps in achieving the objectives of the company, for many companies business process the key competitive edge over their competitors. For good business process it is necessary that there is a consistency through the levels of business process and different business processes should be well integrated with each other and should be in line with the main objectives of the company.

At Esso each and every process is developed in such a way that it facilitates to achieve the overall business strategy. Business processes are defined in as such that process at every level is well integrated. While developing the business process for every level the management at Esso have maintained the overall vision and goal of the company.

TQM

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a new tool used by management in order to improve the quality of products services and processes with in the company in order to be more effecient and productive. It is being used by many companeis as tool to provide competitive advantage amongst competitors.

TQM has four main stages which are Plan, Do, Check and Act which is also reffered to PDCA cycle. It starts with planning which is the first and one of the most important part of TQM where the problem area is being identified and relavent information is being gathered. The next stage is do where a solution is being implemented in order to solve the problem, the next stage is Check where special tools and strategies are developed in order to tack the performance of solution that was being implemented in the early stage. The last stage is act where changes are being made if probelm still continues.

(http://searchcio.techtarget.com)

Total Quality Management at Esso

The management at Esso knows the importance of TQM very well in such a competitive world. To achieve this, the management at Esso has taken few steps at each level of the organisation like,

Defining the vision of the company

Setting targets

Developing business processes

Compatible staff

Training

Performance reviews

At operation level i.e. at store level in order to give customers a quality service and to provide customer satisfaction the staff is given proper training for how to operate and run a store they are provided with all product knowledge so as to help customers with their queries. The products and services offered to the customers are well checked for quality purposes before displaying it at any store. (http://www.exxonmobil.co.uk)

Flexibility

Flexibility is one of the most important factor for any business but one thing should be kept in mind that in order to make the processes of a compnay flexible changes should be made in such a way that it becomes a part of the overall strategy. The business should be flexible enough to so that the changes could be made when the need arises and order to do so there should be a margin for flexibility at every level of the company. As flexibility mainly depends in the processes and systems of the business operation.

For any business it is important to have systems and operations which are technologically fast and easy to make changes in order to respond to the changing environment and changing needs of customers.

The basic concept of flexibility in business means that how fast can a business respond to the changing enviroment and needs of customers. As environment keeps on changes over time it is important to have business process which is flexible enough to make changes when required, as time as always uncertain which shows the importance of a business being flexible.

(http://marketingdeviant.com)

Flexible Workplace at Esso

They committed a best choice of employer of thier highly qualified employees and during recurits they achieving and maintaining the highest levels of workplace produstivity. Flexibility program at esso are essential part of commitment as they help employees. ExxonMobil knows the importance of the workforce in achieving the overall goal of the company that is why the management of the company keeps in mind the need and values of the diversied workforce, which is highly qulified and skilled. In order to keep the employees motivated and to make them more effective and efficient the management always has always tried to keep the wokplace as flexible as possible.

Attract and keep the most qualified and talented people.

Address the several individual needs and expectations of employees and recruits.

Maximize produce the goods.

Its operations all over the world, each country has a unique flexibility programe due to culture, legal reqrirements and infrastructure. Example of flexibility at workplace and employee program are listed below:

Flexible work arrangements

There are several customised programs developed at ExxonMobil keeping in mind the needs, desires and expectations of the work force. Some of the key point to make the enviroment flexible is as follows

Work place which is adabtable

Work targets on weekly basis

Worker categories as part-time, full-time and Regular

Working hours which can by adjusted accroding to workers needs and suitability

Personal Time

Time off and paid holidays are given to all employees. Time off can taken because of the following main reasons

Immediate death in close family

Emergencies

Child birth or adoption of child

Realocation which is company initiated

Cummunit service activities which are being sponsored by the company

Skill leaves

Other personanal needs

Leaves of absence

which includes leaves for personnal health or care issues related to any dependant, which also includes military services and other personal needs

Other programs

Other programs inculde

Discounts on products

Health program

Fitness program

Advance holidays and Vacations

Financial Counseling

Membership for technical scientific and professional societies

Assistance with adoption

Refund program related to education

Reallocation program related to spous

Program related to matching gifts

Service awards

Business Process Outsourcing

BPO is a form of outsourcing which is related to information technology. In this process a third party is hired to provide services related to information technology such as software application development management and software application maintenance, operations related to data centre, testing and quality assurance related to IT.

ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil started to outsource is paytroll function which then included to Employee benefits management. ExxonMobil now have outsourced its whole IT functions.

(www.sourcingmag.com/content/what_is_bpo.asp)

Outsourcing at esso

CMG plc, the European information technology services company recently floated on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges, signed an outsourcing agreement with Esso UK, worth almost £15 million over its five-year term. Under the agreement, CMG has started to carry out the overall project management of Esso’s IT programme in the UK over the five years. CMG will be responsible for selecting other suppliers to provide complimentary or additional skills as necessary, and for ensuring that projects will be delivered on time and on budget.( www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=15005)