Oxfam Operational Management

The purpose of this assignment is to apply the main theories within trading trading acts worry to summaries and critic every last(predicate)y evaluate the main issues facing Sofas within the hobby strategic and working(a) contexts l. Globalization and International centering II. Environmental management Ill Social responsibility lb. Technology v. Knowledge Management skeletal frame 1 The trading trading trading executions Strategy and Management model (Slack, N. , Chambers, S. , Johnston, R. , 2007) 1 Sofas stage setting Information The name Sofas comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942 during flake dry land War.Sofas International was formed in 1995 by a convocation of independent non-governmental organizations. Sofas is an independent organization affiliated to Sofas International, a global fusion of 14 independent Sofas (www. Spam. Org). In 2010 Sofas was working in 99 countries. Sofas workings directly with communities to f ind and influence solutions to s brooktiness and injustice (www. Sofas. Org). Sofas ar working on development programs, emergency work and research. In 1948 Sofas undefend fitting its graduation charity shop. Sofas current network of more than 830 charity shops atomic number 18 bombardment by rough 22000 volunteers and are a key source of income.Orders cigarette be made by mail or over the Internet. Sofas teamed up with Yahoo (Carroll, 2010) Sofas has an annual expenditure of US $700 million and employs around 1300 stave, of whom around 700 are establish in Oxford, I-J, ND the others, together with about 1 500 loc every last(predicate)y recruited staff, work overseas. Sofas is outmatch cognise for its work in emergency situations providing humane aid where it is gather uped. even practically of Sofas work continues afterward the initial reception. Sofas Strategic plan 2007/10 chthoniclines five main objectives (www. Sofas. Erg) The remedy to a sustainable do it lihood The remediate to basic social operate The right to life and security The right to be heard The right to equity (gender and diversity) The above describes Sofas mission statement A world without poverty and equal human rights for alone muckle. The Although all operations are similar, they all transform input resources into output products and operates, they do differ (Slack, 2007). The quadruplet Vs. Volume, Variety, Variation and Visibility, accommodate implications for the exist of product, or in case of Sofas service, to its beneficiaries.As Sofas is a non lolly organization and the interest is erect improvement of lives and fast response to raw(a) and political fortuitys in Third World Countries, it could be verbalise that their success could be measured in how guideably tenet hold Ana Involvement rennets on loveliness AT tense teen are knelling o. The Volume for Sofas is measured by the improvement of living conditions, by how legion(predicate) people ha ve an access to clear water or how numerous lives are saved after a pictorial disaster. Sofas is daedal in more bring ups thusly the Variety should be seen as high.yet due to the temperament of the work Sofas does and the backup man they provide, the variety demands high level of tractability from Sofas, its employees and volunteers. In the case of a charity the Variation should be relatively low. And umpteen charity organizations are concentrating on to one issue only. However Sofas is known for heir involvement in numerous projects and can offer help in divers(a) situations, innate disasters, political rows in countries of the third world, where some(prenominal) people are organism denied a decent living.As well as providing safe water projects around the world, conditioning schools and many others. Sofas Variation is then higher than many other charities plainly still would non be consider high as in a profit organization. callable to the nature of raising m oney for their operations via their shops, appeals and various projects, the Visibility of Sofas and its people is high. The argument could be hat Sofas has more back office staff than front office and therefore the visibility is non as high. However such an argument can be dismissed based on the overall focus on Sofas.The contact with people is necessary for the nature of the business. Sofas 4 Vs. summarizes in Figure 2. pick Figure 2 The 4 vs module in relation to Sofas operations trading operations act objectives There are five basic performance objectives which apply to all type of organizations (Slack, 2007). These objectives specifically relates to a basic tasks of satisfying customer requirements. any organization has stakeholders who have a high interest in its operations. As per Slack Sofas stakeholder groups can overlap.Sofas volunteers who work in charity shops could also be employees as well as customers. Therefore a not for profit organizations who are influenced by more complex concomitantors which they can not take up such as natural disasters, has to even more so go under its operations role, position and operation strategic objectives to show their stakeholders how they perform. The five objectives are quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. Sofas aims to deliver high quality in each situation and project they are winding in.The quality s measured by the ecstasy of customers however in Sofas case the satisfaction is not going to be reflected the same way as satisfaction with product or service of companies who produce these for profit. Sofas customers are in many cases exceedingly satisfied with a bare minimum of life standards and the help they receive. However quality murmur a De considered Trot ten way AT Improvements AT humans lives and livelihoods and its sustainability. recreate is roughlything that is of a very high vastness for Sofas. To respond fast to natural and other disasters is number one priority.The s peed of the response could mean the discrimination between life and death. However improvement of womens rights and Sofas project of bringing tuition to all is anything but a speedy as the importance is to perk up the castrates first to touch on sure they are going to be permanent improvements to their lives. For Sofas stakeholders dependability is a very in-chief(postnominal) factor. For the people who receiving the help and support it is important to know that the support pull up stakes be there and it is not Just a promise. For the volunteers and people who donated it is important to see that changes are being made and support is being given.Flexibility is the highest priority. Sofas is not only involved in various projects around the world but also motives to be able to change their plans and actions to respond fast to many situations such as political changes within the country where they providing their support. Or in the case of natural disaster, Sofas needs to be r eady to respond fast, to provide basic supplies for humanitarian support. Their employees and volunteers need to be pliable to react quickly to safe lives and livelihood. Operations have to change at suddenly notice.Even the charity shops which are broadly stable operations have to be flexible and sometimes change their operations to respond to situation in the world. In the case of natural disasters the nature of donations needs to change, not only cash donations are mandatory but food, clothes or blankets. Cost is a very challenging measurement for a charity organization. It is important to keep its costs low-spirited to achieve more with the money raised however in many situations it is not about keeping the cost low but about saving lives, providing fast response and help when its needed and this can snub cost up.With natural disaster it is not important the amount invested in to the help but the help that is provided. When people loose everything even a little amount of h elp and support is super appreciated and therefore the cost is not of a high importance. Figure 3 Sofas diametric Diagram The role of operations Operations management can make or break any business (Slack, 2007). Hayes and Wheelwrights four stages of operations contribution evaluate the role and contribution of the operations function (Slack, 2007). Sofas operations are at stage 4.Sofas does compete with other charities for donations and volunteers. However, where other charities religious offering food and money, Sofas offers lives stock, seeds, smelter, coeducation anon T s well as money winner teen are name (www. Sofas. Org). Sofas gets involved in peoples live for longer to assure long term improvements in their livelihoods. Figure 4 The four stage model of operations contribution. Operations Strategy Operations system concerns the pattern of strategic decisions and actions which set the role, objectives and activities of the operations (Slack, 2007).Sofas operation strategy is to reduce and eliminate the causes of poverty and suffering (www. Sofas. Org). As an objective the Sofas 5 Aims are used to build the operations strategy, the top down perspectives. The nookie up perspective is reflected in improvement for the next project Sofas gets involved as the knowledge management aspects will affect how the next operation is managed. Market requirements are reflected in the numbers of people Sofas has helped to rebuild their lives. However for a not for profit organization the strategy is more complex and is alter by The Operations Challenge.Figure 5 The four perspectives on operations strategy The Operations Challenge Although operations management is seen by some as being concerned largely with the routine aspects of business, it is in fact at the very forefront of almost all equines challenges (Slack, 2007). There are many changes that the operations management needs to understand, be concerned with and come up to. The challenges and changes in the world can be seen as a domineering change which helps with Sofas 5 Aims detailed in section 1. 1 and in appendix 1 .These are highly affected by many challenges and operations managers should be familiar with Sofas Aims and developments to be able to apply get strategies. 1 Globalization With opening of new internationalist market were opened many new opportunities for operations managers to develop supplier relationships (Slack, 2007). Important for Sofas as the need to have a fast and affordable access to supplies all around the world, to be able to respond fast is high on their operations strategies. The Ethical globalization affects Sofas political affluence and it works well with ethical approaches.Acknowledging shared responsibilities for addressing global challenges and affirming that our common humanity does not cede at national borders (Slack, 2 Corporate Social responsibility In a modern business there is more and more press on to the general well-being of society. E conomic development on a global level cannot be separated from questions of social Justice and from ecological stability (Discarding, cited in Walleye, 2008). It is a nature of Sofas business to assure that all humans are being treated with respect and as equals.As per Sofas, cryptograph should compromise on their human rights. Sofas provides assistance and protection to ordinary men, women and children caught up in conflict or natural disasters (www. Sofas. Org). It is Sofas believe that all people have social, economic, political and civil rights as well as rights under humanitarian law (www. Sofas. Org). Not only Sofas provides provisions of eater, sanitation and hygienics promotion they also lobby governments and the international community to live up to their responsibilities to protect civilians (www. Sofas. Org).However it needs to be considered that what might be unremarkable in one country ethical framework could be regarded as highly dubious in anothers (Slack, 2007). 3 Environmental Responsibility Environmental Responsibility is getting on to an agenda of any organization. Sofas is highly involved in campaigning for Climate Change. During 2010 over 1. 5 million people in 35 countries attended Climate Hearings organizes by Sofas and its ratters (www. Sofas. Org). These are organizes by Sofas to verbalise directly to global constitution environments the reality of Global warming and its set up on to those living in poverty.Sofas is committed to reduce their carbon token by setting and delivering yearly targets (www. Sofas. Org). 4 Technology Technology has concern of some sort in almost every area of operations management (Slack, 2007). Internet has the biggest impaction on how the business operates. Sofas improved their network with their supporters due to internet and other digital communications (www. Sofas. Org). This has resulted in to step-up in online donations to over E. Mm in 2010. Sofas therefore invests more of their resources in to improvement of their website.Technology is also changing the ways Sofas International works. Introduction of single(a) Management Structure is a big step which wouldnt be potential without constant changes in technology. Supply network is also more candid and faster due to new technologies. Technology has a huge impact on to Sofas operations and the speed they can reach people in need. 5 Knowledge Management Knowledge is rich, interpretative and often value-laden. In very complex operations recesses, It may De almost Impossible to make ten totality AT Knowledge concerning processes fully and entirely graphic (Slack, 2007).Sofas operations the explicit knowledge is not possible. Sofas knowledge management is build over time and is a result of Sofas experience in various projects and responses to different situations. Sofas therefore employs the Tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge may be observed and accumulated over time (Slack, 2007). Sofas strategies are changing based on their understanding of how the world is changing for poor people and what the best response to it would be (www. Sofas. Erg). Sofas needs to understand these changes and react with agility and military posture to maximize their impact on to poor people.By improving knowledge management Sofas improves disaster preparedness and response the main purpose of their business. Being an international organization that responds to human needs anywhere in the world it is highly important for Sofas to have a local knowledge. Supplies, its availability and access to it, are a need for Sofas and the knowledge of local suppliers is strategically important. Sofas is building team of trainers and experts to implement their new system around the oral (www. Sofas. Org).Security of their aid workers a knowledge of political situations and predictions in many parts of Third World countries is necessity. Supply Network Every operation is a part of a larger and interconnected network of other operations. Supp ly network will include suppliers and customers (Slack, 2007). As Sofas works all around the world and has to be able to respond fast to a natural disaster it has to consider many ways of hand over. Design decisions of Sofas supply network are important agenda for its operations and supply managers. Sofas supply planning is very unpredictable.They have a network of suppliers they working with to make sure they are able to react fast to any natural disaster. However to work with the affected community in a longer term they need to be able to find new suppliers in a very short time period who are closer to the area of disaster and can supply the needs of the situation. Attachment 1 states Sofas supply policy in detail. In the policy Sofas is not only concentrating on to its supply and demands but also concentrate on to the operations challenges as described in section 4 of this assignment.The nature of Sofas work means inventory problems. It is not cost efficient to keep a large amou nt of supply on hold in case of an emergency. Keeping likewise much could resolve in high cost related to storage. Keeping too little could mean that when there is a natural disaster and speedy response is needed, there is not enough of basic supplies such as water, food and blankets. In 2009/10 Sofas has rolled out new software product tool knows as Hellos (www. Sofas. Org) to help with delivering the right supplies, in the appropriate amount, at the best cost, on time to the people who need it the most.It will provide a real time overview of what Sofas has, where it is and owe efficiently it can be moved to where it is needed. Conclusions It can De concluded Tanat even tone oxtail Is a not Tort pronto organization teen 00 understand the importance of operational management and strategies and acting upon it. Sofas sets clear strategies and reviews them every year. It acts upon the need of updating their operation strategies. The core business of Sofas operations is help to people who are in a need of help and support. Its 5 aims are stated and in their Annual report Sofas clearly states percentage of charitable expenditure.However looking almost on everything that Sofas was involved in over the 2010 eroded, it is clear that the greater the need the faster the response and the less important the money involved in the initial response are. Sofas has set projects over the period of time and with regards to these it is gentle to apply operational strategies and management. It is when a natural or political disaster happen that Sofas operations change in priority. Sofas has to be highly flexible to be able to fulfill its promises to all its stakeholders. The five performance objectives and its importance are changing. They are affected by outside forces.There is a need of constantly improving its services and overview its operations strategies to avoid failure in delivering its promise. Sofas works in constantly changing world therefore the operations within So fas are not only important to keep its cost down but are important for the delivery and action of Sofas catchword together we will end poverty. Recommendations Sofas has dedicated supply policy. However their policy does not specify how Sofas improves on smoothness of their supply and costs involved with it. In 2009 Sofas has introduced a system that unites all its international organizations.