Assignment: Operations Management

Length: 5 pages.

Your Furniture Store is a 30-year old furniture manufacturing company producing medium-density fiberboard (wood composite) dining room, living room, and bedroom furniture in high volume at low cost for wholesale customers. The organization has a competitive advantage by providing high volumes at low cost while maintaining a quality product backed by excellent service. In the last 2 years, the company has slipped from #1 in its market down to #2 due to increasing customer complaints about the availability of its products (resulting in back-orders) and frustrations with the customer service provided by the company`s call center. As a result, the company`s new chief executive officer (CEO) has directed the chief operating officer (COO) and her operations management team to do the following:

Devise an operations management strategy to align with the company`s competitive advantage strategy, as well as utilize some, or all of the operations functions (e.g., marketing and sales, finance, and operations), to improve the customer`s experience relative to production and service

Given the proposed operations management strategy, differentiate how the organization`s production operation and its service operation contribute to the company`s competitive advantage. Address the following:

Question A. Introduce the reader to how organization and operation strategies align to drive competitive advantage. Introduce the reader to the operations functions (marketing and sales, finance, and operations) and how they collaborate to manage a business operation.

Question B. Devise an operations strategy that aligns with the company`s current competitive advantage strategy.

Question C. Examine how the proposed operations strategy enables the company to improve its competitive advantage, including explaining to the CEO how the strategy utilizes operations functions (marketing and sales, finance, and operations) to achieve competitive advantage.

Question D. Given the proposed operations management strategy, differentiate for the CEO how the organization`s production operation and its service operation contribute to the company`s competitive advantage.

Question E. The conclusion should summarize key points from the research methods and sampling analysis discussed above.