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My biggest takeaway during this module has had to be learning about the different factors that led to most people leaving their jobs. One of the major reasons was the COVID-19 pandemic, but other factors included wages, increasing costs of living, and hostile work environments. You would think because COVID caused so many drastic changes in the economy that people would continue working, but due to fear of catching COVID and the pay not being worth the risk, lots of people left work and converted to something from home or became their own boss and started a business.

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The TRUTH of The Great Resignation | Simon Sinek

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While reading this section of my learning journey, I really started to understand how important it is for a business to have ethics and codes of conduct, or in other words, morals. Without them, I feel it creates a negative first impression to potential customers. Having codes as such in place shows, in a way a business having respect for itself, its employees, and its customers.

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Business Ethics  Corporate Social Responsibility

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Global vision is a very significant aspect to have in the business world, to have it means to be up to date with possible business opportunities and advancements. With global vision, comes global trade, an extremely profitable opportunity.

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Global Trade & Logistics - What is Global Trade?

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There are several different forms of business ownership types available, but my favorite and the most appealing to me if a sole proprietorship. To start a sole proprietorship is probably the simplest and most inexpensive way to go, which makes it perfect for someone who's just starting out or fairly new, such as myself. Other forms of business ownerships are a partnership, corporation, LLC, franchise, etc.

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BASIC FORMS OF OWNERSHIP | BASICS OF BUSINESS

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This section was probably my favorite part of my learning journey. I say this because my reasons for taking this class is to gain knowledge and experience around starting a small business. The small business I'm excited about is vending machines. I want to invest into a vending machine containing beauty products such as, eyelash strips, press on nails, and other accessories. My hope is to place the machine in high trafficked areas, like airports and train stations.

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How to Start a Vending Machine Business in 2023 (step by step)

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Realizing how much responsibility a manager takes on and the many hats they wear in order to maintain a successful business really overwhelmed me. Managers hold many roles, most importantly they supervise the actions of most if not all of the employees. These roles are categorized as interpersonal, informational, and decisional.

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This section helped me to understand the importance of job descriptions as well as the linked video. The description of a job is the most important part of a job seekers, search process. A job description tells a potential employee what is required of them in order to be hired and what is required of them as an employee. I believe it's the responsibility of human resources to accurately ensure that a job posting is as pristine as possible.

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In my opinion, operations management is, in a way, a more strategic version of accounting. Equally important to a businesses' overall progress and success. This is one part of being a business owner that intimidates me. I feel that being an operations manager is too overwhelming for one person to take on by themselves and is a position I would acquire assistance in personally.

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What Is Operations Management (OM)?

Operations management (OM) is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. It is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization.

Operations management teams attempt to balance costs with revenue to achieve the highest net operating profit possible.

Key Takeaways

Understanding Operations Management (OM)

Operations management involves utilizing resources from staff, materials, equipment, and technology. Operations managers acquire, develop, and deliver goods to clients based on client needs and the abilities of the company.

Operations management handles various strategic issues, including determining the size of manufacturing plants and project management methods and implementing the structure of information technology networks. Other operational issues include the management of inventory levels, including work-in-process levels and raw materials acquisition, quality control, materials handling, and maintenance policies.

Operations management entails studying the use of raw materials and ensuring that minimal waste occurs. Operations managers use numerous formulas, such as the economic order quantity formula, to determine when and how large an inventory order to process and how much inventory to hold on hand.

Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM)

A critical function of operations management relates to the management of inventory through the supply chain. This process is known as operations and supply chain management (OSCM). To be an effective operations management professional, one must be able to understand the processes that are essential to what a company does and get them to flow and work together seamlessly. The coordination involved in setting up business processes in an efficient way requires a solid understanding of logistics.

An operations management professional understands local and global trends, customer demand, and available resources for production. Operations management approaches the acquisition of materials and the use of labor in a timely, cost-effective manner to deliver customer expectations. Inventory levels are monitored to ensure that excessive quantities are on hand. Operations management is responsible for finding vendors that supply the appropriate goods at reasonable prices and have the ability to deliver the product when needed.

Another large facet of operations management involves the delivery of goods to customers. This includes ensuring that products are delivered within the agreed time commitment. Operations management also typically follows up with customers to ensure that the products meet quality and functionality needs. Finally, operations management takes the feedback received and distributes the relevant information to each department to use in process improvement.

What Operations Managers Do

Operations managers are involved in coordinating and developing new processes while reevaluating current structures. Organization and productivity are two key drivers of being an operations manager, and the work often requires versatility and innovation. As part of their daily responsibilities, operations managers must possess a variety of skill sets, including:

Technical expertise in areas such as production automation, data entry, budget tracking, and design.

Organizational ability and attention to detail to include keeping track of project files, employee reports, budgets, schedules, and other details related to company processes.

Motivational prowess in the form of strong leadership skills that provide the expertise to motivate others, inspire ideas, and foster a supportive and diverse team.

Analytical aptitude, including skill in risk analysis and mitigation when initiating new projects. Operations managers also must analyze processes to identify challenges and offer solutions in the event that negative situations develop.

Decision-making proficiency, especially under stress when there is very little time to assess all factors.

Ability to maintain quality standards, including as they relate to raw materials, machinery, manufacturing procedures, packaging, delivery processes, and the finished product.

A master of business administration (MBA) degree in operations management can provide global perspective on industry trends and an awareness of financial regulations and political uncertainties that can affect an organization. It also provides a solid grasp of the inherent complexities and the tools needed to respond well to change.

What is the purpose of operations management (OM)?

Operations management (OM) is concerned with controlling the production process and business operations in the most efficient manner possible. OM professionals attempt to balance operating costs with revenue to maximize net operating profit.

What are some systems of operations management?

Modern operations management revolves around four theories:

Business process redesign (BPR), which is focused on analyzing and designing workflow and business processes within a company. The goal of BPR is to help companies dramatically restructure the organization by designing the business process from the ground up.

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems, designed to incorporate accelerated change in structure, hardware, and software components. This allows systems to adjust rapidly to the capacity to which they can continue production and how efficiently they function in response to market or intrinsic system changes.

Six Sigma, an approach that focuses on quality. The word "six" references the control limits, which are placed at six standard deviations from the normal distribution mean. Tools used within the Six Sigma process include trending charts, potential defect calculations, and other ratios.

Lean manufacturing, which is the systematic elimination of waste within the manufacturing process. This theory sees resource use for any reason other than value creation for customers as wasteful and seeks to eliminate wasteful resource expenditures as much as possible.

What is an example of operations management?

Operations management is prevalent in the healthcare sector. The current healthcare system overuses expensive, technological, and emergency-based treatment. High costs from care often remain uncompensated due to uninsured patients. A prevalence of services in expensive settings creates a burden on taxpayers, health insurance holders, and healthcare institutions.

The Bottom Line

In simple terms, operations management (OM) is the process of prioritizing and employing business practices designed to achieve maximum efficiency as a means to achieve maximum profitability. Within the process, operations managers utilize organization and productivity to achieve their primary goals.

Balancing the efficient use of resources, including staff, materials, equipment, and technology, is key to a successful OM process and, by extension, to the success of the company.

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Operations Management: Understanding and Using It

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Operations management (OM) is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization.

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This section has helped me to significantly reevaluate my spending and shopping habits, and how they are triggered. But has also informed me on how to market smartly in order to increase sales and revenue. After doing a little more research on different types of marketing strategies that attract customers such as myself, I found that this attached clip sums everything up a lot more in depth and in a short amount of time. I feel that this way of marketing is what always gets me to purchase something, social media.

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A Complete Marketing Strategy In 3 Minutes

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This section made me realize a little bit more how online shopping can be useful. Although, I'm more of an in-store shopping kind of person. Online shopping can be very useful to those who don't have transportation or those who aren't able to leave their homes. This form of shopping became a commodity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were told not to leave our homes. A commodity that lives on today, and individuals now make a living on, by delivering customers' orders that is.

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The future of shopping: what's in store?

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Accounting and financial information is a crucial part of owning and managing a business. I feel that when this information is broken down into sections it becomes a bit more understandable but can still be confusing. It is for me. Watching this short clip helped me understand a bit more. But I still stand on that numbers and I share a love-hate relationship and always will. Maybe once I take an accounting class I'll feel differently, but until now...

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This section gave me a chance to really evaluate myself and how I can better apply myself to be successful in my career/side career in business. My biggest weakness is not making better and productive use of my time, although I really try. I believe a lot of what the above video said about how the use of our time will ultimately affect our future and attempt to use my time a lot more wisely by doing more research on my vending machine idea and implement my research into a business plan and follow it accordingly.

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Best Short Motivational Speech Video - 24 HOURS - 1-Minute Motivation #2