Innovation in Operations Management Throughout Thesis

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" The process feature revolves around "the general business process and practices that enable functional groups to operate effectively and collaborate toward a common goal - as well as a robust set of innovation methodologies and tools." Finally, the structure component has refers to the "organizational structures and supporting technologies that enable collaboration across functional lines" (Innovation Point, 2004). Otherwise put, the ophthalmologic clinic has to focus on implementing a culture, a process and a structure in support of innovation.

3.5 Aligning the Organization with the Market

Another crucial issue in ensuring sustained organizational success is that of aligning the company to the market. This basically means that the company must delegate marketing specialists to analyse the market in order to identify new demands, requirements, needs and trends. In other words, the alignment to the market must be achieved on two grounds: customer demands and strategic approaches implemented by the competitors in the ophthalmologic industry.

3.6 Linking Operations and Strategy

The actual operations conducted within the ophthalmologic clinic sometimes vary from those promoted by the overall strategy. For instance, however the strategy promotes high quality of the services delivered, the management desires to reduce costs and the medical personnel is understaffed. As a result then, the pressure is increased and the quality is decreased at times.

4: Assessment Tools and Backbones for Change

4.1 Opportunities and Threats

The main opportunity presented to the ophthalmologic industry is given by the multitude of technological advancements that can be integrated. Then, a social opportunity is that more and more individuals work in front of the computer, needing as such special eye protection products. In terms of threats, the most eloquent one is the fierce competition and the increasing consumer demands. Technology can be looked at from a dual standpoint, meaning that the innovations can occur rapidly and their replacement could generate additional expenditures for the ophthalmologic clinic.

4.2 Strengths and Weaknesses

The internal strengths of the ophthalmologic practice have been previously identified in the form of the core competencies, and they basically refer to highly capable and dedicated staff members, easy access to resources (capital, labor force and technologies), a vast product and service offering and a vast expertise in the ophthalmologic industry. Relative to their internal weaknesses, one could point out the understaffed medical personnel and the current usage of outdated technologies.

4.3 Strategies for Change

The clinic should focus on the following strategies:

research the market to identify new requirements relative to both customers, patients and competitors allocate extensive budgets to the R&D and marketing departments in order to ensure product development and differentiation focus more on employees' needs and resolve the understaffing issues integrate the latest technological advancements; these would require additional efforts but would retrieve long-term benefits, materialized in an increased operational and cost efficiency, culminating with higher profits

4.4 Project Management

The medical staff is seldom focused on projects; therefore, project management is most common within the R&D and the marketing departments. The innovative project leader within the ophthalmologic clinic will have to teach his subordinates how to think outside the box, how to take risks and how be creative and confident about their decisions. Innovative project management is based on the idea that the focus is on the organization as a whole and on the increased value to stakeholders. Foremost, it also emphasizes on transformation and change (Kotelnikov, 2008).

5: Teams

5.1 Teams (General Comments)

Organizations often use teams as internal structures. Within teams, the employees have the ability to learn from one another and improve their knowledge and performances. All this is useful for the organization as it creates a core competency. Teams are often homogenous constructions (internally) and highly different from one another. The teams within the ophthalmologic practice are driven by the same goal and share similar interests and aptitudes. They also play a significant part in enhancing employee morale and creating a pleasant, yet competitive work environment.

5.2 Virtuoso Teams

The ophthalmologic clinic does not currently possess a virtuoso team, but they could construct one to deal with the most important tasks. Virtuoso teams are different from the common teams as they are formed solely from experts and elites in their field of expertise. The characteristics of these teams include a frenetic rhythm of work, a discernible energy, constant fights and disagreements, high levels of collaboration and creativity, an understanding of the customer in terms of highly sophisticated and demanding and finally, a uniqueness of ambitions, spirits and results (Fischer and Boynton, 2005).

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5.3 Dispersed or Virtual Teams

The innovations in communications and telecommunications have led to mutations in the way teams are being constructed. The direct implication of this contemporaneous feature was the formation of virtual teams. This basically means that employees do not physically come to work, but they can choose to work on a remote location and communicate with other team members or the employer through various means, such as the internet, telephones or teleconferences. The ophthalmologic center has used virtual teams but retrieved limited benefits. They accordingly concluded that the type of operations they run cannot be handled remotely.

5.4 Multicultural Issues within Teams

However teams are formed from individuals sharing similar goals, they are often divided by various individual differences. An example of these differences would reside in the cultural background of each employee. However the clinic promotes cultural equality, there still are some employees who frown upon minorities and different ethnicities. Any discriminatory practices or inappropriate behavior should be severely sanctioned.

6: Large Scale Change

6.1 Reengineering

The ophthalmologic clinic has yet to implement a reengineering process. This would be based on an organizational restructuring that would imply that a process is handled by a single team, rather than more departments.

6.2 ERP

Enterprise resource planning is paid increased attention by the management at the ophthalmologic clinic. Operations are clearly analyzed at all organizational levels including human resource, management, operations, finance or marketing. A specification that must be made however refers to the fact that the ERP is only limitedly focused on customer and patient satisfaction. As a consequence of this then, the practice should structure all resources in accordance with the needs of its patients and clients.

6.3 Supply Chain Management

The concept of supply chain management is highly similar to that of ERP, in the meaning that it is also focused on managing the resources and operations at all organizational levels. Just like in the case of ERP, the ophthalmologic clinic places increased emphasis on the proper circulation of the supplies, but they fail to address the matter in terms of customer satisfaction. Consequently, they should manage the supply chain in a manner that adds more value to clients and patients.

6.4 How Companies Grow

The recent changes in the micro and macro environments have opened up new doors for corporate expansion. Throughout the past few years, the ophthalmologic practice has opened two new subsidies nationwide. As a proposition for further growth, they should consider expanding their operations internationally.

6.5 Globalization

Globalization is a primary force generating organizational expansion. Aside from growth however, globalization is also characterized by various other features. In the case of the ophthalmologic clinic, which has yet to expand globally, the force meant an increased access to cheaper supplies and also cheaper technologies from abroad.

6.6 Knowledge Management

The organizational culture at the ophthalmologic practice emphasizes on continually striving to gain more knowledge in order to increase performances. The practical implementation of the concept on the other hand is quite poor and should be resolved through training programs.

7: Quality, Past and Present, and its Relationship to Incremental Improvement

7.1 Key Performance Indicators and the Balanced Scorecard

These indicated that the customers and patients are rather dissatisfied with the nature of the services. In terms of products offered however, they are highly satisfied. The findings were also sustained by the BSC, which revealed that sometimes the clinic fails to align its individual operations with its overall goals.

7.2 Quality Retrospective

As previously mentioned, the clients and patients at the ophthalmologic clinic declare to be satisfied with the quality of the products, but dissatisfied at times with the quality of the services delivered.

7.3 Six Sigma

The six sigma analysis has been conducted within the organization and has supported the findings related to quality that have been forwarded above. The organization should pay less attention to reducing costs at the expense of quality.

7.4 Putting it All Together

Ultimately, the ophthalmologic clinic needs to make the most of their core competencies. They possess sufficient resources but fail at properly using them. They should transform the resources and the commitment of their employees into high quality products and services that satisfy a wide array of clients.

7.5 Competition Based on Analytics

Analytics is probably the ultimate argument in support of an innovative operations management. It teaches leaders and employees….....

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