Operational Strategies That Management May Use to Respond to Influences on Operations

Chase, R.B., Jacobs, F. R., & Aquilano, N.J. (2006) Operations management for competitive advantage (11th ed). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin

This report is on Qantas which is one of the largest airline companies of Australia. It is operating in more than48countries of the world. Qantas is admired by people for its safety, low fare, good and friendly crew. Qantas is providing quality service to its customers. Qantas is facing a few problems mainly due to its high cost and strong competition in the international market. The management of Qantas needs to work according to the international standards to cope up with the present day customer needs and requirements.

Management practices at Qantas are more flexible and adapted to suit challenges in society such as the reaction to terrorism, the introduction of viral disease and the ever changing market and customer requirements.

On October 22nd, 2001, the Industrial dispute between QANTAS and its employees was initiated with the offering of a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. This proposed an 18-month wage freeze for employees plus a sliding scale profit share scheme. Ten out of twelve unions under QANTAS accepted the terms of the agreement, barring the unions of manufacturing employees (AWU and AMWU). They were holding out for a 4-6% pay rise. On the 8th May 2002, some ten months later, the dispute was resolved when QANTAS agreed to an across the board 6% pay increase. This essay provides an in-depth analysis into the dispute, including causes, the resolution process, the role of stakeholders, and costs and benefits for all concerned.

The weakness of Qantas lies in the management and their lack of investment in their employees. The management weakness can be seen in many of the financial and operational issues. Qantas faces several Industrial disputes which the company’s competitors do not experience. These issues affect the interior structure and the external opportunities to gain new customers. This also makes this their biggest

Qantas is Australia’s largest domestic and international airline. Although Qantas is primarily a passenger airline, air freight is also an integral part of its core business. Other Qantas operations include catering, tourism and E-commerce devoted to transport and travel. In order to have an effective business and operations process, a company, like Qantas must be aware of the influences that can affect it. By being aware of the influences it enables the business to make decision and choices that can get the most out of each influence, by doing this it can assist the business in its endeavours for success.

It is also their vision ‘to be a great airline that champion’s the Spirit of Australia’ (Qantas.com). Since it is their vision to demonstrate the Australian Spirit to the public, it is vital that they start incorporating practices that reflect this conduct within the

These main business objectives help the airline to focus on deliver quality services of the customers. Qantas main business is passengers transports and it is the world’s second oldest airlines. Qantas group operates approx 5600 flights in a weak in 59 cities of regional areas. Internationally, the group operates around 970 flights (Qantas-630 and Jetstar-340) in 44 counties 182 destinations. Moreover, through operations the group focused on five key elements that are right aircraft or right

By targeting the four pillars of the global gateways the Qantas International should be turned around. PR efforts should be made to improve the experience of the customers, the Airways Group should grow along with the growth of Asia and financial management should be carried out in a disciplined manner.

The boards of directors are implicating new strategies to help Qantas renew in the post maturity stage. These strategies are:

Operations Management in an organisation is repsonsible for managing and in making decisions concerning the activities that convert inputs into outputs , that is goods and services. This covers both short term actvities as well as longer term activities to meet strategic goals. Inputs can be the raw materaials need to manufacture goods such as furniture or the computers needed to create a service like online shopping site. Operation management’s role is to make decisions to improve how operation activities function, for example, to improve the final quality of the output or to change production methods to be more efficient in terms of cost and in time.

Operations management is essential for the survival and success of any organization. According to Heizer & Render (2011), operations management (OM) is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. Operations managers today contend with competition, globalization, inflation, consumer demand, and consistent change in technology. Managers must focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes such as cost, dependability, distribution, flexibility, and speed. The intent of this paper is to discuss the processes and operations management of the Kroger Company.

The basic requirements for operation managements is understanding of the customers’ needs and satisfied them, and use fewer resources to maximise the efficiency and effective of the company’s productivity. Therefore two typical Australia companies have been shown blew. One is the largest Australian supermarket, Woolworths Limited, and another one is the largest airline company in Australia, Qantas Limited.

Qantas’ vision is driven by a business strategy focused on five key elements; (1) safety is our first priority; (2) right aircraft, right routes; (3) customer service excellence; (4) operational efficiency and (5) two strong complementary brands Qantas and Jetstar as the best in their respective class. Qantas has a hierarchal structure comprising of three divisions; Commercial, Customer and Marketing and Operations (Qantas, 2010a).

This analysis delves into the company’s operation management principles to interpret its successful strategies and offer future recommendations.