Operational Excellence and Competitive Advantage
Welcome to the course. Please introduce yourself to your classmates and professor.
- What are the top 2 operational challenges in your industry?
- What differentiates the most competitive organizations from the laggards in your industry?
- What do you hope to get out of this course as it relates to operations management in your workplace?
This week only, post your initial response by Friday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.
1st person to respond to
Marylin
Good afternoon, Professor and class –
- What are the top 2 operational challenges in your industry?
I am in the government contracting field and my biggest challenges as a leader is consistency and Sr. leadership listening but not implementing what they hear.
- What differentiates the most competitive organizations from the laggards in your industry?
Innovation. It is sort of like the early bird get the worm. Innovation is so important in government contracting because it takes a company that comes in that offers not only new ideas as services to the government, but also how they are different to candidates wanting to take a job at your company instead of going to one that has been in the business for years.
- What do you hope to get out of this course as it relates to operations management in your workplace?
Change is hard and companies, as well as employees get stuck in the same day to day operations and settle that its good enough. Good enough is not good enough for me. I want our company to be the best there is and that means changing and coming up with ideas that make us different. Our company is so top heavy. We do not have one person in the administrative field. We have many Directors and Vice Presidents. When I first joined our company 2 years ago, I threatened to put the org chart up on a large window just to show everyone what their leadership chart looks like. Everyone needs a voice. Employees that have been there a week and employees that have been there 30 years. Also, learn from your competitors. If another company has a great idea that they are implementing and it is working, why can’t we do it? Instead of thinking outside of the box, we tend to go in circles chasing our tails. I want to learn how we can make us different.
2nd person to respond to
Faith
Hello Professor and class. Two challenges that my job faces are regulation with compliances and building the right team. With working in the trucking business being compliant and following regulations can be the biggest thing that will break the company down. Not being complaint can cause the business to receive fines and penalties, it will affect your CSA score, you can be put out of service, cause your insurance to be extremely high. With a trucking business you also must make sure you have the right team on your side. Your team is paramount to business success. Hiring the right people with the skills and competencies that are right for your team is necessary to ensure long-term growth. When securing your team, you want to make sure that the team is happy and working at optimal capacity. If you do not you may end up with workers that feel underutilized, overworked, and ready to look for employment elsewhere. In my industry the competitive organizations are the people who are engaged in the company that cares about the success of the company. They are always looking for different ways to help the company be more successful and keeping up with the new technology. The laggards are the ones that are quick to say, “we been doing it like this why are we changing?” They do not want to learn anything new. In this class I want to be able to learn different strategies on how to make the company better. I would like to master customer satisfaction, better sales, and improve the company’s culture.
LinkedIn Learning: What is Operational Excellence?
LinkedIn Learning: Key Roles in Operational Excellence
JWI 550: Operational Excellence Week One Lecture Note
