Advanced Operation Management
Kate (Du Yu Qiu)
1. Identify some of them icro-operations to be found at the airport.
Foreachone:
(a) Identify the transforming and transformed resources.
(b) State which is the predominant transformed resource.
(c) Describe the output of each micro-operation and say who you think
its customers are.
2 . Summarise the job of the operations director. What are the main
issues/problems he faces in managing the airport?
3. What do you think Richard Heard actually does each day (how does he
spend his time)?
4. Discuss the relationship between the day-to-day tasks and the
long-term issues and explain how Richard manages to oversee both at
the same time?
Answers:
1. Identify some of them micro-operations to be found at the airport.
Foreachone:
(a) Identify the transforming and transformed resources.
According to the case, I think the transforming resources are the
staffs in the airport, including all the staffs in the different positions.
And the transformed resources are different, such as: the passenger who
want to catch a airplane, and other services, for example: The baggage
handling operation is sorting, checking and dispatching bags to the many
departing aircraft. The ground crews are loading and unloading aircraft,
putting meals on board, filling the fuel tanks and cleaning the aircraft
during their brief spell at the airbridge. The airlines’ ticketing staff are
dealing with lines of passengers, each of whom may have a different final
destination. The information desk is fully staffed, dealing with the many
queries, such as people wanting to know if their plane is on time, the
location of a bank or hotel, or trying to work out how to get by road or
rail to their final destination. Passengers flow through the lounges,
passport control and secu- rity checks, and use toilets, duty free shops
and restaurants, all of which have to be kept clean and stocked for their
convenience.
(b) State which is the predominant transformed resource.
In my opinion, the main task for a airport is to transform all the
passengers to different destination, so the predominant transformed
resource is the passenger.
(c) Describe the output of each micro-operation and say who you think
its customers are.
According to the case, there are several different micro-operations in
the airport, For example: the customer of the baggage handling
operation is the passenger who take the airplane; The customer of the
airlines’ ticketing staff is the people who don’t know the message; the
customer of filling the fuel tanks and cleaning the aircraft is the people
who will continue his travel.
2 . Summarize the job of the operations director. What are the main
issues/problems he faces in managing the airport?
The operations director employs about 700 and he oversee about
600 of them. These operations people are basically concerned with the
day-to-day running of the airport and the short and medium-term
operational planning. One of the major tasks for operations is not just to
provide the infrastructure for all the other organizations on site – such as
airlines, handling agents, retailers, cargo handlers – but also to provide
the leadership and coordination for them. There are also groups off site,
such as community groups, which he liaise with as we work to monitor
and improve the environment. his personal job is about coordination and
setting the safety and customer service standards for everyone to adhere
to. The real secret of managing operations is to make sure he has really
good processes and procedures in place.
3. What do you think Richard Heard actually does each day (how does he
spend his time)?
I think he is very busy all day, he spent all his time on the work, he
has many operations to do everyday, many micro-operations from
different aspects. He is an actually busy man. He has to make a good job
in planning, organizing, leading, controlling. He has to be a good
manager.
4. Discuss the relationship between the day-to-day tasks and the
long-term issues and explain how Richard manages to oversee both at
the same time?
In my opinion, the day-to-day task is changeable, it can appears in
all kinds of types everyday, but most of them have some relationship
between each other, so we have to deal with it flexible. The long-term
issues had been occur for a long time, it need to be solve, but it is a long
process, it’s not very hurry. Richard manages to oversee both the two
issues at the same time, he can deal with the different problems
everyday and among the process, he can lead to solve the long-term
issues.