Operations Management at Superior Maintenance Services Case Study

Operations Management at Superior Maintenance Services - Case Study Example Through the help of the government agency for technical education and skills development it has developed a manpower training programmeand is considered industry partner for skills development in this sector. With its widespread popularity and good reputation, it has recently diversified its offerings to include marketing and distribution of other organisation's products through joint venture agreements, such as those for restroom odourcounteractant dispensers, floor mats, electronic air cleaners, waterfree urinals, air fresheners, liquid soap dispensers, and rent-a plant services. Business operations at SMS include massive recruitment of potential workers, manpower training, client sourcing, client servicing, manpower deployment and deployed manpower monitoring and supervision, and customer accounting. A full time staff of 30 employees handle administrative services such as accounting and finance, personnel administration, recruitment, marketing and sales, and accounts management through regular coordination by account officers with clients as well as deployed personnel at client premises. According to Slack et al (2004), there are five operations performance objectives: speed, quality, flexibility, dependability or reliability, and efficiency, which includes cost-effectiveness. Speed is the length of time to serve customer orders for products or services, from the moment a customer order is placed up to the time a product or service is delivered. The performance objective of speed is to lessen this length of time. At SMS, speed is a very important objective because normally, a client requests for janitorial or manpower services because of a present and usually urgent need. The ability to serve such requests speedily is critical, otherwise the client may opt to place the order with a competing service provider. To help assure a ready supply of manpower for deployment purposes, continuous recruitment and training is conducted by SMS. Qualified recruits are immediately asked to undergo training to prepare them for immediate deployment as soon as assignments are confirme d with the client. Trainees pay a minimal fee for to cover the cost of materials used during training, consisting of reading materials. At times, some qualified personnel have already joined another organisation. But sine, the manpower pool is large, service delivery times are maintained. The cost of recruitment and training are borne by the company as part of its operating expenses. Quality is the degree to which products and services meet the specifications promised by the organisation to its customers. And to achieve a high and consistent quality, a set of standard procedures must be stringently followed to ensure quality service as well as high-quality products manufactured. In terms of quality service delivery, SMS ensures that the workers it deploys are sufficiently skilled and qualified to perform the services they have to deliver by making them undergo the standard training which is a combination of lectures, demonstrations and hands-on drills and exercises. Moreover, since SMS manufactures its own cleaning solutions, equipment and materials, it has