Case Analysis on Operation Management

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Background information on the company
Dopec is a refined cooking oil production company that has managed to maintain its brand image over the years; the company has been among the top oil manufacturing companies regarding quality and profit margins. It has in the past attracted a wide range of investor, career builders, and creditors.
Activity being analyzed
Dopec has reported a decrease in profit margin over a period of two financial years. Though this company has managed to build its brand over the years and remain competitive its reduction in profit margins has raised concerns among all stakeholders. It is associated with its operation which has been poorly managed, and at the same time, its production process does not meet the modern technological trends.
Theoretical framework
Instruction to the operation and organizational context
The company’s success is entirely dependent on the strategy adopted that is the literature’s adopted policy and economics. All staff and consultants were engaged in the identification of the best performance indicators and the realistic approach for performance improvement. Data collection was done through questionnaires given to the concerned team.
Key issues with the operation
The main problems with Dopec were on poor delegation structure and management skills. The weak and complex managerial system could however not meet the pressure of the industry leading to poor qualities and slow production rates.

Some of the critical issues that I identified included increase in production reject standard; packaging rejects rate and customer reject rate. The rate at which products were denied at the production stage stood at 35%, while that of products rejected due to poor packaging was 37% and customer declines rate was at 25%. Through the managerial hierarchy was defined, we realized that there was an unhealthy relationship between staff of the different hierarchical levels. This unhealthy relationship was the primary cause of poor communication and a platform to address the rising issues. As a result, there was a slow decline in the performance of every department that in the long run attributed to the increase in general failure of the whole operations. Cooperation among employees is what creates company human resources. Poor Cooperation led to a decline in performance due to lack of a proper working environment. This created dissatisfaction and low motivation levels even for the employees willing to work and deliver their best.
The dynamic theory of strategy was used to analyze the issues
The approach involves examining the opportunities and threats in the industry and coming up with an alignment strategy to maintain a competitive position. To understand how this theory would suit this company, a SWOT analysis was done to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the company faced (Porter pg. 1). This means that the company is therefore subject to change. The opportunities within the industry include good production and packaging technology.
One of their strengths is that it is a dominant player in the industry known for the application of healthy platform holds a competitive position in the market. Its weaknesses are that it sells at a higher price than close competitors and has a limited market penetration into a more substantial market base (Slack et al., 12). The company faces the threat of a predictable increase in branded products thus creating a very competitive industry with a high number of both domestic and international industries
The second initiative was to ensure that the set goals are in alignment with the firm’s strength and weaknesses so that a realistic and achievable goal is set (Porter. 97).
The dynamic theory of strategy relationship demands reinvestment into all departments to achieve the set profit margins
The most considered departments include infrastructure, human resource administration, procurement departments, technology expansion, and marketing. This is only achievable and effective if the company sets a customer feedback program. This program was effected through the use of questionnaires that were later collected from the customers. The company, therefore, decided to invite customer in a move known “Be a part of Dopec” by allowing them to share their views on the product, how they wish it to be, their disappointments and their satisfaction levels. An analysis of their views rated the product at seven by a margin of 1-10. Most of the frustrations were on packaging and limited availability in the market. While a number of them complained of the high prices in their products. The management used this feedback program in decision making. It led to the administration raising the thought of having marketing and salesperson to ensure that the product is within reach to the customers at their convenient time. New delivery terms such as delivery on request were also planned to help customers receive the product if they cannot make it to the retailing shops. The customer also raised the need to have the product improved regularly raising the need for infrastructural development, especially on production. This led to the need for the purchase of better production and packaging machinery. Due to increase in the focus of marketing and sales as well as production, the company was required to hire expert personnel to deal with procurement to reduce holding costs
Eco-effective and zero wastage model
With the increasing need for efficient eco products and the social concern on environmental sustainability, the company decided to include a production system that minimizes the hazards. The increase in global population is continuously raising concern about food sustainability. This led the group to adopt a technology that allows only minimal pollution into the environment (Braungart. Pg 2).
To minimize on wastage during the production phase, the production department determines to purchase new machinery that reduces the wastage to less than 1%. It is also to increase the current production rate by 100% which means double production. Since the products are seen to penetrate the market due to the branding, better packaging machinery was also bought and installed to improve the branding this would help in reducing customer rejections. Machine maintenance expert technicians were hired to help in constant check on the machines to avoid the possibility of breakdown.
Proper organizational behavior
The maximum level of operation can only be attained if an appropriate corporate behavioral management strategy is adopted. This was done through performance evaluation, continuous monitoring, negotiations, and involvement of all stakeholders in decision making, setting and implementation of all stakeholders in decision making. This contributed to 25% of the general increase in performance of the organization. Where the employee is wronged by another or suffer damage in their line of duty, a proper remedy had to be offered that was to adequately compensate them and their dependents for the loss incurred (Ruggie, 202). This process had to be done through equality and transparent to ensure that justice is given to all despite their status quo. According to a report by the United Nations, every company should protect, respect and remedy for every duty undertaken and damage incurred (The UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework for Business and Human Rights.pg 2).
A chart showing the contribution of every issue in the company operations

Management stood at 17%
Performance at 19%
Production at 39%
Organizational behavior at 25%
These percentages were derived from the number of complaints received from each issue. The complaint box was availed and different from the suggest while employees were allowed to send complains to the human resource manager through a suggestion box.
Analysis of the issue
Operational issue Theoretical framework
Poor management
This was the main cause of defects; it was also the main contributor of wastage and poor distribution channel that led to customer reject. To analyze this issue, I chose the lean six sigma theory
To curb this, the Lean sigma was used to break down the whole issue so as each can be addressed independently. The defects on production were addressed so up to a point where reject during production was reduced to 1%. The issue of overproduction was addressed by having a proper procurement process and stock control done through the FIFO method. Transport to the customers was done effectively by the marketing and sales customers and a program on home deliveries was also implemented. The procurement process cleared the waiting time for raw materials production while the sales and marketing time reduced the time for customer waiting for deliveries. The purchase of new production and packaging machine improved on the processing. Adoption of a new organizational behavior system helped to improve the employee relation leading to a noted increase in teamwork effectiveness and employee utilization of talent.
Reduction in the general performance every department
After doing a SWOT analysis, I noted there is a decrease in the general performance of the organization making the threats and weaknesses more stronger than the strengths and the opportunities. The application of the dynamic theory of strategy was the best to address. The issue. This is due to the flexibility of the market and the vibrant changes in technology. This theory allows for positive change that will help in the production process in a way that it over-utilizes the opportunities and strengths while at the same time it moves towards capitalizing on the threats and weaknesses. This involves a realignment and re-engineering of the whole operation system to fit the current trends. This theory recommends the hiring of expertise where necessary, purchase of modern production and packaging facilities and a proper marketing strategy.
Poor production
This was noted due to increase in wastage and increased returns. This was contributed to by the poor production process and better products from competitors. It was also attributed to by the need to have a better living and increase in health sensitivity programs. These programs recommended people to have a healthy diet in order to live healthily. As a result, the community is also concerned about the production process adopted by the company and what they do to minimize environmental hazards. Eco-effective and Zero wastage model were used to address this issue. Eco-effective model addresses the sustainability issues such that the production process used today complies with the needs of the current generation while will not encumber the capability of future groups to meet their needs at the same time. To achieve this, the theory combines this factor to having zero wastage. This involved reduction of the wastage rate to almost zero.
Poor organizational behavior
The relationship between employees and the management at different hierarchical levels was poor. This created dissatisfaction levels, poor communication and non-utilization of talents Organizational behavior theory addressed this issue to understand the impact response of employee to their satisfaction levels with the employees played a key role and helped find a solution
Recommendations
Despite this being a production industry, it is essential forever company to carry out performance improvement program despite its financial position. This way the company will remain a top performer, retain its customers by gaining customer royalty and at the same time continue to achieve its goal and the set profit margin.
While having a set profit margin and goal, societal welfare is part of creating the company’s image. Complying with the needs of the society by being environmental conscious helps to build the brand image and customers confidence.
Internal control assurance managers are essential in the production industry to help to check on quality production before releasing to customers. This reduces the number complains submitted by the clients
Organizational behavior and management skills are critical to the operations of the company and should receive the best attention. Though a company operation relies on the 4M’s, that is money, man, material and machinery the complete incorporation of these is done with the full devotion of workforce.
Appendix
Customer feedback card
Be a part of dopec
What is your view on Dopec cooking oil?
What do improvements wish are made?
At a rating of 10 where would you rate Dopec?
References
Braungart, Michael, William McDonough, and Andrew Bollinger. “Cradle-to-cradle design:
creating healthy emissions–a strategy for eco-effective product and system design.” Journal of cleaner production 15.13-14 (2007): 1337-1348.
Porter, Michael E. “Towards a dynamic theory of strategy.” Strategic management journal 12.S2
(1991): 95-117.
Porter, Michael E. “What is strategy.” Published November(1996).
Ruggie, John. “Protect, respect and remedy: A framework for business and human
rights.” Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization 3.2 (2008): 189-212.
Slack, Nigel et al. Operations And Process Management. Harlow, England: Pearson, 2015. Print.