The
three topics of the second week of MIS 373 course are reliability, strategic
capacity planning, and quality management. These concepts are important to
companies and organizations in order to increase competitiveness and management.
Reliability is a kind of probability, which could help companies realize their
ability to perform their intended function under certain conditions. Strategic
capacity planning helps companies and organizations achieve long-term supply
capability to match predicted level of long-term demand. Quality management help
companies identify the appropriate product or service to meet customers’
expectations. Of these topics, strategic capacity planning gave me a deep
impression. As I was reading these articles, I found capacity problem is to be
one of more important aspects that companies should be concerned about.
I read a
paper entitled When Supply-Chain
Disruptions Matter this week. The two authors of this paper identified some
factors responsible for disruptions to companies. They stated disruption
matters in the magnitude of disruption’s impact on the share price; internal
disruptions are far more damaging than external factors; “a higher rate of
improvement in operating performance aggravates the impact of internal
disruptions”. Managers should focus on reducing buffers and excess capacity. To
reduce these disruptions, companies should use strategic capacity planning.
Through
capacity planning, companies can identify the kind of capacity needed to reduce
excess capacity and also meet customer demand. In addition, capacity decisions
are strategic. It could affect operating costs, ease of management, and
competitiveness. In this paper, the authors believe that improve operational
efficiency could improve firms’ agility and allow them to respond more
effectively to a disruption. I think companies could also use these three
capacity strategies- leading, following, and tracking. Companies should realize
future demand to build their capacity and be able to build capacity when there
is excess demand. These strategies could also help companies deal with
disruptions.
Strategic
capacity planning can help companies solve problems and handle disruptions. Overcapacity
results in higher operation cost and increases internal problems. Companies should
use strategies capacity planning to improve their effectiveness and
competitiveness.
Reference:
- PowerPoint Slides Chapter 4,5,9
- http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/13-006_cff75cd2-952d-493d-89e7-d7043385eb64.pdf