Systems and operations management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Systems and operations management - Assignment Example The company employs more than 52,000 employees based in four countries at sixteen different sites. The four countries in which the 16 sites are set up are Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain. The final assembly of the aircraft is done in Toulouse (France). Also, the company has its subsidiaries in the United States, Japan, China and India. The company has built the world first commercially viable fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320, and also the largest airliner, the A380. The Airbus A380 is a four engine double deck airplane is a double-deck, and is the largest airplane in the world. It took its first flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, and the first commercial flight was operated on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney in alliance with the Singapore Airlines Corporation. The airplane design offers cabin size of 50% more than the Boeing 747 which is the second largest airplane in the world and provides for a seating space of 850 people as compared to only 525 in t he Boeing 727. Airbus 380 is available in both the passenger and freight models and is the first airplane to use the GTL-based fuel technology. This paper, divided into four section, will make a detailed study about the operations management of Airbus 380, use of Information technology, and soft system methodology to enhance the business and management operations of Airbus. SECTION 1 This section will study the role of operations management, the reasons behind its initiation at the company, and its effect on the business objectives. This section provides the detailed analysis of operations management at Airbus, and how it has been implemented with the help of various OM techniques to increase efficiency. The previous operations at Airbus were not in line with the new requirements of Airbus A380. The new system required higher efficiencies, with precision, and reliability of speedy data and decision making. The old manufacturing facilities were not able to support the requirements of a new and more complex engineering product. It was important that the management makes significant changes in the operational process and data handling system to improve efficiencies. Also the supply chain of the company was in dire need of modifications and up gradations to carry out all the requirements for the manufacture of airbus A380. The engineers were not able to identify the cause of frequent disruptions that usually occurred in the system, which resulted in fault decision making at most of the times. In order to cure the system of these problems, it was evident that operational management would be employed in the form of various techniques that would assist in managing the overall business in a more profitable manner. The company management decided to implement two operations management techniques in its manufacturing floors – Enterprise resource planning and SCOR. Airbus introduced a new oracle based ERP system which also consisted of integrated accounting and cos ting along with the regular purchase and inventory management, production planning, and logistics management systems. The implementation of the ERP made it mandatory that the system is centralized in nature required and the production chain assumes a â€Å"Pull type† formation instead of the existing â€Å"Push type† configuration, ( Chekland, 1981). With these two reforms in place, it became easier to share the data easily within the various manufacturing centers of Airbus and