Abstract
Operations management is a vital component of every business that strives for success. The previous research has shown that management in operations plays a crucial role in a company’s profit rates. Positions in operations management are valuable and provide high compensation to the workers.
This type of management is responsible for every operation done within the company – from producing valuable goods to high-quality customer service. Starbucks’ operations management topic is explored in this paper, and the decision-making process techniques are highlighted. This research aims to examine the success of Starbucks as a company through exploration of its main operations management tactics and identify the guidelines used in the decision-making process. The significance of this essay is within the importance of information discovered to smaller companies that are making their way into the market.
Introduction
Operations management as a system administers business practices in order to create high levels of efficiency in an organization. It is responsible for converting labor into service and materials into goods efficiently so that the profit of an organization would be high. This type of management has various duties and various positions, which the initial attempt is to balance costs and revenue and achieve the highest profit possible. This paper focuses on reviewing the operation management system in Starbucks as a company, overviewing the positions, and analyzing the organization’s decision-making process.
Overview of the Positions
Starbucks is known for its highly considerate attitude to teamwork and high-quality products; therefore, the first position under review is roastery and reserve operations manager. This position is essential for the company as it revolves around the roastery experience customers receive when attending Starbucks.
The roastery and reserve operations manager is responsible for evaluating customer’s experience with the roastery, directing the workforce, making staffing decisions, ensuring product and brand quality, and managing the financial performance of roastery zones. In evaluating critical aspects of this position, it becomes clear that being in this position involves handling the staff properly and communicating with customers to ensure high profit and labor into service conversion. Therefore, this position is precious in the company as it regulates many aspects at once.
With the company’s continuous evolution comes the need for constant innovations to be implemented; therefore, there is an innovation manager in operations. The critical aspects of this job are participation in long-term planning in support innovations, managing budget, and providing operations perspective. As innovations are a crucial part of every company, the positions responsible for implementing new strategies are in need; therefore, the job in this sector is valuable (Torlak et al., 2019). In Starbucks specifically, some areas require constant change and improvement, such as product quality, high customer service standards, better teamwork, and more. Innovation manager ensures the convenient transition of future labor to service and material, coffee, to goods, which are various coffee drinks.
The Process of Decision-making and Guidelines
The success of Starbucks is frequently linked to the careful implementation of the decision-making process in operations management. Successful operations management implies that specific business objectives must be addressed in different areas of operation to achieve higher profit rates (Kumar et al., 2018). When it comes to decision-making, Starbucks as a company aims to consider every opinion from employees of various levels of an organization.
However, in practice, it refers mainly to innovative suggestions and not to the actual decision-making process. The strategy that must be followed is based on clear instructions of four steps. The first step is stating the problem and quickly identifying possible solutions and obstacles. The second step is determining the best approach to resolution, which should set a positive standard for future decisions. In this step, the decision-maker should also answer questions such as “would it embarrass Starbucks?”, “would it look good in the media?”. These types of questions are necessary to evaluate the risks before making the decision. The third step is seeking guidance, and it is optional. The fourth step is deciding itself and following through.
The decision-making process of Starbucks is not only about following the four-step strategy but also about who uses it. Every employee is partially involved in the decision-making process at work, and not only people of higher positions are responsible. When a new worker starts a job at Starbucks, the mentor is assigned to them to guide them through the process. It is an integral part as the learning curve studies in operations management proved that without efficient training at a new workplace, the employee would continue working ineffectively and bring lower profit to the organization (Glock et al., 2019). Therefore, even a new employee is responsible for making the right decisions at the workplace in Starbucks, showing that the company values those who work for it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, operations management is a crucial part of every business, and Starbucks is not an exception. This type of management involves converting different assets into profit in the most efficient way and ensuring the necessary policies. Positions related to operations in Starbucks mainly include roastery and reserve operations manager and innovation manager in operations. The decision-making guidelines are similar to those in other companies, but the critical difference that assists with achieving high customer service standards is shared responsibility between all employees in an organization.
References
Glock, C. H., Grosse, E. H., Jaber, M. Y., & Smunt, T. L. (2019). Applications of learning curves in production and operations management: A systematic literature review. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 131(1), 422-441.
Kumar, S., Mookerjee, V., & Shubham, A. (2018). Research in operations management and information systems. Production and Operations Management, 27(11), 1893-1905.
Torlak, N. G., Demir, A., & Budur, T. (2019). Impact of operations management strategies on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions at café-restaurants. International Journal of Productivity, 69(9), 1903-1924.