Operations and Material Management

Operations and Materials Management

The three companies I chose were and international company called Sharp, a small business company called Linens of the Week, and a clothing store called H&M. The first company is retailer of goods such as copiers, printers, and electronics throughout the world. They are mostly known for their HD televisions. The second company is a linens supply company that provides linens and garments to customers who are business such as hospitals, restaurants, and churches. The third company is also a retail company, but this company provides clothing and accessories also throughout the world. All three of these companies have a different way that they operate during the input, output, and operations stages.

The first company has local businesses world wide that monitor their own input and output. They work closely with the main manufacturing offices for their product. They are different because they make their own products that they sell. There is no middle man or other company that needs to be watched because we manage our own TV's, copiers, and other electronics. That helps tremendously when they need supplies for employees because they use their own created calculators, TV's, and other things to save on costs.

The second company has a materials management department of its own in the corporate office. That department takes care of both the input and output. In terms of the input, the employees do extensive research about potential products. They compare prices and quality to find the lowest possible costs that has the highest quality for their customers. Even when they have chosen something, they check other companies often for any better prices and quality. The manager in that department negotiates prices all the time in order to get the cheapest price available without having to make their customers go down on quality. With output, this company manages the number of workers that modify products such as sewing and custom work. They always make sure that they have enough workers for the different seasons. They also monitor the outcome of the work before any items or linens have been shipped out to the customer. This eliminates returns and saves money.

The third company is also international. This companies clothes and accessories are created oversees. The operations and input are monitored extremely close because of this. Because of child labor, this company does random checkups on their distributors overseas to make sure that everything is in order. They monitor these places very closely to make sure that the quality of the products is suitable for their customers, and that the prices are considerably low. (HM) In terms of output, this company does regular inventory checks to make sure everything is suitable before putting the items