Operations management and its role Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Operations management and its role - Essay Example A fast food business has the ability to deliver a large quantity of food within a short duration of time. It also delivers the convenience of fast services and research shows that people are willing to forego quality for convenience. When a customer takes the food away it enables them to enjoy readymade food with comfort. Its market segment targets the middle and low class earners who contributes up to 70% of the population locally. This population includes university students, graduates and small sized businessmen. In struggling and development stage, they normally target the young and old-aged masses and since these age groups are present in largest population, they are able to develop and maintain a large market share. With all these competitive factors, they have managed to penetrate the local market successfully. A traditional sit in restaurant success can be attributed to the fact that it has two defined market segments. This is to say that their potential market is not differe ntiated. However they also compete against other market segments within the market environment with fast food outlets. They focus on high income families and business meetings to create a strong market and tap potential customers. (Richard & Colin 1992) Competitive Advantages and Priorities: In this regard, ( Irwin McGraw-Hill,2000 ) Terry Hill, a professor at London Business School presented the theory of Order winners and Order Qualifiers, which explains the process of how an internal functioning body designs its strategies to meet the competitive challenges and market success. Order winners and Order Qualifiers can be dealt separately if an investor has a low budget. According to theorists, Qualifier and winners have different aspects for business. If Qualifying is an objective, than a product has a quality of being considered by the customer which leads to the same standard of the product as your competitors have it. When it comes to Order Winning then a product must hold some e xtra ordinary specs than your competitor’s product to win the bid, which definitely requires more investment to maintain high standards. An investor must meet the requirement of Order Qualifier otherwise it can lead to a total loss. Whereas it is also required to keep a watch on the cost of production, otherwise it can lead to excessive increase in price, which again will divert the customers to an economical product. Research was carried out Sven Horte and Hakan Ylinenpa, which tells that unfortunately a wide gap is seen between product managers and customers which leads to a negative sales. When a product holds similar opinions between managers and customers, it is considered to be a â€Å"fit† product and ideal for sales growth. In relevance to our subject, a fast food outlet can get successful in