How will automation affect operations management practices over the Research Paper

How will automation affect operations management practices over the next decade - Research Paper Example Automation is classified into three categories depending on the purpose; firstly, automation that performs duties beyond human capability or human operators cannot accomplish task within desired duration. The second is automation of duties that human operators perform poorly, and finally, automation of risky or undesirable activities (Singh, Tiwari & Singh, 2009, p.9). Essentially, automation has reduced the number of human resource in operation; similarly, it has reduced human interaction. Further, the cost of automation is very high and requires specialized workers to handle and maintain these systems. Besides, the benefits of automation, there are process that cannot be easily automated. Automation will fuel development of more customized products and shorten production duration. Furthermore, through automation, higher quality goods will be produced as a result of improved product and process design. Some processes will became fully automated, thus requiring minimal human supervis ory control. Similarly, automation will have profound effects on management of human resource and other operations. Essentially, automation will affect the organizational structure by shrinking management levels. This paper will explore how automation will affect designing of products and services and operational processes used to create goods and services over the next decade. Similarly, the paper also outlines the possible effects of automation on other operations management practices such as controlling, planning, and management. How Automation will affect design of products, Services, and operation processes Design in operation management encompasses design of products, services and the operation process. Design automation that is actively evolving... The growth rate of automation is increasing at a high rate due to international competition and availability of skilled labor and capital. Besides, automation is significant because it can lead to higher quality products and higher productivity. Automation is geared to solving a specific problem, thus the problem determines the level of automation. Furthermore, automation helps to performs duties beyond human capability or human operators cannot accomplish within desired duration, or even those duties that human operators perform poorly or/and risky and undesirable activities. Automation will affect product design and process design in future. Design automation, which is actively evolving, will result in development of technology that will automate the design of products from concept design, through design layout and detail design. Primarily, design automation will cut the process duration and increase productivity. Generally, design automation impacts development process in that it speeds design process by 30 percent. Additionally, automation will result in greater levels of customization of products and facilitate faster product designing. Furthermore, customers will access products of higher quality due to improved product designs and processes. Similarly, the operation processes will evolve to be more specialized and subjected to more formal operating controls. In addition, automation will help managers to improve the planning process by aiding in decision-making. Through easy to use and accurate decision support tools, better planning mechanisms will be utilized, hence promote productivity of organizations. Such tools will eliminate human biases and hasten the decision making process.

Travel agency website Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Travel agency website - Essay Example Travel agency is a business which sells and trades travel related products and services to the end-user customers on behalf of the third-party travel suppliers. These third-party travel suppliers include airliners, hotels, cruise liners, tour companies.In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists, most travel agents have a special department devoted to travel arrangements for business travelers, while some agencies specialize in commercial and business travelers. Some agencies also serve as general service agents for foreign travel companies in different countries. There are many travel agents working around the world. They usually work on the basis of taking some compensation for each service sold by the agency to the customers. The main function of the travel agents is to act as an agent, which is to sell travel products and services on behalf of a supplier. Consequently, unlike other retail businesses, they do not keep a stock in hand. A package holiday or a ticket is not purchas ed from a supplier unless a customer requests that purchase. Travel agencies became more commonplace with the development of commercial aviation starting in the 1920s. Originally, the agencies largely catered to middle-class customers, but the post-war boom in mass-market package holidays resulted in travel agencies on the main streets of most of the cities, catering to a working class clientele looking for a cheap overseas holidays. There are three different types of agencies: these are Multiples, Miniples and Independent Agencies. The former comprise a number of national chains, often owned by international conglomerates. It is now quite common for the large mass-market tour companies to purchase a controlling interest in a chain of travel agencies, in order to control the distribution of their product. The smaller chains are often based in particular regions or districts. Independent Agencies usually cater for a special or niche market. Some cater to the needs of residents in an up-market commuter town or suburb, or concentrate upon a particular area or group or an activity such as sports. There are 2 approaches of travel agents. One is the traditional multi-destination travel agent based in the originating location of the traveler and the other is the destination focused travel agent that is based in the destination and delivers an expertise on that location. All travel agents generally have a well-maintained website through which the customers book their tickets and travel plans. The popularity of the trave l agency depends on the user interface of the website of that particular travel agency. One such travel agency website has been developed. To develop any website, we need to take into consideration the various aspects of building a good user interface of the website. The travel agency website can be used to book tickets, check trip deals and trip packages, create trip itineraries, etc. The main options of which the user might want to perform are: Home: The web site home page will have certain information about some or all of the options. Vacation Packages: The vacation packages provide the vacation packages customers usually prefer. Search Vacations: The user can search for vacation packages if he or she wants to go on a vacation with a package. Search Top Deals: The user can search for the top deals in the vacation packages and select the best ones. Flights: This option deals with booking of flight tickets to the respective destinations. Search Flights: The user can search for the flights going to their destination. The user can search and book tickets here. Top deals: The user can search for the top deals in the flight tickets to the desired destination and also book the tickets for the destination. Hotels: Here the customers can book hotels for accommodation. Search Hotels: Users can search for hotels for accomm