Facilities operations management

Executive Summary:

Facilities operations management is one the strategic area of a business to for quality running of its operations and for gaining a sustainable advantage. In our discussion firstly we have tried to discuss the basic criteria which an organization needs to have to proper manage its facilities operations. We have taken McDonalds as an example in our discussion. Firstly the main responsibilities of facilities operational managers are discussed in the context of McDonalds. Then the administrative and safety issues are evaluated. Thirdly, Control and administrative strategies are discussed for business performance and finally critical review and analysis. I have focused on McDonalds official sources for information for the purity and transparency but this is the work of human therefore there are chances of error in

Abstract:

In our discussion, in order to evaluate the facilities operations management of McDonalds, we will first see the operational responsibilities of a manager and try to learn how these managers are capable of handling the complex process of McDonalds Operations. Then we will move toward the examination of legal, health and safety obligations to be addressed by the facilities operations. In the third part, evaluate and study the administrative tools and systems which are helpful in managing and integrating facilities operations. Finally, we will try to evaluate and review the quality of operations and facilities management. It is important to note here that we will take McDonalds as our example in our discussion.

Introduction:

McDonalds is one of the most popular fast food restaurants all over the world with almost 46 million customers in different countries. In the past, McDonalds was one of the most growing fast food chains. Now, the fast food market has reached its maturity and therefore it is very difficult for a chain like McDonalds to survive in this competitive environment. In order to survive, every organization needs to effectively manage its facilities and operations to gain a sustainable advantage. The basic reason for the need of effective management of facilities and operations is that the customers and employees are the most important assets of a company. In our discussion, we will review that how McDonalds is managing its facilities and operations to survive in competitive environment of today’s world.
L01. Investigation of the operational responsibilities of the Operational Manager

1.1: Assessment the responsibilities of facilities manager for the staff engaged in facilities operations:

The Major responsibilities of facilities manager for the staff is that facilities manager should ensure that the quality of the output of facilities be maintained by the staff working on it. There is should be proper quality reviews and checks by the operations manager on the staff to reach this goal.

McDonalds is very conscious about the food safety and quality and therefore it hires those managers which are leaders and controllers. Managers checks daily the temperature of the food and it is mandatory for every manager to check the staff working on production in terms of health and safety hazards. It is due to the good management of the management staff that McDonalds is successful in maintaining the quality of its food. The materials and instruments for preparing food is passed through different steps to check and maintain health and safety. It is mandatory for the staff of the McDonalds to have health check up. (McDonalds Official Website, 2009)

1.2: Identification of the responsibilities of the facilities manager for staff engaged in facilities operations:

The main responsibilities of a manager towards staff are:

* Quality Checks and Balances

* Ensuring the better customer service and customer empathy

* Staff Management and Job Rotations

* Staff Motivation

If we analyze McDonalds in this scenario, then the facilities managers are trained with thinking that people are very important for McDonalds. Facilities managers motivate the employees and properly rotate the jobs of employees depending upon their skills. As a result, we can examine this thing in the quality and safety of McDonalds Products. (McDonald Official Website, 2009)

1.3: Responsibilities of a facilities manager towards customers using the facility:

The major responsibilities of a facilities manager towards customers using the facility are:

* Good Customer Service

* Customer Satisfaction

* Customer Retention

* Customer Empathy

All these responsibilities are applied through employees at the front end to ensure that good customer experience of using the facility.

Facilities managers first of all operate and monitor all the raw materials and products across the supply chain. For example, they make sure that the meat they buy should be of Grade “A”. Then special care is given to the production and specification according to customer tastes. McDonalds appropriately forecasts the demand of customers for overcome the shortage of products and materials. While making forecasts, the following things are also kept in mind such as facility capacity, facility layout and workforce etc. There is a proper examination of supply chain to provide customers better availability and customer service. Facilities managers sometimes meet the customers on their own to have their suggestion and complaints.

1.4: Impact of facilities operations of employers and funding agencies:

Funding agencies are actually those agencies that provide capital to the company to run its operations and facilities. They also help the company in different pilot projects and research.

McDonalds has a number of suppliers such as coca cola, mother parkers, and sputo (McDonalds Official website, 2009). These suppliers play a vital role in the facilities operations of employers. For example, the customers usually require a soft drink especially carbonated water along with the burgers of McDonalds. As a result, there is a strategic partnership of McDonalds with Coca Cola Company. This funding agency or supplier provides better quality coke for its customers and therefore it helps to increase and enhance the customer experience for using the facility.

2.1: Assessment of the statutory regulations that will affect facilities operations in an agreed contest:

Statutory regulations are enforced by the regulatory organizations can affect functions of facilities operations in a number a ways. Statutory regulations make sure that public is prevented from poor practices. It almost all the countries of the world, it is obligations on the companies to work under the rules and regulations and to ensure that their operations are not hurting the health and safety of their employees and customers.

As far as McDonald’s facilities operations are concerned, McDonalds is operating through franchise system in almost all the countries of the world. It offers a balance to employees between work and their social life. For example McDonalds offer it employees Vacation, Holidays, Anniversary Splash, Sabbatical Program, Short Fridays and Child welfare (McDonalds Official Website, 2010). These practices help to keep the health and safety of employees secure and motivate them in performing operations in facilities.

2.2: Health and safety measures that must be implemented by a facilities manager in a given contest:

As the organization grows day by day, its costs become low and low and it gets more chances to make its work safe and risk free. The measures that can be adopted by a facilities manager are:

* Better and full maintained operating machinery

* Training and Development

* Technology

* Short term quality checks (Gary Ganson, CIH, CSP, 2008)

McDonalds is doing much for health and safety. It buys grade “A” meat and other raw materials only from trusted suppliers. It offers special trainings to its staff to maintain health and safety. They are properly utilizing technology to overcome the threat of improper practices. It is the responsibility of the operations managers to visit daily the production facilities in their premises and also proper monitoring of the staff to ensure the quality products.

2.3: Documentation required accounting for compliance with statutory regulations and health and safety measures:

For health and safety measures, proper record keeping and auditing of these records is required. A facilities manager needs to have all kinds of information required for statutory regulations of health and safety such as age, family size, ethnicity and marital status etc. Statutory regulations are highly customized by the different cultures and governments. (Staffordshire, 2009)

As far as McDonalds is concerned, it keeps proper documentation for accounting compliance with statutory regulations such as record keeping and audits of its staff. The operational managers are guided to keep all the information about safety and health measures about its employees and also to keep proper documentation for auditing. (McDonalds Official Website, 2010)

3.1: Effective systems for processing information and maintaining communication:

In order for facilities operations management, we need to utilize a lot of technology to make sure that information we need about customers and employees should be properly managed and handled. We can use proper databases to store information. Proper communication is also important and we need to develop a system to prevent miscommunication in the organization.

McDonalds has developed a proper system to store information. There is a proper oracle supported internal database system in which all the departments record their operations. Secondly, the company has developed an internal email system to create convenient, documented and effective communications.

3.2: Control Systems required by a facilities manager to effectively manage operations:

The facilities manager needs to implement such a system so that the facility should be properly utilized and secondly it should provide proper workforce utilization and quality checks. It is really a very difficult task to develop such a control system in an organization. This may include Spot Checks, Email Monitoring, Video Recording or other technology to monitor live working environment for gaining control.

McDonalds has developed such a proper control system. As it is duty of the operations manager to personally arrive at the table of the customer in terms of complaints and suggestions. Secondly, sometimes they use mystery shopping to maintain the quality of its products. As we already discussed, the managers play their role in getting ideas from customers and providing them to employees. Sometimes email monitoring of the employees is also suspected to make sure that no sensitive information must be leaked out somewhere.

But there are a lot of ethical concerns arise while we implement quality checks. For example, monitoring the personal emails of employees can lead to de motivation and stealth of personal information about employees. Moreover, most of the customers do not respond correctly whenever they are asked for a feed back. Some time, McDonalds need to hide or misrepresent some of the information from the suppliers to protect its position.

4.1: Evaluation the quality and effectiveness of operations:

If we evaluate the quality and effectives of operations and facilities then we can easily find the McDonalds is doing great is almost all the areas of operations. It has a well managed system of employees and quality control in its operations. The reason for this is McDonalds properly train employees for doing operations. Moreover it also keeps them happy by offering them balance between work and social life. This thing not only reflects good governance but also the shows how successful McDonalds is in managing its operations and business.

It is also successful in managing its costs by proper forecasting and carrying out of its operations in different parts of the world. It has a well managed supply chain management system. For example it goes in line with its partners and suppliers. It operates through franchise system which not only helps to bring down costs but to also be geographically available. Finally, proper use of technology makes it possible to effectively perform facility operations such as information handling and communications.

4.2: Evaluation and review of the procedures to analyze the quality and effectiveness of facilities operations:

As far as McDonalds is concerned, through proper check and balances and assigning more control to facilities operations managers, it is proper maintaining the quality and outcomes of its operations. For example, through proper training and development, employees know how to be well in operations. It also offers rewards and benefits to those employees which perform well in a facility. Secondly by offering proper rest and compensations, the employees are more loyal to company than before. Customer monitoring and feedback is also there in enhancing the facilities operations.

Conclusion:

McDonalds is one of most successful fast food chains in the world. The reason for this, as we see in the report, is due to proper control and management of its operations. In our discussion, we have see that it is all the facilities operations and management of firms employees that helps in managing the operations and makes McDonalds a successful organization. We take a lesson that to be a viable concern in any business context; we need to have a proper check and quality management system for facilities operations management.

References

1. Gary Ganson, CIH, CSP (2008), “Developing A Health And Safety Program”, Available at: http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/tfm_08_05_fmissue.php (Accessed: 12 January, 2010)

2. McDonalds Official Website (2009), “Above all, safety first”, Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/csr/report/sustainable_supply_chain/product_survey.html?DCSext.destination=http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/csr/report/sustainable_supply_chain/product_survey.html (Accessed: 12 January, 2010)

3. McDonalds Official Website (2009), “Behind the food…People matter”, Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/csr/report/employment_experience.html (Accessed: 12 January, 2010)

4. McDonalds Official Website (2009), “Suppliers”, Available at: http://www.mcdonalds.ca/en/aboutus/suppliers.aspx (Accessed: 12 January, 2010)

5. McDonalds Official Website (2010), “Helping Balance Your Work and Life”, Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/careers/employee_benefits/balance_work_and_life.html?DCSext.destination=http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/careers/employee_benefits/balance_work_and_life.html (Accessed: 13 January, 2010)

6. McDonalds Official Website (2010), “Categories of Audit and Permitted Non-Audit Services”, Available at: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/investors/corporate_governance/audit_committee_policy/exhibit_a.html?DCSext.destination=http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/investors/corporate_governance/audit_committee_policy/exhibit_a.html (Accessed: 11 January, 2010)

7. Staffordshire (2009), “Statutory Health & Safety Responsibilities”, Available at: http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:7eGTuuEZl6kJ:education.staffordshire.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/966D7E6F-9738-4E4A-BCCF-08CB1B335E75/12507/StatutoryHealthsafetyresponsibilities2.doc+Documentation+required+accounting+for+compliance+with+statutory+regulations+and+health+and+safety+measures&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk (Accessed: 13 January, 2010)