At the end of the day, all you can hope for is a happy customer and money in your pocket. But getting there is easier said than done - a medley of operations and logistics need to all fall in place for this to happen. The effectiveness of your hard work, the quality of your offering, and the efficiency with which they come together all boil down to proper operations management. Without it, your customers will never be happy and the money will never make it to your pocket.

Effective operations management has two main purposes - to ensure that quality standards are met and that those standards are met in a cost-effective manner. It will ultimately help you to maximize the use of your current resources so that you can profit as much as possible, while also keeping your customers as happy as possible.

Identifying Your Operations

Since proper operations management involves taking a good look at your processes to make sure they’re running smoothly, it is important to be able to identify the operational processes in your business. Once organized, these processes will be much easier to focus on and optimize.

Product Design and Delivery

You know what your product or service is, now you just need to create it, complete it, and deliver it.  That is where the operations come in. If you make reclaimed wooden furniture, you need a process in place that directs your workflow, especially if you have an apprentice working with you. If you receive an order for 4 benches, you need to know how long they will each take and that each will turn out the same as the other. If you are a wedding planner, you need a process in place that directs how your service is delivered to your customer. Maybe it is 2 meetings per month, 4 checklist updates, and a detailed workflow for the wedding day - something that ensures you can deliver what you prom ... Sign in to read more