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Company Research Assignment
Introduction to supply chain and operations management (oper1420)
Conestoga College
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1 Company Research Assignment Table of Contents Part 1: Careers Part 2: Operations Management Decisions Part 3: Mission, Strategies and Competitive Advantages References: 3 4 7 9 2 Part 1: Careers The company I chose is Giant Tiger. Giant Tiger is a Canadian owned and operated discount retailer since 1961. Giant Tiger sells many products such as groceries, clothing, health, beauty and house ware products. I chose Giant Tiger because I know a few people who work there and I am curious to learn more about the store and to see if it is actually worth working there. The National Occupational Standards code for Giant Tiger would be 7452 for Store Clerk. A store clerk is a person who sorts, stores, and issues parts and supplies by hand or by using stock handling equipment. Store Clerk responsibilities include: ● Perform general physical activities in order to sort, store, and issue stock by hand or using stock handling equipment. (equipment that does not require personnel certification in order to operate) ● Unpack, count, weigh and often sort products received by the facility ● Inspect items and communicate information about damaged goods and report overages and shortages ● Perform loss prevention activities ● Appropriately manage / discard waste (e., packing materials) respecting the facility’s waste, reuse, and recycling procedures ● Perform tasks in multi-temperature environments 4 may be paying less which is why some of the salaries are higher than others. I believe that these salaries are different because some of these websites may not be taking in account the different salaries, and different hours. This would be a job I would be interested in perusing because it pays well and sounds like a pretty simple job. I think that my future job will actually have some of the same job responsibilities so it would be great to practice now and see what I am getting into in the future. I also believe I would take this job because it matches my skill set, and I know a few people who work at Giant Tiger so it would be great to work with them. I believe that I would take this job if it was offered to me because once again, it pays well and I think it would be a good career for a summer job or a temporary job until I get one I would really enjoy. In conclusion, I believe a Giant Tiger store clerk actually pays well, the responsibilities would not too difficult and you do not require much education as well. In conclusion, giant tiger seems to pay very well and I would love to look into a part time position in Giant Tiger while I am living in Kitchener. Part 2: Operations Management Decisions The ten critical decisions of operations management include: 1. Design of Goods and services 2. Quality Management 3. Process and Capacity Design 4. Location Strategy 5. Layout Design Strategy 6. Human Resources and Job Design 7. Supply Chain Management 8. Inventory, Material Requirements Planning and JIT 9. Intermediate and Short Term Scheduling 10. Maintenance These 10 critical decisions of operations management are important variables in any successful business but I believe that out of the 10 critical decisions of operations management, the 6 that Giant Tiger would use most would be: 1. Designs of Goods and Service 2. Quality Management 3. Location Strategy 4. Intermediate and Short-term Scheduling 5. Inventory, Material Requirements Planning and JIT 6. Human Resources and Job Design The reason I chose these 6 out of the 10 critical decisions of operations managements would because Giant Tiger is a very comfortable workplace and they strive to ensure that everything is perfectly laid out for their customers. Figure 1 in the textbook clearly states that each of these decisions of operations management are critical, I just think that these would be the 6 that Giant Tiger would be applied most often. The first decision process that I think Giant tiger would use the most is Design of Goods and Services. The textbook states that design of goods and services means what goods should the company offer and how should the company design this product. The decision of what goods and services to provide involves the careful consideration of characterization of products. Since giant tiger is a retailer, the company will offer retail services only. The company’s operations management addresses the design of retail service by prioritizing cost and efficiency. Giant Tiger is known for being a busy Canadian company with very low prices. In order to keep their low price strategy, they have to be very considerate to what products and services they 5 provide. One thing unique about this operating management decision would be that they offer a variety of different brands and they have their own Giant Tiger gift card, which is only designed for giant tiger. The second decision process that I think Giant tiger would use the most is Quality Management. The textbook states that the decision of quality management is how does the company define quality and who is responsible for quality. This strategy is used by Giant Tiger because they are very particular about what they sell, what they buy and from who. Giant tiger needs good quality from low-cost retailers in order to maintain their low prices for customers. This means that they need to be very particular on what they sell, what they buy and from who. If quality management is not done properly, giant tiger may suffer a big loss and their customers may choose to shop somewhere else. One unique thing about giant tiger would be that Giant tiger states that “our products are a reflection of who we are as a company.” (Giant Tiger, 2018). This means that Giant tiger does not want to put out bad quality products because they know that their consumers would stop coming. This makes them unique because other retailer stores do not take pride on each and every product. The third decision process that I think Giant tiger would use the most is Location Strategy. The textbook states that location is the decision area that emphasizes on where their businesses should be located and what criteria should we base our location on. This decision is used by Giant Tiger because their location strategy is to put their business around urban places because they are a family based organization. Giant Tiger wants to be in a spot where they can be convenient for busy families so they will be able to get their product needs for an inexpensive price. Giant Tigers main worry would be to put their business in a convenient spot close to their main target market, in order to be convenient, low-cost, and effective. One thing that is unique about this decision area is Giant tiger is franchising often because “the companies valued customers will be better served” (Giant Tiger, 2018). The fourth decision process that I think Giant tiger would use the most is Intermediate and Short-term Scheduling. The textbook states that scheduling is the business area that decides who works at what time, is the company better off keeping people on the payroll during slowdowns and which job will be performed next. This strategy is used by Giant Tiger because they hire many employees at once and they always post their schedules consistently so their employees know when they have to work. Since Giant Tiger continuously hires new employees, most of their employees may not work that often. The schedule will help their employees because they will know about their upcoming shifts and Giant Tiger can be flexible with their schedules by letting employees work more or work less. Giant Tiger also demonstrates scheduling because they decide when specific items of work will need to be completed. They may not require certain employees often because the work may not need to be done right away or they may not need many employees to get the work done. One thing that is unique about this decision process would be that their schedule is specifically designed for their customers. This schedule would not work at any other retail store. The fifth decision process that I think Giant tiger would use the most is Inventory, material requirements planning and JIT. The textbook states that inventory, material requirements planning and JIT is another important critical decision because it is the planning of when materials come in, and where they would go in the business and you also will need to know 7 decision making or business owners and it helps shape strategy. Since giant tiger has a good mission statement, it will definitely help them exceed. Strategies are long term processes to achieve goals and objectives. The three strategies that I have chosen are marketing, finance/ accounting and operations. These three strategies are the proper strategic process. Marketing strategy is a tactic that begins before you start your business. In order to be successful with your marketing strategy, you must know how it fits into the marketplace, what your competition will be, how you are going to compete with them and what you will need to reach your financial goals. Giant tiger uses this strategy because they had to plan out everything they were going to sell, and what kind of business they were going to be, and they also had to determine their marketing target. Giant tiger strives to be one of the best businesses low price retailers in Canada, and they have been successful by planning to do everything in the right way. Giant tiger has always wanted to keep sell a volume of merchandise at a low price and they stuck with the idea and used the marketing strategy and now they are a very successful. The next marketing strategy that I chose is finance/ accounting strategy. Accounting/ financial strategy is an essential business function companies use to analyze financial information. This financing strategy is critical to an organizations strategic plan. It sets out how the organization plans to finance their business activities to meet its financial goal in the future. “Companies may also use historical financial information to plan new strategies for their growing business operations.” (Small Business, 2018). Giant tiger uses this strategy because the company has stayed successful by staying to the books, and they are still gaining profit. This means that giant tiger has established their financial goals and they are continuously monitoring their accounts in order to work towards their goal. Financial strategy has become very relevant in order to become a successful business and giant tiger has done a very good job using this strategy since they have been open since 1961. The next critical strategy is operations. Operating strategy is what certain elements a company may use to reach their goals. By using operational strategies, a company can rule out and take a closer look at their company using resources, work process, and their workforce. This helps the company determine what needs to improve and what they need to use in order to reach their goal. Giant tiger uses this strategy because they have recently started an expansion plan for a few of their businesses. I believe giant tiger’s goal would be to expand all of their businesses and to also be successful their new women’s lines. This means that giant tiger will use operational strategies because they will have to look deep into their company’s resources such as money, location, advertisement, and workforce. Once giant tiger takes a closer look at their resources, they can determine their work process and their workforce. In conclusion, giant tiger uses many different strategies in order to keep their business successful and to constantly restructure their business so they can better their business. A competitive advantage is a that will put company in a certain situation that will put them in a favorable spot. The three different competitive advantages are differentiation, cost leadership, and response. Differentiation means that there will be a distinct difference with the product or service. Giant tiger uses this strategy because although they offer many of the same products as a variety of other retail stores, they are very different because they offer different brands for their products, and they offer different products. For example, both Walmart and giant tiger offer shirts but Walmart offers George and giant tiger offers mySTYLE. This is a perfect example of how different each store is because both 8 stores are retail stores, they offer very similar products but they use different brands because they want to be distinct. The next competitive advantage strategy that cost leadership. Cost leadership is the lowest cost of product in a certain industry. Giant tiger is defiantly known for using this tactic because they are always using the lowest prices. They are known for being very cheap and they continuously offer several discount deals, and sales so they can compete with their competitors. This helps giant tiger keep their reputation of having great deals for low prices which makes consumers stay loyal to their business. The last competitive strategy is response. A response strategy means a quick answer or reply. Giant tiger uses this strategy because they are very flexible, quick, and reliable. This helps giant tiger with the response approach because they are always putting out new products and they may have to be flexible with their products by changing them to meet the market needs. They also have to be very quick and efficient in order to compete with their competitors. Giant tiger is reliable because consumers know they can come to their store to get most of what they may need such as clothing, groceries, and more. Giant tiger must pay very close attention to this detail because they have a variety of close retailers that will be providing new products often and if giant tiger is not careful, they will not maintain their products. In conclusion, giant tiger has used a variety of strategic tactics to keep their business successful. These strategies have helped them stay profitable. If giant tiger manages to use new strategies, as well as their old ones, they will be able to keep their business open for a long time. References:
Company Research Assignment
Course: Introduction to supply chain and operations management (oper1420)
University: Conestoga College
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