Environmental Management and Operational Performance

Question: Discuss about the Environmental Management and Operational Performance. Answer: Introduction The primary emphasis of developing this essay is forming the critical arguments associated with the operational issues encountered by Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. The given case study related to the company is required conducting in-depth analysis and review for developing the critical knowledge related to the operating issues. From the analysis, it is determined that Hawkesbury Cabinets was initially established to manufacture custom-built kitchen cabinetry. The operations of the business were comprehensively controlled and managed by two brothers Fung and Mei Chen. It is primarily observed that the increasing sale of the custom-built kitchen had influenced the rising reputations of the company in the identified community. For capturing more opportunity from the target market, the firm had decided to continue with an additional production while focusing mainly on the maintenance of quality (Jabbour, et al., 2013). This particular scenario drives the business to focus majorly on the operations management, which is one of the central topics of business research and practices in the modern day context. During the growth of operations, different kinds of flaws were observed specifically in the production department of Hawkesbury Cabinets. The difficulties are mainly identified in the planning and designing, execution, and location of the manufacturing unit (Lavastre, Gunasekaran Spalanzani, 2012). Therefore, the particular issues should need to be identified critically by developing the evaluative arguments related to the case of Hawkesbury Cabinets. The critical arguments will adequately cover the useful areas like the current practices adopted by the company in its production facility, the impact of new production line to the operations, and the implication of the new production process on the overall financial structure of the enterprise. Analysis and Arguments A technical analysis should need to be performed based on the identified case study of Hawkesbury Cabinets for determining the challenges experienced by the manufacturing operations. For achieving the requirements of the analysis, the current production system and processes used by Hawkesbury Cabinets should need to be investigated. Based on the case study, Hawkesbury Cabinets had primarily focused on manufacturing only the custom-made kitchens as part of its operations belonging to the small business segment for satisfying the needs of the respective community. During the continuation of the business, the company had experienced the increasing shift in demands from the customers of its target market (Wong, et al., 2012). The scenario caused in the growing sales of the existing items produced by the company while causing the growth in its financial position ultimately. The situation drove the company to make use of the identified opportunity from the market by taking decision of manu facturing the additional item in the small volume contracts. From the case study, it is ascertained that the company had engaged in the production of builders kitchens in the limited units. Subsequently, the managing director of the company decided to provide equal importance on continuing both of the production processes for ensuring the increasing growth of revenues and profit from the identified market. From the mentioned understanding, it is determined that the particular decision had caused the company to experience significant difficulties in pursuing both types of manufacturing activities within the same production facility (Davenport, 2013). The analysis of the case study helps to generate a critical fact that a Job Shop Manufacturing process was adopted by the company to produce the specific quantity of builders kitchen (Meredith Shafer, 2009, PP.116). Job shop manufacturing technique is responsible for supporting the production of small batches of builders kitchen by the company and meeting the predetermined demands of the market. Nevertheless, the particular manufacturing process requires a high level of expertise. Moreover, the useful involvement of a unique set-up and sequencing technique are essential for the practical application of the identified manufacturing system (Tseng Hu, 2014). Hawkesbury Cabinets faced the typical hurdles in maintaining the proposed requirements due to the limited availability of resources in the production facility. Through the analysis of the case study, it is revealed that the various production departments, such as the painting and finishing and assembly capacity, were not close to each other. The particular factor caused a high level of difficulty for the company in the sequencing process for producing a large quantity of the new product. The earlier arguments indicate that the decision made by Hawkesbury Cabinets for manufacturing the new builders line of kitchen was initially responsible for causing the identified problems. Therefore, the effects of new builders kitchen line in creating the critical problems associated with the operations of Hawkesbury Cabinets must need to be identified for raising the important arguments. As discussed by the case study, the company failed to achieve the expected rate of profit in the current financial period despite the decision to produce builders line of kitchen had contributed to the increasing revenues for the business. The underlying reason of the growing sale of the new builders kitchen was driven by the significant demands in the particular market. At the same time, it must need to mention that the business was encountering fundamental problems due to the elevating costs associated with the production of its new line of product (Brandenburg, et al., 2014). The manufacturing process of the new products required the business to maintain growing amount of capitals tied up with the raw materials. Hence, it can be argued that the effects of producing new builders line of kitchen had affected the overall operational efficiency of Hawkesbury Cabinets from multiple aspects. Some of the significant areas associated with the operations of the business such as factory overhead, product delivery, role of individuals in the production process, and use of equipment were hampered by the manufacturing process followed by the company for the new builders line. In order to produce the required quantity of new product and satisfying the increasing demands of the market, the firm required maintaining the supply of additional materials from the outside sources (Golicic Smith, 2013). The individual situation could critically drive the company to install new and complex machines or equipment in the production facility, which might raise the possibility of manufacturing bre akdown or malfunction. Hence, the overall arguments point out the increase in operating cost for the company resulting in the degrading rate of profit from the identified business activities. In this particular scenario, the decision to move on to producing builders kitchens might provide some drastic effects on the financial structure of Hawkesbury Cabinets. If the company had decided to continue with the production of builders kitchen, it would drive the business to capitalise fully on the implementation of job shop manufacturing technique. The company would require renting a new storage unit to ensure the effective introduction of the mentioned manufacturing method, as there was limited space available in the current manufacturing location. The particular expansion of the storage unit would maximise the operational cost for the company resulting the profitability to be hampered significantly (Meredith Shafer, 2009, PP.191). Therefore, the company will experience a continuously reducing rate of profit as compared to the current situation due to the implication of the proposed decision. Lastly, the entire financial structure of the company could be affected radically if such decision was followed and executed by Hawkesbury Cabinets. Conclusion From the overall analysis of the case associated with Hawkesbury Cabinets, some of the critical arguments involving the operations management are formed. These arguments have mostly helped to enrich the understanding stating that the degree of operating issues depends on the particular decisions taken by the operations managers of an organization. In case of Hawkesbury Cabinets, the production related operations meet contingencies due to the inefficiencies in making vital operating decisions by the management. In addition, it suggests that the management is inexperienced enough to predict a client management planning according to the operational capabilities of the firm. References Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J., Seuring, S. (2014). 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