Member-only story
4 Habits of Successful People in Operations
Know Efficiency
The secret weapon of someone who works in operations is efficiency. A habit of someone in operations is to optimize processes to decrease the cost of goods per unit, making it possible to sell at a lower cost and leaving a margin just high enough to remain agile in competitive business environments.
Today’s efficiency models date back to when Toyota shifted to a “just-in-time” model, focusing purely on production costs, product quality, and delivery, and worker involvement to minimize excess time and overall costs. This model became the foundation for today’s more commonly used efficiency model, lean manufacturing. Production from a system pushing out products in batches is taken to a flowing system that systematically produces single units as needed, at an optimum cost.
See The Big Picture
If you work in operations you have to make sure your focus remains on the overall objective, instead of the narrow focus of different department goals. Operation leaders are team players who can pull everyone together to push towards the main goal.
Focus on Quality
Anyone who knew the way Steve Jobs ran Apple, knew he held his products to a high standard and expected his employees to mimick his demand for…