The operations plan is the one that marks much of the actions of the back office and its link points with Marketing and Sales, so it is important to leave well defined, as it will allow modeling and standardizing many processes that are relevant to a company and that are part of the core of the company
Operations Plan, key points:
The production plan for products or services within the operations plan
1.- Production plan in theoperations plan
It is important to know the production costs and production techniques used, this is one of the key points of the company when it comes to increasing profits for companies as it can constantly improve both the production processes of product or services, getting better prices each time, and even relying on the lower prices caused by innovation itself, and prices both in terms of improvements and purchases by volume of product or negotiation of volume hours of work in the case of services
Quality control in the operations plan is essential both to reduce costs due to product returns and to ensure that the customer’s perception is the best possible, quality control techniques are highly evolved and allow for a very small margin of error
Customer service in the operations plan, is one of the things that keep the company running smoothly, as it is the link between production and customer problems, a good customer service allows to identify problems directly from the customer’s point of view, often in the form of complaints, which if well organized by the company can be a very high value to achieve a constant improvement in the operations plan
Inventory control in the operations plan, good inventory management in companies is one of the keys to reducing and controlling costs, so it is essential to have a good inventory control method
Product development in the operations plan, everything related to product development is something that must be clearly contemplated in the operations plan, since it is the production base on which all other components of the operations plan are subsequently developed
2.- Physical and digital locations in the operations plan
Everything related to locations is also an important part to highlight in the operations plan, although in the case of technology companies we would also have to define here what relates to digital locations or relocations, since in addition to the company’s own communications we must have the necessary interfaces to be able to develop the activity through the Internet or other platforms
For example in the area of meetings, which is an area that would fall on the operations plan, you can see a post of mine in which I talk about 8 Free Video Conferencing Systems, and if for example you are going to set up an online store the tools that exist today are good and very cheap, you can see another post on 7 commerce systems to create an Immediate Online Store
Of course, in case you have to have some kind of specific accessibility, it is necessary that it is reflected in that plan of operations and also planned at an economic level, logically. As well as the physical construction needs, if any type of specific construction is required (for example, the Datacenter has a series of additional regulations to comply with respect to a normal company in terms of security and infrastructure)
3.- Legal scope in the operations plan
The legal area is fundamental in the operations plan and often the one that entrepreneurs are less interested in, but there are many relevant things to take into account in this area that you cannot overlook
Necessary permits for the company’s activity
Labor, health, and environmental permits in the company, depending on each country there are some or others, although they are more or less similar
Urban planning and construction, as well as necessary services. For example, if it is necessary to develop an industrial building for an activity, it is necessary to see what the municipality or the city manager marks as necessary
Insurance and actuarial issues and also coverage for possible incidents in operations or daily activities
Of course, everything related to patents, trademarks and licenses that you may have to get protection for your developments and so on
4.- Personnel management in the Operations Plan
You need to know at this point in the operations plan the number of employees that will be needed, the type of work they will perform and whether that work requires a certain qualification or not, or whether it is necessary to rely on external professionals, the pay structure by levels of the company, the training needed at the general level and at the departmental level
On the other hand, you need to be very clear about who does what, i.e. what tasks are performed by whom, the operations plan will appreciate it
It is very important to have in the operations plan a guide of prepared procedures, and if each area or department can do it and update it from time to time is better than better, that allows that when you incorporate a new member in the team, that person can get up to date in a very fast way and focus on the objectives of the area or the company as soon as possible
It is necessary that you define the type of profiles that you are going to have in each position in the operations plan, Take time to do this, because if you have this well standardized as a task to update when you need a good person for a position you will have very clear the required profile, in fact, this is one of the biggest mistakes of companies, including the selection departments, as often people who join companies are required to perform functions that are not why they were hired and this can generate gaps in motivation in people
In case the profile of workers you have in the operations plan cannot allow you to get professionals at the price you have defined, also consider the option of having external professionals in the operations plan to perform certain tasks
5.- Inventory management in the operations plan
It is important to have contemplated in the operations plan the inventories with which the company will work, the type of materials or equipment on which inventories are made, average value of stocks that should be kept so that this covers the needs of the company but there is not an excess of requests for materials that may not be used and become money thrown away
Average times in which you will receive those stocks in case you need them and delivery time gaps to work with, in fact at this point sometimes you work with suppliers who sign contracts in which there are penalties in case they do not make the deliveries in the right way in time
6.- Supplier management in the operations plan
It is very important to have a clear base of suppliers, with the list of those that exist and even look for comparisons of the sector of the same ones, sometimes you can get comparisons that allow you to know those that operate better or worse, the most expensive ones, those that have better or worse service, etc. Payment policies with them, etc
7.- Credit policies in the operation plan
If you are going to offer credit policies or specific payment systems to customers, you need to record it in this area of the operations plan, since there are a series of negotiations with banks or management with credit operators or payment systems to be carried out so that each operation with customers allows a payment formula to those customers that allows them to have their product quickly and that payments are made easily
8.- Management of payments and collections in the trading plan
The way in which the subject of collections and payments works best in companies is usually when they depend on the scope of the operations plan, of course with interrelation to the financial plan, but dependent on the operations plan that has access to the complete operations of the company
At this point there are professionals who prefer to incorporate it in finance this topic, but the experience in the analysis of more than 150 companies personally in USA, Latin America and Spain to me personally seems to me that it is better that it depends on this area