GMS 401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Capacity Planning, Competitive Advantage, Customer Service

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Global Management Studies
• Course: GMS 401
• Professor: Omid Jadidi

Document Summary

Forecasting: demand for flights, the growth in air travel, and weather and landing conditions. Capacity planning: deciding the number of planes and where to use them. Scheduling: of planes for flights and for routine maintenance, scheduling of pilots and flight attendants, scheduling of ground crews, counter staff, and baggage handlers. Employee motivation and training in all phases of operations. Location of facilities according to top managers" decision on : which cities to provide service for, where to locate maintenance facilities. Buying materials such as fuel, food, bags and spare parts. Key customers" key purchasing factors: price, quality, variety, timeliness. Other purchasing factors: customer service, convenient location. Implies the creating of a system that has a unique advantage over competitors. The idea is to create customer value in an efficient and sustainable way. Pure forms of these strategies may exist, but operations manager will more likely be called on to implement some combination of them.