Organize the Operations

The baker's activity develops but it's difficult to take care of the bread production and customer sales at the same time…

The baker clearly needs some reinforcement…

The Baker has to structure his Operations: identify the Actors to execute the Actions (produce, sell, manage the stocks, take the orders).

The baker recruits apprentices (Actors) to execute certain Actions (production process) with Information (stock level, open orders...). Actors, Actions and Information are the three pillars of the Operations.

  1. The life cycle

    The Product life cycle is made up of several stages: Design and make changes to the Model, Produce, Distribute, Use and Maintain.
    The design and changes to the Model are part of the "Transformation" as we will see later, whereas the other 4 stages are part of the "Operations": we will first concentrate at the Operations.

  2. The Product life cycle: Goods and Information

    The life cycle of a product

    1. Produce

      • Acquire production tools
      • Use Component-Products purchased from other Enterprises
      • Produce Goods or Information made available for Distribution

    2. Distribute

      • Promote the Product and the Distributor
      • Sell: welcome, convince, manage contracts, invoice, recover debts
      • Make available: deliver, install
      Downloading a book without having to go to a shop, whenever you want to, can be a positive Distribution Value for some, whereas others will prefer the Value of being able to flick through the pages in a bookshop and ask for advice.

    3. Use the Product

      Basic Value
      Using the Product enables the Customer to benefit from the basic Value.
      As it happens, using a book generates the "pleasure of reading" Value.

      Usability Value
      What is the difference between buying a paper book or downloading the same book in an electronic format?
      The book's content (Information) is the same (same basic Value), but the usability is not the same. Certain people prefer a paper format out of habit, or for the smell of the paper, or for the feel of the cover, or to make notes on the pages.
      Others will prefer the electronic version to be able to easily carry their library around with them, to pay less, or to increase the font size.

    4. Maintain

      Goods may need, at a later date, to be updated, repaired, controlled and even disposed of... that we have grouped together under the term Development.

  3. Service life cycle

    The service life cycle is simpler because it is not storable.

    The life cycle of a Product when it is a Service

    • Distribute: Promote the Service and Sell it
    • Produce the Service

  4. Manage the Resources and management

    Production and Distribution Processes are the main Processes of the Enterprise.
    But any Enterprise also needs to execute two other families of Processes to manage its Resources and steer the Enterprise.

    1. Manage the resources


      Resources are necessary to execute the previous Processes: employees, partners, IT, finance, premises...
      Operational Processes are needed to manage these Resources.
      • Management of human resources
      • Management of partners, such as distributors or suppliers
      • Management of IT resources
      • Management of financial resources
      • Management of premises resources

    2. Management

      Managing the enterprise includes defining the operational objectives and their result: follow production and distribution levels, development of resources, accounts...
      It also includes providing legal and statutory information (such as Financial Accountancy).

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The story of George the Baker is made available under the terms of the
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