Global Transportation

It is commonly said that the world is gradually becoming a global village. Now, reduction in trade barriers and advancement in communications and transportation technology made global manufacturing networks more effective and efficient. Therefore, the increasing in Globalization becomes a challenge in the manufacturing industry and in turn for operations managers. It does not only imply that local firm faces competition from abroad, but also means that the former goes international. Competing with firms from abroad means a firm will have to remain competitive by providing high quality goods and services at lower prices. The operations manager would definitely be concerned with this. Meanwhile, the operations manager will have to engage in the four functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling to ensure that the product or service remains competitive in the global market. Moreover, there would be a demand for the operations manager's creative skills as innovation is a key factor for the success of the business in this highly competitive world. In fact, more companies are going global so that the operations manager needs to have greater knowledge of international business and different cultures. Either products or services need to be adapted to suit the demand in such countries. Consequently, this will be a challenge for the operation managers as it would require their creative skills.

In order to overcome the challenges due to globalization, the operation managers need to specialize product and target market which will keep the uniqueness of a product or service to be able to compete in the global market. Besides that, they must clearly understand their competitors and the foreign cultures. For instance, the operations manager needs to know specifically which types of products or services are in demand and cultures of countries where the firm plan to expand its’ market. Therefore, the firm can take a consideration of the threats, weakness, opportunities and strengths of itself of its’ competitors in the future markets. After that, the firm can effective creative the good strategy and able to go global.