There are two members posts pertaining to this discussion could you come up with a thoughtful, well supported response for each member discussion. They only need to be about half of a page to one page in length for each one. And cite references in support agreements of or arguments. Expand upon the original point or provide an outside source that illustrates it. You can always disagree as well [as long as it is done in a respectful manner]. Provide a counterpoint or outside source to refute the original comment. Identify and discuss your most valuable learning from this course. Be sure to indicate WHY this particular information is important to your education. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT. YOUR POST TO DISCUSSION: Overall, there are three concepts which I found highly interesting from this course. They include Technology, Teamwork and Job Design from module 5. These three topics are of special importance and relevance in the current business scenario. Technology is an important component of businesses and as technological changes take place there is always a need to adopt new technology. Business environment is full of intense competition and in the face of stiff competition, companies always need to innovate their process in order to remain ahead. However, there are a number of difficulties related to adoption of technology also. While there is external pressure related to adoption of technology, from inside there may be resistance to the adoption of technology. Despite knowing that technology is going to increase productivity, people may resist its adoption. Technology is essential for performance and in the 21st century everything is based on technology. Companies are also racing against each other to stay ahead in terms of technology. Technology is also important for customer satisfaction. From production to customer service and human resources everywhere technology has gained a special importance. A number of task which were once done manually are now done with the help of technology and can be completed more easily as well as in less time. The next valuable topic is teamwork. Today's organizations are largely team based and teams have a special importance since major tasks have to be carried out by teams inside the organizations. In such an environment much depends on team work as having well organized teams leads to high productivity and tasks can be achieved easily without any wastage of time or efforts. Efficient teams are necessary for the accomplishment of tasks and for getting projects completed in time. It is why companies are focussing especially on having motivated and collaborative teams which can provide satisfactory work in time. The team based approach is also advantageous in many more ways. Teams are composed of people with a variety of talents which helps at making decisions and solving problems from various angles. Since people have a variety of skills it makes handling complex task easier as well. The last topic is Job design. \"The process of job design has been defined as, specification of the contents, methods, and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder.\" (Bailey, n.d.) It is the process of deciding that which person will do which tasks and will bear which responsibilities. Proper design is very important and helps companies at being more successful and competitive in the market. However, it is believed that effective accomplishment of the job and satisfaction follow from the intrinsic content of the job. Therefore, most companies are focussing on effective job design so that the employees may remain focussed and motivated. Overall throughout the course I have learned and retained a lot of new ways to apply operations management concepts and process to my job at hand also at a higher level. This course was intense and very numbers based but great learnings and tools to have going forward. References: Bailey, M. L. (n.d.). Job Design. In CEDU. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://www.cedu.niu.edu/~bailey/ftf564/jobdes.pdf MEMBER #1's POST TO SAME DISCUSION: TAKE AWAY: The most valuable thing I learned during this course happened from the very first Module and that is how production and operations management touches every facet of business. This is of particular importance to me because I am graduating this semester with my Bachelor's in Business Administration. In particular, I enjoyed learning about the systems approach because "it leads to better decisions and provides better problem-solving for complex situations, enabling those that use it to be more successful...in business, those using the systems approach are the leading competitors in every industry" (Starr, 2008, p. 10). There is an interdependence that occurs here where coordination is key. If this does not happen then things like supply and demand will not be coordinated effectively or quality standards will decline, among others. Of course we know that a business is made up of different working parts but it was good to see the big picture view of what this all means for it and how working together in an efficient and effective way can make or break a company. I got to see "behind the counter" on the other end of operations and it provided me new perspective. Reference Starr, M. (2008). Production and operations management (2nd ed.). Mason, OH: Atomic Dog. MEMBER #2's POST TO SAME DISCUSION: TAKE AWAY: The most valuable learning for me in this course was in Module 5 when we studied how technology affects our work process. It was really hard for me to relate most of the material covered in this course to what I plan to do as a career, but the technology part resonated the most. I plan on working in nonprofit management and fundraising when I get my BS in Business Admin. so being able to optimize processes using technology will be important. Most nonprofits run short staffed with tight budgets so efficiency is key. It was great working with everyone and best of luck in the future. MEMBER #3's POST TO SAME DISCUSION: TAKE AWAY: The most interesting chapter was 9 which was on job design. I am currently working on streamlining procedures for a new position at our office. The person who was moved to the new position is taking too long to process her work based on the capacity model. She should only be spending half of her work week on the job. The other half of the time she needs to help me with my work since I am allocated 2.5 people at our current rate of work. Reading chapter 9, helped me understand how these number are computed. As part of this process of streamlining, we have to come up with standard processing times for activities which is did a sampling of a few people in our department to get an average time