Use of Visual Factory System at Philip Morris International Like Philip Morris International (PMI), every company sees customer satisfaction as their first objective whether the company manufacturing unit or service unit. Therefore a company that aims at overcoming their competitors must convert resources (which include money, materials, labor, and information) into goods or services efficiently. . Operations management is the strategy applied in order to realize this objective. Conversion of a product idea into a finished product, as well as planning and controlling of the systems that produce goods and services is the job of operation management team led by an operation manager. Some of the aspects of operation management at PMI discussed in this paper include: product planning, production control, and quality control. In production planning, the operation management team determines how goods will be manufactured, a location where production will take place, and how manufacturing facilities will be laid out. Philip Morris International (PMI) operates 53 production facilities in 33 different countries and produces more than 870 billion cigarettes each year. Cigarette manufacturing occurs in three stages: processing of the tobacco leaf; production of the cigarettes; and packaging and preparation for distribution. Philip Morris U.S.A.; Philip Morris International Company; Kraft Canada Company; Company; Miller Brewing Company; Philip Morris Capital Corporation, Kraft Foods International, Kraft Foods Company (Mickler, 2009). During the production process operation management team must constantly plan and supervise the activities that relate to production process. They must ask and analyze the responses and make adjustments where necessary. Marlboro is the main brand at Philip Morris Inc. which was launched in 1925.Working hand-in-hand with its experienced marketers, Philip Use of Visual Factory System at Philip Morris International 2 Morris came up with a number of innovative advertising strategies as additional support for their new product (Marlboro) and in the year 1975 the brand became the top brand in the U.S (Pande, 2004). At this phase of production, the team will also monitor the procurement process of raw materials and the management of inventories. Production process halts whenever a manufacturer runs out of the materials necessary for production. Recently, Philip Morris stock had hit its lowest stock level in three years. This had prompted the company to review its overall operations strategy to make sure that it can revive its past pace (Philip Morris International,2008). In the final division of production, the operations management team is actively involved in efforts to make sure that goods are manufactured in accordance to provisions and that quality standards are retained. Working with representatives from various countries, the organization has established the ISO 9000 family of international standards for quality management and the ISO 14000 family of international standards for environmental management (Philip Morris International,2009). At Philip Morris International subsidiary in Costa Rica has been keen to integrate a visual factory in their production activities. Fundamentally, a visual factory is a system used to display schedule boards, tool boards, production boards and many other items in the production facility (Mickler, 2009). The company took gain of this to show what was done with the project and to display the advancement on the project and if the results were being effective. The idea of visual factory is to provide top management and workers an idea of what is happening in the plant (Pande, 2004). Use of Visual Factory System at Philip Morris International 3 In 1999, through its newly launched website the company admitted that smoking cause cancer and since then, many countries obligated partial or total bans on tobacco advertising, marketing and promotion. Some countries where the company sells its cigarettes require health warning on the cigarette packs (Pande, 2004). Summary The visual factory project will improve efficiency and productivity, lower costs, and increase capacity use. The company should use automated operations management software system in order to manage production planning, process, quality, and maintenance of its operations. The use of this integrated software systems to perform these capabilities will stream line operations through the coordination of people, materials, equipment, and processes involved in manufacturing. Also, removal of paper based processes eliminates mistakes and quickens production and quality management undertakings. Use of Visual Factory System at Philip Morris International References Mickler, Jerzy., (2009). Process Control and Management [LectureNotes] Stockholm, Sweden: Kungliga Tekniska Hgskolan, Department of Production Engineering Pande, P. (2004), Las claves practicas de seis sigma. McGraw-Hill. Interamericano de Espana, S.A. Philip Morris International. (2008), Secondary Standard Practices, Philip Morris International Quality System Document 5413. Philip Morris International. (2011), Manufacturing Key Performance Indicators, Philip Morris International Quality System Document 4