How to Become an Ops Manager? Top 6 Production Skills of 2023

An operations manager (ops manager) is the unsung hero of the production process. In a tech-driven world propelled by the meticulous demands of the market, ops managers are the ones who bridge all the aspects of production, resulting in satisfied customers. Operations managers handle five critical components of production: project management, strategies and operations, human resources, finance, and data analysis. From budget margins to final expenditures, ops managers steer and control client needs while showing consistent company growth simultaneously. This blog highlights ops managers’ significance, how they drive business profitability, and their contribution to improving organizational design.

The Role of an Ops Manager

1. Recognizing Client Needs

The first step in operations management involves establishing a direct link with the client’s needs. The final product quality depends on the ops managers’ efficiency in understanding what the customers want. This is an important criterion to boost a company’s image.

2. Managing Employees

Ops managers wear the hat of a communicator, monitoring the completion of several parallel-running work objectives back in the production room. Employee management is a daily task of an ops manager. This involves assigning tasks to individual team members and checking and measuring team efficiency.

3. Implementing Standards & Best Business Practices

All businesses operate within the local compliance rules. The operations manager has to verify and ensure that everyone follows these guidelines. Complying with the industry standards also entails installing the necessary infrastructure to promote sustainable business practices.

6 Essential Skills for Ops Managers

Operation managers develop a strong network of hard and soft skills to perform their professional responsibilities successfully. These include:

1. Optimizing Operational Efficiency

Risk analysis, strong technical knowledge, strategic planning, etc., are some of the processes that fall under the umbrella term of optimizing operations.

• Risk analysis: Every new initiative, company decision, or product development comes with a risk quotient. Assessing the potential dangers ensures the smooth functioning of all critical operations processes.
• Technical knowledge: Sound decision-making also means knowing how and when to deploy the latest developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), productivity tools, etc. With most industries being tech-driven today, operational management demands high technical efficiency.
• Strategic planning: The ops manager has the most critical role of foreseeing difficulties and coming up with creative solutions. This requires thorough strategic planning involving analytical data to make sound business process adjustments.

ALSO READ: What is Business Management? How to be a Good Business Manager

2. New Product Development

A product ops manager is often involved in the various developmental stages of a project, and it requires the following skills:

• Knowledge of product development principles
• Product management basics
• Prioritization
• Market research proficiency

The above set of skills enables operations managers to promote the best practices of product development and ensure end products of the highest quality. It also helps them to align product goals with long-term company goals and maintain a competitive edge in the market.

3. Effective Team Management

Dealing with innumerable departments and outlining their goals are some of the daily run-of-the-mill tasks for ops managers. This demands high leadership, trust, and intuitive communication from the ops manager. Effective team management skills help production departments in the following ways:

• Regularly diminish functional and communication conflicts
• Strong people management skills lead to employee positivity and workforce efficiency
• Excellent communication prevents any breakdown in the production process
• Active listening increases employee trust and fosters their interest in collaboration

4. Data Processing Expertise

No matter which industry you belong to, the skill of data expertise is transferable everywhere. Ops managers have the prime duty of leveraging data for company growth, and this has become all the more critical, thanks to the rising demand for data-literate professionals. Today, companies produce all kinds of data at every level of the organization. To truly optimize company operations effectively, ops managers need stringent data processing expertise.

This is how a data-literate operations manager can help the organization:

• Monitor data anomalies and correct operational errors
• Investigate the digital twin of complex technological infrastructure to predict and optimize potential supply chain breakdowns
• Back up sensitive client data to prevent misuse. This helps increase brand reputation
• Automate specific processes by setting up alerts and simplifying database management

Ops managers oversee operations at every level of the organization. Thus, the application and range of their data-driven operations can include anything from sales, product development, distribution, and more.

5. Budget Administration

Operations managers have extensive financial duties vis-a-vis organizational effectiveness. They handle and keep track of company expenditures and product expenditures, predict revenues, forecast future growth, etc. The budgetary responsibilities of ops managers include the following:

• Ensuring all operation processes take the most cost-effective approach
• Maintaining legal compliance with all production processes
• Overseeing inventory and warehouse efficiency
• Negotiating with suppliers, clients, and wholesalers
• Working with senior managers to determine long-term operational strategies

In turn, strong budget administration requires the following skills:

• Accounting
• Business administration
• Setting realistic allotments for different departments
• Effective financial judgment skills
• Strong scenario planning skills

ALSO READ: What are the Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Manager

6. Organizational Skills

The one hat that an ops manager always needs to wear is that of an organizer. The success of industrial operations depends on how efficient the processes are and their timeliness and synchronization. With this in mind, an ops manager must be adept at:

• Keeping track of projects
• Maintaining synchronization of workflows
• Tracking projects and checking the bandwidth of professionals
• Communicating with managers regularly to update them about the latest project developments
• Motivating and leading teams within a thorough schedule

Challenges and Solutions for Ops Managers

Some of the primary occupational hazards that ops managers face are:

1. Labor Shortages

Although there are many jobs, there aren’t enough people to fill them all. This has been a recurring issue since the pandemic, and its solution lies in maintaining the best labor management practices. Good labor management practices involve:

• Managing job marketing
• Increasing labor wages
• Undertaking advanced labor training programs
• Leveraging AI and automation

2. Logistical Disruption

Logistical delays are a common area of concern for ops managers. To tackle the ongoing supply chain disruptions, they must:

• Address an aging workforce with new hires and better pay
• Strategize work schedules to avoid workers’ fatigue
• Manage supply-demand congestion by increasing warehouse space, strong inventory tracking, and automation

3. Equipment Downtime

Downtime refers to the period during which any machinery is out of use due to maintenance issues. Since production facilities handle loads of heavy equipment such as conveyor systems and forklifts, operations managers need to counter insufficient maintenance, aging equipment, and errors of machine operators. The only solution for this is regular checks and establishing a practice of predictive maintenance.

4. Inventory Management

Multiple stock-keeping units, inaccurate data, and changing market demands are some of the inventory-related challenges for ops managers. A highly digitized inventory management system is one of the best ways to keep track of every kind of goods. This allows completely automated real-time analysis of the available inventory. Moreover, tech-driven solutions such as installing RF scanners erase any potential error from the inventory database.

Strong operational strategy and product management skills are as important for an ops manager as documenting the different production processes. Company’s profits soar when the operations team tightens workflows and ensures zero wastage of production time. Explore these online operation management courses </u<from Emeritus to understand the latest developments in operations management and drive massive business growth.

By Bishwadeep Mitra

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