Introduction

Operations Management is the branch in business concerned with the administration of day to day activities of a company. It involves a critical analysis of all the factors that contribute to the successful administration of all the processes throughout the organization. It aims at ensuring that the company is profitable, attractive and efficient. Oman Airports Management Company manages operations in Salalah and Muscat airports. Also, it handles communications and marketing, manages assets, infrastructural projects initialization and maintenance among other critical activities in the various airports. It remains imperative that OAMC takes strict measurements to ensure that the quality of services is high and all processes run smoothly to allow the airports to retain their competitive advantages in their respective regions.

Operations Management

Decision Areas

There are multiple key decision areas in Operation Management. These essential specialties allow a company to maintain efficient services, afford more talent to the company and retain some of the great minds that the organization has been able to develop. It entails the management of quality, maintenance, appropriate process and layout structures and, a suitable design for human resources and jobs. OAMC employs a myriad of strategies to ensure the airports it manages to stay ahead of the curve. Salalah and Muscat continue to attract a significantly high number of passengers per year, courtesy of these tools and techniques used at the operations level (Airports, 2019).

Oman airports schedule an average of 1900 flights every week to serve over 90 connected cities globally. On 2017, Oman launched new routes Guangzhou, Karachi, Dubai, and Nairobi among other cities. In the quest to attend to more passengers and to satisfy rising demands from all over the world. It also strategically increased the frequencies of routes served in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Oman Air’s has 28 scheduled airlines; the strong international network implies that a significant portion of more than 85% of traffic is international while only 15% is domestic (Bates, 2019).

The Human Resource design encompasses over a thousand employees all scattered among the airports OAMC manages. At the top of the chain of command is the CEO, Sheikh Aimen Al Hosni who ensures maximum contact with other junior and senior employees for inspiration and encouragement. This move is one aimed at increasing the productivity of the workforce, and, to maintain high-quality service for customers. Al Hosni insists on fixing customer service-related problems upstream. The company through his leadership emphasizes keeping staff motivated and happy as a priority so that they can be in the position to satisfy all their clients’ needs.

The company a mixed communication structure that employs both vertical and lateral means of information dissemination. The administration has an email address through which employees can inform the CEO directly on developing issues, to allow the executives to solve the problem swiftly. There exists a culture where the CEO meets his fifty most senior administrators, called Falcon Team, after every three months to discuss current matters and catch up on persistent problems and continuing projects. The Falcon Team is a group of the most trusted individuals in the company tasked with the mandate of leadership throughout the sizeable company. These supervisors also organize an annual meeting where all workers are to contribute freely on all matters. It is in this session that the executives also unveil plans for the future, reward employees and recognize talent.

OAMC follows a strict set of principles in the process of personnel selection to ensure that all individuals chosen have the skills and abilities ready to fulfill the roles and responsibilities of a position. Additionally, Oman Air prides itself of the training programs it regularly initiates to keep employees apprised on the latest installed pieces of technology and work processes. It also has a unique way of rewarding the best performing employee every year. A worker does not get paid in cash or compensation packages but instead gets a chance to enjoy a full day with the CEO, from 7 am to 5 pm (Bates, 2019). This unique approach serves to motivate employees to work hard and also to understand the intricacies of management, before promotion, to ensure that they have a glimpse of what certain positions entail

On the decision area of process design and capacity, OAMC has over the years been committed to meet the rapidly rising demand for services globally. The company responded by initiating the development of an entirely new terminal. The terminal will enable the airports to meet the increasing numbers and reduce delays and congestion in Muscat International. The innovative infrastructural development will contribute immensely on its operational excellence so much that the company is hopeful of scaling up the ranks of the top 20 airports by 2020 (Bates, 2019). The phase also involved the expansion of two MCT runways to ensure that the airports can handle aircrafts of A380 sizes. However, in the quest to better manage the rapidly increasing number of passengers in all its airports. OAMC could also employ the strategy of managing flight demand using instruments such as pricing and caps as it continues to engage in more development plans (Ryerson, & Woodburn, 2014).

Salalah’s new terminal currently serves over 1.2 million passengers a year, with eight states of the art bridges and 24 modernized check-in areas being the facilities presently in use. This highly luxurious services guarantee customer satisfaction and provide employees with the motivation to perform as expected. Oman Airports Management Company introduced highly technologized security systems to ensure that all the airports are safe for travel to tourists, business persons, and other leisure travelers.

Improving Operational Performance.

OAMC does all that is within its power to ensure that all the day to day operational activities in the organization are efficient and sustainable. However, there are a few valuable additions that the company can still consider, in the quest to better the services they render to customers. Firstly, the executives should deliberate upon other alternative methods other than building capacity in handling the issue of rising demand. Oman Air could use instruments such as changing the pricing and using regulations such as caps, to significantly manage flight demand (Ryerson & Woodburn, 2014).

They should make sure that their employees never lack a consistent and steady stream of information. This reliability will ensure that customers get the correct and reliable information concerning flight delays, flight change schedules and any other details needed in time. If the network system is sluggish or unreliable, then the company may lose its customers due to misinformation and unreliability.

They should make sure their employees are satisfied as this will help with retaining them. Employees can get frustrated if the network is inconsistent or slow because they would be unable to work efficiently with the available tools. The customers can notice this in the employees hence making them lose confidence in the OAMC management. Sometimes some of the valued and qualified employees may also get tired and decide to quit, this will be a setback to the company, and it will also make the company lose valuable time and money looking for and hiring a replacement.

The implementation of predictable processes and their application in scheduling crew shifts, aircrafts and flights would enable the company to reduce the chances of delays and congestions substantially. The administration can also invest heavily in modernized weather software, which may help them decrease the likelihood of unanticipated weather changes. This new level of efficiency will also go a long way in improving customer confidence as there will only be a few unexpected outcomes in the quality of service.

An administration structure that allows for openness and mixed methods of information dissemination would be crucial in problems solving (Bamford et al., 2013). This type of flexibility will ensure that employees report issues at the early stages of their development, thereby allowing for swift action. Transparency in OAMC will cultivate trust between workers and their supervisors thereby enhancing their productivity and, improving the general performance of the airports.

Comparison with 4Vs

In comparing Oman Air with British Airways, the latter has a relatively higher volume of over 170 destinations as compared to the former which brags an average of 90 cities globally. There exist a lot of flexibility in both companies, as well, mostly because they all offer check-in services and other operations in close contact with clients. However, the Britons do have more complexities in the procedures as they try to customize all their services. The two companies have similar analyses in variation as they all depend on seasonal demand which increases during festive seasons. With regards to the review on visibility, Oman has a relatively low result, even though customers may enjoy a little exposure to the processes and services provided by the airline during check-in. The clients of British Airways, on the other hand, have a deeper understanding of the protocols and services they subscribe to since most of the flights offered by the company are usually customizable (Check Appendix A).

Conclusion

OAMC is a well-organized company devoted to the betterment of the quality of services rendered to its customers every day. However, the management would improve their operating performance with a few valuable additions and considerations such as; adopting new methods of addressing demand such as pricing and the use of caps, using predictive processes in scheduling and improving openness and flexibility in the human resource department. These enhancements would increase their competitive advantage in the quest to compete healthily with other airlines that have a global reputation in completely satisfying the needs of the customers. Finally, OAMC can be able to achieve this essential objective by increasing contact between its workers and the clients, that is, exposing the customers to the available procedures to better their experience with the airline.

References

Airports, O. (2019). About Oman Airport – Oman Airports. Retrieved from https://www.omanairports.co.om/en/content/about-oman-airport

Bamford, D., Barker, V., & Chatterjee, S. (2013). Strategic Process Improvement: First TransPennine Express.

Bates, J. (2019). Future looks bright for Oman’s airports – Airport World Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.airport-world.com/news/general-news/6482-future-looks-bright-for-oman-s-airports.html

Ryerson, M. S., & Woodburn, A. (2014). Build airport capacity or manage flight demand? How regional planners can lead American aviation into a new frontier of demand management. Journal of the American Planning Association, 80(2), 138-152.