Operations and Information Management - Assignment One

The manufacturing/service process design is based on a considerable number of potentially conflicting variables and represents, in essence, a number of trade-offs. Arguably, the Nature of the Business, the Nature of the Product, the Nature of the Market Place, and the Supply Chain Dynamics, affect all decision-making pertinent to process design, management and development.

A) By taking as an example a product or a service from an industry that you are familiar with, critically discuss the main factors that influence the manufacturing/service process design.

B) Discuss how the five Operational Performance Objectives may influence decision-making associated with process design and layouts.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

In your answer you must consider Demand Management, Inventory Management and Forecasting, and the effect of other functions of the organisation such as Marketing, Procurement,and Supply Chain Management. Some examples of products/services researched by students in the past include: Smart Phones (specific makes and models), Cars (specific makes and models), NHS A&E Departments, Restaurants, Waterworks, Nuclear Power, Shipbuilding, Waste Recycling etc. The list is potentially endless.

This assignment represents 50% of your overall module mark. The maximum word count is 3000 words (+/- 10%) excluding Table of Contents, Executive Summary, References, Appendixes and Tables. You will also need to take the following into account when completing your assignment:

- Quality of executive summary (does it give a brief complete summary of your paper for an executive to read?)
- Establishment of relevant theory (e.g. what do we mean by process management?)
- Allocation of credit and sources used (have I included references and citations to the material I have used?)
- Clarity of argument
- Overall report presentation including spelling and grammar
- Adherence to nominated word limit (+/- 10%)
- Word processed (letter size 12, times new roman, 1.5 space), fully referenced (Harvard Referencing System)