Assignment 1:

Operations and Service Management

Learning outcome 1: Appraise the theories, concepts and principles of practice from the area of Operations Management and their application to the service and manufacturing industries

Learning outcome 2: Evaluate the application of alternative Operations Management Techniques - Capacity, Quality and Supply Chain Management

Learning outcome 3: Evaluate the potential use of technology for supply chain management

Learning outcome 4: Apply a range of Operations techniques to the management of a business

Learning outcome 5: Evaluate how supporting functions interact with operations and aid their success

Assignment task: Identify a local SME*, Small/Medium Sized Enterprise, within 20-mile radius maximum, that operates in the transport sector to complete the following tasks.Identify and explain an operations management practice or process within the chosen organisationUsing secondary research critically analyse how this operation management practice supports the success of the organisation in terms of efficiencyConsidering technologies associated with Industry 4.0, evaluate how technology could be or has already been embedded in this operational process and consider what risks does this technology pose?Using secondary research, examine what supporting functions are linked to this operation management practice and evaluate how can they assist with ensuring organisational success for the chosen organisation

A brief introduction and conclusion is also required which is included in the word count. Word count is 2,500 (+/- 10%)

Assignment 2:

Digital Business & New Technologies

Assignment task: Students are required to choose an appropriate technological topic relating to digital and new technologies identified and discussedin the lecture series and write a 2,000-word portfolio review on the themes, trends and arguments emerging about that topic. The topic must be agreed with the lecturer before detailed research on it has begun.

The portfolio includes:
Section 1: The understanding of your chosen technological topic in a form of a poster/aninfographic (Maximum 500 words in-text, exclude the reference) which addresses the following:
o Why you deem this topic to be of importance?
o How this topic has developed?
o A detailed description of the technology used in this topic and what it is used for.
o What technological platforms and software are used in the topic?
o What type of business and organisation uses the technology?
o How is it used as a business tool and is this effective? (you may link this to particular industry/sector/profession)

Section 2: Application of theories and knowledge into the chosen industry (Appx 1000 words)
How does this relate to course content and discussion on the nature of the relationship between digital technologies and both old and newly emerging theories on business and management structures and practices in the perspective of the management level?

The above question can be broken down into addressing these two questions with evidence from your chosen industry:

Q1: How the organisations in the chosen industry have understood the implications of this technology and altered what they do and how they do it?

Q2: The emergence of brand new organisations, built around digital technology, entering a sector and challenging old style organisations who have failed to grasp the significance of that technology?

This section should use theories and models (at least 2 models/theories) set out in the course content.

There must be at least 2 organisations within the chosen industry (1 success and 1 failed). It is recommended that you choose the organisations where you have known people who work at management level to support the primary research to complete section 3.The organisations discussed must be the global organisations.

Section 3: Evidence of support thediscussion and findings from Section 2 either through primary or secondary data (Appx 500 words)
Primary data:Analyse the interview with the organisations' managers to confirm your findings from section 2

Secondary data:Find the interview with the organisations' managers/CEO/Directors on YouTube/Webinar where they talked about the use of this technology topic, analyse the interview to confirm the findings from Section 2.

Interview transcript or videos of their interview/webinar must be included in the Appendix.