Operations and Information Management Module - OM Assignment

Learning Outcomes (from module specification) addressed in this Assignment.

Please remember your overall grade for this assignment will represent a judgement to the extent to which you have provided evidence that you have addressed the following learning outcomes offered in the module specification.

• Critically analyse the theory, concepts and models of operations and information management and demonstrate an understanding of the importance of information management in global organisations.
• Analyse and critically evaluate the ways in which operations are adapted in view of specific market culture and customer requirements, and the role and importance of operational excellence in various aspects of competitive advantage.
• Use the basic tools and techniques to plan and improve all aspects of the operations function and understand the application of the control systems that can be used for operations management in a wide variety of environments.
• Identify and utilise appropriate methods for collecting and analysing data related to operations and information management.
• Locate, summarise and synthesise a range of information from published literature and electronic sources on operations and information management.
• Use and evaluate a variety of tools for improving organisational performance
• Manage effectively their own time and learning.
• Improve their research skills, and data analysis and presentation. Manage their time to meet deadlines in both group discussions and in preparation of in-class activities

Background - Operations Management (OM) is an important aspect of business (Slack et al, 2013; Greasley, 2013; Patton et al, 2011). Both service and manufacturing organisations use OM to ensure they are competitive and assist in providing and maintaining good levels of customer service (Johnson et al, 2012). Developing a system of an organisations operation can be advantageous both for both the customer and organisation (Bamford and Forrester, 2010). Subsequently, once a system has been developed and understood it should be possible to determine why the system works well, or not well, and to recommend possible production related improvements that will assist both parties concerned.

Task - In this assignment analyse a production system (service or manufacturing based) with which you are familiar; a shop, restaurant, transport system, doctor's surgery are all possible examples. Your tutor will give some guidance on your choice of organisation/case study. Your assignment should address the following questions:

1. Critically appraise how well the inventories and/or assets within the production system are currently managed.

2. Provide a detailed illustration of the key operations involved within your chosen production system presenting a logical operational flow.

3. From the illustration in point two, identify two points where the organisation's delivery system may fail to align its operational performance measures, clearly demonstrating your reasoning and understanding behind this.

4. Discuss how a lean approach could be utilised in the production system to potentially reduce the failings discussed in point three.

5. Identify three key findings discussing the extent to which the lean approach chosen may assist the production system with aligning its operational performance measures.

Your assignment should be in a report format, being clearly structured using headings, sub-headings etc. It is not necessary to include an executive summary at the beginning of the report. Your assignment should be presented using Times New Roman (TNR) 12 font, 1.5 line spacing, and it should be approximately 3,000 (+/- 10%) words in length. Your word count is from the introduction to the end of the conclusion section.

You must cite all sources on which you have relied, for example textbooks, journal articles, web pages etc. using the Harvard Bibliographic referencing system. Please do use diagrams, illustrations, tables, graphics etc. wherever these are helpful, and remember that these do not count towards your word limit.

References -

Bamford, D R and Forrester, P L (2010). Essential guide to Operations Management: concepts and case notes. John Wiley. ISBN 978-0-47068-816-8.

Greasley A (2013). Operations Management, Third Edition, John Wiley. ISBN 978-1-11997-854-1.

Johnston R; Clark, G and Schulver, M (2012) Service Operations Management: Improving Service Delivery, Fourth Edition, Pearson. ISBN 978-0273740483.

Slack, N; Brandon-Jones, A and Johnston, R (2013). Operations Management, 7th Edition. Pearson. ISBN 978-0-273-77620-8.

Patton, S; Clegg, B; Hsuan, J and Pilkington, A (2011). Operations Management. McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-0771-2617-9.