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. The assignment should address the following questions and should be in a report format, being clearly structured using headings, sub-headings etc. Try to endeavour to use theory explicitly at all stages, but do not spend too much time describing a theory. While you must be explicit about the theories, models, techniques etc. that you use, you can assume that the reader is familiar with them. What the reader requires is evidence of your ability to understand and apply the theory and learn from in order to support the development of your findings and/or ideas. 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 three 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 four key findings discussing the extent to which the lean approach chosen may assist the production system with aligning its operational performance measures. 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.
Sample Solution
