Operations management

Pick an Organisation of your choice. You are an Operations Management Consultant. You are required to undertake an individual research project and to prepare a Management Report (4000 words+-10%) for the Board of Directors of the company. The organisation of my choice is Toyota

The key aspects that need to be covered within the report are:

• PART A
i) Critically evaluate the existing operations functions within the organisation and the role of the operations manager within the organisation. (Note: I would expect you to evaluate current practices and evaluate them in the light of standard practices within the industry that the organisation is in and how well/badly does this organisation align with the industry standards)
ii) Draw a Process Chart for the organisation showing how customers are processed through operations within the organisation. Critically discuss how the Process Management should be planned in the organization to achieve operational excellence. Support your answer by illustrating:-
• Process analysis and improvement
• Customer service strategies
• Inventory management
• Scheduling operations
• Purchasing and supplier management

iii) Identify if the organisation is implementing any Lean processes. If it is, then critically evaluate what benefits it is bringing to the organisation and IF NOT then critically evaluate how implementation of lean management could benefit the organisation. (Extra credit would be provided for use of examples).

• PART B
i) Managing Capacity is the most tricky part of operations management as it is characterised by uncertainity. Using the organisation as an example you need to critically evaluate whether: “Organisations should always attempt to match its capacity to its forecast and known demand patterns or there might be situations where this might not be needed”.

• PART C
i) Collate all your finidings about the organisation and draw concrete conclusions and draw some recommendations for the organisation, which can be from the practitioner i.e. other organisations/industry or academic research.

You need to follow a REPORT FORMAT.

Report Structure, Layout and suggested wordcount:

• Cover Page: Your Name and Student Number and the word count.
• Executive Summary
• Introduction (setting the scene and purpose of the report) [350 words] • Operations Management in the Organisation highlighting the key issues as well (Part A – i) [750 words] • Process Management in the Organisation including the Process Chart (Part A – ii) [1000 words] • Lean Management in the Organisation (Part A – iii) [700 words] • Capacity Management within the organisation. (Part B) [700 words] • Conclusions and Recommendations. (Part C) [500 words]

Further tips:

• Structure within the sections identified can contain further subheadings (such as Techniques, Methods, Models, Tools, Strategies etc.)
• You might want to bring in examples from other industries.
• The report MUST have a proper reference list in the end of the report.
• Try to think outside the box.

Marking and assessment criteria

• Evidence of the level of critical analysis of the issues faced by the organisation being evaluated.
• Understanding, critical evaluation and application of appropriate techniques, methods, models and tools to the issues discussed
• Appropriateness and justification of the conclusions drawn and recommendations made to address the issues identified
• Clarity and coherence of report (with regard to structure of analysis, diagnosis, correctness of spelling and grammar, appropriateness of language, accuracy of referencing including use of English and Harvard Referencing scheme).