BTEC HND Operations Management: Amazon's Practices and Improvement

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon's operations management practices, including a review of implemented principles, an assessment of how well these practices meet organizational requirements, and a discussion of continuous improvement and lean production. It examines the principles of reality, organization, accountability, and success within Amazon's operational framework. The report also explores lean manufacturing and its core principles, such as defining value and reducing waste. A continuous improvement plan is presented, offering recommendations for enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness within Amazon. Desklib is a valuable resource for students seeking similar solved assignments and study tools.

Part 1: Business
Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3
Main Body...........................................................................................................................3
Introduction to organization............................................................................................3
Operation Vs Operations management............................................................................3
Review of implementation of operations management principles in context of
organization.................................................................................................................................4
Analyze to the extend as per which operations management of organization meet with
requirements of organization.......................................................................................................6
Discuss continuous improvement as philosophy & also describes the lean production..7
Continuous improvement plan with suitable recommendations for improvement based
on review & critique of principles of operation management within organization.....................7
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Operations management is related with administration of different business practices
which aims to improve the efficiency of business entity. Here, different tools are used in order to
convert the raw material into finish goods. Main aim of operation management tools is to
improve overall productivity for getting positive outcomes in future period of time (Okuno,
Kobayashi and Ishii, 2016). In current report Amazon is taken into consideration which is a
renowned e-commerce company of United state of America. It was founded in 1994 by Jeff
Bezos that offers different range of products at a single e-commerce platform. The present report
includes operations management practices which are used by respective organization with an aim
to improve the productivity level. In addition to this, principles of operations management along
with the continuous improvement plan & lean production have been discussed in the report. At
end, a continuous improvement plan for further growth has also been covered in the following
report.
Main Body
Introduction to organization
Amazon is a multinational company which was started in 1994 as an online book selling
website in America. It basically focuses on cloud computing, e-commerce, digital streaming &
artificial intelligence. Company is currently operating nearly in 13 countries across the globe.
(Molladavoodi, Paydar and Safaei, 2020). Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce service
provider which offers from groceries to home appliances, mobiles, electronics, clothes, fashion
accessories & more. The company works on four principles such as customer obsession, passion
for invention, commitment to operational excellence and long-term thinking. Main aim of
Amazon is to become most customer centric company and the best employer on the earth.
Additionally, Amazon focuses on providing lower price products to customer with better quality
(Amazon, 2021).
Operation Vs Operations management
Operations: Business operations refer to the activities in which business is engaged on
daily basis for increasing the value of business & earn significant amount of profit margin. There

are ample of activities perform in business enterprises which are related with production,
designing, marketing & so on. Operation signifies daily activities of organization which need to
perform efficiently so that business can run in best possible way. Amazon uses advance
techniques in order to ensure excellence in retail services of the company. In addition to this,
company adopts extensive automation with an aim to streamline the business process efficiently.
Here, the organization uses technology and innovation in such a way that they can easily provide
the quality goods to customers in timely manner.
Operation management: Operations management is concern with planning, organizing
as well as supervising of activities related to production, manufacturing of products. It is a
deliver focused activity which aims to successful conversion of raw material into finish products.
Operations management aims at improving overall efficiency & productivity by eliminating
unnecessary activities from production process (Ravinder and Kollikkathara, 2017). In addition
to this, it is the administration of business practices to inflate overall efficiency of to earn higher
level of profit margin.
Difference between operations & Operations management
Operation Operation management
Operation is related with day to day
activities in which a business entity is engaged.
These daily activities are performed for
realizing predefined goals of organization in
real context.
Operations management is related with
planning, supervising as well as managing
activities efficiently so that company can
receive positive outcomes in terms of
enhancing current level of profit margin.
Main aim of operations is to ensure that
all the daily activities are performed in such a
manner by which organization can easily
accomplish set goals within stipulated period
of time (Zijm and et. al., 2019).
Operations management aims to
improve current level of productivity so that
organization can produce efficient final outputs
with minimum wastage.
There are several activities such as
production, designing, manufacturing,
marketing & more are performed in daily
operations so that, it is easy to maintain
In operations management, several
tools such as lean production, TQM, Six
sigma, just- in-time & other such approaches
are used for minimizing wastage & improving

consistency in business. productivity as well as profitability (Medini,
2018).
Review of implementation of operations management principles in context of organization
Operations management is an activity of business foundation which aims to make
optimum use of available resources. Here, different resources such as labor, material & more are
used for effective conversion of raw material into productive outputs. It is concern with keeping
appropriate control over production activities throughout the production process so that quality
products can offered to customers (Machuca, Größler and Morita, 2018). Apart from this, it
makes sure to minimize unnecessary activities & wastage so that quality of production can be
improved in significant manner. In regards of Amazon, certain principles of operations
management are mentioned below:
Principle of reality: As per this principle, operations management needs to focus on
overall problems rather merely focusing on tools & techniques. With detailed analysis, it is easy
to understand the issue so that appropriate actions can be taken to resolve the issues in best
possible way (Leiras and et. al., 2019). It is required to first identify the issues & then use
suitable tool of operation management for dealing with such issue in rightful manner. In context
of Amazon, they need to work on the reality principle & try to find appropriate tool for
addressing operations issues in an appropriate way.
Principle of organization: During production process, it is required to organize all the
activities in an efficient manner so that set goals can attained within stipulated period of time.
For this purpose, all the elements related to operations management need to combine efficiently.
Otherwise, organization will not able to attain set goals. It is stated that there are various
departments within Amazon so they are required to maintain effective relationship between all
the divisions for attaining set goals within stipulated period of time. Apart from this, they
manage different function in an appropriate way for meeting with requirements of customers in
timely manner. In Amazon, they perform different activities such as quality checking, process
and capacity design, layout design and more (Fergunson, 2017). The company ensures to
maintain proper organization between different functions so that they can offer quality products
to end users.

Principle of Accountability: Accountability is crucial to run a business entity in
significant manner. For this purpose, managers set some guidelines, rules & also check the
outcomes for analyzing whether goals are met or not. With this, different people associated with
project are get to know about their performance which further help them in improving
performance which will allow them to meet with set goals (Dutta, Ghoshal and Kumar, 2017). In
reference of Amazon, managers take accountability of their work by comparing the final
outcomes with set standards. On getting adverse results, they take appropriate set of actions for
further improvement. In this context, the quality is analyzed by managers throughout the
production process. It allows managers to identify the loopholes so that they can make further
improvements in an efficient manner.
Principle of success: It is the most crucial principle of success as per which success is
define in context of production facility. In organization, customers are considered as most crucial
stakeholders so it is imperative to keep them happy for ensuring success of business. Customers
are crucial stakeholder of organization & it is important to keep them satisfy for future success of
business entity (Cerulli, Dameri and Sciomachen, 2018). In this regard, Amazon, make sure to
associate with positive aspects for maintaining strong brand presence. Apart from this, they
ensure to offer timely delivery of products & services to customers so that business entity can get
success in longer period of time. It is analyzed that Amazon works on four principles in which
the first and most important is customer orientation. The main aim of company is to become the
most customer centric entity at global level (Amazon, 2021). In this context, they take suitable
steps in order to produce lower price products with good quality to satisfy customers.
Analyze to the extend as per which operations management of organization meet with
requirements of organization
Operations management is a crucial activity wherein appropriate tools & techniques are
used for producing quality products & services. Under this, resources are utilized in such a
manner that productivity & profitability of business entity is improved. In addition to this,
operation management aims to make best possible use of available resources so that quality
goods & services can offered to customers. With the help of operations management, a company
can easily maintain consistency in production process by maintaining sufficient number of
resources within organization. For meeting with the objective of higher productivity &

efficiency, several tools and techniques are applied so that wastage & inappropriate activities can
be eliminated from production process. Apart from this, there are some operations management
techniques are based on continuous improvement wherein managers keep track over production
process for facilitating improvements as per requirement (Wilson, 2018).
There are some tools of operations management which focus over quality management.
By applying operations management tools such as Six Sigma, TQM & more, company can easily
produce quality as well as efficient products. It will help in terms of improving productivity
which further lead towards profit enhancement significantly. In context of Amazon,
administration of company aims to offer quality goods & services to customers. Hence, they use
continuous improvement plan so that efficient products can offer to end users. Here, operations
management tools like TQM, six sigma are applied by organization for producing quality goods
with an aim to meet with requirements of buyers in significant manner. Apart from this, Amazon
also optimizes its production process with effective operations management. They apply
extensive automation for streamlining the business process. For instance, organization automated
ordering process to enhance the capacity of getting order. Effective business process also helps
in meeting with requirements of customers in timely manner. Amazon is an e-commerce
company which receives & offers timely delivery of products to customers. For this purpose,
they are required to apply techniques of operations management which will help in maintaining
appropriate balance between demand & supply. Therefore, operations management helps in
meeting with requirements of respective business entity in best possible way.
Discuss continuous improvement as philosophy & also the lean production
Continuous improvement plan is related with analyzing the practices of organization
constantly for making necessary improvements in future period of time. This plan helps in
identifying the resources, equipments which are required to make necessary improvements in
current operation management. For this purpose, different strategies are used by Amazon which
are mentioned as under:
Lean manufacturing: It is a process of continuous development which aims in
improving the level of productivity by minimizing wastages during production process. Major
benefit of lean production is to reduce overall production cost & improve the quality of products
in an efficient manner (Hill, Korczak and Wang, 2019). It aims to reduce time in production

process for ensuring timely supply of goods to customers which will help in maintaining positive
brand image at market place. Under this, managers of amzon put necessary efforts for
minimizing wastage without compromising with quality which will help in order to provide
value to customers by offering them quality products & service.
Lean principles:
Define value: Value is something for which customers make the payment. According to
this principle, it is required to identify actual requirements of customers. Sometimes, customers
are not able to articulate their needs. Hence, several techniques such as interviews, surveys, web
analytics are used to discover actual requirements of buyers.
Map the value stream: It is the second principle which is related with mapping of value
stream. In this, values of customers are used as a reference & then identify such activities which
contribute to these values. Further, un-necessary activities are eliminated for further betterment.
x
Continuous improvement plan with suitable recommendations for improvement based on review
& critique of principles of operation management within organization
Continuous Improvement plan
Objective Resources Continuous
improvement
plan
Time line Responsible
person
Reducing cost Employees and
equipments
In this,
Six Sigma
technique is
applied by
Amazon for
making their
present
organizational
structure
31-3-2021 Cost manager

successful. With
the help of
employees &
necessary
resources,
company is able
to provide
quality products
to customers
which will
further reduce
down cost of
production
Quality Department of
quality control
It is
stated that
managers of
Amazon adopts
effective
techniques so
that they can
produce quality
products. For this
purpose, they
also install
necessary
software for
quality controls
which will help
in terms of
getting higher
customer
This goal
can achieved by
2023
Department of
maintenance

satisfaction.
Safety Managers &
employees of
safety
department
Here,
managers of
respective
company make
sure that they
follow all the
necessary safety
measure & also
follow
maintenance
practices for
getting positive
outcomes in an
efficient manner.
It is in progress
& likely to
achieve till
2024.
Departme
nt of repair and
maintenance.
Recommendations
Amazon is required to put consistent efforts in order to make improvement in their
existing approaches of operations management. For getting better results in future period of time,
certain recommendations are mentioned as under:
Resolving weak factors: Here, managers of Amazon needs to work on real background
wherein they are required to look for actual problem which will further help in terms of resolving
the issues of operations management in significant manner. They need to identify loopholes
which create barriers in continuous improvement. By identifying loopholes, they can easily
formulate suitable strategies for further development.
Taking accountability: It is suggested that managers of Amazon need to take the
accountability of their tasks. Whether outcomes are negative or positive, they need to take the
responsibility & try to improve the situation for minimizing negative impacts in future period of
time.

Focus on quality: Quality is a crucial aspect which significantly affects perception of
buyers. Hence, it is required to focus on quality while producing necessary goods. For this
purpose, it is suggested to adopt suitable quality management techniques such as TQM, Six
sigma, lean production in order to embark continuous improvement for producing quality
products.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded with above mentioned information that operations management is the
administration of business practices to create higher level efficiency within Amazon. It is
monitored that operations management tools are applied for improving the overall process &
producing higher standardized goods which match with set benchmarks. There is discussion
about principles of operations management applied by Amazon. Further, continuous
improvement plan is also applied by business managers of respective organization for
enhancement of overall manufacturing process with an aim to get better outcomes in future
period of time.