Operations Management Decision Factors

This assignment focuses on the impact of business environment factors on decision-making in operations management. It examines how these external influences shape operational outcomes and emphasizes the importance of analyzing these determinants to effectively manage operations. The provided text discusses various relevant concepts, models, and applications within operations management, drawing upon academic sources and real-world examples.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................... 1
TASK 1....................................................................................................................................... 1
P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a manager and a leader....1
M1 Analyse and differentiate role of leader and function of manager by effectively applying a
range of concepts and theories............................................................................................ 3
TASK 2....................................................................................................................................... 3
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and functions of a manager apply in distinct
situational context............................................................................................................... 3
P3 Apply different models and theories of approach including systems leadership, situational
and contingency leadership................................................................................................. 5
M2 Strengths and weakness of different leadership approaches..........................................6
D1. Critically analyse and evaluate different theories and approaches to leadership in given
context................................................................................................................................ 7
TASK 3....................................................................................................................................... 8
P4 Explain the key approaches to operation management and role that manager and leader
play..................................................................................................................................... 8
P5 Explain value and importance of operation management in achieving business objectives
........................................................................................................................................... 9
M3 Evaluate how manager and leader can improve..........................................................10
TASK 4...................................................................................................................................... 10
P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon the operational
management and decision making by managers and leaders..............................................10
M4. Analyse how these different factors affect the business environment and wider
community........................................................................................................................ 11
D2. Critically evaluate application of operation management and factors that impact on the
wider business environment.............................................................................................. 11
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 12
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................... 13

·INTRODUCTION
Operation management is the administration area which is associated with controlling
and designing manufacturing process and re-structuring operations of business in service and
goods production (Management Operations, 2018). This covers entire operational procedure of
everyday management and maintenance of enterprise’s resources and procedures. On the other
hand, the term management involve strategy setting activities of an enterprise and coordinating
their worker’s efforts to attain their objectives by execution of accessible resources. This report
is based on Wahaca Restaurant which is a UK based group of restaurant trading Mexican-style
food that has approx. 25 branches across United Kingdom. In this assignment, differentiation
between manager's function and leader's role will be discussed. On the other side, understanding
between management and leadership concept will be done by analysing various models and
theories. Importance of operation managements is assessed along with different approaches to
undertake most suitable for an organisation. Impact of extrinsic factors on decision making and
operation management will also be analysed in the following report.
·TASK 1
·P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a manager and leader
Manager and leader have crucial role in an organisation but both are distinct from each
other on the grounds of performed roles and characteristics of individuals. A leader can refer to
individual who stimulate, influence and motivate their members of team to complete assigned
task with their maximum potential to reach objectives of company. In contrast, manager is the
person who build link between stakeholders of firm like shareholder, suppler, worker, customer
etc. and firm itself (Ahuja, 2017). Thus, leadership can be defined as direction and new vision
formation in context of a unit that they comply whereas management is liable for controlling and
directing people and resources as per the principles, vision and values introduced by leader.
Wahaca Restaurant needs to understand the basic difference between both terms in order
to achieve their set outcome and operate activities in business systematically which are
mentioned as follow:
Difference between leader and manager:
BasisLeaderManagerMeaningLeader refers to the person who guides their sub-ordinate in
regard of attaining the determined objectives and goals. Manager is the individual who manage
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the relations of organisation and is liable for designing, directing, controlling and coordinating
actions and operations. VisionaryWahaca Restaurant’s should be visionary who are responsible
for creating mission, vision and undertake decision making to meet targetsWahaca Restaurant’s
manager should be visionary too but are responsible for meeting the designed vision of leader
through organising different activities.MotivatingLeaders encourages their manager, employee,
teams and whole Wahaca Restaurant to reach their set benchmark. Manager’s of Wahaca
Restaurant motivates to perform with whole efficiency in order to create better working
environment (Brandenburg, 2014).SkillsLeader of Wahaca Restaurant often have effective
interaction skills so that one can persuade teams toward the set objectives.On the other side,
despite having interaction skills, manager of Wahaca Restaurant include better decision making
to maintain the workforce and distinct conditions accordingly.RoleLeaders of Wahaca
Restaurant need at whole divisions of organisation as they also act as organisation’s
representative.Manager at Wahaca Restaurant need at whole functional area of enterprise as they
are liable for operating distinct work associated with marketing, sales, accounting and many
more. Responsibility Leader of Wahaca Restaurant is accountable for stimulating entire
workplace to perform in collaborative form and promote them in reaching their goals as a
philosopher or director.Manager of Wahaca Restaurant undertake the duty to meet a certain
project or task. A general manager performs vivid roles and duties in organisation.
Therefore, in Wahaca Restaurant, both manager and leader are essential as both of them
perform numerous roles and duties that have lead company in accomplishment of goals and
objectives.
l壱M1 Analyse and differentiate role of leader and function of manager by effectively applying a
range of concepts and theories
In this part, comparison between hard skills of management and soft skills of leadership
will be assessed which is mentioned as below:
Hard Skills of Management: These skills are often professional skills and knowledge.
This is the professional and expertise person’s qualification which can be improved and acquired
through education and are comparatively convenient to measure (Cucoranu, 2015.). It consists
of computer skills, language skills, blue-collar worker etc. the main role of leader in hard skill is
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to provide knowledge and information regarding product and services. The function of manager
is to educate employees regarding company policies and strategies.
Soft Skill of Leadership: This refers to the individual characteristics, traits and
competencies which inform to how a person link to other. This explains individual attributes
which demonstrate a high emotional intelligence level. This consists of analytical thinking,
empathy and etiquette etc. that are complex to quantify. The role of leader is to provide training
and development program to their employees in order to reach with desired goals and targets.
The main function of manager within an organisation is to analyse their workers performance
level as per this provide required duty and roles.
Therefore, Wahaca Restaurant require above mentioned skills in their management and
leadership styles which are distinct but are significant to influence operations more positively.
·TASK 2
·P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and functions of a manager apply in distinct
situational context
Management can be defined as the set of principles related to planning, organising,
directing and controlling. This can simply be explained as the application of principles in
harnessing informational, physical financial and personnel efficiently to achieve goals of
Wahaca Restaurant. Manager of the enterprise is liable for managing various activities in an
enterprise. They are given task to lead and inspire their members of team who work under them.
The key manager functions are coordinating, planning, controlling, directing etc. Also, staffing
is another function of manager of Wahaca Restaurant. Below all functions of manager are brief:
Planning: This consist of mapping out the goal and target which is aimed to achieve. For
e.g. if enterprise target to improve sales of company, manager require to decide steps which are
essential to accomplish set goals. Hence, a manager is responsible for planning steps which are
required to be followed to meet objectives of company.
Organising: Manager of Wahaca Restaurant, after planning, requires coordinating their
team and resource as per the designed plan. Work allocation and granting authority in enterprise
are two fundamental determinants of organising.
Staffing: Manager of Wahaca Restaurant is liable for coordinating, selecting and
designing personnel division to align task to, in order to achieve business objectives. This is
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essential functions in which employee need to be selected as per need of situation and
qualification of worker.
Leading: Another core function of Wahaca Restaurant’s manager after planning,
coordinating and staffing personnel is directing whole task including communicating,
stimulating, encouraging and communicating people (Fernie, 2014). Hence, it need the manager
to assist, coach and problem solve with worker.
Controlling: Manager of Wahaca Restaurant is liable for controlling and directing the
task to shape the practices and check outcome against target to make modification any corrective
activities require to ascertain whether plan is on track.
Therefore, these are fundamental functions that manager perform to meet outcomes.
Leader is crucial individual who play vital role in functions of organisation which is explained
under with situational examples:
Examples
Decision making: A consumer of Wahaca Restaurant ordered a meal in the restaurant but
later complained that veggies added in the food were not fresh. Due to this, the customer faced
sickness and viral for one week. In this condition, it is significant to outline appropriate decision
for manager of Wahaca Restaurant to handle the situation without any major reputation loss and
emergence of negative situations to enterprise. Wahaca Restaurant’s manager in this case, can
apologise to their customer and can offer for refund of amount along with free food service for
certain days offer. In case of major health loss, company can offer to bear medical expenses of
individual. In the issue, leader has also crucial role to examine the conflicts closely and ensure a
better solution to prevent arise of such issues in future.
Inventory Management: Wahaca Restaurant is coping up with inventories dearth in their
cafes and restaurants of UK that can lead to more dissatisfaction among customer. In this,
manager of Wahaca Restaurant is accountable for organising, planning and managing required
inventories which are needed in enterprise in order to deliver finished goods to consumer on
time. On other different side, leader of company will play essential role in entire procedure as
they will ensure whether resource and inventory administration is functioning properly. Leader
will structure proper management and maintain effective supply chain to avoid such issues in
future context.
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l壱P3 Apply different models and theories of approach including systems leadership, situational
and contingency leadership
There are several theories of leadership that can be used by Wahaca Restaurant to carry
out better activities and increasing outcomes. Here are mentioned few:
Contingency Leadership Theory: Fiedler has given this concept in 1951 that basically
concentrate on how the situational variables interact with personality, attribute and behaviour of
leader. This is the reflection of personality, style and behaviour of leader that are often constant.
Thus, this model affirms that a leader require to make modification in style of leadership
according to distinct consequences faced through Wahaca Restaurant in existing environment in
regard of maximising the firm’s productivity (Gillen, 2015). This concept is based on empirical
research due to which this is still implemented in companies.
System Leadership: This method enables an enterprise’s leader for improving the
situation where individual at every level can perform better productivity at their maximum
potential. These use sound principles in respect of behaviour of human to improve effective
models of leadership, system design, social procedure and organisation strategy. This concept
was primarily introduced by Dr. Ian MacDonald that generally help to build efficient and
impactful framework which drives innovative behaviour and lead to effective realisation of
target of organisation.
Situational Leadership: Paul Hersey as well as Ken Blanchard initially introduced this
models in 1969 which was published the tittles, ‘Life Cycle Theory of Leadership’ which later
transformed into situational leadership theory. Beside of other theories, this is opted to identify
different matches of styles which suit the consequences for maximising Wahaca Restaurant
performance. Under this, leader and manager of enterprise should use the style i.e. suitable as
per the situation to influence their follower and affect the outcome.
Therefore, it can affirm from above mentioned theories that situational leadership
method is more appropriate according to environment and vision of enterprise as it support more
productivity and carry out best operations. This mainly emphasise on utilisation of several style
of leadership despite of aiming on one typical method of leading teams.
l壱M2 Strengths and weakness of different leadership approaches
Situational Leadership: The model refers to the administration style which Wahaca
Restaurant manager can use. This approach promotes perceiving need to adapt style as per
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situation and outline two determinant into account; maturity of working employee and task
complexity. Below some merits and demerits of this style is mentioned:
Advantages:
·This style is both convenient to understand and intuitive to most organisation manager.
·It helps in assessing the need of flexibility on the part of leader to determine specific activities,
policies and roles.·It helps in building relationship between manager and worker at administration experience
centre.
Disadvantages:
·The model’s execution may not feel perceptive to vitally regimented or project-oriented
manager.·Manager can find complexity in quantifying and explaining maturity.
System Leadership: This theory enables the leader of Wahaca Restaurant to build the
condition where individuals perform their best. It utilise holistic approaches for enterprise
improvement to use resources at their best (Acquillat, 2016).
Advantage:
·It enhances the organisation adaptability according to the change of environment.
·This focus on achieving the personal and organisation goals.·It aims on multiple dimension management.
Disadvantage:
·Interdependence nature of theory is not defined that can build complications.·It may not be more practical and lead to delays in the process of decision making.
Contingency Leadership: This extend leadership scope from single leading method to
managing different direction styles according to demands of different situation faced by Wahaca
Restaurant. Here are mentioned some disadvantage and advantage described beneath:
Advantage:
·It supplied information that can be used to organisation in developing leadership profile for
planning personnel.·It promotes flexible style of management in which worker’s opinions and ideas are given
priority and before undertaking key decision of Wahaca Restaurant.
Disadvantage:
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·This seems easy but is complex to implement into practice to managers.
·This leadership theory generally considered more reactive in nature that can also lead to
negative condition within working environment.
Hence, after analysing weaknesses and strength of distinct style, it is affirmed that for
Wahaca Restaurant, situational leadership method is most appropriate theory as it can promote
effective management and tend to attainment of business goals significantly (Chase, 2016).
l壱D1. Critically analyse and evaluate different theories and approaches to leadership in given
context
Beside of above mentioned theories, Wahaca Restaurant can employ several other
significant theories of leadership which are mentioned as below:·Transformational Leadership: It is kind of leadership style that become the reason of change
among employee. In order to carry out determined change in enterprise, leader work with their
sub-ordinate. These aims their focus on values needs, ideas and morals of members of team
working in Wahaca Restaurant (Odoni, 2016).
·Transactional Leadership: This type of leadership style use reward and punishment techniques
to motivate their worker. This emphasise its concentration on their relation with their members.
In this, leader provide more settled environment to worker to get effective outcome.
Hence, this can be summarise that Wahaca Restaurant can opt transformational theory of
leadership as the organisation mainly focus on dynamic environment of business and encourage
worker for expansion of enterprise. This is how the company prosper their business and create
collective efforts of their workers.
·TASK 3
·P4 Explain the key approaches to operation management and role that manager and leader play
Operation management is a scope of management which is concerned with controlling
and designing. It is the procedure of business operations and production management in the
manufacturing of goods and services. In the industries, there is entire manufacturing system
which is the procedure of inputs (labor, energy and raw material) and in outputs (goods or
services). Operation management is the action that includes managing, supervising, organizing,
controlling, manufacturing, and planning processes. Management plays a key role to get success
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in any goal successfully (Chase, 2016). Here are mentioned some approaches of management
operations that can employed in Wahaca Restaurant discussed beneath:
Lean Production: Lean production is a method which focuses on the minimization the
waste and increases the production with the use of minimum raw material. Lean manufacturing
is a technique to manage the waste into the useful product that also focuses on the maintaining
the quality and cutting out waste. Lean manufacturing targets to cut the cost by making an
enterprise to create very effective and efficient in production. The main target is to supply best
value to the clients through a best value formatting process that has minimum waste. The
organization always provides the best quality services and products at the right time and at the
right place that satisfied customers. Lean production ensures that all the staff of Wahaca
Restaurant will be present in the board meeting because the lean production is not only for
optional choice and for the concerns for the workers end of the workforce.
Kaizen: Kaizen is the Japanese word used for “improvement”. Kaizen mention to the
activities that nonstop improving functions. Kaizen is a planning where workers at all stages of
an enterprise work together with energetic to incremental improvements, achieve regular.
Wahaca restaurant was developed this approach in the food production sector to boost
productivity, lower defects, encourage worker accountability and purpose, eliminate waste and
promote innovation. Kaizen organized events that focused on improving particular sectors within
the firm. These functions involve groups of workers at all stages, with a strong emphasis on
affect plant floor workers. Kaizen is an approach about frame a culture where all the workers of
Wahaca Restaurant are effectively engaged in implementing improvements and suggesting to the
organization.
Six Sigma: Six Sigma refer to set of techniques and processes of improvement. It uses a
group of empirical, quality management and statistical methods. Six Sigma policies follow to
improve the quality of a process by removing and identifying the causes of minimizing
variability. A typical Six Sigma project estimates the current condition and increases the
production of the business.
This can affirm that lean production approach can be opted by Wahaca Restaurant for
effective operation and better functioning as this cuts waste and extra expenses and direct fully
optimisation of entire organisational resources (Lummus, 2014).
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l壱P5 Explain value and importance of operation management in achieving business objectives
Operation management is management of business practice of ensuring maximum
efficiency within an organisation. It consists of whole operations performed in everyday routine
with firm’s management and maintenance procedure. The core focus of the operation manager is
to ensure accurate service delivery of Wahaca Restaurant and successfully manufacture finished
service out of raw material. Thus, this can state that this play crucial role in functioning of
Wahaca Restaurant. Here are discussed few importances:·Process Design: It is one of the key benefits of operation management as this aid in designing
different procedure at Wahaca Restaurant. It helps in functioning production and creating
policies and procedure administration in regard of meeting certain outcome within set time
period. Henceforth, it is essential for Wahaca Restaurant to have efficient operation
management. Through maintaining procedure of strategies, manufacturing can be done in
significant way and effective outcome can be attained.·Transformation of raw resources into finished goods: It is the key operation management
function that assists in creating core assets of enterprise. Wahaca Restaurant will require this to
create finished goods by planning the production procedure and administrating supplies within
enterprise. Therefore, it has crucial role in the enterprise. Through rendering food services and
product on tie company can improve their recognition and meet standard result in disciplined
way.·Capacity management: By effective operations and using better approaches, Wahaca
Restaurant can enhance their capacity of enterprise and deliver better services to consumer.
Thus, this is significant for administration of organisational capacities that not only encourage
efficient outcomes but also stimulate worker for performing better services.
·Distribution Framework and Control: It is liable for performing the activities associated with
distribution structure of Wahaca Restaurant and handling those actions effectively. It sets the
sales division, distribution chain, supplier and other associated activities within the enterprise.
By creating structured framework, Wahaca Restaurant can meet determined target and goals of
firm successfully (Omansky, 2015).
Therefore, it can affirm that Wahaca Restaurant should create an effective operation
management division to operate activities in more significant manner through opting Kaizen
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procedure. This can create effective flow of activities, better functioning and lead to productive
outcome within Wahaca Restaurant overall enhancing their brand reputation.
l壱M3 Evaluate how manager and leader can improve
Both manager and leader play vital role in the administration of operation in order to
achieve business objectives. Manager is liable for setting objectives, organising resource,
activities, communicating and motivating decision and policies, measure targets and develop
people for the certain task assigned in Wahaca Restaurant. On the other hand, leaders are liable
for creating positive work environment and assist in leading entire enterprise toward the
common goals and vision. Hence, while developing procedure of Kaizen, enterprise need both
manager and leader support to meet expected outcome.
·TASK 4
·P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that impact upon the operational
management and decision making by managers and leaders
Business environment and its factors influence the organisational activities in numerous
ways in positive and negative manner (Radnor, 2015). Here are mentioned some determinants
that can influence operation management are mentioned beneath:
Illustration 1: PEST analysis, 2018
(Source: PEST analysis, 2018)
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Political: This determinant consists of country’s politics in which organisation is
operating. If the political crisis emerges in the nation, this can influence the process of operation
management. If company emphasise their responsibilities on the products of Wahaca Restaurant,
this will enlarge the cost of their delivered service. It can lead to emergence in cost and
reduction in operations as well as manufacturing at Wahaca Restaurant.
Economic: Under this, condition of UK economies need to be considered as business is
operating in the specific region. Since, Wahaca Restaurant deals with food services and product
that has high cost and purchasing power of UK people has increased. Hence, this is resulting in
improvement in service productivity and more sales of organisation (Martínez, 2016).
Social: These determinations consider family, religion, lifestyle and wealth which are
outlined into consideration. Since Wahaca Restaurant deals food products and service, therefore,
this can help in attracting consumer’s attraction as company provide food as per their region and
interest. Hence, more productive services can be delivered which can lead to enlargement in
sales.
Technological: Since technology advancement are incurring each and every day, this is
essential for Wahaca Restaurant to opt advanced techniques within their products. Wahaca
Restaurant provide consumer take away and online ordering services at exotic rates that help
consumer in accessing service at any place.
Hence, these practices affect the services and operation management procedure of an
organisation and shape the outcomes which are fundamental to assess to control the action.
l壱M4. Analyse how these different factors affect the business environment and wider
community
There are numerous other factors beside basic environmental determinants that affect not
only Wahaca Restaurant’s management and operation but also influence environments itself and
wider community. Here are mentioned few of these:·CSR: Corporate social responsibilities affairs are also essential factors which Wahaca
Restaurant need to organise and properly manage in order to meet standard outcome and create
better recognition with business environment (Smith, 2017). Better reputation can increase
potential service user whereas negative consequences can be created due to lack of CSR affairs.
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·Stakeholder: Meeting the stakeholder requirements is also significant as satisfied stakeholder
tend to more positive situation of enterprise in market. Hence, Wahaca Restaurant should
consider this factor to emphasise efficiency of operation management.
·D2. Critically evaluate application of operation management and factors that impact on the
wider business environment
Political: As political element influence Wahaca Restaurant’s business, this has both
negative as well as positive influence. The government strictness on food and service policies
can create obstacles in the company’s service delivery that can decrease production whereas
provided development opportunities to small organisation by UK govt. can uplift the current
situation of enterprise (Maull, 2015).
Economical: Increased purchasing power are creating positive influence on Wahaca
Restaurant as people are spending more on good service whereas modified tax rates in UK is
creating negative influence on organisation.
Social: This element can emphasise productivity of enterprise as Wahaca Restaurant
delivery high quality services and people’s interest food and service to consumer at economic
prices.
Technological: This can enhance Wahaca Restaurant’s productivity as it is easy to access
organisation. On the other side, obsolete techniques used by company can reduce the potential
consumer (Song, 2018).
·CONCLUSION
This can be propounded from the discussed report that management is indispensable for
an organisation to perform numerous practices and operations in disciplined manner. Operation
management, whereas, assist in guiding, designing, planning and controlling the processes of
production and other operations in an effective manner. The report states that manager and
leader both are different from each other. Manager, where, is the person who is liable for
managing practices and following vision. On the other hand, leader is the individual who forms a
vision to guide enterprise toward success. Manager has numerous functions including planning,
coordinating, controlling and managing actions in which leader has major role. There are
numerous leadership theories such as contingency, system and situational leadership that have
their own drawbacks and strengths. Operation management is essential for an organisation for
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better operations efficiency and productive outcomes. There are numerous approaches such as
Kaizen, six sigma, lean production etc. which can be opted by an enterprise as per its nature and
suitability of approach. Business environment factors influence the decision making of operation
management and its outcome so these determinants are needed to analyse to shape outcome
accordingly.
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·REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahuja, R. K., 2017. Network flows: theory, algorithms, and applications. Pearson Education.
Brandenburg and et. al., 2014. Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management:
Developments and directions. European journal of operational research. 233(2).
pp.299-312.
Cucoranu, I. C., 2015. Laboratory Information Systems Management and Operations. Surgical
pathology clinics. 8(2). pp.153-157.
Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new
challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.
Gillen, D., Jacquillat, A. and Odoni, A. R., 2016. Airport demand management: The operations
research and economics perspectives and potential synergies. Transportation
Research Part A: Policy and Practice. 94. pp.495-513.
Jacobs, F. R., Chase, R. B. and Lummus, R. R., 2014. Operations and supply chain
management (pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Omansky, A. H. and Kanner, J. L., Autodesk Inc, 2014. Systems and methods for construction
field management and operations with building information modeling. U.S. Patent
8,732,125.
Radnor, Z. J. and et. al., 2015. Public Service Operations Management: A Research Handbook.
Routledge.
Saucedo-Martínez, J. A. and et. al., 2017. Industry 4.0 framework for management and
operations: a review. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing.
pp.1-13.
Smith, L., Maull, R. and CL Ng, I., 2014. Servitization and operations management: a service
dominant-logic approach. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management. 34(2). pp.242-269.
Song, D. W. and Parola, F., 2015. Strategising port logistics management and operations for
value creation in global supply chains.
Turner, J. R., 2014. Handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). New York, NY:
McGraw-hill.
Yabuki, K., NEC Corp, 2014. Operations management apparatus, operations management
method and program thereof. U.S. Patent 8,874,963.
Online
Management Operations. 2018. [Online] Available
through:<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/operations-management.asp>.
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