Operational Management Practice in Consultancy

This article discusses the operational management practices in consultancy, focusing on total quality management. It explores the impact of operational management on quality performance, employee satisfaction, competitive advantage, financial performance, productivity, and customer relationship. The article also highlights the use of technology in inventory management, production management, and cost management. Additionally, it examines the relationship between operational management and other functions such as IT, production, marketing, and research & development. Expert insights on operational management practice in consultancy are provided.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Operational management practice..........................................................................................1
Impact of operational management practice...........................................................................1
Use of technology in the process ...........................................................................................3
Relationship between other functions and operational management.....................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
References:.......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Operational management is defined as the function of management which is responsible
for the various operations in an organizations related to logistics, total quality management, six
sigma, business process redesign and manufacturing systems. They are all associated with the
technical and calculative functions which every product related business adopts for better
management in an organization (Armstrong, 2018). Organization chosen here is Mark &
Spencer, it is one of the leading international retail company. It was founded in 1884 in UK. It
deals with the products like clothing for both men and women, home appliances and food items
of it's own brand name. The following discussion is made on the operations management of
M&S, how they impact on the organization, technology used to process it and relationship
between the operations management and other functions of the business.
MAIN BODY
Operational management practice
There are various operational management practices which are collectively process the
business in an efficient manner. One of the practice is total quality management. It is defined as
the operational management practice where quality is et on top priority for the products which
are manufactured by the company. It involves the continuous improvement in employee
functions so that they can work on the more better quality of the products which are demanded
by the customers on regular basis. Aim of the TQM is the innovation and new ideas that an
organization can improve the quality by not increasing their cost and by maximum utilization of
their resources. This helps the firm in benchmarking, improvement process, process control, risk
management, business process re-engineering and six sigma over the raw materials and other
resources required for the manufacturing process. In context of M&S, total quality management
is applied in their manufacturing and production process. Because they supply their own
products so they highly needs the TQM implementation in a company for better operations in
their organization (File and Schnurr, 2020).
Impact of operational management practice
Quality performance
TQM assist in better performance in quality as it's main motive is to check the quality of
the products by using it's various techniques to assure that what ever products they are supplying
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to the customer are qualitative, this enhances the quality performance. In context of M&S, they
are using TQM and getting the benefit to produce their products in best quality like good quality
piece of cloth, food ingredients or in home appliances (Goulart Sztejnberg and Giovanardi,
2017).
Employee performance and satisfaction
TQM support an organization in satisfaction and performance of the employees as they
are trained accordingly to produce the goods and services in an efficient manner so that they can
also increase their personal skills and development through such techniques of TQM. In context
of M&S, it is a vast firm so there are employees working in the firm are more than 10,000, so
that taking care of everyone would be difficult for the company. Therefore, TQM process can
help the employees in gaining practical knowledge and implementation of total quality
management for their personal and professional growth as well.
Competitive advantage
TQM provides the advantage in competition as many companies promises about their
product quality but could not achieve that mostly so it is an important aspect to gain a
competitive advantage for a firm so that it can maintain stability in a market. In context of M&S,
it is a brand because it has analysed such TQM benefits that is why it is achieving the good
advantages against it's competitors thereby it has maintained the brand image and reputation of
the firm.
Financial performance
TQM helps the firm in gaining the better financial performance of the company because
it assist in minimum using of cost and maximum using of available resources. Therefore, control
in cash flow and production management within budget is achieved by TQM. In context of
M&S, it has a controlled finance management in an organization and it is all supported by the
total quality management as the application of it assist the finance people in cash flow and
maintaining the budget for the firm in a better way (Gunter and Mills, 2017).
Higher productivity
TQM leads to the productivity of the company on it's next level of their sales and
revenues generations of the firm. Because it's main aim is to provide best quality products in low
cost and more prices, hence it results in better productivity of the company. In context of M&S,
their team is working on low cost production and maximum output through that. Skilled
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workforce is required to perform such operations who has a deep knowledge about the concept
of TQM. Company is having such staff so they are benefiting in their increment of the
productivity.
Customer relationship
TQM provides the high level of quality which are mostly desire by the customers and are
even affordable by them. So if the firm produces and supplies to it's customers with a best
quality of products continuously than it results in good customer relationship for a long time
period or forever. In context of M&S, it is also in advantage in building up the relationship with
customers by providing them the best quality of clothings, food products and home items. They
have applied TQM strategies in their firm that is why they are able to develop the long term
relationship with the customers and moreover, gaining the brand loyalty from the them (Hartley,
2017).
Use of technology in the process
Inventory management
Technology used in inventory management of M&S is Barcode and radio frequency
identification systems. It is a type of information systems which supports the firm in managing
the process of inventory in several ways according to the amount and quality of inventory of the
products which ultimately helps the firm in total quality management.
Production management
Technology used in production management of M&S is management information
systems. It is a type of information systems which supports the firm in managing the process of
production in several ways according to the steps involved in production process, quality
assurance in production, data management, employee efforts and management and decision
making process which are associated with the TQM approaches (Lonsdale, Hoque, Kirkpatrick
and Sanderson, 2017).
Cost Management
Technology used in cost management of M&S is Activity Based Cost Management
Systems. It is a type of information systems which supports the firm in managing the process of
cost in several ways according to the cash flow management, maintaining budgeting of the
company, preparing balance sheet at the end of the year, funds related management and in
various financial decisions in the firm.
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Relationship between other functions and operational management
TQM and IT
Relationship between total quality management and information technology is that the
TQM is highly dependent on technology which are advanced used in the company. Each strategy
of TQM is requires the IT so that management can be better in terms of inventory management,
cost management and many other approaches which is related to the TQM (Oliver, 2018).
TQM and production
Relationship between total quality management and production management is that the
application of TQM depends on the production process because production function is the only
activity which implements the TQM strategies as without the production, execution of TQM
approaches cannot be possible. Therefore, it is important to link production and TQM functions
in an organization.
TQM and marketing
Relationship between total quality management and marketing management is that the
TQM helps in developing the marketing strategies in the firm. Which is considered as the most
important function in an organization. It easy for the marketing team to build up the approaches
related to the quality of the products so that their selling, promotion and advertising can be easy
and more efficient in terms of TQM and marketing management (Sokol, 2020).
TQM and research & development
Relationship between total quality management and research & development is that the
quality of the product can be researched and developed by the R&D department because it highly
needs the innovation and generation of such materials which leads to the low cost production in
best quality form. Therefore, linking TQM and research and development is a very beneficial
activity which a firm can adopt as the combination of both of them because it results in new
ideas and innovation in a product or service of the company.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded that operations management plays a very important role in business major
functions because it helps the company managing it's process from raw materials to it's
production and quality management. This is considered as the most important function because
marketing strategies and other functions of the firm are directly or indirectly dependent on such
operations management. It is mainly responsible for the maximum utilization of resources and
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minimum wastages in an organization specially in manufacturing process. This report covers the
approach to the operational management, impact of it on the company, technology used to
implement it and how it is related to the other functions of the firm.
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References:
Books and Journals
Armstrong, D., 2018. Organization in the mind: Psychoanalysis, group relations and
organizational consultancy. Routledge.
File, K. and Schnurr, S., 2020. Towards an Understanding of Linguistic Consultancy: How Do
Linguists Approach the Task of Evaluating Sociolinguistic Practice in Consultancy
Sessions?. In Professional Communication (pp. 291-310). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Goulart Sztejnberg, R. and Giovanardi, M., 2017. The ambiguity of place branding consultancy:
working with stakeholders in Rio de Janeiro. Journal of Marketing Management. 33(5-
6). pp.421-445.
Gunter, H.M. and Mills, C., 2017. Consultants and consultancy: The case of education.
Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Hartley, J., 2017. Management Consultancy As Practice: A Study Of The Duality Of The
Management Consultants' Role (Doctoral dissertation, The Open University).
Lonsdale, C., Hoque, K., Kirkpatrick, I. and Sanderson, J., 2017. Knowing the price of
everything? Exploring the impact of increased procurement professional involvement
on management consultancy purchasing. Industrial Marketing Management, 65,
pp.157-167.
Oliver, C., 2018. Reflexive inquiry: A framework for consultancy practice. Routledge.
Sokol, M.B., 2020. Mindful design of the sole-practitioner consultancy. Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice and Research. 72(1). p.27.
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