Operation Management and Supply Chain Strategy

The assignment explores the importance of operation management in achieving success within an organization. It highlights the need for effective supply chain and logistics management to ensure smooth operations. The report discusses managing people in operations and supply chain as well as managing quality, and illustrates the concept of Kaizen theory and Total Quality Management (TOQ).

Understand Operations, Logistics
and
Supply Chain Management
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Overview of Bristol Hospital & its two major areas........................................................................3
Managing people in Operations and Supply Chains........................................................................4
Managing Quality ...........................................................................................................................6
Triple Bottom Line .........................................................................................................................8
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
2

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is chiefly concerned with planning, organising as well as
supervising in the contexts of production, manufacturing or the provision of services. Logistic is
the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of origin and the
point of consumption in order to meet some requirements such as customers and corporations. In
addition to this supply chain management is the wide range of activities that is required to plan,
control as well as execute the flow of product from obtaining raw material through distribution to
the final customers in the most streamlined as well as cost effective way (Bozarth and Handfield,
2019). Operation management, logistic management and supply chain management are very
important for the company as it raises the competitiveness as well as customer satisfaction. This
present report is context to Bristol Hospital and the areas in managing operations, logistics and
supply chain which need some improvement i.e, managing people in operations and supply
chains and process as well as managing quality. This essay will present overview of company in
detail. Further, this assignment also present economic, environment al and social approaches
which hospital have to follow for smooth operation and functions.
Overview of Bristol Hospital & its two major areas
Bristol Hospital is a private limited hospital which is located in Bristol England, United
Kingdom which was founded in 1832. The primary focus of the hospital is to deliver quality
health care services to all patients as well as customers along with satisfying the needs and
demands of staff members. The Carlton Health Group that operated another 60 private hospitals
in United Kingdom including Bristol Hospital. The operation of hospital is not very huge or giant
but they are offering good medical services in UK. Bristol Hospitals offer day care services as
well as minor operations (Wang and et.al., 2015). Hospital also have 77 private rooms. Bristol
hospitals have qualified professionals and an effective medical team. In addition to this, there are
three in house departments of hotel services which are catering, cleaning and porter services.
These departments are dealt by the operation as well as supply chain department. It is identified
form the research that hospital is facing issues in managing the quality of services as well as in
managing people. However, these are the areas which leads the hospitals to the heights of
success of Bristol Hospital there are two areas which are-
Managing people in operation and supply Chains- In today's market, it is very
important for any organisation or Bristol Hospital to have the skilled and knowledgable people or
3

employees in operations and supply chains (Wisner, Tan and Leong, 2014). In Bristol Hospital it
has been noticed that there has been overlapped between the management of operations and
supply chain. Both the departments are managed by the same managers and staff but in today's
era supply chain management has become very complex over time as well as the demand for
highly skilled and knowledgable professionals has increased. Thus, it is very important that
Bristol hospital should use the best strategies and techniques for recruitment and selection.
Managing Quality- Quality is the backbone for the industries operating in service
industries. It ensures the top class of products and services as well as it also stand out different
from its competitors. It has been noticed that due to shortage of staff, poor attendance of staff
and other complains form patients regarding quality is not good in Bristol Hospital.
Managing people in Operations and Supply Chains
Bristol Hospital is facing issues in managing people in operations and Supply chains
management. It is fact that operations and supply chain management is the most important part
of any organisation. It is also a very important part of Bristol Hospital because it is the key to get
success and customer satisfaction (Heckmann, Comes and Nickel, 2015). It is very important that
quality of services should be delivered to the patients or customers and it can only be possible by
efficient staff and skilled staff members. The staff members at Bristol Hospitals are not able to
manage effectively all day to day operations due to some reasons like large number of absentees,
shortage of trained and skilled staff. The operation manager of the hospital is also not taking
effective decisions on production, workflow, staffing and planning. In addition to this, staff
members of supply chain management is also not able to forecast the demand of tools, equipment
and other important materials which is required in the hospital. Staff members are also not
managing the inventories of hospital properly which in turn increasing the wastage of resources.
Bristol Hospital can use the theory of Kaizen theory which is one of the best model of
continuous improvement. Kaizen is a Japanese word which means improvement. According to
Kaizen theory in the business, it states activities which continuously improve all the functions as
well as it also involve each and every employees from top level to lower level. This model must
be used by the manager of Bristol Hospital so that the issues which are coming in managing
people in operations and supply chain will be solved (Grant, Wong and Trautrims, 2017). It is
very essential according to the Kaizen theory that, organisation should provide training to
employees on regular basis. By giving training, the human resource manager will also function
4

effectively as they learn and develop understanding of managing people in entire organisation as
well as in operations and supply chain department which is important par of the organisation.
The day to day operation, inventory management, forecasting demands etc. are the serious issues
which Bristol Hospitals is facing because of staff members in operations and supply chains.
Thus, Bristol Hospital have to provide training on regular basis so that all the function of
operations and supply chain will be executed effectively and efficiently. In order to create a
powerful team, continuous improvement is very important for the organisation success.
The implementation of Kaizen theory within operations and supply chain management,
employees will learn to work differently as well as they also learn to handle multitasking
activities that is required for the smooth functioning of hospital. In addition to this, it also
eliminates waste, lower defects and errors, boost conductivity, promote innovation, encourage
the purpose of workers and accountability. There are ten principles that management of Bristol
Hospital should applied on employee's improvement are
 Never Stop improvement and development of employees
 Old practices should be eliminated
 Be Proactive
 Don't presume new methods will work
 Empower all staff member to speak
 Crowdsourced
 Be economical
However, training raises the cost of operations but if it is organized systematically and
related to the purpose than it will surely be cost effective technique. An example of Arnold
Palmer Hospital which is one of the success hospital in United Kingdom. In the area of inventory
and stock management, it is very effective and efficient as nurses and practitioners can quickly
access medicines as well as supplied necessary for there departments (Touboulic and Walker,
2015). Thus, if the operational function and supply chain management of the organisation is
effective and efficient it will automatically solve the issues. The strategies of human resources
plays an important role because they are responsible for managing people in the organisation
systematically. They can balance the absentees of employees, fill the vacancies, provide training
and development to employees and raise there skills and knowledge.
5

Managing Quality
Quality is the essence of those organisations which are operating in the sector of service
industry. It has been noticed or identified that Bristol Hospital is facing the issues of managing
quality within organisation (Prajogo, Oke and Olhager, 2016). Patients and customers are not
satisfied with the services offered by the Bristol Hospital. Quality is very important as it affects
the reputation or image of the organisation, product liability and global implications. It has been
noticed that due to shortage of staff, poor attendance of staff and other complains form patients
regarding quality is not good in Bristol Hospital which is also straightly influencing the quality
of services. The entire organisation is affected by the poor quality. This is the main aim of
Bristol Hospital is to provide quality healthcare services to all patients but they are legging
behind in terms of quality. The staff members are not working as per the level of quality
expected from the customers and patients. Inventory is not managed properly in the hospital
which also makes delay in the services that affects the quality of services. In terms of cleanliness
and hygiene, hospital have very bad quality. Thus, it is very important that organisation should
focus on managing quality because it makes the entire organisation different from its competitors
in the market as well as it ensures the top class services in the market. Quality is not depends on
a single factors or any single area, it depends on the entire organisational departments, resources,
technology used, employees etc. But the management of quality is directly depends on the
functions and working of operations and logistic and supply chain management.
Thus, it is very serious issues which needs to be focused by the management of the
hospital in order to resolve it as soon as possible. First of all, Key performance indicators is one
of the best as well as easiest tool that Bristol Hospital should used in order to check the
performance of employees as well as organisation (Schönsleben, 2016). This is one of the simple
and cost effective instrument that can help in improving quality of the work. KPI is also one of
the most crucial strategy that will continuously measure the goals of the organisation that
company is meeting the actual goals or not. Implementing the key performance indicators in
Bristol hospital will enable management to take right decisions and make strategies according to
the performance results. Thus, setting key performance indicators is the first step which needs to
be taken for bringing improvement as well as managing quality of the organisation.
In addition to this, another approach which can be used for bringing improvement as well
as managing quality in operations and function of Bristol Hospital is the tools named as Total
6

Quality Management (TQI). This is one of the best tool for measuring the quality in the
performance of the firm. This is one the systematic approach in order to plan as well as
implement a constant organisational improvement process. The main purpose of the approach is
to seek maximum level of satisfaction to the customers, determine the issues, building
commitment as well as boosting open decision making among the employees. This approach
should be implement in the function and working of Bristol Hospital (Hugos, 2018). By
implementing this approach within organisation-
 It will raise the competitive positioning
 Easy adaptability to changing or merging market condition.
 Raise the productivity of the organisation.
 Reputation of the organisation will be increase.
 Improve the moral of employee's.
 Raise the job security.
 Improvement the level of satisfaction of customers
 Raise the value of shareholders and stakeholders.
 Improve as well as innovative procedures.
These all the benefits of the tool Total Quality Management and it can be used in all areas
of hospital such as customer satisfaction, catering services, staff development etc. Take an
example of Arnold palmer hospital, use this tool for many years. The quality of there services are
very effective and attractive. They are using this tool for raising the customer satisfaction by
focusing on quality of services. The management of Bristol Hospital should also use this tool in
order solve the issues of quality as well as reducing the complains of patients on less responses.
It is fact that if this tool is used properly within organisation it will surely solve all the issues that
Bristol is facing and they will soon give tough competition to Arnold Palmer Hospital.
Triple Bottom Line
Economical consideration- It is very important consideration that Bristol Hospital have
to consider for bring improvement within organisation. Profit raising is one of the first motive of
bringing improvement in the working (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2014). Customer satisfaction
is also one the most important consideration for managing people and managing quality. In
addition to this, cost will be incurred in organising training and development campaigns.
7

Environmental Consideration- Bristol Hospital will use Pictet's environment approach
as this is one of the best theory. It inspires the sense of responsibility and awareness that
activities impact on the environment. It is the responsibility of Bristol Hospital that they should
be aware of all the environmental laws such as Health and Safety Act, Waste disposal and other
environmental laws.
Social Consideration- Social behaviour plays a great role in the services provided by
hospitals. It is very important that Bristol Hospital should assesses the interest of targeted
customers as well as aims to provide service more effectively and efficiently (Rushton,
Croucher and Baker, 2014). In managing people in operation and supply chain, Bristol Hospital
is bringing improvement for the satisfaction of customers. Similarly, in managing quality, they
are considering the customer interest, belief and values on the first priority.
Recommendation
The above discussion is about the performance of Bristol Hospital in United Kingdom. It
has been noticed that it is not up to mark which is the biggest issues of the organisation. The
operations and surly chain management is not effectively working because of lack of staff
members and fever quality.
 It is recommended that Bristol Hospital should use Key Performance Indicators
(KPI) continuously in order to check the performance of the organisation as well
as take necessary actions according to the performance result.
 They should provide proper training and development opportunities to employees
so that they can raise the skills and knowledge of employees.
 Bristol Hospital should use Kaizen concept of continuous improvement in the
organisation where organisation never stop the process of improvement and
development. Kaizen theory will surely improve the quality of services.
 In addition to this, it is also recommended that Bristol Hospital should focus on
the raising the customer satisfaction by providing them better services. It can be
executed by recruiting and hiring skilled employees (Christopher, 2016). The
strategies of recruitment should also be improved and changed.
 Human resource management should focus on implementing an effective policy
of leaves so that number of absentees will be reduced.
8

CONCLUSION
The above report concluded that operation management is very important for the
organisation as it chiefly concerned with planning, organising as well as supervising in the
contexts of production, manufacturing or the provision of services. It is also summarized that for
achieving success, supply chain, operation management and logistic management. In addition to
this, overview of organisation and key areas for improvement which are managing people in
operations and supply chain and managing quality was also discussed in this essay. Kaizen
theory, total quality management (TOQ) concept was also illustrated in this assignment.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bozarth, C.C. and Handfield, R.B., 2019. OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Grant, D.B., Wong, C.Y. and Trautrims, A., 2017. Sustainable logistics and supply chain
management: principles and practices for sustainable operations and management. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Heckmann, I., Comes, T. and Nickel, S., 2015. A critical review on supply chain risk–Definition,
measure and modeling. Omega, 52, pp.119-132.
Hugos, M.H., 2018. Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
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.
Prajogo, D., Oke, A. and Olhager, J., 2016. Supply chain processes: Linking supply logistics
integration, supply performance, lean processes and competitive
performance. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36(2),
pp.220-238.
Rushton, A., Croucher, P. and Baker, P., 2014. The handbook of logistics and distribution
management: Understanding the supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers.
Schönsleben, P., 2016. Integral logistics management: operations and supply chain management
within and across companies. CRC Press.
Touboulic, A. and Walker, H., 2015. Theories in sustainable supply chain management: a
structured literature review. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics
Management, 45(1/2), pp.16-42.
Wang, Y and et,al., 2015. Service supply chain management: A review of operational
models. European Journal of Operational Research, 247(3), pp.685-698.
Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain management: A
balanced approach. Cengage Learning.
10