Management and Operation of Assembly Systems

The assignment provided is focused on the topic of management and operation of assembly systems. It includes various research papers and articles that discuss different aspects of assembly systems, such as reconfigurable assembly systems, lean six sigma approach, and sigma metrics for assessing analytical quality. The document also explores the characteristics of leaders and store managers' responsibilities, in addition to lean production concepts. This comprehensive resource is ideal for students and professionals in the field of management and operations.

Management and Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
SCENARIO 1...................................................................................................................................1
Overview of a company..............................................................................................................1
Differences and similarities between managers and leader........................................................1
Presenting the functions of manager according to Fayol............................................................3
Presenting different leadership theories......................................................................................5
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
SCENARIO 2...................................................................................................................................7
Different approaches of operations management........................................................................7
Role of a store manager in M&S.................................................................................................8
Importance of operations management.......................................................................................8
External factor that affect operational management in M&S...................................................10
Presenting how these factors impact upon decision-making....................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management is a process which is dealing or controlling things as well as employees in
the company on the other side operation management is that area which is concern with the
process of production and redesigning business operations for production of goods and services.
The chosen company for this report is Marks and Spencer which is one of the leading retail
company in UK. Currently the company has 979 stores and also offers different variety of foods
as well as clothes to their customers at low and affordable price. Report present the differences
and similarities between leader and managers and further describe situational, system and
contingency leadership of M&S. It also describe the importance of operation management and
characteristics of store manager as well as different key factors that affect operation management
of M&S and how these factors impact upon decision-making as a store manager of a company.
TASK 1
SCENARIO 1
Overview of a company
Marks and Spencer is one of the major multinational retailer company in UK and it is
specializes in selling of clothing, home products as well as food products. Company follow flat
organizational structure under which it has limited levels of management between administrative
level as well as front line employees. This management structure helps to encourage employees
in more decision-making process. M&S has more than 900 stores in all over world in which 600
stores only sell food products.
Differences and similarities between managers and leader
Basis Leaders Managers
Characteristics  Leaders are always honest to
their work and they also have
the ability to delegate.
 Strong confidence that helps
them to lead a company in
positive direction
(Characteristics of leader,
 The manager of M&S must
have the experience in
professional environment and
also in leading a team.
 Manager also have good
communication skills which is
actually required for producing
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2018).
 Their positive attitude
towards a work also help
them to lead a team in right
direction.
 They also have the ability to
inspire others so that it will
help to achieve all defined
goals in prescribed time.
 They also have good
communication skills which
aid them to easily influence
others.
 They have a strong vision
which makes them differ
from other peoples.
 They always motivate the
employees for their extra
outstanding performance.
best results.
 Time management is the
another characteristics which a
manager of M&S posses and
they also be reliable to lead a
team in more specific way.
 They should also respect their
employees and communicate
with them in proper way such
that it helps them to fulfil the
demands of their employees
(Battaïa and et.al., 2018).
 Organization is another
characteristic which manager
of M&S also have and they
also have the ability of
delegation.
Roles  Leader are the representative
of an organization and they
have to represent the concern
at seminars, conferences and
general meeting.
 They also develop strategy
which the team can use to
achieve the defined goals.
 Provide training to their
employees whenever they
needed.
 Also listen to team members
 Manager of M&S assign job
responsibilities of their team
members and also monitor
whether the work is completed
or not.
 Also hire the staff and fire if
the employee is not work
accordingly.
 Monitor the performance and
also initiate the action in order
to strengthen the result.
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and take feedback
 also manage the flow of the
day to day operations.
 Motivate their employees for
better performance.
 Tracking and reporting
scorecard results to senior
management.
Similarities: The main aim of leaders as well as manager of a company is to attain all
defined goals and objectives of a company and that is why they both perform their function in
different ways. They both supervise the groups or teams and also evaluate the working
performance of their employees and also responsible for results too (Shiffman and et.al., 2018).
Have good and effective communication that further helps to convince their employees for well
performance. Both manager and leaders of Marks and Spencer provide training sessions to their
employees in order to raise their working performance and helps to attain all defined goals.
Presenting the functions of manager according to Fayol
According to Fayol, managers of M&S should have these five functions and this are
mentioned below:
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Planning: As per henry Fayol, it is the first function which managers of M&S should
have. Planning with respect to time and implementation and it should be linked with proper
coordination at different levels of planning. Even the planning can be taken with organization's
available resources and flexibility of personnel into considerations (Cárdenas Escorcia, Valencia
Ochoa and Acevedo, 2018). Therefore, management of the company must be plan and schedule
every part of industrial process.
Organizing: It means that all parts of a company must work together and after proper
planning, the effective authority of M&S relationships among selected work and work place in
order to work together in a group in an effective way. Organizing is the function key of managers
and organizational structure with a good divisions of functions is also important. If the function
of a company is increases then the organization also expand into horizontally as well as
vertically.
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Illustration 1: Function of Fayol
Source: Five Functions of Management (Fayol)

Commanding: If proper orders and commands will given to their employees, then
employees of M&S should also come to know what exactly is required by the company. For
example, if managers of a company will guide properly to their employees then they will do the
activities accordingly. The manager of M&S have integrity, communicate clearly and take
decision on the basis of regular audits. Therefore, they are able to motivate their employees for
their better performance.
Coordinating: a better communication will help to take better decision for the company
and if the activities are harmonized then M&S will function better (Carnall, 2018). Coordination
main aim is to stimulating motivation and discipline with the group and it further requires
communication and good leadership strategy that will help to attain all defined objective.
Controlling: It is the last function according to Fayol by verifying whether the activities
are run as per the plan or not. Control process is taken up in four process:
 By establishing performance standards which are based on the objectives.
 Comparing past and current performance
 measure and report on actual performance
 take corrective actions as per requirement.
Management Principles of Fayol
Division of work : In this first principle of Fayol suggesting that, employees are
specialized in different areas and they have different unique skills. M&S divides their employee
work according to the needs and wants of the individual person. Different number of specialise
person can help to make the better growth of development.
Authority and Responsibility : Management has authority to work in full of authority
and in effective manner to make the long term result goals. According to the best management
approachable target performance goals. Overall, it helps me to bring new development areas and
best approachable target market performance.
Discipline : This principle defines the importance of obedience it also focusses on core values of
a mission and vision in the form of good conduct and respectful interactions. This management
principles is essential and is seen as the oil to make the engine of an organisation run smoothly.
 Unity of Command
 Unity Direction
 Subordinates of individual interest
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 Remuneration
 The Degree of Centralization
 Scalar Chain
 Order
 Equity
 Stability of personnel
 Initiative participation
 Esprit de corps
Presenting different leadership theories
Situational Leadership: This theory states that there is no single leadership style is best
and it all depends upon the situation that leader opted which leadership style as per the situation.
According to this theory, the most effective leader of M&S is that who is able to adapt their style
to a situation and also look at evidence, such as type of task and nature of group (Álvarez-Santos
and et.al., 2018). As per this, there are four basic leadership style and this are:
 Telling: In this style, leader of a company will tell that what people have to do and how
to complete the assigned work because individual lack of specific skills for the job in
hand.
 Selling: Leaders of a company will sell their ideas in order to get their team members to
buy that idea into a process. Through this, the members of a company will start
interacting with each other and perform.
 Participating: In this approach, leaders of a company will offer less direction and also
allow their team members to take more active role so that they will come up with more
innovative ideas and better decision-making process.
 Delegating: Under this, group members of a team will involve themselves and also take
most of the decision by their own without any permissions. Therefore it is not used by
M&S.
System Leadership: In this, organization structure is consider as a complex system in
which the organization function have been carried out accordingly (Gijo, Palod and Antony,
2018). This types of leadership enables the leaders of an organization to creates the condition in
which the people at all level can do the work in more productive way. According to this theory,
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the leaders of system leadership theory, is implies a more collective act from people in multiple
organization as well as variety of levels.
Contingency Leadership: According to this theory, the leaders' effectiveness is actually
depended upon how his or her leadership style is actually matches up with the situation and this
will also help to attain the defined goals in prescribed time. According to this theory, the
situation is defined into three factors such as: this theory can also be more helpful and productive
for the development growth of M&S.
Leader member relation: It is measure in the hierarchies and if the subordinates have
trust, confidence then it is positive.
Task Structure: It is measure upon the clarity of the task and their methods to achieve
the end products and there should be clear guidelines to follow and progressed ().
Positional power: It is a measure of amount in which the leader has to influences the
productivity of the followers whether he can be reward or punish.
Recommendations
 Marks and Spencer have an effective leaders and they should have good communication
skills that help to convince their employees in order to attain all defined goals of a
company.
 Company's management structure should be effective and leader must follow situational
leadership style so that it will help them to opt best leadership style as per the situation.
 It is also recommended to M&S that Managers of a company should follow Fayol
principle so that it will help them to achieve the objectives of a company.
TASK 2
SCENARIO 2
Different approaches of operations management
Operational Management: It is an area which is actually concerned with the designing
and controlling of business operations. OM is the process which help to convert the input into
output. There are many approaches of operational management and some of them are as follows:
Six Sigma: This is one of the most common approach that is also used by M&S. It is a
set of techniques and tools which is used to improve the quality of goods which are produced to
the customers (Noori and Latifi, 2018). It is an approach that is actually help to improve the
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quality of output by identifying as well as removing the cause of defects and minimizing the
variability in manufacturing and business process. If M&S will use this approach then it will help
to remove all the causes of a company. This style or approach of operation management is very
much useful to enhance the quality performance of product and services. This can be useful for
M&S by creating customer loyalty and faith on the brand.
Lean production: It is another most common approach which is actually focus on
cutting out waste in order to enhance their quality. It is based upon five process such as:
 Identify the value from the customer's perspective
 Map the value stream
 Create flow
 establish a pull system
 Monitor the perfection by continual process improvement (Lean Production, 2018).
By using lean production, M&S will control excess inventory, over production of the
products and defects which require efforts and cost for corrections. Therefore, this approach will
help to reduce the waste and maximizes the production that further help to raise company's
profitability. Lean approach of operation management can easily develop the logistic
management of approach to full fill the best management deal and long term target performance.
More apart it also helps to sustained the long term goals to make the best outcomes.
Total Quality Approach: It is an operational management approach that is also used by
M&S for long term success by using customer satisfaction. This is also based upon some
principle such as customer focused, total employee involvement, process centered, integrated
system, continual improvement and communications (Muruganantham and et.al., 2018). This
approach is help to improve the quality of offered products to the customers. If this system is
uses by the company then it will help to improve the system in well and effective way.
M&S uses lean production approach for operational management because it will help to
cutting out waste in order to enhance their product's quality. Through this approach, M&S will
easily enhances their quality of products and also maintain the inventory of the company that
further help to reduce the over production. Total quality management can improves the overall
performance and loop foals of M&S by evaluating the best technical growth services.
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Role of a store manager in M&S
Store manager of M&S have their own importance such that they are responsible for the
following such as:
 Store manager must have the skills related to customer service such that they must know
how to deal with the public and they should also have well communication skills that
makes different from others.
 Also have the experience of sales so that they can easily convince the customers and
realize their needs (Argenti, 2018).
 The store manager of M&S must have the employee management skills and they should
also provide employee operations manual and also provide training when necessary. They
also responsible and be able to accurately estimate the needs of each store and solve the
conflicts and also assess that scheduling needs are met or not.
 By making effective inventory which is also a part of operational store manager and
should forecast sales figure and inventory requirement. This analysis is used to determine
how much each product is used and which product is help to maximizes profit the most.
 Store manager is only responsible for maintaining the overall image of the store and by
keeping the store clean and managing the things in an appropriate way will help to attract
wide range of customers towards them.
 Store manager is also responsible for managing the assets of the store and even the safety
and security is also monitor by store managers (Store manager responsibility, 2018). It is
the responsibility of store manager to make their customer feel safe and comfortable in
the store.
Importance of operations management
Operational management have their own importance in M&S such that it helps to convert
the inputs into output. The main purpose of operational management is to run the business
operations in successful manner by using minimum resources and meeting customer
expectations. Therefore, it is the most important factor that helps to increases the company's
profit. The importance is as follows:
 Operational management mainly handles the issues like design, operations and
improvement of the system and it has clear management responsibilities such as
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marketing and financing. Therefore, it helps an organization to achieve the defined goals
of a company (Ross, 2017).
 It is also related to quality management such that each and every organization is quite
concern with their offered products which are manufactured in order to fulfil the demands
of their customers.
 Moreover operational management is quite important to improve the overall productivity.
Even the ratio of input to output is known as productivity. It also gives the measure of the
efficiency of the manager as well as employees and it also focus on using less resources
in best possible way in order to achieve the goals and objectives of M&S.
 Operational management of M&S is quite important because planning, organizing,
staffing and monitoring are the main elements and it is obligatory for an organization to
manage the daily activities and be able to use labour, raw material and money.
 Operational management is consider as a heart of organization because it controls the
entire activities and if the products are made in order to supply the needs of the customers
then it will help to maximizes their profit.
 For every organization, quality of products is an important aspect therefore, in M&S the
operational management continuously look after the products are actually met the basic
needs of their customer's and if not then the company takes some steps for their further
improvement. Such as benchmarking and lean production are the basic key approach
which a company can used in order to improve the quality of their products (Guo and
et.al., 2018).
 Adopting benchmarking and re- engineering into operational management will also help
to advance up the level of produce products at high quality and through this process, the
company will enhances their quality of offered products and services.
External factor that affect operational management in M&S
Operational management is also influenced by the external factor and this factors are as
follows:
Economic environment: It is one of the most affecting external factor that affect entire
operational management system of Marks and Spencer such that if the economic system of the
country is not stable then it will affect the company's production level for shorter period and as a
result the company's overall financial performance got declined. For example, change in interest
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rate or recession in UK then it will directly affect M&S overall production as well as profitability
status (Urabe, Child and Kagono, 2018). Hence, the change in interest rates impact on the cost of
financing capital investment in operations which shows that it directly influence the company's
external as well as internal environment.
Competitor: it is another external factor that affect operational management. M&S also
faces tough competition with many companies and they all produce best quality of products with
cheap rates that will creates pressure on operations in order to deliver art least comparable
performance. Tough competition from other companies also weak up the customer buying power
and as a result people shift their buying power. As the company have goof customer base
because of low price products that will make other company force to offer more low price
products as compared to M&S and as a result the the profit of a company will decline (Carnall,
2018).
Technology change and Innovation: this is another factor that is also affect company's
overall production system. It is quite necessary for a company to adopt all new and latest
technologies into working area because it will help them to maximizes their profit margin.
Moreover, if M&S will continuously producing new and innovative things as per the needs of
their customers then it will help to achieve the defined goals and objectives of the company. If
these techniques are not used by the company then it will affect company's brand image.
Legal and environmental change: new rules and regulation also affect company's
overall brand image therefore, greater the regulations and legislations of the environment will
also places new challenges for the operations objectives (Schulze and et.al., 2016). Hence, the
legal as well as environmental change also affect company's brand image in market and further it
is quite necessary for M&S to follow all the rules and regulation of the country in order to
survive in this competitive era.
Presenting how these factors impact upon decision-making
Being a store manager of M&S, these external factor of a company also impact upon
decision making process and may influence the better decision of a company. If the store
manager of a company takes a decision for the welfare of M&S then it will directly affect such
that:
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Return on investment: It means that it affect on profitability such that the external factor
of technology change and economy will directly affect company's profit. Therefore, if M&S is
also affect the economy of the country such that if the interest rate of the country is high then it
will also affect the decision making of the company by store managers. Moreover, if the
company offer the products at cheap rates then it will help to provide many opportunities for the
welfare as well as maximization of the products (Wild, 2017).
Brand Impact: External factor also affect company's brand image and creates negative
impact upon the brand of M&S. If the company is affected by the economy factor and then it will
directly affect the profitability of the company and as a result, the company's overall
performance and as a result the decision making process also got affected. Being a store
manager, brand image is the most important factor that helps to attract wide range of customers
and if adding a new and innovative products will help to sustain its brand image in market and
further help to maximizes their profit as well as production level.
As a store manager, decision-making process is quite important for the welfare of the
company such that as the company faces tough competition from many companies and as a
result, it is quite necessary for them to achieve the defined goals as well as objectives. By
adopting new and sudden changes in technologies then it will also help to maximizes their
current profit margin (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus, 2014). M&S should also produces those
products which are actually needed by their customers and always got their loyalty by offering
new and different promotional techniques such that it will also draw attention of many new
customers. Therefore, Marks and Spencer should also adapt those changes which are directly
impact upon sales and these external factors also affect positive as well as negative impact upon
the decision-making of Sales manager of a quoted company.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that management as well as
operations have their own importance in Marks and Spencer. It also concluded that leaders and
manager are two different aspect for every company but their aim is to attain all defined
objectives of a company. Further, it also explain the managers should have 5 function according
to Fayol and this will further help to achieve goals. Leaders of the company should also follow
leadership theories such as situational, system and contingency leadership theory. Report also
concluded the importance of operational management and different approaches such as six
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sigma, lean production and Total quality management in order to minimizing the waste and
maximization of profit level. Further it shows the external factor and how this impact upon
decision-making as a store manager.
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REFERENCES
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Cárdenas Escorcia, Y., Valencia Ochoa, G. E. and Acevedo, C. H., 2018. A Systematic
Procedure to Combine the Integral Management Systems in a Services Sector Company.
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Ross, J. E., 2017. Total quality management: Text, cases, and readings. Routledge.
Schulze, M. and et.al., 2016. Energy management in industry–a systematic review of previous
findings and an integrative conceptual framework. Journal of Cleaner Production. 112.
pp.3692-3708.
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Shiffman, S. and et.al., 2018. Operation and method for prediction and management of the
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Urabe, K., Child, J. and Kagono, T. eds., 2018. Innovation and management: International
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