Operations Management at CQuest Marine Lab

This assignment delves into the operational structure and efficiency of CQuest Marine Laboratory. It examines unique strategies employed by the laboratory, compares its current functionalities to the organizational structure, and pinpoints root causes and issues within its operations management. Furthermore, it highlights challenges prevalent in the tourism industry that may impact CQuest's operations.

Running Head: Operations Management
Cquest Marine Laboratory
Operations Management

Operations Management 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Current Operations...........................................................................................................................3
Issues in operations for CQuest Marine Laboratory........................................................................5
Identification of issues.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Operations Management 2
Introduction
To achieve effectiveness in the organization's management and administration, adequate
functionalities and procedures need to be adopted. For increasing profitability and productivity
of the organization, appropriate actions must be taken such as performing under specialized
projects and ventures. These strategies will help the organization to attain effective goals. The
basic requirement of the business is to keep the synchronization between the expenses and the
incomes of the organization. This will help the organization to build up the effective profitability.
Management of the organization is responsible for making the optimum utilization of
organizational resources such as workers, capital, equipment, etc. the combination of all these
resources helps the organization to produce effective and result-oriented products. And then
management will convey these products to its clients, and to the new customers for attaining
adequate growth in the business environment. Adaptation of innovation is also up to the
management of the organization and innovative techniques and methods help the organization to
attain its objectives more efficiently and effectively. In a business environment, lot of complex
processes and operations needs to be performed and achieve adequate results such as
determining the area of setting up organization's plans, strategies, etc. and mixing those resources
of the organization with appropriate innovative strategy helps the business organization to set up
its effective place in the dynamic business environment. Operations management includes a
number of issues such as maintaining stock level, maintaining WIP level, fulfillment of worker's
and employees' needs, etc. Operations of the organization additionally include the controlling all
those procedures which need to be performed within the organizational premises to enhance the
productivity and through which organizational productivity could not get affected. This report
will determine the operations management of CQuest marine laboratory and along with this
issues faced by the organization in relevance with the current operations of the organization.
These operations are executed within the organization and the identification of issues' roots will
also be determined by this report.

Operations Management 3
Current Operations
 CQML is privately started by Douglas and Amy Patterson and with their unique
functionalities; CQML was awarded International Tourism Award in 2017. They both
took their organization to the next level of tourism (David, 2011).
 The main concern for CQuest marine laboratory is targeting audience and they are
struggling in performing this function. On the basis of past experiences and market
research, CQuest marine laboratory has analyzed some approaches for targeting
appropriate audience.
 CQML needs to develop unique strategies for targeting audience because in the summer
season i.e. from May to October, Northern Hemisphere people will be attracted whereas
demand will be increased from Australia and New Zealand in November to April. Apart
from summer and winter season, monsoon season should not be ignored and southern
hemisphere public’s demand increases in that period (Swarbrooke & Page, 2012).
 CQuest marine laboratory is concentrating on maintaining the services’ quality at its best.
As this is the priority function for this business organization and it should be performed
in the same manner. Maintaining quality of the services and products offered by an
organization will help them to achieve organizational objectives, goals and it will lead to
a growth of the organization.
 CQML was started with the scientist studying coral eco-system and fish habitats and for
this, they were permitted for a marine park under which 120 tourists were allowed in one
trip. Five years ago, this function was performed with the help of a company who was
involved in the catamaran. Under which 100 people could be served at a time.
 Along with this, they are planning to take their organization to the next level of tourism
through expansion of $3M which will include the overnight accommodation. Under this
plan, 10 tourists will be able to live along with 4 scientific staff members. Under that,
kitchen facilities and many more facilities will be provided to tourists for improving their
experience of traveling.
 To attract number tourists, Douglas and Amy have planned to appoint an extra catamaran
so that double shift could be executed. Apart from this, there are various unique strategies
adopted by the organization to increase the organizational scope.

Operations Management 4
 The improvement in the functionalities of CQML has affected their business and
currently, they have made an investment of $8M and planning for additional $3M to
provide better services to tourists but for executing this plan, certain points need to
recognize. Such as tourism agents take 90 days credit period and each tourist pays
approximately $199 for the tour of which 40% is charged by agents as commission. So,
dealing with these issues and for improving the cash flow of the organization, Douglas
and Amy need to evaluate effective and innovative policy through which organization
could grow in an adequate manner (Chon & Yu, 2012).
 Unique activities like underwater experiences, snorkeling or diving tours, etc. are offered
to the tourists to make their experience memorable. CQML organization has a certain
number of lifeguards and leaders which make the experience of tourists smooth.
 These are some of the services through which CQML has developed its goodwill in
tourists and their special feature is their lifeguards and safety equipment’s through which
danger to tourists’ life reduces (Tarlow, 2016).
 Customer satisfaction is being the priority for CQML. And due to this, they have
achieved the adequate place in the global market in the tourism industry (Lin, Li & You,
2012).

Operations Management 5
Issues in operations for CQuest Marine Laboratory
 The major and common issue for all business organizations is matching the requirements
of the dynamic business environment. Adaptation of policies, strategies, and methods for
meeting the demands of the dynamic business environment will not result in the favor of
organization, certain times it may result in a negative manner.
 Second most crucial issues amongst the issues found in the tourism industry are
aggressive competition. Competition amongst the tour operators, tour agents, etc. is
common and due to these issues, an organization needs to adopt unique and effective
strategies so that adequate results could be obtained (Pullman & Rodgers, 2010).
 For making execution of all plans successful, daily life activities of the organization
should be performed in an adequate manner. It will increase the chances of growth for an
organization as chances of errors and issues will be reduced. Control over the execution
of unique processes of unique departments needs to be imposed so that performing
unethical practices could be ignored (Kylanen & Mariani, 2012).
 Acquiring permission for tourist visit from government agencies also becomes the
crucial issue for CQML. For instance, only 120 people can experience at one time.
Hence, numbers of trips are increased in relevance with a number of tourists and this
increase the cost of operations for CQML.
 CQML is still dependent upon the traditional techniques of the tourism industry for
filling tourists. And this also results in the issue for an organization because a large
amount is being paid to the tour agents in the form of commission (Slack, 2015).
 A season like a monsoon is very attractive for experiencing the nature whereas it is
dangerous too because of chances of a flood, cyclones, etc. increases in this duration.
Hence, an interest of tourist decreases in this period and profitability of CQML will get
decreased and apart from this, cash flow of the organization also decreases (Zomerdijk &
Voss, 2010).

Operations Management 6
Identification of issues
Travel and tourism industry is unpredictable and its demand and supply also change at an
uncertain rate. The tourism industry is based on the travellers’ leisure; the more travellers will
get bored from their daily routine life, the profitability of tour operators and tour agents will
increase. For attracting travelers, tour operators such as CQML needs to adopt various strategies
like advertisement and promotion which increases the cost of the tour and indirectly public needs
to bear those expenses (Kerzner, 2013). Tourism industry needs to determine the political, legal
and ethical considerations so that their working procedures do not get affected. Tour agents,
operators are not able to control the positive and negative sides of the tourism industry rather
they could only perform their functions for attaining success and growth. But some of the
additional factors could be ascertained in relevance with the uncontrollable nature of tourism
industry (Leask, 2010). CQuest Marine Laboratory is found as the part of amusement parks
which is the greatest part of the tourism industry as this industry is huge and consists of various
sectors such as monuments, museums, etc. Tourism industry’s contribution is meant to be huge
as the large amount is being contributed to the country's global economy through this sector.
Apart from contributing to the country's economy, it also generates employment opportunities
and increases the value of local country in front of tourists who travel from other countries. The
demand of tourism industry will never decrease as a population of the world is increasing at
rapidly and the people who love to explore the world and new places are the main source of
income for this industry (Robinson, et. al., 2016). Despite being its development, growth and
increasing profitability, there are a number of challenges faced by this industry which is as
follows:
A Huge burden is found in the tourism industry. Travellers expect unforgettable experience when
they incur huge expenses on booking hotels, buying airline tickets, etc. to take experience in the
amusement parks and if their expectations do not fulfill, CQML cannot obtain adequate ratings.
And negative ratings would not help the organization to increase profitability and growth. This
has become the biggest challenge in these days and to overcome from this situation, CQML has
arranged various facilities in their premises to make travelers' experience memorable (Jaques,
2010).

Operations Management 7
It is observed that in tourist’s places, local people’s visit charges and visitors’ charges from other
country differs. This difference is found across the globe and these extra charges incurred by
tourists helps the government to increase their earnings. Against these extra charges, travelers are
provided with adequate facilities. Apart from this, explorers have found that most of the
amusement parks offer quite similar services and activities. The slight difference is the quality of
services which is due to the package purchased by voyagers. To avoid this, CQML has invented
certain activities and adventurous rides which could make realize explorers something unique
and exciting (Swarbrooke & Page, 2012).
In amusement parks and centers, different types of rides, adventurous things are found and to
operate them, the huge amount of fuel is incurred. And the cost of fuel is bit expensive through
which ride costs and other things available in the amusement parks becomes expensive. Apart
from fuel cost, maintenance and labor cost also becomes the issues for amusement parks because
in offseasons when their travelers do not wish to travel. Hence, to improve from this, CQML
needs to adopt the policy of making provisions which could help them to meet with future
expenses (Hitt, Carnes & Xu, 2016).
Expenses on safety and security is also a great issue for CQML because providing underwater
experience to travelers requires adequate experienced trainers and lifesaving equipment. These
also increase the cost of production of services offered by the organization to explorers. Apart
from expenses, government of various countries have passes the policies for amusement parks
under which organization needs to adopt number of safety equipment and in the scenario of
uncertainty, if organization will be found guilty, penalty, compensation as well as imprisonment
could also be faced by the organizational head (Galliers & Leidner, 2014).
Political considerations must be followed because those people who apply for the visa with a
view to entering into the country and into crowded places being the tourist with unethical
perceptions should be properly checked before entering into premises. This helps to reduce the
chances of any unprofessional or unethical practices because it will ruin the premises’ goodwill
as well fear in customer’s mind will never attract them towards CQML (Heizer, 2016).

Operations Management 8
Conclusion
As per above discussion on unique strategies, approaches, methods, etc. with a view to analyzing
the operations management of CQuest Marine Laboratory, apart from this management's
operations and current functionalities are also determined with a view to turning them as per the
structure of the organization. Root causes and issues of the operations management of the
CQuest Marine Laboratory are also discussed under this report. Furthermore, identification of
issues was also discussed which are found in the tourism industry.

Operations Management 9
References
Chon, K. S., & Yu, L. (2012). The international hospitality business: Management and
operations. Routledge.
David, F. R. (2011). Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Peaeson/Prentice Hall.
Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (Eds.). (2014). Strategic information management: challenges
and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Heizer, J. (2016). Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Hitt, M. A., Carnes, C. M., & Xu, K. (2016). A current view of resource based theory in
operations management: A response to Bromiley and Rau. Journal of Operations
Management, 41(10), 107-109.
Jaques, T. (2010). Reshaping crisis management: The challenge for organizational
design. Organization Development Journal, 28(1), 9.
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kylanen, M., & Mariani, M. M. (2012). Unpacking the temporal dimension of coopetition in
tourism destinations: Evidence from Finnish and Italian theme parks. Anatolia, 23(1), 61-
74.
Leask, A. (2010). Progress in visitor attraction research: Towards more effective
management. Tourism management, 31(2), 155-166.
Lin, S. J., Li, C. H., & You, C. S. (2012). Consumer behavior and perception of marketing
strategy for amusement parks: A case study of Taiwan. African Journal of Business
Management, 6(14), 4795.

Operations Management 10
Pullman, M., & Rodgers, S. (2010). Capacity management for hospitality and tourism: A review
of current approaches. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29(1), 177-187.
Robinson, P., Fallon, P., Cameron, H., & Crotts, J. C. (Eds.). (2016). Operations management in
the travel industry. CABI.
Slack, N. (2015). Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Swarbrooke, J., & Page, S. J. (2012). Development and management of visitor attractions.
Routledge.
Tarlow, P, E, (2016), Issues facing travel and tourism industry, Assessed on 18th August 2017,
https://eturbonews.com/136067/issues-facing-travel-and-tourism-industry
Zomerdijk, L. G., & Voss, C. A. (2010). Service design for experience-centric services. Journal
of Service Research, 13(1), 67-82.