Operation and Information Management: Process Design, Facility Layout, and Flow Chart

This study focuses on operation and information management in the retail sector. It covers process design, facility layout, and flow chart. It also analyzes three levels for IKEA and good practices in BPM. The report explains the benefits and challenges of proposed changes to business, including the use of CRM software. The study concludes that effective process design and software utilization can lead to competitive advantages and increased revenue.

OPERATION AND
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT

Executive summary-
From above study, it has been summarized that process design has enabled organization
to achieve its strategic goals in effective manner. The utilization of each software has enabled
management to reached desire outcomes and also contributed to meet stakeholders needs in
systematic manner. Furthermore, it has been identified that organization has gained competitive
advantages, by developing and increasing the appropriate flow related to strategic operations,
procedures and resources. Each resource, process and operation has supported company to reach
desire outcomes, which is quite challenging for them to do that. The usage of software4 has
increased the operational effectiveness or efficiency of company, which lead to generate
unpredictable revenue and sales.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
PART A...........................................................................................................................................4
Examining the procedure design, facility layout and presenting a flow chart.............................4
Flow between operations, process and resources........................................................................5
Analysing three levels for IKEA.................................................................................................6
PART B1.........................................................................................................................................8
1. Operation management theory.................................................................................................8
2. Good practice in BPM.............................................................................................................9
Strategic analysis.......................................................................................................................13
Current business situation on the basis of SWOT and existing BPM.......................................13
PART B2.......................................................................................................................................15
1. Comparison between 2 open source software and 2 commercial software...........................15
Recommendations......................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Operation and information management refers to set of activities and practices that
manager is accountable to conduct in appropriate way (Feng and Ye, 2021). Each activity and
practice is essential because it helps them to manage the operations and information related to
the same. Operation management as strategic process help organizations to grow rapidly in the
industry, while information management support to increase organizational productivity. The
current assessment will be based on retail sector as chosen product or service based industry. It
will define the process design, facility layout and flow chat that covers these two things. It will
also explain analysis of three level for company and two business process models. Furthermore,
the report will also clarify strategic analysis, and benefits or challenges of proposed changes.
Lastly, the study will explain the software comparison and recommendation based on that.
PART A
Examining the procedure design, facility layout and presenting a flow chart
Process design-
In the recent time, to product or provide a product in the market, organizations may focus
on process design concept, which refer to set of practices (Pasha and et.al., 2021). It may help
IKEA to develop a detail and appropriate plan for producing goods and providing the same to
customers, according to their needs and requirements. It is one of those concepts, where the
important discussion held about a product distribution into varied parts that might be supported
in real manufacturing procedure. It includes varied stages and steps that provide a lot of benefits
to the companies that operate under retail sector such as IKEA.
Facility layout-
The current term is defined as strategic arrangement of several aspects of production in
systematic and appropriate manner in the IKEA, which help to achieve desire outcomes (Pérez-
Gosende, Mula and Díaz-Madroñero, 2021). It can be said that facility layout may consider final
product, accessible space, safety of customers and facility as well as convenience of operations
that help firm to grow competitively and rapidly.
Flow between operations, process and resources
Suppliers coordination

Analysing three levels for IKEA
Supply network-
Supply network is considered as cluster of sustainable suppliers who are able to assist
companies and ventures in term of adding value for target market by producing and delivering
goods. IKEA may have high level of supply network, as it may run its venture in the retail
industry with more than 1800 suppliers in more than 49 nations, that help company to
manufacture quality products by selling raw materials in appropriate manner (IKEA supply
chain: How does IKEA manage its inventory, 2022). It can be critically analysed that supply
network help to manage the flow between suppliers and target audience in form of selling and
Operations
management Customers feedback
Changes and
delivery
Procedures
Supply chain
management
Human resource
management
Product delivery
Resources
Human resource
planning
Raw material
collection
Product design and
launch

then using raw materials that allow IKEA and its management to manufacture goods according
to individual buyer needs, which is important for them to do that. It is fact that organization
utilize more than 42 trading service outlets around the whole world, which enable them to
manage the important relation with each supplier, who may tend to make company progressive
and productive always (Azadegan and Dooley, 2021). In the recent time, it is essential for the
organizations to build and maintain a good supply network, among which sustainable and
trustworthy suppliers included to perform their role and fulfil responsibilities. With wide and
large supply network, IKEA may take initiative to gain competitive advantages in term of
reaching to potential customers, throughout business expansion that in return lead to generate
more profitability and productivity as well as revenue. It may reach management to gain desire
results, in appropriate manner that require a lot of time and efforts, including key resources,
which company may use to conduct practice related to business operations and functions.
Operation-
An operation is defined as chain of strategic procedure that play important role in the
companies, either small or large as flow between different departments such as production,
marketing, sales, research & development, product design & packaging, inventory management,
etc. It can be analysed that the level of operation in the IKEA is high because firm works with
number of essential functional and operational units, among which each unit support to gain
competitive advantages in bulk (Ren and et.al., 2021). The relation between each operation is
important in the chosen company to have, especially during work load, when firm may tend to
lead in the market, but unable to do that without having effective departments. Each department
may work together for purpose of achieving the goals and also for setting new, which is also
important for IKEA, along with conducting other practices. All above operations in the
organization may perform together on the bases of fulfilling organizational need and
requirement, and that is to enhance customer satisfaction, increase profits and revenue, more than
last few years or months. Whether, it is product design and production or packaging, a operation
contribute to reach desire outcome in term of conducting collaborative practice, which is not that
easy, but essential to. Number of operations in the IKEA contribute to increase customer base as
they perform collaboratively that drive the attention of management toward manufacturing and
planning for the same, without facing any issue that affect existing customer base. By conducting

these practice they may help firm to grow and succeed in the market, where competition level is
high, and become higher in the future.
Process-
There are several techniques that operation utilized to proceed further and achieve aims
throughout that (Ma and Li, 2022). For example, it may develop process of resource
management and allocation which enable IKEA to provide required resource to candidate
according to the requirement, which they utilize to accomplish give duty and responsibility in
appropriate manner. With effective resource management process, managers in the chosen
company may obtain benefit of enhancing customer satisfaction and retaining them with new
buyers for longer. It may enable them to provide resources to each unit in the company that aid
to achieve goals, appropriately and in systematic manner, without making any mistake that affect
sales and success of brand. It is fact that resources are anything that required to execute and
complete a project or task. In case of IKEA, raw material is the best example of a valuable
resource, that manager allocates to production department for purpose of manufacturing furniture
and other products. By conducting this activity, they may provide and sell goods to customer
according to requirement and trend they prefer to follow. As it may put impact on their buying
behaviour, that lead to increase organizational sales and revenue.
Another example of process of recruitment that also help IKEA to gain competitive
benefit in term of hiring people who may make achievable commitments, that increase
organizational performance, productivity and profitability, along with increasing efficiency of
varied operations that available in the firm.
PART B1
1. Operation management theory
Operation management theory entails the strategies which the organization can deploy to
maximize their efficiency within the operation and production. To operate efficiently businesses
are required to utilize the resources in a manner so that it will meet the requirement consumers. It
concerns with converting the raw materials into the goods to bring it to market to maximize the
profitability rate of organization (Hutahayan, 2020). This theory is encompassing the certain
responsibilities that need to be played by employees where it ensures that business operates

deficiently in both using the least essential resources so that waste can be reduced and in
fulfilling the consumer requirement.
Lean six sigma is one of the OM system that helps the businesses in improvising their business
process and also enables the firm to ensure that there is no certain risk which is associated with
the business process. This approach helps operational manager to figure out any risk and
implement suitable strategies to overcome it. In the context with case study it is found that due to
covid pandemic it has imposed serious problems for event or music industry, where clients
charles and christina are looking for their digital transformation. Thus lead six sigma approach
can be efficient in order to minimize the errors in their business process.
Digital goals of their business is as follows:
 To increase the business efficiency by connecting with large audience
 To implement software and technologies for better consumer experience and for
competitive advantage.
2. Good practice in BPM
BPM refer to the model which describes the approach in which the operations are carried
out to achieve the desired or intended objectives of the business. Business process is the
collection of the activities of organisation along with structure which explains the logical order
and dependency to deliver the desired outcome (Lee and et.al 2018).
Following report will include the BPM model by using BPMN and Swim Lane notation.
BPMN: Business process modelling notation a simple flow chart that describes the stages of
business process from initial point to ending point. It explains the detailed sequence of the
business activities which is required to complete the process. It is like flow chart which uses
standardised graphics to show participants, choices and process flow.
Swim Lane: It is the flow chart that visually differentiate the job sharing and other
responsibilities for sub aspects of business process. It usually differentiated the job sharing and
responsibilities for sub procedures of business process.
Existing system

Proposed system
Figure 1BPMN diagram for business process
Existing system through swin lane

Proposed system
Figure 2Swim lane diagram for business process

Strategic analysis
This process entails the researching of the organisational business environment; it helps
in examining the factors that affects the business process of firm within their sector. Strategic
analysis is one of the efficient process to develop the strategies for decision-making process and
smooth carrying out of business operation. For charles and christina's business analysis swot
analysis is done which is discussed below:
SWOT analysis
It is the strategic analysis tool that helps in determining the business's strength, weakness,
opportunity and threats.
Strength: It discusses the positive point of the business, as for the Charles and Christina they are
aiming to digitalize their business and to show their talent to world so that they will get
maximum bookings of their musical classes. Their approach for to present the digital online
payment system and online classes is efficient, with this they can easily or smoothly run their
business.
Weakness: Weakness in their digitalize solution can be lack of resource and improper strategies.
Also previously there were no such arrangement for extra bookings, where classes booking were
only made through telephones but because of this there were no clear information which these
two can provide to clients. As to digitalize the business often requires a technical knowledge and
market research.
Opportunity: Their digital payment and online appearance of business will be beneficial for
them, as technologies will help them to connect with number of audience in all around the world.
Threats: Possible threats can be security and privacy issues while using technologies, high
competition can also be a threat.

Current business situation on the basis of SWOT and existing BPM
As per the scenario current situation for the business is identified as both Charles and
Christina performs in musical events and also provides music training to some students where
most booking is being done via telephone and their customer usually pays by cash on the day of
event and lesson. Their existing business process does not consist of any goals and objectives
that need to be fulfilled, as such their were no proper strategies and potential customer (Sundram,
and et.al 2018). Because of this they are in huge loss during covid time as lack of strategies and
proper business vision or mission imposed various challenges for their business. On the basis of
SWOT analysis, it has been identified that their approach for digitalizing the business is
beneficial as it consists the involvement of technologies through which Charles and christina can
easily reach to the large audience, also by providing digital payment mode can also be helpful in
providing better consumer experience. For the potential security threats they can proceed to take
use of other technologies and software that provides the better protection of critical and useful
information. With the use of IOT technologies will help in mitigating security problems.
Benefits and challenges of proposed changes to business
For the proposed digitalization of business for the christina and charles is beneficial for
them to generate revenues and to develop the customer base for their business solution. For the
customer relationship management solution it will provide the benefit them with various aspects
that are as follows:
 It leads to smaller sales cycle, sales automaton and quick response as well as better
retention
 With the help of this other financial, marketing and sale work can be done synchronously.
Challenges associated with the CRM are as follows:
 Time and cost for implementing the CRM software
 Somehow it is not scalable
If christina and charles implement the enterprise resource management software then they
can easily enhance their business reporting and also able to provide efficient customer service,
with this they can easily boost their cash flow (Zhou and et.al 2020). Possible challenges with
ERP are data security, data migration.

Overall to convert the business into digital form Christina and client are required to make
huge investment as well as they need to make sure to select the software which do not have
security issues.
PART B2
1. Comparison between 2 open source software and 2 commercial software
Open source software involves the source code that can be easily change and inspect,
where source code is essential part of the software. Commercial software which is designed for
selling to end users for the commercial aspects.
For this task two open source software are sugar CRM and Linux and the commercial
software are MS office and SAP
Characteristics Open source software
(Sugar CRM and Linux)
Commercial software
(MS office and SAP)
Flexibility Good Poor
Security More secure Poor security
Pricing Free of cost and inexpensive More expensive
User friendly/user interface
and simplicity
Good Excellent
Marketing strategies Complicated Better and sophisticated
marketing strategies
Characteristics of sugar CRM and Linux:
Sugar CRM platform helps in marketing, sales and assist the service team in order to move
further to reach different level of predictability with HD CX. It mainly provides on premises and

cloud based applications that concern with Sales force automation, marketing campaigns etc.
Whereas portable is main feature of Linux which shows that software can work on distinct type
of hardware in same manner. Its main features are pen source, security, stability and it is of free
source.
Characteristics of MS office and SAP: MS office suited to programs that involve Word, Excel,
Project, PowerPoint where all program have common attributes which are ribbon, bar, smart
tags, screen tips. It helps in creating professional documents that can be used as evidences. While
SAP helps in enterprise resource planning, financial management, CRM and consumer
experience, spend management.
Recommendations
From the above evaluation of the software characteristics of both open source and
commercial software, open source software is best (Ashkezari and et.al 2018). For the Christina
and Charles they are approaching with the digitalization of their business. Sugar CRM and Linux
is best software which is suggested to clients. As it is more secure so their critical or useful data
can be protected or secured from any malicious activities, as well as it is user-friendly and have
simpler user interface so that they can easily use it to run their business smoothly. With the use
of sugar CRM, client will be able to develop the conversation about their business with the
potential consumer. Charles and Christina can also be able to fulfil their consumer requirement
and by using CRM they can easily enhance communication with consumers so that specific
needs can be addressed to generate revenues. Use of Sugar CRM will give benefits like smoother
sales, changing the conversation, social networking as well as affordability. Sugar CRM easily
monitors online social media activities thus with this client Charles and Christina will be more
updated about their bookings and classes. In regards with Linux open source software they can
easily improvise security in their digital business and can generate more revenues by providing
better and constantly updated services to consumer. Regarding digital payment open source
software can be better option as per the security concern. As well as with the use of Linux clients
will be benefited with security aspect of this software as it is less vulnerable than other software,
where virus do not implement until admin provides access password. (Pramanik, Mondal and
Haldar, 2020).
Thus for implementing the open source software Charles and Christina need to purchase
the licence, with this they will be able to perform their business functions. As with the use of this

software they can benefit by collaborative development. Therefore, with the use of these
suggested software Client Charles and Christina can easily start their new digital business by
providing better services for their consumer, with the use of technologies they can easily provide
the booking and digital pay services to client (Chatterjee, Kar and Mustafa, 2021). Both of the
software are flexible and user friendly than other commercial software, also Linux is open and
free source therefore cost is another benefit which clients will get. For that it is also important for
them to have employee who can deal with the technologies and software as they are lacking in
technical knowledge might result in loss for them, therefore it’s better to have technicians in
team to deal with software.
CONCLUSION
On the bases of above discussion, it has been concluded that by implementing the BPMN
and Swin Lane business process models, company has achieved its goals and objectives. With
the help of effective supply chain network, firm has taken pleasure of increasing its operational
effectiveness, which is quite challenging for any company to do that while running their ventures
in the retail industry. Furthermore, by summing up above analysis, it has been summarized that
SWOT analysis driven the attention of organization toward determining factors that impacted
venture into positive and negative manner. By following strategic suggestion, management has
gained competitive advantages, which has created positive and influencing brand image in the
retail market.

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Online
IKEA supply chain: How does IKEA manage its inventory. 2022. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.tradegecko.com/blog/supply-chain-management/ikeas-inventory-
management-strategy-ikea>
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