Operation and Project Management

The study aims to improve the competitive position of Carparts Ltd. It assesses the business position and suggests improvements in the competitive strategy. It also examines the company's manufacturing and distribution operations and advises on how to improve them. The study proposes improvement proposals and determines priorities for improvement.

Running head: OPERATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Operation and Project Management
Name of Student:
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1OPERATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Assessment of business position and strategy for competitiveness.................................................2
Suggestions for improving the competitive strategy.......................................................................3
Application of appropriate theories on framework to the position of the company with regards to
suppliers and purchasing..................................................................................................................3
Improvement proposals...................................................................................................................3
Examining company’s manufacturing and distribution operations.................................................4
Advising the management on how these can be improved to meet the strategic aims....................5
Assessment of the company’s department structure thereby considering interfaces and
relationships.....................................................................................................................................5
Improvement proposals...................................................................................................................6
Determining priorities for improvement..........................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

2OPERATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The discussions of the study relate to improve the competitive position of Carparts Ltd.
Based on the initial interviews there has been several information collected from the Managing
Director shows that despite of turnover of approximately £15 million per annum, in the last two
years it has made losses totalling over £3 million. In addition to this, the present managing
director has been discerned to be taking charge of the business nine months ago. Furthermore,
the target provided to the MD by the parent company was able to regain the profitability and
total market share by 20% within two years. However, in the last nine months it is seen that the
workforce produced by 20% with current employee strength reduced to 160 employees. In most
situations, daughter fulfillment process is done across four departments namely “Sales,
Production (especially Production Control), Warehousing and the Export Office”. It has been
further seen that the sales department is the first point of contact for customer is responsible for
receiving the order. The department consists of seven members on site and having full-time
representative covering various regions across the UK. As per the given case it has been depicted
that on receiving the order “the sales clerk finds the customer's details using a spreadsheet and
adds them to the order”. The export manager is seen to carry an active role in every department
for ensuring that there is minimum delay in export orders “reaching their customers and to
ensure that the warehouse uses the correct packaging”. The production control department is
responsible for controlling the production and purchasing of raw materials. The production
control department makes use of various types of the items which are to be manufactured. The
warehouse manager leads the staff of eight individuals who are responsible for “storage of
finished products to the picking and packaging of customer orders”. The members assigned in
the warehouse collect the picking list at highest priority and depict the various types of locations
of items on the list and which are to be packaged (Dobrzykowski et al. 2014).
Assessment of business position and strategy for competitiveness
As per the information available Carparts is having an employee strength of 160 people
manufacturing automotive spares for various distributors, retailers and vehicle manufacturers.
The company is depicted to be the owner of more than 200 subsidiaries. The present business
position is for the depicted with dealing into more than 300 variants of products with specific

3OPERATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
radiations of more than 3000 types of vehicles. In addition to this, the on-site warehouse has the
capacity of holding more than 2 million units of productivity than average stock level of 1.4
million units.
Suggestions for improving the competitive strategy
The competitive advantage taken by the other companies is depicted with delivering the
goods within 24 hours of the order being placed. On the contrary, Carparts takes on average of
48 hours. To bridge this gap of delivery time the company should focus on establishing new
plants and thereby building new networks in the Midlands and the North of England. In addition
to the theories the company is having a significant scope in terms of increasing the sales to
mainland Europe and compensating for the loss totalling over £3 million (Wilke, Majumdar and
Ochieng 2014).
Application of appropriate theories on framework to the position of the company with
regards to suppliers and purchasing
Based on the depictions given in the case study, the master plan is reviewed daily by the
“Production Control Manager”. The individual type of the items is shown in the forthcoming
week and a “single work book is produced by the senior production controller”. One workbook
is a good representative manufacturing order for several thousands of units of similar type. It has
been further observed that in generating the work books, significant amount of raw materials
stocks is assigned to the production of those items as and when they are available. The
workbooks having insufficient raw materials are carried forward to the production controller for
maintaining the ordering of more raw materials. This is taken into consideration with the issues
of purchase order and agreed date of delivery with the supplier. The most noted materials
purchased are identified in form of “thin sheet metal for pressings (some already painted), metal
gauze, foam, filter materials, rubber seals, packaging materials, paint” (Rajapakshe et al. 2017).
Improvement proposals
As per the present working the shop floor supervisor have the complete control of the
work books and allocation of resources for getting the specified items on the required date. The
production is maintained by a series of flowlines we should be able to produce an” order of a

4OPERATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
thousand items in a few hours, according to the type of item”. The main changes by which the
company can improve is the way purchasing is carried out. This can be done by understanding
the way in which company organizes buying functions and maintains the common recognition
channels between several functions (Hübner, Holzapfel and Kuhn 2015). Clear idea of
organizational buying process for Carparts needs to be done by mapping job roles within each of
the product category of the company and holding off in-depth interviews with “selected subset of
every job roles within each category”. Some of the key considerations needs to be included with
job roles which are assigned to the individual category within each department namely the
production department, the export department, the sales department and warehousing
department. The company needs to also focus on maintaining a communication link among the
different job functions and in “particular where there are the key communication gaps as seen
from the different roles” (Zhao 2014).
Examining company’s manufacturing and distribution operations
The present manufacturing operations involves production of automotive spares for
vehicle manufacturers, retailers and distributors. Six years ago, the company shifted its focus by
building a new factory in the southwest of England which covers the production, research and
administrative resources. The sales manager and the representative acts as the main distributing
agent of the company. The orders are received in variety of formats including by “telephone
from either a sales representative or the customer, e-mail on either a standard order form which
is given to customers or the customer's own order format”. Once items are placed in the picking
list (the items which needs to be picked by the warehouse) the complete picking list is reverted to
the sales department along with an electronic invoice. It is also discerned that on each afternoon
the invoices are printed in a daily print run by a special form which are added to the shipment for
delivery to the customer.
The manufacturing of the items is managed by the “Production Control Department” by
using master plan for calculating the quantities of each are needed to replenish stocks having
present date “plus product lead time, and item quantities that are required for back orders have
the current date”.

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Advising the management on how these can be improved to meet the strategic aims
Some of the main initiatives which the company may take to improve the strategy aims
includes core set of capabilities such as deeper investigations into the supply-chain target in
specific areas of improvement. For instance, the modelling and analytics techniques used by the
company can identify the constraints which prevents performance improvements. In addition to
this, the capacity nationalization may be exposed to the various types of opportunities to divest
operational assets (Bromiley and Rau 2016). “Demand planning and inventory management can
develop tactics to compensate for volatility”. The manufacturing activities can be enhanced by
the application of lean manufacturing techniques, customer integration, flexible manufacturing
techniques and continuous improvement. The distribution strategy can be improved by
improving the warehouse design and layout, enhanced transportation planning, performing
modal/lane analysis, better fleet management, varicose process improvement, inventory control
and transportation bidding (Hazen et al. 2016).
Assessment of the company’s department structure thereby considering interfaces and
relationships
As per the information given in case study, the sales department is designed as the first
point of contact for the customer there all the orders are received. This department is seen to be
consisting of seven members “on site and five full-time representatives covering separate regions
of the UK”. The performance of this department is measured on the value of orders being placed
during the cycle of four weeks. The various types of information of the sales department is
supplied by warehouse function with the help of “computer system”. It has been further
discerned that “customer credit information” is supplied by the accounts department on request;
promotions on products and “discounts to customers must be authorised by the senior
management team”. The relationship of the sales department is discerned with both export
department and warehousing department.
Export department is determined to be consisting of three staffs-two clerks and a
manager. The first area is identified to ensure the smooth export of the orders which needs to go
through taking of import regulations of the country and ensure that appropriate method of
packaging and transportation is used which is acceptable by the customer. The export manager is

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seen to be having an active role in every activity in the department. The relationship of the export
department with the warehouse department is depicted with ensuring that users got it packaging
and sending a packing note along with picking list.
The assessment on the production control department is seen with a month by month
demand forecast generated by the “production control manager” along with close consolidation
of “sales manager and the managing director”. The master plan of the department is “reviewed
daily by the Production Control Manager. For each individual item type that is shown for the
forthcoming week, a single work book is produced by the senior production controller”.
The different types of relationships with the warehouse department is seen with the
export department as it manages from storage of finished goods to picking and packaging of
customer orders. In terms of the production department it is able to prioritize the items as per
special requirements such as “special packaging or courier delivery and place the lists in order of
priority”.
Improvement proposals
The focus of the company should be based on integrating the operations of various types
of departments into a single comprehensive database by maintaining an ERP system, which will
be able to share the information across the enterprise. This integration on the internal side needs
to be based on covering all aspects of management information needs such that there are no
external systems or applications planned or in place. That adoption of ERP software but also
allow the company to easily exchange the information and documents with the trading partners
across various locations in the UK in a very short span of time (Guide and Ketokivi 2015).
Determining priorities for improvement
The main priority for bringing about the necessary changes should be based on first
increasing the sales revenue of the company by getting on with the expansion initiatives to
mainland Europe and compensating for the loss totalling over £3 million. The second priority
needs to be given on taking strategies such as “Demand planning and inventory management
which can develop the overall tactics to compensate for volatility”. The third priority needs to be
given by defining the appropriate job roles to the present staff in each department. The final

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priority needs to be given by integrating the various types of activities of the department and
enhancing the information flow with ERP (Slack, Brandon-Jones and Johnston 2016).
Conclusion
The several types of findings on company’s competitive position and the MD’s
improvement idea is suggested with concentrating on the expansion initiatives in mainland
Europe. Application of appropriate theories on framework to the position of the company needs
to be done by understanding the way in which company organizes buying functions and
maintains the common recognition channels between several functions. Clear idea of
organizational buying process for Carparts needs to be done by mapping job roles within each of
the product category of the company and holding off in-depth interviews with “selected subset of
every job roles within each category”.

8OPERATION AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
References
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