Operations and Project Management: A Case Study of Jaguar and Marriott Hotel

Operations and Project Management
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Table of contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................4
Introduction of Jaguar................................................................................................................4
Concept of operations................................................................................................................4
An explanation of operation vs. operations management..........................................................4
Different operations management theories and models.............................................................4
A. Conduct a review and critique of the implementation of operations management principles
within Jaguar..............................................................................................................................6
B. Review and critique the implementation of operations management in relation to Six
Sigma methodology and Lean principles...................................................................................7
C. Prepare a continuous improvement plan based on your review and critique of operations
Management principles within your organization......................................................................9
D. Analyze the effectiveness of a continuous improvement plan using appropriate theories,
concepts and/or models............................................................................................................10
Task 2.......................................................................................................................................11
LO3 Apply the Project Life Cycle (PLC) to a given context...................................................11
Task 2 C. Review and critique the effectiveness of the PLC in application to your project
using the appropriate theories models and concepts................................................................16
Task 2 D. Critically analyse how the use of appropriate theories, concepts and models in the
PLC will differentiate between large and small-scale projects................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
Operating a successful business in today’s competitive era requires a systematic procedure
that can help firms organizing their activities properly for achieving the ultimate goal of the
business. Increased level of market competition and the changing demand patterns of the
customers have made the operating activities in the organizations more critical. Operations
management is a system that aims to organize the operating activities of the business so that
business becomes simpler to the managers and employees.
This study is focused on the importance and implementation of the particular system of
operations management at two different business cases. The first part (Task1) is focused on
the particular business case of Jaguar. On the other hand, the second part (Task 2) of the
study is focused on the business case of Marriot Hotel.
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Task 1
Introduction of Jaguar
Jaguar is one of the largest car manufacturing companies in the international market. The
company belongs from United Kingdom. In the current scenario, it is at the leading market
position because of its changed production and operations method. Recently, the company
has focused on one of the most efficient operations management systems that are Total
Quality Management, which has brought tremendous success to Jaguar. At present, the
Halewood plant of Jaguar is planning to produce a new type of car that is Jaguar X’ Type,
which will be more advanced and suitable for 21st century (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2018).
Concept of operations
The term “operations” can be defined as a group of activities or functions that aim to
transform the organizational data, information and other resources into the expected results
(products or services). Holweg et al., (2018) mentioned that operations at the firms aim to
create and deliver expected value to the people or customers. Operations in a firm can be of
different types like, purchase, production, sale, resource allocation and delivery.
An explanation of operation vs. operations management
If the discussion is made on operations and operations management, it can be stated that
operations are the activities of the organization; whereas, operations management is the
process through which the operations are performed to achieve the goal of the business.
Operations management helps the managers in transforming the organizational resources and
information through different operations (Pilkington and Meredith, 2018). Considering the
particular case of Jaguar, it can be stated that the key operations at the Halewood plant are –
manufacturing, purchasing raw materials, delivery of products and services and storing the
finished products. On the other hand, operations management at the organization helps the
managers of Jaguar developing effective strategies, so that the raw materials that are
purchased at the Halewood Pant can be utilized in the most efficient manner and the company
can produce the most valuable product and deliver the same.
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Different operations management theories and models
Taylor’s theory of Scientific Management –
Scientific management that F. W. Taylor has proposed is the style of management that
synthesizes and analyzes the flow of work at the workplace. The development of this
particular theory started during 1880s (Swink et al., 2017). In the theory of scientific
management, Taylor mentioned about some principles that are important for scientific
management of operations at the firms. These principles are as follows:
 Maximization of output
 Scientific selection of the workers and providing training to them
 Replacing the old method of management
 Cooperation and coordination between management and workers
 Equal work division (Subramanian et al., 2017)
Lean Production model –
Lean production model was first developed by Toyota Motors. This is an assembly-line
technique. This particular operations management model follows some specific principles,
which are as follows:
 Maximization of workflow
 Elimination of waste
 Minimization of inventory
 Enhance production by analyzing the customers’ demand
 Meeting the customers’ requirements to the higher extent
 Doing every time as the first time
 Empowering the workers
 Designing for the quick changeover
 Establishing partnership with the suppliers
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 Create and follow the culture of continuous improvement (Matthias et al., 2017)
Flexible Specialization –
This is another operations management model in which the firm aims to improve its
competitive position by equipping itself with multi-skilled workers, multi-use equipments
and innovative strategies and personnel (Mobley et al., 2018). This particular operations
management model provides the scope for adjusting with the fast changing business
scenarios.
Mass Customization –
This is a mixture of marketing and operations management model that aims to enhance the
flexibility of the business and introduce personalization in the business process. This
operations management model helps the management producing products and services by
maintaining lower level of cost that is associated with the mass production system
(Subramanian et al., 2017).
Agile Manufacturing –
This is an unique operations management model under which the management needs to build
up a team that can develop effective processes, techniques and tools and proper training can
make this team efficient enough to respond quickly to any kind of organizational change
(Mobley et al., 2018). This model is very effective when the organization is operating
business in a market that changes continuously.
A. Conduct a review and critique of the implementation of operations management
principles within Jaguar
Considering the particular case scenario of Jaguar, it can be stated that the management at
this particular organization has implemented the principles of operations management
efficiently at the Helewood Plant of the company. One of the key principles of operations
management is implementing change for long-term sustainability. The plan of Jaguar to
launch the new car with the new production management technique is clearly showing the
change that Jaguar is aiming to implement (Businesscasestudies.co.uk, 2018). Hence, it can
be stated that the change principle of operations management has been followed by Jaguar.
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