Operations and Project Management

OPERATIONS AND
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction of TK Maxx.......................................................................................................1
Operations vs Operations Management..................................................................................1
Critical Evaluation of Operations Management Principles....................................................2
Effectiveness of Principles in meeting Organisational Requirements...................................3
Continuous Improvement and Lean Principles......................................................................4
Preparation of Continuous Improvement Plan.......................................................................5
Recommendations of TK Maxx.............................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
Project Life Cycle...................................................................................................................6
Effectiveness of the PLC......................................................................................................11
Critical Analysis of Use of Methodologies in Small and Large-scale projects....................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Project Management is a process followed by firms in order to effectively plan, execute
and monitor several projects within their respective organisation (Meredith and et. al., 2017). It
involves several stages and principles which are essential to commence projects in ways helps
the companies in achieving business objectives. The report below is divided into two parts and is
based on TK Maxx and Sunshine Drinks. First part of the report addresses the operations
management of the firm with its principles, effectiveness of the same and a continuous
improvement plan in order to improvise the current operations management of the organisation.
As for the second part, it takes Sunshine Drinks into consideration and covers project
development of a new drink by the organisation, which includes a detailed project life cycle, its
critical evaluation and difference between application project life cycle in comparison to small
and large scale projects.
PART 1
Introduction of TK Maxx
TK Maxx is a retail chain that deals in designer products and effective appliances within
UK and beyond. Furthermore, the firm has appropriate and effective technological solutions in
context of managing its supply and delivery to customers nationally and internationally in an
effective manner. However, after the likely events of Brexit, the organisation's supply chain has
become weaker, particularly in areas like Ireland in terms of cost and volume of goods (Supply
chain fears for TK Maxx, 2019).
Operations vs Operations Management
Operations of a company refer to all the functions which are required by them to
appropriately and effectively accomplish activities within the firm such as production,
manufacturing, delivery, supply, etc. Operations of every department is independent of the other
and accomplish distinct objectives.
In comparison to this, operations management is an appropriate management area which
is responsible towards planning, as well as controlling the procedures and processes associated
with with all the operations of the organisation towards manufacturing, production, supply and
delivery (Heizer, Render and Munson, 2016). In addition to this, it collectively manages all the
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independent processes and develops an integration towards accomplishment of objectives and
requirements of the company.
Critical Evaluation of Operations Management Principles
There are certain principles which governs the operations management of an
organisation, Furthermore, they are required to be amalgamated by certain other management
principles which have provided guidance of how better to manage the resources and functioning
of an organisation. Thus, before operations management principles, there are certain other kinds
of principles which are required to be appropriately understood and reviewed, which are
discussed below:
 Taylor's Scientific Management:
F.W. Taylor provided the organisations with several principles, motive of which has been
to develop a scientific approach towards accomplishing the organisation's results (Frederick
Taylor and Scientific Management, 2019). The principles governing this management is
inclusive of adoption of science and not rule of thumb, scientific training of employees,
promotion of efficiency, division of work between employees and managers, as well as outcome-
based pay. It promotes appropriate and effective election of employees and staff based on
analysis, training and appropriate education. However, it does not encourage flexibility, which
could be disadvantageous towards creativity.
 Mass Customisation:
It is an appropriate management technique which is related towards combination of
personalisation and flexibility for custom made offerings and indulging in mass production,
leading to lower cost (Mass Customisation, 2019). One of the major advantages of this principle
is that it lowers the inventory cost for the organisation. However, the principle fails in building
up stock ahead of time, which contributes to pressure on the company.
Furthermore, there are certain other operations management principles in context of TK
Maxx which are critically evaluated below: Organisation: This principle works on the notion that organisation's processes and
systems must be interlinked where all the aspects must be consistent and predictable, in
order to achieve similar outcomes within profits. In terms of TK Maxx, the firm has an
appropriate logistics process, which is interlinked with the other functional departments
of the company, ensuring that each strategy and process is predictable. However, the
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