Operations and Project Management

This report provides an in-depth analysis of operational and project management. It explores the principles of operational management, such as lean manufacturing and six sigma, and their implementation in a selected company. The report also discusses the stages of project life cycle and provides a case study on a new project development. It offers recommendations for improving operational functions and achieving project objectives.

Operations and
Project Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
SACTION-A....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction of selected company...............................................................................................3
Explain the meaning of operation vs operational management..................................................4
Review and critique implementation of various principles of operational management in
context of selected company.......................................................................................................4
Explain various extent of operational management of an organisation meets requirement of
company......................................................................................................................................5
Explain continuous improvement and lean principles................................................................5
Prepare a continuous improvement plan based on the review and critique of various principles
of operation management. ..........................................................................................................6
Using continuous improvement principles provide various recommendation which helps in
improving operational functions.................................................................................................7
SECTION- B....................................................................................................................................7
Overview of case study...............................................................................................................7
Explain each stage of project life cycle.......................................................................................8
Business case...............................................................................................................................9
Analysis various project methodology, tools and leadership strategies implemented in PLC of
selected project..........................................................................................................................10
Critical evaluation of the effectiveness of project life cycle.....................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Main objective of this report is to analysis the concept of operational and project
management. Operational management play and important role in an organisation by creating a
highest level of efficiency in an organisation. Operational management helps an organisation in
effectively converting the raw material or resources into goods and services. Its main focus on
producing good quality products and reduce wastage of resources and efficiently distributing
goods and services (Ahmadabadi and Heravi, 2019). Operational management always includes a
sustainable measurement and critically analysed the internal process of organisation. This report
is divided into two important parts. For first part Marks and Spencer company is taking into
consideration. It is an British multinational retail company which is founded by Michael, Marks
and Thomas Spencer in 1884 and its headquarter is in London, England, U.K. Marks and
Spencer has around 1463 number of location all over the world. It deals in clothing, home
product and food products with its own label. First part in this report includes operation
management, its principles such as six sigma and lean principles. Other than this it includes
continuous improvement strategies and an effective plan based on operational management.
Second part of this report is based on a the project of Daily Catering which is an on-site catering
service. This part includes various phase of project life cycle related to new project. Other than
this a proper evaluation is included in relevance of Daily Catering project.
MAIN BODY
SACTION-A
Introduction of selected company
Marks and Spencer is an British multinational retailer company. Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer are the founders of this company. It is a type of public limited company which
is established in 1884, headquarter is in London, England, United Kingdom. It deals in various
products such as clothing, home products and food products. The company is started by two
partners, Michael Marks and Polish Jew born in Slonim and Thomas Spencer who was a cashier
in English market of Skipton in North Yorkshire. M&S made a good image in market in the
earlier 20th century with a effective policy of only selling British-made goods. Currently it has
around 1463 numbers of locations and almost 78,000 workers are working with it. Main brands

of M&S in which it sells its products are Per Una, Autograph, Goodmove, Rosie, M&S
collection and so on. It also offer online food delivery service through Ocado retailers.
Explain the meaning of operation vs operational management
In context of selected company, both its operations and operational management play an
important role. The meaning of operations vs operational management is discuss below:
Operations Operational management
 Operations means various activities and
process of require for managing work
inside an organisation. The stage of
operations are depend on the type of
industry and on various stage of
business. In context of selected firm, its
operations activity includes various
activities regarding production of goods
and services (Axel, 2020).
Operational management refers to an area of
management which helps an organisation in
designing and controlling various activities and
process related to production of goods and
services. In context of selected firm, its
operational management helps in producing
good quality cloths and products. Selected
company operational management take
effective actions and decisions which helps in
reducing wastage of resources, which increase
efficiency of company (Brewer and Dittman,
2018).
Review and critique implementation of various principles of operational management in context
of selected company.
For success of any organisation its very important that an organisation efficiently utilized
its all resources. Operations of an organisation includes the process of production of goods and
services. In context of Marks and Spencer, its operational management efficiently manage all
operations regarding production. Selected firm mainly deals in various kind of products such as
clothing, food products and home product. It provide high quality products according to market
trend and requirements of customers. It is an multinational company and effectively manage its
operations for fulfilling the demands of customers. Its operational management helps in
efficiently converting the resources (material and human resource) into final product.

Operational management of selected firm, helps in producing good quality products and reducing
wastage which reduce cost of production. With the helps company provide high quality products
at a reasonable price which increase the sales and profitability of company (Gao and Pishdad,
2019).
Models of operational management-
Lean manufacturing- This model of operational management is given by Toyota's in
1930. it is also known as lean production model. It refers to a tool or principle which helps an
organisation in developing and producing a physical products. Producers use this principle for
reducing wastage, optimize processes, enhance innovation and so on. Now a days this principle
of operation management is used in almost all companies. This is because it helps in efficiently
utilizing the scarce resources in an effective way. So that company can produce high quality
goods. In context of selected firm, Lean production provide sustainability to company and reduce
its cost of production by controlling wastage of resources.
Six sigma- This concept is given by Bill Smith in 1986. It includes various tools and
techniques which helps an organisation in improvement of its production process. This model of
operation management helps in identifying various flaws and other aspects which reducing
variability of production process. In context of Marks and Spencer, this will helps in enhancing
profitability and time management of organisation. It will also motivate employees of selected
company which reduce unnecessary expenditure and helps in achieving organisational goal. Six
sigma model includes various applications such as strategic data analysis, hypothesis testing and
so on (Heldman, 2018).
Explain various extent of operational management of an organisation meets requirement of
company.
In context of selected firm, there are various extent of operational management which
helps in fulfilling requirements of Marks and Spencer. Operational management helps selected
company in efficiently conducting its production process and activities. Operational management
of selected firm use Lean production method, which helps in reducing wastage of resources and
provide good quality products. Reduction in wastage also reduce the cost of production and helps
company to achieve customers loyalty by providing good quality product at a reasonable price.

Explain continuous improvement and lean principles.
Continuous improvement refers to an ongoing improvement of goods and services
process. In context of selected firm, they design continuous improvement for empowering their
employees which increase their efficiency towards work. Its very important for selected
company to clearly understand the concept of continuous improvement for achieving higher
growth in industry (Liu and et. al. 2019).
Lean principles-
In context of Marks and Spencer, this approach helps company in reducing wastage of
resources and provide better quality products to its customers. Reduction in wastage of resources
also reduce the cost of production. This approach assist organisation to achieve higher customer
satisfaction by providing them better quality products at reasonable price. In relevance of
selected firm they needs to adopt this model for efficiently achieving its organisational goal. The
concept of lean includes various principles which are mention below:
 Shaping value- First principle of lean production model helps organisation in
identification of values. In context of selected firm, value refers to a particular amount
which target customers of selected company are ready to pay in exchange of company
product. M&S timely conduct research on taste and preferences of their customers which
helps in creating value for each product.
 Mapping the value chain- In context of selected company, this principle helps in
identifying that factor in process of production and operations which does not create any
value for customers and remove this factor from operation activity so that work will done
in an effective and efficient manner (Meyer, 2019).
 Building smooth workflow- In relevance of Marks and Spencer, this principle of lean
production helps operational management to established a smooth workflow in their
production process. So that employees are efficiently do their work and add higher values
for customers.
Prepare a continuous improvement plan based on the review and critique of various principles of
operation management.
Continuous improvement plan-
In context of selected company, its continuous improvement business plan is mention
below:

 Plan- In context of M&S, first they determined various factors related to improvement
and measurement which helps in assess information and they establish a target and
standard against which the actual performance is compared.
 Do- After that they execute their plan and timely measure and capture the work
performance. In this step operational management use various strategies for effectively
achieving organisational goal.
 Check- In this step selected company compare its actual performance with standard and
target fixed by them. If the actual performance is match with target standard than again
this plan is follow. Otherwise they follow the next step (Muñoz-Cerón and et. al. 2018).
 Act- If the actual performance is not match with target performance than selected
company take effective action for improvement of work process.
Using continuous improvement principles provide various recommendation which helps in
improving operational functions.
After analysing the various principle of continuous improvement it is recommended to
selected company that they need more focus in customers. Selected company already select a
effective process but they need to make change and trying to improve their product so that they
efficiently full fill customers needs. In context of selected firm external users also the customers
of company such as organisation shareholders, community and so on. Company needs to identify
which area require change and improvement so that better service is provided to them. Other
than this another recommendation for selected company is that they need more focus on workers
idea because the idea of improvement is come from workers who regularly deals with process.
SECTION- B
Overview of case study
There is a large organisation based in the Midlands. Almost 1,250 numbers of employees
are successfully working with it. The organisation has various range of staff performing their
different role, which includes both office staff and factory workers. The office and factory of
organisation are on different sites and there is no catering is available on-site. For this problem
new Daily catering new project is developed. Main objective of this project is to reduce the
movement of employees during the time of lunch break and helps employee in developing a
healthy life style which will help organisation in reducing their employee absenteeism. This

project helps in increasing efficiency of employees and they effectively achieve organisational
goal (Nie and et. al. 2020).
Explain each stage of project life cycle.
Project life cycle refer to various sequence of stages that a particular project is goes
through. It includes four important stages such as initial, planning, execution and closer stage.
These stages of project life cycle are determined by the management of organisation and various
factors which influence this project decision such as nature of project, need of organisation, are
of applications and so on. In context of Daily Catering projects it includes various steps of
project life cycle, which are discuss below:
 Project Initiation- This is the first stage of project life cycle in which the main
objective and need of project development is identified. This need and objective is
related to any business and any kind of opportunities. In context of new project it is
developed because employees of organisation face problem at lunch time because there
is no catering service is available and this will reduce the performance of employees
and their absenteeism. After analysing this problem Daily catering project is developed
with a objective of reducing movement of employees and their absenteeism & helps in
developing a healthy life style of their employees (Rindahl and Drøivoldsmo, 2020).
 Project Planning- This is the second phase of project life cycle in which various
strategies and project solutions are developed in detail. In this step project development
manager plan necessary steps which helps in for achieving project objective. In this
step project resources, tasks to be performed, strategies require for project are
identified. In context of Daily catering project plan, various strategies and task are
decided in this step. In this step manager of project development prepare a short term
goal after analysing barriers related to it and manager try to divide the whole take into
small group so that they can effectively develop this project.
 Project execution- This is the third phase of project life cycle in which the theoretical
project plan is put into action or practical and the work of project is performed. For
proper implementation of project idea its very important for company that they
maintain a proper control and communicate as require during implementation of project
plan. In this step the work of project is continuously monitor so that organisation
effectively achieve the objective of project. In context of Daily catering service project

plan, manager applies effective strategies and timely check all activities so that they
effectively achieve project objective. Project development manager update and publish
the selected plan on daily basis.
 Project closure- This is the final stage of project life cycle in which includes the final
delivery to customers, handing over project documentation to business, terminating
contract with supplier, releasing project resources and in last communicate to its
stakeholder about the closer of project. In context of selected project, manager needs to
analysed that all staff members of organisation are effectively take benefits of catering
services. In last project manager analysis the befits and drawback of this project which
will helps in future project team (Ruan and et. al. 2019).
Business case
Business case provide a justification related to project or programme. In context of new
project development its business case is describe below:
Executive summary- Daily catering service is a project of organisation. Where their
employees face many problems because of different location of office and workplace site. Their
is no facility of catering service at their office site. Daily catering service is a project, developed
by company for provide better catering services to their employees. So that employees have no
need to go anywhere during their lunchtime for the search of food.
Objective- This project idea have two main objective for which this project is developed.
First one is that reducing the movement of staff during the period of lunch break because
movement of employees in the search of food create problem for employees and also for local
area. Other main objective of this report is to developed a healthy life style for their employees.
Which is also included in company corporate social responsibility. Their main objective behind
this project is to reduce the level of absenteeism which helps organisation in effectively
performing their business goal (Sun and Xiao, 2019).
Procedure- In context of selected project, their procedure is focus on analysing current
trend in food and taste of employees and provide services which satisfying the employees
expectation most. For effective service organisation follow a process of effectively analysing
employees requirement and provide better catering services. Analysing employees needs and
providing service according to it helps in increase efficiency of employee and also helps in
success of plan.

Cost- In context of selected project, it provide services to almost 1,250 number of
employees so its require around 7 million.
Advantages- This project provide a healthy life-style to employees and reduce the level
of absenteeism of employees.
Time- in context of selected project, the requirement of catering services is urgent so the
company try to complete their project within 1month.
Project strategies-
 Cost- It provide catering services to almost 1,250 numbers of employees which require
around 7 million cost for successful completion of project.
 Extent- The extension of this project is large because it will increase income of
company.
 Risk- in context of selected project, for reducing the level of risk company needs to use
better resources for preparing food.
 Resources- it require a huge investment for providing better quality food to employees.
Analysis various project methodology, tools and leadership strategies implemented in PLC of
selected project.
 Initial phase of project- In context of selected project, this step require a authoritative
leadership style for effectively and smoothly running of business operations. This
leadership style helps in effectively defining roles and responsibility and flow a proper
chain of command. Because of this leadership styles roles and duties are clearly defined
to employers and they do work with their full efficiency.
 Formulation of strategies- in context of selected project, organisation use programme
theory for effectively facing various barriers come in the path of project development.
Programme theory helps in efficiently utilizing all resources and provide best result to
various stakeholders attach with this project (Tsimiklis and Makatsoris, 2019).
 Implementation of plan- In context of selected project, organisation use performance
management strategies which which helps in maximising employees performance.
Performance management helps organisation in managing various activities effectively
and effectively implement the short term goal related to project.

 Termination of project- In context of selected project, this stage require teamwork and
coordinate between all employees so that organisation can effectively terminate its
project.
Critical evaluation of the effectiveness of project life cycle
From above discussion on project life cycle it is evaluated that for successful completion
of project its important that company follow all four steps of project life cycle. The first initiation
stage require a clear objective of development of catering project. This step require authoritative
leadership style so that all employees duties and roles are clearly defined to them. The second
stage is the initial stage which require proper formulation of strategies so that project work is
smoothly completed. For this company use programme theory for effectively planing all
activities related to project. In the third step for effectively execution of project performance
management strategies is adopted so that all activities are performed under control and in a right
direction. The last step of project life cycle is required teamwork and coordination so that
organisation can effectively terminate its project plan (Vladimirovna and et. al. 2019).
CONCLUSION
From above discussion on this report it is concluded that operational management play an
essential role in success of an organisation. It helps an organisation in reducing wastage of
resources and efficiently utilization of resources. It will help in providing batter quality of
products to customers which increase their satisfaction level and help organisation in ea5rni9ng
higher profit and growth. Other than this it is analysis that project life cycle helps an organisation
in efficiently developing a project.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ahmadabadi, A.A. and Heravi, G., 2019. The effect of critical success factors on project success
in Public-Private Partnership projects: A case study of highway projects in
Iran. Transport Policy. 73. pp.152-161.
Axel, E., 2020. Distributing resources in a construction project: Conflictual co-operation about a
common cause and its theoretical implications. Theory & Psychology. 30(3). pp.329-
348.
Brewer, J.L. and Dittman, K.C., 2018. Methods of IT project management. Purdue University
Press.
Gao, X. and Pishdad-Bozorgi, P., 2019. BIM-enabled facilities operation and maintenance: A
review. Advanced engineering informatics. 39. pp.227-247.
Heldman, K., 2018. Project management jumpstart. John Wiley & Sons.
Liu, B., and et. al. 2019. Multi-objective decision-making for the ecological operation of built
reservoirs based on the improved comprehensive fuzzy evaluation method. Water
Resources Management. 33(11). pp.3949-3964.
Meyer, K.E., 2019. Foreign operation methods.
Muñoz-Cerón, and et. al. 2018. Influence of Operation and Maintenance expenditures in the
feasibility of photovoltaic projects: The case of a tracking pv plant in Spain. Energy
policy. 121. pp.506-518.
Nie, X., and et. al. 2020. Big data analytics and IoT in operation safety management in under
water management. Computer Communications. 154. pp.188-196.
Rindahl, G. and Drøivoldsmo, A., 2020, July. A New Operation Model for Property
Management Based on Lessons Learned from the Oil and Gas Industry. In International
Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 231-237). Springer, Cham.
Ruan, J., and et. al. 2019. A life cycle framework of green IoT-based agriculture and its finance,
operation, and management issues. IEEE communications magazine. 57(3). pp.90-96.
Sun, J. and Xiao, D., 2019, July. Study on risk management of floating transportation and
installation operation of immersed tunnel based on ShenZhong Link. In 2019 5th
International Conference on Transportation Information and Safety (ICTIS) (pp. 266-
270). IEEE.
Tsimiklis, P. and Makatsoris, C., 2019. Redistributing food manufacturing: models for the
creation and operation of responsive and agile production networks. Production
Planning & Control. 30(7). pp.582-592.
Vladimirovna, G.O., and et. al. 2019. Civil Project Management at Russian Defense Enterprises
Taking into Account Consumer Attitude to Changes in the Product Design and
Operation. Academy of Strategic Management Journal. 18(6). pp.1-16.