Operations Management Assignment : IKEA

Operations management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Compare the roles and characteristics of a manager and leader within an enterprise...........1
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
P2 How roles of leaders and functions of manager apply in various situation at IKEA.............3
P3 Applications of different theories and models of approach related to operational
management at IKEA..................................................................................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................6
P 4 Key approaches to operation management...........................................................................6
P5.Explain Operational Management importance and values....................................................8
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
P6 Factors impact on business operations...................................................................................9
CONCLSUION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Operations are the activities within an organisation that are carried out to achieve the
business objectives. These actions and functions which followed within an enterprise plays a
very significant role its growth. Suitable management of business operations helps in
development and sustainability. In order to manage these activities at a firm, managers and
leaders follows various functions which supports expansion of an business entity. The current
assessment includes the evaluation of operations and its management measures at Swedish
furniture manufacturing firm, IKEA. The report will lay emphasis on the roles and
characteristics of managers and leaders with their functions in various situation. In addition to
this, different theories and key approaches of operations management is analysed. The
importance and value of operations management and their decision making is also evaluated.
LO1
Introduction of organisation
IKEA is a Sweden based furniture manufacturing entity that offers the facility of ready to
assemble and use kitchen appliances, furnishing material and home accessories. It is worlds
largest retailer of furnishing products since 2008. The business was founded in 1943 and by
2017, it was operating in about 52 countries with more than 400 stores. Also, the enterprise has a
work power of about 200,000 employees and a range of about 12,000 product design.
P1 Compare the roles and characteristics of a manager and leader within an enterprise
A manager is defined as a responsible person who looks and administrates all the
business operations followed by IKEA. They manage and guides employees or group of staff.
Besides this, they also handle the resources and raw materials which are made accessible to a
team when required (Perakis, 2019).
A leader is an individual that leads and commands a team, group or department. They are
closely associated with the team members and act as an intermediate or communication channel
between management and employees.
Both managers and leaders have a range of roles and characteristics within an enterprise.
Roles of managers at IKEA:
 Trainer: The managers are the responsible person to look after imparting of effective
training to new and existing employees within IKEA. They assists to improve the
efficiency of workers and enhance their chances of achieving the operational goals.
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 Performance manager: Besides providing the training, the managers at IKEA will also
look after employee performance management (Wakui and et.al., 2017). They will track
down the operations and job roles that are performed by an individual worker and based
on the extent of achieving the goals, they are been rewarded or appraised.
 Resource allocator: Managers at the selected enterprise will also see through the
identification of the needs and allocate the required resources or raw material to execute
the operations.
 Decision maker: This is the most important role of managers within furniture
manufacturing entity. They contributes in achieving objectives set by IKEA. Besides this,
the managers follows proper assessment process of various operational condition and
take vital decisions based on it in order to improve overall functionality and core
compatibility .
Characteristics of managers at IKEA
Certain attributes of managers that will allow them to work effectively at work place.
Some major qualities of managers are:
 Research skills: Managers perform a range of researches and assessment related to
operations associated with business of organisation. Based on the planning of operations,
managers will perform effective assessment of various situations and execute the
activities accordingly.
 Time and resource management: This is a very important attribute as assigning and
finishing the tasks or duties in a stipulated time frame. This will not only increases the
productivity but allows managers to achieve more operational goals (Hitt, Xu and Carnes,
2016).
 Confidence: A manager at IKEA is required to be confident enough to carry out the trade
operations related to furniture industry and handle a variety of work force within the
enterprise. Other than this, it will help them to make and implement different decisions at
work place.
Roles of leaders at IKEA
 Team builder: This is the most important role handled by a leader within an enterprise.
They will look after the best and most suitable candidates for their team and assemble
them to get the work done.
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 Professional guide: They will also provide proper guidance and support to employee's or
team members in case they faces any sort of trouble. They will analyse the problem and
offers best possible solution to it.
 Motivator: Leaders will look after encouraging and engaging the team members or
employees. This will help in improving their performance and achieve their operational
goals to a greater extent (Bromiley and Rau, 2016).
 Communicator: The leaders will also look after conveying the policies and plans that
are developed by management. Besides this, they also look after its effective
implementation.
Characteristics of leaders
 Honesty and integrity: The leader is required to be honest and dedicated as it will
encourage other members in a team to work ethically.
 Motivating: A leader is required to be motivating at IKEA in order to get the work done.
If a leader is able to encourage its team members. They will be able to perform their
respective roles with efficiency.
 Good communication skills: A leader is also required to have good communication
skills which will help in developing a positive understanding about actions plans and
policies and mitigate any sot of conflicts (O’Neill, Sohal and Teng, 2016).
 Able to manage tasks: An efficient leader is required to manage and handle various
tasks that takes place at IKEA in order to ensure their proper execution on time.
LO2
P2 How roles of leaders and functions of manager apply in various situation at IKEA
The leaders and managers at the business entity will see through various functions and
executing activities or operations. As the enterprise is susceptible to face a range of situational
constraints, the top management of IKEA is required to look after a range of activities and
functions to handle different situations which can affect the overall performance and functioning
of enterprise in an effective way. The roles and functions of performed by higher authority of
firm respectively in different situation are:
Employee Turn around:
Role of leader: The lack of job satisfaction among the work force can cause them to turn
around from the enterprise (Laurin and Fantazy, 2017). Thus in such situation, leaders will act as
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a communicator and motivator within firm in order to ensure employee engagement and reduce
their job quitting rate. They will interact with workers and resolve the problems faced by them
(Mendibil and et.al., 2016). This will support them to ensure the smooth execution of business
operations related to IKEA.
Function of manager: The managers will perform a range of research and evaluation
activity in order to control the rates of employee leaving the jobs from the organisation. They
will not only perform the assessment for identifying the reason of workers turnaround but also
undertake the measures which will help in preventing their moving away in future.
Decreasing sales:
Role of leader: The leaders will act as a communicator and will convey various policies
and action plans that are been decided for improving the sales of entity. They will monitor the
performance and align their team to work effectively in order to increase the sales margin of
enterprise. It helps in achieving operational objectives of the business firm (Slack and Brandon-
Jones, 2018).
Function of manager: They will carry out the assessment of various factors at IKEA,
initiating and affecting the sales and will develop and decide an action plan in order to improve
sales objectives of the furniture manufacturer. They will organise various teams in the sales
department of IKEA to work upon the improvement measures and enhance the overall
profitability of enterprise.
Implementing technological changes:
Role of leader: Leaders at the organisation will play a very significant role in facilitating
the decision making related to technological advancement. They will set the direction and
guidelines on which the employees will work upon, in order to have a good control over the
operations related to technical policy development (Carlsson, 2019). Their main aim is to
observe growth and development of business corporation.
Function of manager: They are the key people behind technical decision making. They
will perform the environmental assessment and create the policies or plans for the enterprise. The
decision making related to technological changes in firm will be performed in context of a
specific task or objective. Hence managers will plan the operations to achieve a specified or
fixed goals to be attained by employees (Kafetzopoulos, Psomas and Gotzamani, 2015).
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P3 Applications of different theories and models of approach related to operational management
at IKEA
At the business entity, a range of theories and models related to operation's management
are carried out. It will help in achieving the set objectives and establishing a effective action plan
which will help in engaging the workers from various departments. These conception related to
operations management will lead to a sustainability and positive rise in performance of
organisation (Uhrin, Bruque-Cámara and Moyano-Fuentes, 2017).
Various theories related to operational management that are followed by IKEA are as
follows:
Situational Leadership: This theory states that a leader or manager within the enterprise will
look after moulding his leading style and process as per the needs of the fellow employees.
Various leadership measures and approaches can be adopted as per the operational and
functioning approach of workers or team members. It influences the task behaviour and
relationship of workers at work place. It emphasises on communication process and incorporates
a functional guidance as per the situation. It focuses on self learning and motivation of individual
rather being dependent on other. It leads to establishing a proper growth plan and resolution
measures for the firm. At IKEA, it will support in developing a proper code of conduct, guiding
the workers to behave in an appropriate manner and perform effectively at work place
(Adebanjo, Teh and Ahmed, 2016).
System Leadership: It can be termed as the “equilibrium form of leadership”. It allows the
managers and leaders to create a situation within enterprise where people from all levels can
work according to their efficiency. It emphasises on personal behaviour and development of a
social process. As it moulds the attitude of an employee, management can use it to track down
behavioural mindset and perception of an individual worker within the enterprise. The realisation
of operation purposes and implementing driving forces related to productivity and revenue
generation of business supports in growth. In IKEA, the system leadership will assist in
developing interconnectivity among employees and departments in order to achieve the set
objectives. It ensures the best utilization of available skills, talents and knowledge. It facilitates
the managers and leaders to handle difficult situation faced by firm. Also, effective allocation
and usage of resources is been observed within business enterprise (Dubey, Gunasekaran and
Ali, 2015).
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Contingency Leadership: This is the most flexible approach of leadership and is based on the
interplay or contingency of behaviour or situations faced by the organisation. It states that there
is as such no fix leadership style or theory which improves the performance of organisation to a
greater extent. The leaders and managers can mould or shift from one guiding measure to
another, as per requirement of situation or operational circumstances (Lamba and Singh, 2017).
The course of action to monitor and execute the operations is based on internal and external
environment. It may also cause a change in functional structure of enterprise to tackle any
difficult or adverse situation. As there is no particular “best” way of monitoring, conflicts or
indifferences are inevitable. In such conditions, appropriate guidelines and implementation plan
is required to be developed and communicated. It focuses on attributes that controls the
organisation and mitigate any issue or risk factor related to it. IKEA will look after the proper
evaluation of measures which will help in effective management of its operations (Qi and et.al.,
2017).
LO3
P 4 Key approaches to operation management
The various approaches to operation management in which the leaders and manager has
played their role to achieve businesses objectives.
1. Total quality management: Manager play very important role in total quality management .It
require planning and research. In this process the manager of the organisation understand its
target carefully and also work on the quality of products. Manager research and meet the
customers to find out what more they are expecting from the company (Thomé, Scavarda and
Scavarda, 2016). Therefore customer feedback is very important for manager to build strategy
for product quality management. The manager has to work with seniors to develop strategies to
increase the growth of IKEA company. Its manager responsibility to appoint right candidates
who take charge of entire project. And in this the manager provide various training programs to
the employee's of IKEA company. so that the employees get improvement in their ideas and
skill which help the organisation to provide good quality of product to the customer.
Leaders also play very important role in quality management. And they lead the team in
such way in which they manages work force, suppliers of IKEA company in order to fulfil ll the
expectation of customers. And it influence the team to do right things in a right way so that the
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purpose of organisation fulfilled. Leaders has a responsibility to help the employees and make
them understand how company can be benefited from their new implementation.
2. Lean manufacturing: The role of leader is to create an environment that provides
improvement in the skills of team by guiding and asking them question. They listen to their
employee's. If any problem arises leaders tackle the problem before it grows which is called
stopping the line. Leaders focus on eliminating those activity which does not give benefit to the
customer of IKEA company. And this effort increase the sale of product and also maintain the
quality of IKEA products.
When it comes to manufacturing of product the manager play various role. The Manager
allow the IKEA company to see the process of manufacturing as whole .During the process of
manufacturing the manager has a responsibility to control specific task which is related to
manufacturing line. The manger makes sure that no wastage is occur during manufacturing of
product. The main aim of manager is to define the product in better way in front of customer.
3. Just in time: Just in time is a strategy to increase efficiency and decrease waste by receiving
goods only as they are needed in the production process. The role of leader is to provide
appropriate direction to the those individuals who are in need .And provides opportunities to the
individual to stimulate innovative thinking. And they push them to think forward and make plan
for the future. The manager of IKEA company has a responsibility to identify the problems and
eliminate those things which does not add value to the product .And the manager of IKEA
company assure that the customer get their demand exactly on time .The manager develop
relationship with vendors to ensures parts reach the facility in time to manufacture products for
the customer needs. And helps to deliver the product to the customer faster within a given period
of time.
4. Six sigma: The leader play very important role in success of six sigma .The support of leader
in training produce effective results .They focus on decision-making and doing what is right and
best rather than what seems easiest and quickest. And the leader of IKEA company creates an
environment which enables success including goals, and communication among others.
The role of manager in six sigma is to improve the current process of business. And
discover new products and services for IKEA company by eliminating defects. The main aim of
manager is to maintain the quality of manufacturing and the businesses process of IKEA
company. And it also develop business objectives to achieve the goals. Manages
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timelines ,budget and overall success criteria in meeting business objective of IKEA company.
And according to the weekly updates the manager also identifies risk to avoid delay in the
schedule or unannounced cost increases in overall budget.
P5.Explain Operational Management importance and values
Importance and values of Operational Management
Improve Quality of Product: Operational management always ensure quality of the management
in the organisation, hence it help the organisation in improving the quality of the organisational
product, which result in increase in the sells of the company and also helps in building a good
image of the company in the eye of the third party.
Customer Satisfaction: Operational management plays a very vital role in satisfying the need of
the customer as operational management emphasis on the research and development policy of
the organisation. Through proper research of the market company is able to known the needs and
requirements which customer is looking in the market and on the basis of that information
company can produce the product according to the requirement of the customer. As by that
company can attract more customer toward the product of the company and as a result the sells
of the company will also see a good rise.
Supplements activity: Organisational management helps the company to supplements all the
activities of the company in proper direction.
Helps in forecasting and budget making: Organisational management helps in making timely and
proper budget and also emphases on proper forecasting of production of goods in the
organisation.
Increase in Revenue: As operational management help in improving the quality of the product
and helps company in satisfying the need of the customer. Which eventually result in increasing
productivity and revenue for the company as quality of the product and customer need are the
two very big factor which influence the productivity and revenue of the company.
Optimum Utilisation of Resources: Operational management helps the company to use the best
resources available to carry out the day to day activity of the business and also helps company to
utilise business resources for the optimum use.
Reduces the Wastage: Reducing the wastage is the most important function of the operational
management as reducing wastage in production will result in fall in the price of the product in
the market and it can prove beneficial for the company in the highly competitive market.
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Helps in Controlling and Co-ordinate: Operational management controls the work of the
management and ensures the co-ordination between the different department in the organisation,
which helps organisation to move in the correct direction to achieve the goal of the business.
Plant layout: Operational management helps the company in making Plant layout as it is very
important for every business to prepare that, Plant layout is defines as providing proper
arrangement of the resources and facilities to the employee to work in.
Efficiency level of the employee: As operation management supervises the work of the
organisation and also provides feedback to the employee on the timely basis which helps the
employee to evaluate their work, which eventually result in increase in efficiency level of the
employee.
Motivation level of employee: As operational management regular supervises and support the
work of the employee, it eventually result in the increase in the motivation level of the employee
and these change positively affect the growth of the business.
Planing and controlling: Operational management make sure that there is proper planning is
already done before producing the product. Planning include deciding the route, Scheduling the
production and dispatch of the product. As any delay in the process will result in delay in
production of good which can disappoint buyers and investor. And can harm the business
goodwill in the market (Mahadevan, 2015).
Growth of the business: Organisational management plays the very vital role in the growth of the
business as Organisational management is the one who takes the decision in the organisation,
decision maker is always prove to be vital in growth of the business and organisational
management are the one who takes cares of all the activity in the organisational and fixes it if the
activity are not in the right direction.
LO4
P6 Factors impact on business operations
It is essential for company to identify various components that impact on operational
efficiency of businessn (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). These factors have direct relationship
with overall performance of organisation. These elements are described as below:
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
CSR can be defined as activities or initiatives taken by business for social benefits and
fulfilling their corporate duties towards environment. IKEA concentrates on recycling in order to
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utilise resources well, earlier wastage was hampering the operational efficiency of company but
IKEA has started re-use of waste material. This has improved efficiency level of operations and
have supported in reducing the cost of company as well. One of the primary focus of cited firm is
to reduce carbon footprints and offer sustainable products to end users. By taking CSR initiatives
enterprise is fulfilling its social and corporate responsibilities which enhance its brand image as
well. If organisation pays less emphases on CSR initiatives, then it would not be able to produce
standard products which will reduce its demand and will affect operations to great extent.
Sometime manufacturing of furniture increases pollution in atmosphere which negatively impact
on business procedures of company (Hill and Hill, 2017).
Culture
Operation management is the managerial practice which emphases on designing,
controlling, production etc. IKEA aims to offers high quality products to the consumers and for
that it is very important to have effective culture in workplace. Culture influences behaviour of
employees and affect their working performance to great extent. IIKEA has healthy workplace
culture, managers treat employees well and involve them in decision making process. This type
of cultural environment make the person feel valued and individual perform well. This helps in
raising efficiency level of operations to great extent (Graham and Potter, 2015). But if there is
poor culture and workers are not happy in organisation then people will not support management
which will hamper operational efficiency of business. Organisational culture affect productivity
and performance as well. Leadership and communication are major elements that affect culture
and influence overall operational activities. If leaders guide staff well then it would support in
operational improvements which will aid the IKEA in meeting with its long term sustainability
goal (Reid and Sanders, 2015).
Value
Firm value has become the important element in business operations. Operation
management works as strategic tool which aids company in gaining competitive advantage.
Now-d-days enterprises are trying to raise value of business so that they can raise their
operational performance significantly (Robinson, 2017.). IKEA utilises its resources well and its
strong supply chain management practice create opportunity for the organisation. Such valuable
aspects of business unit assist the firm in improving operational performance and minimising
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mistakes. Operation management gets affected by value of company as it increases cost and
reduces interest of consumers as well.
Ethics and sustainability
IKEA takes care of ethical aspects and involve sustainable raw material in manufacturing
process. This aids business unit in improving efficiency level of operations and raising sales of
its furniture products to great extent (O’Neill, Sohal and Teng, 2016).
CONCLSUION
From the above study it can be concluded that operation management is the most
essential element that supports in managing business operations properly and designing high
quality products. This is beneficial in raising sales and attracting more consumers towards the
brand. leaders and mangers both play significant role in organisation. Leaders have lead team
and have to motivate people whereas mangers are responsible to give training to staff and plan
for future growth of business unit. Contribution of both person aid in managing process in
effective manner and minimising operational errors. Six sigma is most essential approach which
is beneficial in improving the process and eliminating errors so that organisation can offer high
quality products to its consumers.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Carlsson, M., 2019. Strategic sourcing and category management: Lessons learned at IKEA.
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Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A. and Ali, S. S., 2015. Exploring the relationship between leadership,
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Reid, R.D. and Sanders, N.R., 2015. Operations Management, Binder Ready Version: An
Integrated Approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Robinson, A., 2017. Modern approaches to manufacturing improvement: the Shingo system.
Routledge.
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Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Thomé, A. M. T., Scavarda, L. F. and Scavarda, A. J., 2016. Conducting systematic literature
review in operations management. Production Planning & Control. 27(5). pp.408-420.
Uhrin, Á., Bruque-Cámara, S. and Moyano-Fuentes, J., 2017. Lean production, workforce
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