Operations Management in H&M: Review, Critique, and Continuous Improvement Plan

This report discusses the implementation of operations management principles in H&M, including a review and critique, analysis of meeting organizational requirements, and a continuous improvement plan based on lean principles. It also covers the concepts of continuous improvement, including Taylor's scientific management approach, Kaizen, Six Sigma, and benchmarking.

ID
Unit Number and Title Unit 187 –
Operations and
Project Management
Title Review and Critique
of Operations
Management (Part
1

Table of Content
Part 1: Business Report
1. An introduction to chosen organization p
2. An explanation of operation vs operations management p
3. A review and critique of the implementation of operations
management principles within the chosen organization p
4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations management of
the organisation in the case study meets the requirements of the
organization p
5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a philosophy and
describe the Lean principles p
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified
recommendations for improvement, based on your review and
critique of operations management principles within your
organization p
7. Conclusion p
References p
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INTRODUCTION
Operation management is termed as systematic process which assist business to
face all kind of problematic concerns adopting to suitable strategy. However, project
management is done through using significant tools, techniques and skill sets. In this
project it will be discussing about operation and its management in the context of
H&M (Bazmohammadi and et.al., 2018). This will be reflecting over lean principles
and various application of business. Moreover, this will conclude the explanation for
operation management as assisting company analysis showing the overall demand
to conduct operation.
1. An introduction to chosen organization
H&M is considered as one of the most valuable retail clothing brand. It is
growing rapidly in the clothing sector as catering bunch of options for children,
millennials, men and women (Zhen and et.al., 2019). The biggest competitive forces
of the firm is Zara as company relies to make higher sales profitability by making it
affordable to customers with better offerings. By supplying products positively
enables organization chance to collab with numerous people and make their
significant part in industry as well.
2. An explanation of operation vs operations management
Operations can be stated as the process of inner working aspect being
conducted within the organization. Such activities are performed on day to day basis
as having efficient process makes large size of business and markets. On the other
hand, operation management is associated with conversion of raw materials into the
finished goods through handling all labour to enhance the capital of firm.
3. A review and critique of the implementation of operations management
principles within the chosen organization
Operation management is the systematic approach which aids in conversion
of input in outputs and better supply chain management. In the context of H&M, they
obey with two different kind of operation system in the business such as closed- loop
and opened. By opened process company gets an ability to make rapid method in
terms of gauging the process and supporting with necessitate feedback to improve
the product quality and effective services.
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By following Taylor's theory of scientific management it can be stated that
organization can easily optimize and simplify the training process to workforce to
improve the chance of productivity which could be biggest strengths of company.
Also, company is relied on flexible specialization practices that closely interact with
production as well as distribution with trying to mitigate gap among ever changing
consumer requirements. Specifically, company has solid approach to eliminate all
kind of waste material (Dahmani and Yebdri, 202). Also, corporate is having multi-
level dependency whereby it can be stated that lack of coordination can direct
business practices to cope up with disadvantages. Implementation of lucrative
strategy is quite essential to improve the possible chance of business operations to
succeed further. Human errors is the another example in the manufacturing process
of H&M as transition errors seems to be occur mostly in the case of manufacturing to
sales. It is foremost to look at the operation management systems collaboration with
multiple areas likely to be termed as sales, accounting, marketing and finance.
4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations management of the
organisation in the case study meets the requirements of the organization
H&M has hierarchical organizational structure which help them to accomplish
desire goals and objectives in efficient manner. All working departments are liable
with their roles and responsibilities and they work extremely well to get quality
output. The objective of firm is to form better customer relation as serving them with
affordable price segment. People are familiar with the firms serving them with pool of
benefits as price is the key factor to attract people towards product and services.
Organization is focused towards developing better management in their context to
improve their working process in new and different way. The product portfolio is
clearly described as having bunch of clothing appeals in their services. The major
aim is to maintain high standards in terms of quality product being served to
customers without comprising for quality. By utilizing advance technology and
fundamental approaches company is able to figure out methodological aspects for
minimize cost and improved productivity. Most appropriate example of this could be
clearly stated by appearance of physical stores in the areas of UK. Operation
management is fruitful to conduct favourable practices and enhance the profitability
as building relations with customer. Also, they will get an opportunity to easily fulfil
the demand of stakeholder with gauging to basic requirements of company as well.
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The process of automation has accessed by organization which serve the chance to
ease the management aspects and serve seamless experience to customers.
5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a philosophy and describe the
Lean principles
Continuous improvement is considered as the ongoing process for betterment of
products and service or it can be said as the incremental breakthrough
improvements. All kind of valuable efforts seemed as incremental improvement by
time and breakthrough transformation once in a while (Zhang, Wang and Lin, 2019).
Similarly, six sigma can be termed as data driven strategy in relation with continuous
improvement whereby it utilizes bunch of quality management ways. It differs over
infrastructure of person in the conglomerate, and they are known as trained
professionals in part of this method. Six sigma is the significant process which
minimize the errors as well as variances in part of production procedure.
Kaizen continuous improvement is another part of lean production and it
considered as building block for all type of lean production methods. It prominence
towards eliminating wastage and maximizing efficiency and productivity in order to
gain sutainable improvement standards. There are five major core elements of
model likely to be termed as enhanced morale, team work and quality circles and
some crucial suggestive measures for further development process. In the context of
H&M, this model is favorable as it develops continuous improvement into their
working aspects to generate higher quality of results. They are working towards
better employee interaction and implementing positive culture for them. Specifically,
they provide them with feedback options and carry out several issues and
suggestions provided by them in order to make better development. In this phase it
boosts the working capability and morale of employee through which they work more
willingly to provide organization with benefits. Positive work culture always make
better productive outcomes which results into creating valuable image of the firm in
marketplaces.
Six sigma is advantageous for determining techniques having suitability with
continuous improvement. It is consisted of multiple principles and all of them work to
minimize the errors in terms of betterment at workplace. Organization gets and ability
to seek attention towards all the problematic concerns and make appropriate
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solutions to them as well. This model is competent for organization as it favors them
with chance to gauge customer insights on the basis of their preferences. This will
enable them chance to introduce the product in the market which will easily get in
contact with customers. By following this process organization can make salubrious
steps into their context as decreasing the waste to improve the sustainable practices.
This step will direct towards ecofriendly service provider and boost the productivity
as serving customer with totally new experience. Thus, six sigma is significant to
introduce positive culture and higher amount of flexibility to adapt with some changes
very easily
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified recommendations
for improvement, based on your review and critique of operations
management principles within your organization
Continuous improvement planning can be performed by organization in such way
that reflect to form valuable image in the industry. There are different types of
models and theories in this whole process as all of them are stated below depicting
their pros and cons as well.
Taylor scientific management approach is the systematic concept for promoting
correct methods of performing task in order to achieve something within specific
duration. The merits and demerits of this process can be termed as.
Pros
 It serves an ability to control core functions which makes working process
more suitable
 It enhances the production whereby managers get an ability to manage
workforce
 There is minimum production cost and higher payment system catering with
decreased accuracy
Cons
 Putting up the unnecessary pressure on workforce which can decrease the
quality output
 Higher capital is required to serve with rapid service facilities
 Planning procedure minimize the productivity which negatively impacts overall
performance and forms the poor image
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All these negative measures can be improved by the organization and get efficacious
results into their context by fostering convenient service and process accordingly.
The strategies should be effectively utilized by them in order to conclude with
positive results.
Kaizen
In this phase it describes the alignment with continuous improvement which enables
fruitful results for organization to cater better quality in overall working scenario. It is
considered as quality driven tool and it is applicable with each and every one as part
of business process (Tak and et.al., 2021). Also, it has some advantage and
disadvantage which should be considered by company before applying into their
systems.
Pros
 Enhance the efficiency and productivity in work
 It is considered as standardized of working process
Cons
 Difficulty to implement in existing working systems whereby leader must be
aware about further considerations
 It demands staff training for effective working process which consume time
and efforts
For continuous improvement company should implement approach effectively to
form their better development easily assisting them with better knowledge and level
of understanding. Time constraints and quality should be improved for systematic
approach and it will be convenient for business to make use of this method.
Six sigma
It is the method that is which is generally utilized in order to increase capability of
business and its process (Rawat and et.al., 2019). High level of performance and
minimize into variation process helps to generate higher amount of profits, employee
morale and company to serve customers with better quality products.
Pros
 It is fruitful to reduce wastage and supporting optimization process to
minimize the waste
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 Higher level of efficiency
 Minimizes the errors having significant concern in business to run its
operations fluently
Cons
 Longer time period for implementation as having every individual for the same
 Limited functionality that only comprise with some particular industries
Thus, for making the continuous process more specific and clear organization must
use the approach suitably in order to make better quality of results. Organization
must adhere with policies to reduce the wastage and coventially support the process
of optimization for the similar process.
Bench marking
It is the fundamental process in which improvements are done within internal
operations and forms mutual understanding associated with work performance. In
addition to this all such aspects can be effectively assessed and performed in
extremely well manner. The pros and cons of this process are stated below.
Pros
 Provide better work efficiency with minimum amount of cost
 Organization are provided with bunch of activities on the basis of offerings
and practices to promote customer retention
Cons
 Lack of information can lead to unfavorable results
 Requires major calculations for specific numbers and further contrast them on
that basis
It can be suggested that benchmark is the first step towards betterment of the
company. The external and internal factors are not served in efficient terms which
creates advantage for competitive force to take access (Guo and Zhu, 2022).
Organization should comply with all the basic principles and make advantage into
their continuous improvement which would pave the way for them to introduce their
fundamentals in the market.
7. Conclusion
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From the above text it has been summarized in depth about implementations
of corporate in the context of H&M. It can be stated that report has studied strong
customer base and providing them will affordable prices is one of the most
fundamental process for company to cope up. This assist with chance to gain
competitive advantage in relevant industry. Furthermore, in this study it has been
identified in depth about core principle of operation management that had been
described by considering Taylor Scientific Management approach. Organization
gets an ability to form out multiple advantages through systematic process of
operation management. However, some of the negative impact through which entity
might go through is discussed with help of continuous improvement and its concepts.
It shows that continuous improvement is quite significant for organization to make
frequent changes positively into their context. Lastly, all kind of models and theories
aligned with this has been discussed in detail with their pros and cons.
References
Bazmohammadi, N. and et.al., 2018. Optimal operation management of a regional
network of microgrids based on chance‐constrained model predictive
control. IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution, 12(15), pp.3772-3779.
Dahmani, S. and Yebdri, D., 2020. Hybrid algorithm of particle swarm optimization
and grey wolf optimizer for reservoir operation management. Water resources
management, 34(15), pp.4545-4560.
Guo, J.X. and Zhu, K., 2022. Operation management of hybrid biomass power plant
considering environmental constraints. Sustainable Production and
Consumption, 29, pp.1-13.
Rawat, T. and et.al., 2019. Impact assessment of electric vehicle
charging/discharging strategies on the operation management of grid
accessible and remote microgrids. International Journal of Energy
Research, 43(15), pp.9034-9048.
Tak, A.N. and et.al., 2021. BIM-based 4D mobile crane simulation and onsite
operation management. Automation in Construction, 128, p.103766.
Zhang, W.J., Wang, J.W. and Lin, Y., 2019. Integrated design and operation
management for enterprise systems. Enterprise Information Systems, 13(4),
pp.424-429.
Zhen, L. and et.al., 2019. Operation management of green ports and shipping
networks: overview and research opportunities. Frontiers of Engineering
Management, 6(2), pp.152-162.
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Table of Content
Part 2: Project Portfolio
Project Title p
An overview of the case study you have been given p
An explanation of each stage of the PLC that applies to your
selected project, including supporting documentation for each
stage (e.g., business case, the project plan, cost-benefit analysis
and work breakdown structure):
 Project initiation p
 Project planning p
 Project execution p
 Project closure p
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used p
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC in
application to your project using the appropriate theories models
and concepts p
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Project Title
Providing in house meals to staff
An overview of the case study you have been given
Organization commencing business activities in midland on a larger scale with a
large employee base that consists of 1250 people. This large workforce of the
organization contributes in the achievement of business objectives through their
diversified skill set and knowledge (Stanitsas and et.al., 2021). Premises of
operations that is office and factory is not enabled with the facilities to serve food to
the staff. Thus, this project is based on the objective of providing in house meals to
staff fir their health and safety concerns. Aim of the project is to accumulate the
facilities of catering services to provide healthy meals to the employees with good
quality in reasonable cost.
An explanation of each stage of the PLC that applies to
your selected project, including supporting documentation
for each stage (e.g., business case, the project plan, cost-
benefit analysis and work breakdown structure):
 Project initiation
Project title: Providing in house meals to staff.
Project info: this project is focused towards the provision of in house meals with
good quality to address their health and safety needs which is highly essential.
Background: to restrict the staff from moving out of the office premises during the
lunch hours which gets extended from this movement and results in wastage of time
is the concern of the project (Müller and et.al., 2019). Provision of healthy meals in
the premises itself is the main goal of the project.
Objectives: goal of this program is to meet the social responsibility of the
organization by providing healthy food to the workforce.
Scope: maximum portion of workforce is to be covered in this project.
Key Deliverable: organization will gain the ability to accumulate higher employee
satisfaction by enhancing the internal environment of the firm that will provide more
facilities to the staff.
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Stakeholders: many aspects of this project will be influenced by different
stakeholders of the firm that includes both external and internal ones. Management,
workforce and supplier are identified as the main stakeholder in this project.
Responsibilities: main role of the project is to imply equality on every employee and
the facilities to be provided without any unfair practices.
Achievement: controlling the unnecessary movement of the employee out of the
organizational premises to reduce the duration of break is aimed to achieve through
this project (Tereso and et.al., 2019). Provision of healthy meals in the break time at
the workplace will be achieved by this project.
Budget: every expense incurred during the implementation of this project will be per-
recorded hear to get an estimate of the total investment required to accomplish the
project.
Limitations: fluctuation in the estimated price of needed resources is assumed as
effective factor.
Denotation of success: quality of goods and service, employee retention rate,
proportion of the staff availing the facility, employee satisfaction and the working
hours will denote the success of the project.
 Project planning
Scope: This project will enable the premises of the firm with catering service where
the meals will be provided to the employees during the lunch break to restrict their
unnecessary movement so that the working hours don't get affected (Filippetto and
et.al., 2021). Employee retention and satisfaction is aimed to increase to enhance
their efficiency.
Preparing activity breakdown structure:
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Scheduling project: scheduling every small and big activity is essential to complete
the whole task in the specified time limit that meets the requirements or objectives.
Activities of the project are been schedules thoroughly in the Gantt chart that
provides the overview of every activity with the time period.
Planning resources: Alignment of the human resources that will carry out the
process are mentioned in this area with their specific roles and skills.
Performer Task Specialization
Project strategist Planning the project Strategic management
Budget manager Preparing accurate budget Financial accounting.
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in every aspect of the
project.
Project executor Project implementation. Key concept of
management.
Miscellaneous team
members
Carrying out the tasks. Basic knowledge.
Budget planning: expenses on different resources that is incurred in the process of
project execution are mentioned in this aspect (Armenia and et.al., 2019).
Particulars Budgeted cost (amount in £)
Research and development 9000
Stationary and planning costs 3000
Procurement of experts 64000
Raw material 105000
Salary of chefs and staff 65000
Miscellaneous expenses 15000
Kitchen equipment 30000
Data management cost 1000
Project management cost 25000
TOTAL £317000
Procurement plan: supplier of goods and services is selected in this section from
the list of vendors that has applied with quotation. From numerous quotation, one of
the most beneficial is chosen that provides the qualitative inputs in the process.
Moreover, the chef who will be providing the meals to the employee will be recruited
on the basis of experience.
Risk management: strategies and plans will be implemented that will be ensuring
that there are no gaps in the process which can act as a risk on the success of the
project. For monitoring the effectiveness of the project various criteria will be
determined.
Quality plan: the quality of the raw material used in the catering services will be
assessed frequently to ensure the safety of the employees. Hygiene measures will
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be taken to maintain the healthy environment where the food is being prepared and
served.
Communication plan: interaction in the project will take place with the help of
effective communication methods and modes which will help in eliminating the
probability of confusion. Workplace will be enabled with the digital methods of
communication that will deliver the messages properly to both the ends.
 Project execution
Deliverable: results of the projects are being assessed in this aspect where the
outcomes of the projects are compared with the predetermined objectives to know
the success rate or to acknowledge the factors that resulted as barriers in the
process. The project is mainly focused on the provision of meals to the employees in
the workplace.
Change management: Room for change and amendment in the project will be there
so that the changes can be made during the ongoing process. It will be first
evaluated in terms of its feasibility and authenticity then only it will be applied to the
project.
Data of performance: data depicting the performance of the project will be recorded
in this aspect to evaluate the need of changes.
Problem log: it is good to evaluate the issues and problem that can reduce the
effectiveness of the project so that the actions can be taken against it.
Documentation: recording the changes and other updates on the project is
recorded properly in the documents to keep a track of the project.
 Project closure
Closure is the last stage where the project comes to an end. On this stage every aspect of
the project is finalized and it I ready to launch. Every aspect of the project life cycle comes to
an end in this stage. However, there are certain consideration that has to be undertaken at
this stage of product life cycle.
 End of contract with vendors
 Deliverable to stakeholders
 Dis-allocation of resources
 Final documentation
 Transferring information of the closure to the stakeholder
Review after implementation: Success of the project is measured in this stage along with
the review of the gaps after the final implementation of the project. Criteria to measure the
success of the project is used to determine the standards up-to which the project is leveled.
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building case
Project title: Providing in house meals to staff
Objectives: to complete the project with higher efficiency and gaining the ability to reduce
the break time and increase the working hours.
Mission: to take steps for implementing the measure that can focus on the health of
employees.
idea: to provide the employees with healthy meals so that they don't go out of the premises
in the break time which eventually reduces the working hours. The absenteeism is focused
in this idea. The whole process of the project is thoroughly mentioned in Gantt chart and
WBS.
Opportunity: csr needs of the organization can be enhanced with the accurate
implementation of the project management plans.
Improvements: scope of the project can be enhanced with the proper implementation of the
R&D process that can improve the project from various aspects.
Resource: chef, utensils, cutlery, human resource etc.
Project plan: whole process of the project is mentioned in the Gantt chart which is
presented below.
Potential benefits and risks: subsidies by the government institutes is the potential benefit
and the inflation in the prices of raw materials can possess risk.
Recording monetary transactions: finance department of the organization will maintain the
flow of cash during the project.
Benefits of the cost incurred: increasing working hours will be the return of the cost
incurred in the project to provide facilities to the employees.
Business strategy: basic strategy of the project management is to take actions on the
factors that provide opportunities or possess risk to the firm.
Conclusion: the above projected has mentioned every possible activities and the plans to
carry out them. Therefore, it is effective to achieve the objective of reducing the
absenteeism.
Recommendations: increased working hours can be used to develop a competitive edge in
the industry.
Analysis of the benefits of the cost incurred
Cost incurred in the project is £317000 on the resources and strategies to achieve the
objective. The benefits of this investment can be gained in the upcoming time in the form of
increased productivity of the employees.
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used
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Project management tool: WBS is being used to specify the activities to complete
the task effectively in the specified time limit. Organizing these tasks helps to
maintain the quality of work being performed.
Benefits:
 It helps in classification of task into grouped activities.
 Help in assigning the required time for each activity respectively.
Drawbacks:
 Chances of getting irrelevant.
 Rigidity in the structure
Project leadership: this plays a vital role in motivating and encouraging the
employees to contribute in the achievement of the objectives of the project.
Benefits
 Maintain competitiveness in the project
 risk of loss are reduces
Drawbacks
 Increased pressure on the team
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC
in application to your project using the appropriate
theories models and concepts
Performance management
This refers to the process of organizing activities that are associated with the
performance of the project in order to achieve the determined outcomes (Aanbari
and Kwak, 2018). Some of the activities of the performance management are
accountable for the success of current project.
Merits:
 it helps in determining the better ways to use the resources
 Factors that lead to mismanagement is reduced by effective performance
management.
 It provides a mobile support in the accomplishment of big projects.
Demerits:
 Inflexibility in the financial results
 Assumptions are the basis of the whole procedure.
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From the above project every aspect of the activity is considered and thoroughly
assessed such as stakeholder, successive factor etc. the completion of the project is
accompanied by the criteria to measure the success of the project with the
determined outcomes. Moreover, there are various internal and external factors
whose impacts on the performance is considered in the project. Satisfaction level of
the employees and there retention rate is being targeted in the process. Kpi are
mentioned as the indicators of the success. Furthermore, Gantt chart and WBS is
are the models used in the project. Work breakdown structure has classified the
activities with its respective time limits in accordance with their importance. Visual
representation of the activities and timeline is presented by the Gannt chart.
References
Aanbari, F.T. and Kwak, Y.H., 2018, June. Impact on project management of allied
disciplines. Project Management Institute.
Armenia, S. and et.al., 2019. Sustainable project management: A conceptualization-
oriented review and a framework proposal for future
studies. Sustainability. 11(9). p.2664.
Filippetto, A.S. and et.al., 2021. A risk prediction model for software project
management based on similarity analysis of context histories. Information
and Software Technology. 131. p.106497.
Müller, R. and et.al., 2019. Modeling organizational project management. Project
Management Journal. 50(4). pp.499-513.
Stanitsas, M. and et.al., 2021. Integrating sustainability indicators into project
management: The case of construction industry. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 279. p.123774.
Tereso, A. and et.al., 2019. Project management practices in private
organizations. Project Management Journal. 50(1). pp.6-22.
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