Operations Management Strategy for River Island

This study focuses on the manufacturing process of River Island and the issues faced by the organisation. It suggests various strategies and tools like TQM and Lean Six Sigma that can help to recover the organisational position effectively. The study also highlights the importance of effective communication and information system, training and skill development program, and continuous improvement process. It concludes by discussing the reasons for the organisational success of River Island.

Operations Managements Strategy
Name:
Course Name:
Instructor’s Name:
Date:

Executive Summary
Business operation is essential to manage the regular workforce effectively for that reason most
of the organisation are using various strategies to improve company performance rapidly. This
particular study mainly signifies the manufacturing issues that faced by River Island during
operation. Lack of proper technology and performance reduced organisational profit margin. For
that reason, this study also indicates some unique strategies and tools such as TQM, Lean Six
Sigma these can improve overall company performance quickly. Implementation of these tools
will also provide the organisation higher competitive advantages in the operating market. At the
same time, improvement of product quality also grabs the attention of more customer leads to
improve organisational financial position.
Page | 2

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Organisational Background.........................................................................................................3
Manufacturing process of the organisation......................................................................................3
Problem Statements.........................................................................................................................4
Implementation of Strategies to Improve Manufacturing Process..................................................4
Focusing on Continuous improvement process...........................................................................5
Implementation of Effective Communication and Information System......................................5
Training and Skill Development program...................................................................................5
Total Quality Management..........................................................................................................6
Use of Lean Six-sigma.................................................................................................................7
Reason for Organisational Success..................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
Page | 3

Introduction
Management of business operation is essential to manage the day to day workforce in an
efficient manner. Most of the business organisations are using various strategies to improve
company operations leads to an increase in overall performance (Pedersen, Gwozdz and Hvass,
2018). Maintain manufacturing process is important for the entire business is vital and that helps
to reduce the production cost and effective manufacturing process also improves product quality
leads to increase sales volume as well as profitability (Nayak et al., 2015). This particular study
mainly focused on the manufacturing process of the River Island. This particular study also
indicates the manufacturing issues of this organisation and shows various strategies that can help
to recover the organisational position effectively.
Organisational Background
River Island is a global fashion brand, known for its attractive and high street fashion collection
meant for different age segments. In the year 1948 Lewis Separates has founded this company in
West London and presently is an attractive and budget-friendly fashion hub that provides their
customers a wide range of dress and other accessories. River Island has over 350 stores located
in UK, Europe, Asia, as well as also maintains six online portals for availing online services to
their customer in over hundred countries (River Island, 2018). River Island mainly focuses on
bringing the current fashion trend along with a variety of dresses with unique designs that helps
the company to attract a larger customer segment. Moreover, this company also has one of the
largest in-house designing team in the market that helps in bringing different styles to their
stores.
Manufacturing process of the organisation
Last few months this organisation also increased the production of various items and
management team also managed to boost the sales. The company also increased the number of
manufactured items to grab the attention of more customers. The manufacturing head mainly
uses traditional technology in the manufacturing process (Nayak et al., 2015). The
communication system is average so that sometimes managers faced problems. It is not possible
for the manufacturing heads to evaluate product quality effectively and excessive waste of raw
Page | 4

materials also increased production price that means organisational profitability reduced. For that
reason, it is important for the River Island to use various quality control tools that will help
management in reducing operating cost leads to reduce the production price. Reduce production
price will help management in selecting effective pricing strategies and that will increase the
number of sales leads to get more competitive advantages in operating market (Bocken et al.,
2014). This organisation worked with the world-class designer for that reasons the products
easily grabs the attention of customers. Old machines generally take time so that the senior
management needs to upgrade technical instruments and manufacturing tools to reduce the
number of human errors. Implementation of automation technology will increase both the quality
and number of production leads to fulfill public demands.
Problem Statements
River Island is one of the largest clothing manufacturer organisations in the United Kingdom.
According to secondary information, it has been identified that excessive labour cost also
increased the overall manufacturing cost leads to reduce the profit percentage of this organisation
(Shen, 2014). for that reason it is important for this company to reduce the overall manufacturing
cost otherwise company needs to set higher product price but it can also reduce the number of
sales of River Island. Lack of proper technological resources are another major problem for this
organisation and it also enhances the overall price of production for that reason implementation
upgrade technology is essential to reduce no of labour as well as overall operational cost
(Ahearne, Lam and Kraus, 2014). This company also increased its manufactured products by
50% but the River Island was unable to reduce the cost. The manufacturing process of an
organisation also depends on countries economy and politics. According to result, it has been
identified that the Economy of United Kingdom is low on growth and the cost of labour is very
high in comparison to other countries so that it also increased the overall pricing of the products
(Leonardi, 2015). At the same time, people want high-quality products at a lower price rate so
that high price rate also reduced the number of sales of River Island leads to hamper company
profitability.
Implementation of Strategies to Improve Manufacturing Process
Page | 5

Focusing on Continuous improvement process
In order to grow a business, continuous improvisation is a must to do step to be followed, which
will help in gaining effective growth over the passage of time. Similarly, River Island has also
focused on the continuous improvement process to gain effective changes in their growth, sales
and production (Leonardi, 2015). On the other hand, the management process is also seemed to
get efficient that helps the store operators in meeting with customer satisfaction. Moreover, the
use of various devices has also helped the store operators to consume less time in billing as well
as attain a number of customers within a short time frame. Monitoring is also an important part
of a retail business, as the retailers need to be aware of their stocks and products, which their
customers will be seeking (Pieters, 2017). Thus, it can be seen that River Island must focus on
the improvement process that will help them get more advantages as well as raise their goodwill,
which will allow them to expand their business in different countries across the world.
Implementation of Effective Communication and Information System
In the current scenario, it can be seen that both effective communication and information system
plays a key role in operating business in an effective and efficient manner (Engert and
Baumgartner, 2016). Effective communication helps to transfer the proper message between two
or more people without intercepting the business transactions. It is very important to use the
proper means of communication as per the need and it also reduces the chances of error
occurrence. On the other hand, the flourishing advancement in the information technology field
has also helped River Island to commence their business operation across the globe in an
effective and efficient manner. In most cases, it has been found that the retailing companies
implement the Database Management System (DBMS) that helps them in a various manner
(Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). Moreover, the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) is also seen
in tracking different shipments imported to or exported from different countries.
Training and Skill Development program
River Island is a branded fashion hub, which provides its customers with a wide range of
garments. In order to meet up the customer expectation, the workforce is needed to be trained
that will help them to be efficient in dealing with their customers (Hutchinson, Whittle and
Rouncefield, 2014). It is found that routine training helps the workers to develop their skills that
are very useful for the company to survive the market competition. Thus, implementing routine
Page | 6

training and skill development program is necessary, as it will help the workers to understand
their strengths and weaknesses and eventually succeed in utilizing their strength factors and
minimizing their weaknesses (Bell et al., 2017). There are different factors such as behavioural
approach, presentation, work ethics, product information, etc. that are needed to be followed by
each worker in the company.
Total Quality Management
Total Quality Management (TQM) refers to the process of bringing significant changes in an
office atmosphere that will help in raising the skills and ability of the worker that will eventually
bring significant growth to the company within a particular time frame (Prajogo and Cooper,
2017). TQM mainly aims in revising the core eight factors of a worker, which will help to
provide customer satisfaction.
Customer focus includes both customer services and customer needs, which is needed to be
understand by the company, which will help them meet the expectations of their customer.
Leadership plays an important role in providing guidance to the employees to reduce the chances
of mistakes as well as help them to overcome different problems, as well as set certain goals and
objectives to monitor their performance.
People involvement will help the company to attain significant growth within a short time frame
and it will also enhance the skills of the employees and will lead to continuous improvement that
will harness the skills of the employees.
Process approach helps in undertaking the selective effective and efficient procedures to meet the
desired goals and objectives within a short time period.
Systematic approach to management refers to “identifying, understanding and managing
interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organisations effectiveness and efficiency in
achieving its objectives”
Continual improvement should be a business objective, which will help in achieving different
opportunities that will be beneficial for the business.
Page | 7

Factual approach to decision making is an approach based on research and analysis that helps to
devise effective plans and strategies to commence the business operations effectively.
Mutually beneficial supplier relations is an important part for a business as it is crucial for a
company to maintain an efficient supply chain management that will help to raise the
productivity of the company.
(Source: Carmona-Márquez et al., 2018)
Use of Lean Six-sigma
The lean six sigma is a managerial approach that focuses upon removing the defects and waste,
by improving performance (Albliwi et al., 2014). The lean six sigma has six belts, each of which
denotes the level of expertise and team work to gain improvisation.
Black Belt: Training project teams along dealing with project problems.
Green Belt: Helps with data collection and analysis.
Master Black Belt: The black belts and green belts members are being trained by providing them
strategic direction.
Yellow Belt: Reviews of different process used in the project is checked by participating as a
project team member.
White Belt: It helps on local problem solving that affects the overall project.
Brown Belt: Though not considered under the six sigma, but it represents a person who has not
completed their second six sigma.
(Source: Hernandez, 2017)
Reason for Organisational Success
This organisation also gets success in the operating market due to high product quality and
design. River Island commonly considered as one of the successful private own organisations in
the UK for that reason brand image of this organisation is very high (Tun et al., 2016). This
organisation also changed its name so many SD times but brand power is the major strength of
Page | 8

River Island. This organisation usually provides its customer the hottest looks so that demand of
this organisation also increased day by day (Dhar, 2015). River Island provides the customer
stylish cloth in affordable rates and it has been recognized that the management team also
research the whole markets to identify the buying behaviour and current trends of the public. The
designer mainly designs the products based on an evaluation of market research so that each and
every product fulfils the customer requirements. Apart from that, the management of this
organisation also provides the employees good working environment so that high employee
retention and support of the potential employees increased company brand image rapidly. At the
same time, implementation of different strategy and technology will improve the overall
organisational performance further (Fonseca, 2015). Use of various advanced tools such as Total
quality management, Lean six-sigma, the effective communication system will increase the
working excellence of each individual employees and use of this technology also reduce labour
cost leads to improve profit margin as well as organisational financial position (Hutchinson,
Whittle and Rouncefield, 2014). At the same time use of effective promotion such as digital
promotion, social media promotion, word of mouth promotion also grab the attention of huge
customers and that is important to improve brand recognition. This company also sponsored in
graduate fashion week and that shows the advertisement all over the world leads to increase
organisational position.
Conclusion
From the above study, it has been identified that River Island is one of the biggest and popular
appeal manufacturing organisation that uses world-class own designers for designing its
products. This company also faced problems regarding its manufacturing and excessive labour
cost generally reduced the financial profitability. For that reason management of River Island
needs to implement some strategic decisions to recover its position as soon as possible.
Implementation of various upgrade technologies, communication tools, and manufacturing tools
generally help this organisation to improve its performance and reduce the production cost.
Lower production cost will provide River island higher competitive advantages in the operating
market. Total quality management also helps management to evaluate product quality. Six Sigma
will provide management various statistical analysis with a view to produce quality leads to
effective production.
Page | 9

References
Ahearne, M., Lam, S.K. and Kraus, F., 2014. Performance impact of middle managers' adaptive
strategy implementation: The role of social capital. Strategic Management Journal, 35(1), pp.68-
87.
Albliwi, S., Antony, J., Abdul Halim Lim, S. and van der Wiele, T., 2014. Critical failure factors
of Lean Six Sigma: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Quality & Reliability
Management, 31(9), pp.1012-1030.
Bell, B.S., Tannenbaum, S.I., Ford, J.K., Noe, R.A. and Kraiger, K., 2017. 100 years of training
and development research: What we know and where we should go. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 102(3), p.305.
Bocken, N.M., Short, S.W., Rana, P. and Evans, S., 2014. A literature and practice review to
develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of cleaner production, 65, pp.42-56.
Carmona-Márquez, F.J., Leal-Rodriguez, A.L., Leal-Millán, A. and Vazquez, A., 2018, July.
TQM implementation: From institutionalization to superior performance attainment. In Academy
of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 14475). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510:
Academy of Management.
Dhar, R.L., 2015. Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of
organisational commitment. Tourism Management, 46, pp.419-430.
Engert, S. and Baumgartner, R.J., 2016. Corporate sustainability strategy–bridging the gap
between formulation and implementation. Journal of cleaner production, 113, pp.822-834.
Fonseca, L.M., 2015. From Quality Gurus and TQM to ISO 9001: 2015: a review of several
quality paths. International Journal for Quality Research (IJQR), 9(1), pp.167-180.
Hernandez, V.L., 2017. Lean Six Sigma in a University Service Environment: Distinct
Perspectives of Lean Implementation in Brownfield and Greenfield Projects (Doctoral
dissertation, The University of Texas at San Antonio).
Page | 10

Hutchinson, J., Whittle, J. and Rouncefield, M., 2014. Model-driven engineering practices in
industry: Social, organisational and managerial factors that lead to success or failure. Science of
Computer Programming, 89, pp.144-161.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Leonardi, P.M., 2015. Materializing strategy: The blurry line between strategy formulation and
strategy implementation. British Journal of Management, 26, pp.S17-S21.
Nayak, R., Singh, A., Padhye, R. and Wang, L., 2015. RFID in textile and clothing
manufacturing: technology and challenges. Fashion and Textiles, 2(1), p.9.
Pedersen, E.R.G., Gwozdz, W. and Hvass, K.K., 2018. Exploring the relationship between
business model innovation, corporate sustainability, and organisational values within the fashion
industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(2), pp.267-284.
Pieters, G.R., 2017. The Ever Changing Organisation: Creating the Capacity for Continuous
Change, Learning, and Improvement. Routledge.
Prajogo, D.I. and Cooper, B., 2017. The individual and organisational level effects of TQM
practices on job satisfaction. International Journal of Manpower, 38(2), pp.215-225.
River Island, 2018. About Us. Love fashion. Love River Island. [Online] Available at:
https://www.riverisland.com/inside-river-island/about-us [Accessed on: 14th Dec, 2018]
Shen, B., 2014. Sustainable fashion supply chain: Lessons from H&M. Sustainability, 6(9),
pp.6236-6249.
Tun, M.M.N., Muthugala, R.V., Thuy, N.T.T., Ly, P.H.L., Le, T.H.T., Dinh, D.T., Hoang, N.V.,
Le, T.Q.M., Moi, M.L., Buerano, C.C. and Morita, K., 2016. Dengue-associated acute
encephalitis syndrome cases in Son La Province, Vietnam in 2014. Japanese journal of
infectious diseases, pp.JJID-2016.
Page | 11