Operations & Project Management INTRODUCTION 1 PART 11 Introduction to the organization

Operations & Project
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Overview of the organization.................................................................................................1
An explanation of operation vs operations management.......................................................1
Review and critique of implementation of operations management principles within the
selected organization..............................................................................................................2
Analyse the extent of operations management for meeting the requirements of the entity...2
Discuss continuous improvement as a philosophy and describe the lean principles.............3
Prepare a continuous improvement plan on the basis of review and critique of OP principles..4
Using continuous improvement principles provide two recommendations for improving
operations function.................................................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
Overview of the case study.....................................................................................................5
Business case..........................................................................................................................5
Project plan.............................................................................................................................6
Work Breakdown Structure....................................................................................................7
Gantt Chart.............................................................................................................................7
Provide theoretical and conceptual arguments to justify the use of project methodologies,
tools and leadership................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Operations in a business firm refers to on-going or continuous implementation and
execution of activities to get desired output. On the other hand, project can be defined as
temporary endeavours which do not involve production of new thing (Heizer, Render and
Munson, 2017). However, both of these need management which itself comprises of different
steps such as planning, organising, staffing and controlling. In this report, Sainsbury has been
chosen which has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. Furthermore, this assignment
covers part 1 in which overview of selected entity, difference between operation vs operations
management, implementation of OP principles, discussion of continuous improvement plan
followed by recommendations. Part 2 includes, case study for showing the project life cycle
(PLC) in which importance of new product, its target market and cost benefit analysis.
Furthermore, stages of PLC by linking it to the case study, Gantt Chart and Work Breakdown
Structure have also been included.
PART 1
Overview of the organization
Sainsbury is a supermarket chain located in United Kingdom and considered as second
largest in the country. It was incorporated by in 1869 by John James Sainsbury. It started with
grocery business before shifting to retailing. It is listed in London Stock Exchange and is a part
of FTSE 100 index. It has began selling products online by looking at the opportunity to expand
and reach many more potential customer. It is an outcome of technological transformation which
has taken place in business environment. It has competitors such as TESCO and ASDA which
have huge market share and customer base. Sainsbury is a large company in size which is
required to have effective management of operations and project to remain competitive and
retain the current position in the marketplace (Official profile of Sainsbury, 2019).
An explanation of operation vs operations management
Operation and operations management are two concepts which hold different value for a
business entity and should be understood by the management in order to make plans and
implement them. The difference between the two has been explained below:
Operations: It is the goals and objectives of the company for which it carries operations.
Generally, the aim of entities is to produce goods and/or services which require conversion of
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raw material into final output. Therefore, operations is about utilising the resources or input to
transform them into a whole new product or service by moving through different processes. It
should incorporate needs and requirements of the customers to whom the company is targetting.
In nutshell, operations comprise all the activities required to create and deliver an organisation's
goods or services to its customers or clients.
Operations management: It refers to design, management and improvement of the
existing systems and processes which are being used to manufacture goods and/or services of the
organization. It is important for the company to focus on this aspect as the success and failure
greatly depends upon it. Therefore, financial and human resources are required to be used in the
activities related to manufacturing of goods (Reid and Sanders, 2015).
Review and critique of implementation of operations management principles within the selected
organization
Operations management is function comprises of planning, organizing and supervising
the tasks to achieve higher profitability and improvement. It is an activity of strategic
management therefore, it has certain principles which have been explained below:
Reality: According to this principle, the issues in the organization should be assessed.
The focus should not only be limited to just one aspect. Sainsbury identifies all the problems
affecting its business in order to find the cause of them. However, it does not have adequate
techniques and ways through which these can be resolved.
Organization: Entity should form link between all the activities involved in there.
Furthermore, there should be forecasting about the future so as to get stability in business.
Sainsbury conduct extensive research to gather data in order to make decisions. However, it fails
to form a consistency among all the elements (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018).
Accountability: It focuses on formulation and implementation of policies and rules for the
employees so that they can follow them while completing their work. It helps to make the right
person accountable for any defaults. HR manager of Sainsbury make sure that each individual is
assigned tasks and responsibilities on the basis of their skills, competencies and talent. But
sometimes conflicts may arise between the employees due to this principle.
Analyse the extent of operations management for meeting the requirements of the entity
Sainsbury is a retailing company which is operating at a wide level in order to fulfil the
goals and objectives set by it. In such a scenario, operations management becomes imperative for
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