Operations and Project Management: Review and Critique of Operations Management Principles in Mark and Spencer

This report discusses the importance of operations management principles in Mark and Spencer, including an analysis of its implementation and extent to meet the organization's requirements. It also includes a continuous improvement plan based on the review and critique of operations management principles, including the use of Lean methodology.

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
2

1. An introduction to chosen organization
Mark and Spencer company is a British multinational corporation which is
headquartered in the London. It is the retail store which deals in the beauty,
customers, and the food commodities. It was started by the Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer in 1884. It is registered on the London Stock Exchange and it is an
element of the FTSE 250 index. This company has 959 branches across the country
and has 615 stores which deals only in food products and beverages. Organization
has extend the product line in clothing brand of men, women and kids. Company has
started its online facility for the delivery of food products. It is renowned retail store in
the UK(Gan, and Zheng, 2019). The company aims is to maintain the long term
relationship with the customers. It is known for earning the largest profit and paying
the more taxes in the UK.
2. An explanation of operation vs operations management
Operations refers to the set of the several activities which helps to execute the
businesses in efficient manner. These activities includes the manufacturing of
products and the management of supply. It is the arrangement of the tasks and
methods to maximize the profit of the organization. It means to arrange all the raw
materials, resources, raise the finance and to convert the input in to the output. It
consider all the elements which aids to fulfill the demands and desire of the
customer. It has to ensure that there should be balance between the demand and
supply in the market (Hu, and Luo 2021) . Operation includes the procedure of the
producing the good quality products and plan the ideas related to the production, and
the best allocation of resources in optimum way.
Operation management is the employment of the trade practices that provide
advantage to attain the highest rate of efficiency in the company. It is related with
the transfer of raw materials and workers in to product and services to increase the
revenue of the business. The team of operation management try to build the balance
between the cost and the expenses to increase the operating profit. The operating
profit of the company is measured by the deducting all the direct and indirect
expenses from the revenue(Jian, Wang, and Jiang, 2021). The operation managers of
the company is maintain and deliver the good service to the clients. It analyses the
proper apportionment of the resources to reduce the wastage. It helps to lower the
cost per unit of the product. It handles the proper management of stocks, to manage
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the problem of the under stock or overstock out situation. It deals with the several
crucial issues such the area of the plant, methods of project management and to
enforce the technology networks.
Operations Operation management
 It includes the activities and tasks
which indulge in the
manufacturing of products or
services on daily basis. It is the
proper maintenance of the
inventory in the company and
managing the distribution of the
raw materials.
 The operations in Mark and
Spencer deals in the purchasing
and selling of products and
services to increase the profits
and sales for developing an image
in the market. It helps to conduct
the business operations in
smoothly manner.
 Operations management is the
process of activities indulge in the
production stage or post
production stage. It means to
create the value and transfer of
goods and services. It deals with
the procedure of controlling and
managing the production
activities. It deals in the
administration department with the
ability to focus on the efficiency of
the businesses and to tackle with
the irregularly changes that the
administration consider to
withdraw it from the organisation.
 In the case of Mark and Spencer
the company should adopt the
needed changes and
modifications in the goods and
install the new technologies and
innovations for improving the
product system. By using this
tools the company revenue will
increase earn the highest yield as
compared to the previous year.
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3. A review and critique of the implementation of
operations management principles within the chosen
organization
The principles of the operation management are the set of the techniques and the
guidelines which needs to be abide by the organization to take care of the quality
control and helps to attain the objectives.
1. Reality: The managers of the company must concentrate on to provide the
exact solutions of the problem rather than focusing on the methods and
techniques. Company should understand that no single method can give the
same solutions to all the troubles that is faced by the project manager
(Kefalas, 2019).
2. Organization: In the production department everything is interlinked in the
operations. These constituents are determined and consistent they can be
predictable otherwise the operation can not be able to sustain the profit.
3. Success: The success of the company is linked with the production
department. It can be generated by focusing on the interest of the consumers
and to know the tastes and preferences of them. Therefore operation
manager always try to keep the customers delighted and remains happy with
the goods of the company.
4. Accountability: It is very important key for establishing the production
operation. Accountable means the manager is responsible for all the
obligations and duties. The manager will frame the rules and the norms to
achieve the targets. It motivated them to put the required efforts for
accomplishing the targets (Konert, and Balcerzak, 2021).
5. Change: In some cases it is essential to adapt some change in the dynamic
environment. The manager introduce new concepts and to provide solutions
in the manufacturing operations. It helps to improve the performance and
maintain the stability in the future period.
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4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations
management of the organization in the case study meets
the requirements of the organization
Operation management is a crucial step of the company and has impact on the
functioning of any business if any changes incurred in the company. It provide the
benefits to the company to work in the flexible environment and adapt the alteration if
needed. The principles used used in the business operation ensure the accuracy of
the work (Medhekar, 2019).
 In the context of the Mark and Spencer the principles of operation
management renders the benefits in various ways. It comprises of
manufacturing the goods and services according to the expectations of the
customers. It helps to generate the more income from the sales to develop an
image in the mind of the customers.
 The cost effective method is used by the Mark and Spencer to provide the
commodities and services at reasonable price to the customers. The
organization differentiate the goods from the competitors to keep main focus
on the customers. Through this the loyalty of the customers is developed with
the company (Mishra, and Mohanty, 2020).
 The Mark and Spencer has create a good working environment for the
employees to increase the productivity of them. This aids to improve the
working conditions and increase the morale of the employees. It also build
the positive network with the suppliers across the country. Good network with
the suppliers furnishes them to negotiate over the prices of supplies of
product.
 The principles of the operation management with reference to the Mark and
Spencer assist to manage the production facilities and to follow the regular
changes of the market. The company has to make sure that the customer is
first priority for them(Pan, 2021).
5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a
philosophy and describe the Lean principles
6

Continuous improvement plan refers to the combination of the tasks which is
prepare to make continuous modifications in the goods and services by constantly
reviewing the action and measurement criteria of the businesses. This plan helps to
save the time, money and the effort of the organization. The regular improvement
process distinguish the organization from the competitors. It is the route of the
innovation and the part of risk administration (SLAMA and et.al; 2018).
Lean methodology: It means to utilizing the staff, resources, efforts, energy and the
persons in the company to create a worth for the customers in the company. The
prime purpose of using this method is to reduce the wastage of resources and
control the cost of the excess expenditure. It is relay on the respect of the staff and
to non stop improvement in the project.
There are five principles in Lean Methodology:
 Value: It means to acknowledge the value that customers will get in terms of
the product and services. It means to provide the maximum satisfaction to the
customers and it is measured in the monetary terms.
 Value stream: It means to prepare the route of the workflow of the
organization. This comprises of all the actions and the staffs involved in the
company to provide the end value of the goods to the consumer. It gives the
idea of what portion of the products can provide value or not.
 Flow: The objective of this is to generate the flow requisite in the procedures
and to coordinate the activities in a synchronize manner. It reduces the
chances of any chaos and misunderstanding between the employees in the
company (Yap and et.al., 2018).
 Pull: The stability of the work helps to accomplish the task in briskly manner.
The work can be pulled if there is the demand of the product. It force the
company to utilize the production capacity in an optimized manner.
 Improvement: The process of lean management is not static it is essential to
regularly monitor the changes in the process. It has to ensure that staffs at
every stage should involved in increasing the performance of the organization.
Company should conduct a regular meeting to know the work done by the
employees and the problems faced by them for daily improvement.
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified
recommendations for improvement, based on your review
and critique of operations management principles within
your organization
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Continuous improvement plan means the steps of the alteration and necessary
changes which is required by every organist to adapt them in the plan. The change
can be include like increasing the quality of the product and its services. With the
reference to Mark and Spencer the continuous modification plan is based on this:
 Plan: It includes the finding of the appropriate opportunity and idea that is
suitable for the policy and turnout to be productive for the future. It means the
analysis of knowing the market, strategy of the competitors and the changing
needs and demand of the customers. It helps to increase the revenue of the
company(Yixuan, 2021).
 Do: It involves the actual enforcement of the strategies and projects of the
organization. It means to putting the plan in to action and observe the trends
in the market.
 Check: It refers to the monitor or track the norms and the policies of the
company. It can be examined on the daily basis, annual basis or weekly
basis. It continuously compare the performance of the standard or real and
find out those area where company needs improvement. It monitor the
progress of the tasks and the plan.
 Act: It means to measure the actual outcome of the policies which is
implemented in the business and found to be useful for the company. The
result of the policy can be favorable or unfavorable. The motive of the Mark
and Spencer to apply this norms is to achieve the profits on the larger scale.
The company can make the alteration plan if the organization feels that it has
not worked accurately (Zhang, Zhao, and Guo, 2022).
7. Conclusion
As per the above report it has been concluded that there is link between the
operation management and the operations and also some difference between the
two terms. Operations means to produce the goods and services whereas operation
management means to achieve the highest efficiency by using the practices of the
company. This report has discussed the importance of the using of principles of
operation management in the company. In the context of Mark and Spencer this
principles help to increase the productivity and increase the value of the businesses.
The company has utilized the lean method that support the organization to develop
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the methods for continuous modifications. The recommendations and the continuous
improvement plan is based on the principles of the operational management and is
applied in the Mark and Spencer(Zhuang, Qu, and Li 2020).
References
Gan, H. and Zheng, C., 2019, June. Operation optimization of electric vehicle based
on demand side management. In 2019 34rd Youth Academic Annual
Conference of Chinese Association of Automation (YAC) (pp. 100-105).
IEEE.
Hu, H. and Luo, Z., 2021, October. Intelligent Internet of Things Analysis Technology
for Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Images of Substation. In 2021
IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Computer Application
(ICDSCA) (pp. 815-820). IEEE.
Jian, H., Wang, C. and Jiang, X., 2021, January. Integrated Operation Mode of
Warehousing and Distribution in the O2O Environment. In The International
Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Logistics Engineering (pp. 161-
170). Springer, Cham.
Kefalas, S., 2019. Developing a Multi-channel Customer Relationship Management
Strategy for Hotel Operation. In Strategic Innovative Marketing and
Tourism (pp. 21-29). Springer, Cham.
Konert, F.A.A. and Balcerzak, B.T., 2021, June. Legal and ethical aspects of rules
for the operation of autonomous unmanned aircraft with artificial intelligence.
In 2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems
(ICUAS) (pp. 602-609). IEEE.
Medhekar, A., 2019. Role, Rules, and Regulations for Global Medical Tourism
Facilitators. In Handbook of Research on International Travel Agency and
Tour Operation Management (pp. 81-100). IGI Global.
Mishra, P.C. and Mohanty, M.K., 2020. A review of factors affecting mining
operation. World Journal of Engineering, 17(3). pp.457-472.
Pan, L., 2021, July. Analysis of Logistics Management Mode and Operation Process
in The Era of Internet of Things. In 2021 International Conference on
Education, Information Management and Service Science (EIMSS) (pp. 417-
420). IEEE.
SLAMA, S.A.B., Household Energy Management System: Mutual Vehicle-to-Home
Operation with home distributed photovoltaic power generation.
Xilin, J.I.A.N.G. and Tao, Q.I.N., 2018. Analysis and Optimizing Suggestions on
Operation and Management Mechanism of National Reserve
Forest. FOREST RESOURCES WANAGEMENT, (5), p.8.
Yap, and et.al., 2018 An examination of operation room management at a Malaysian
public hospital. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 37(3),
pp.33-42.
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Yixuan, W., 2021, December. Design of intelligent operation and maintenance applet
using Wechaplatform. In 2021 IEEE Conference on Telecommunications,
Optics and Computer Science (TOCS) (pp. 605-608). IEEE.
Zhang, J., Zhao, H. and Guo, Z., 2022. Fuzzy gray clustering evaluation of green
building operation effect: a case study of Shenzhen Bay One,
China. Kybernetes, (ahead-of-print).
Zhuang, Z., Qu, L. and Li, X., 2020. Optimal operation of grid-connected microgrid
based on particle swarm optimization. In Developments of Artificial
Intelligence Technologies in Computation and Robotics: Proceedings of the
14th International FLINS Conference (FLINS 2020) (pp. 1350-1358).
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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
This project title is relay on to available the food services with in the company
site and it includes the 1250 staffs of the enterprise. This report will helps to resolve
the issues of the regular attendance of the workforce and to reduce the disturbance
which happens when staffs is moving in the office area irregularly.
An overview of the case study you have been given
In this project the case study is about the improves the productivity of the
1250 employees. The company has hired the staffs which comprises the workers
working on the onsite and off site. At present there is no facility of onsite catering.
The main purpose of the company is to mitigate the nonstop movement of the staffs
in the lunch time because it will have impact on the workers to attain the targets.
Through this the production capacity of the organization will suffer as the staffs take
time in lunch and the idle working hours will increase. Employees will daily consume
the food from the outside and this junk food will have severe effect on the health of
the workers. The employees will fall sick and the absenteeism of the workforce will
rise. Thus, the organization will frame new norms, ideas and concepts to cope with
this difficult situation. It will reduce the labor turnover ration and maintain the stability
of the employees (Liu, and Qiu, 2020)
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
It is the starting step in the project life cycle. It denotes the all the policies which is to
followed by the project manager and it shows whether it provides benefits or not. It
helps to pitch the funds from the investors by presenting their project reports plan to
the stakeholders. This will give clear indication to stakeholders that how the project
will succeed in the long term. Efficient project management aids to derive the
maximum advantage to the company and helps in reducing the cost. Thus this will
aids the organization to transfer the value to the consumers. It is most crucial step of
the project life cycle in which company prepare the plan for all the tasks and
activities to be carried out in the future (Wei, and Yang, 2018)
 Project planning
It is the sequence steps of the expenses, scope and time frame of the project. It
mention the tasks and the plans will be requisite and what are the resources required
and the sources of raising the finance. Perfect project planning helps to faces the
risk and prepare the emergency plan to deal with the uncertain situation. The budget
of every division is prepared to evaluate the cost and to reduce the redundant
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expenses. Company measure the risk by using the qualitative or qualitative tools. In
this organization use the work break down structure method to apportion the work in
to small tasks. Accurate project planning can predict the future difficulties before
they arise and develop creativity for the successful execution of idea.
 Project execution
Company has to consider all the elements like risk taking factors, necessary
resources which provides the surety of successfully launching of the project. In this
the company has to assesses the pros and cons of the project which denotes the
prosperity or failure of the project and it should be executed at the utmost care
manner. Thus it is essential for the every company to take care the every
determinants of the plan, Methods and the chances to avail the canteen benefits to
the staffs and maintain the hygiene safety among them. It means all the work should
be done with coordinated efforts, maintain team unity among the staffs, complete the
deadlines and attain the targets. It is compulsory for the organization to track the
activities on the daily basis , every month or annually basis. It means to compare the
budgeted performance against with the actual performance and find out the reasons
if there is any difference on performance (Dajani, 2020).
 Project closure
It means to discuss or compare the outcomes of the project or the budgeted figures
to the shareholders of the organization. In this step, stakeholders of the enterprise
assess that company is able to fulfill its promises than it is the indicator of successful
plan implementation. In the context of the case study the plan we regards as
successful if the organization can able to control on the movements of the
employees in the work place premises. The organization have to continuously check
or monitor the employees activities and prepare a record of their tasks. It can reduce
the labor turnover ratio and maintain the consistency of employers and provide
healthy working environment to its staffs (Meng, Tang, and Yuan, 2021).
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used
Project Methodologies: It is the method which consists of the principles and rules
that provides support to the organization for smoothly conducting the project
operations.
In the process of project life cycle the methods used in the project are :
Waterfall method: It is the most oldest method used in the company. This tool is
used in the construction or manufacturing reports because it involve high costs and
time. In this the stages of the method flows in downward manner. In this the next
activity start after the ending of the first phase of the project. It is a linear method and
has make up with the fours stages like design, requirement, execution, confirmation
and maintenance. It helps to measure the end company objectives in quick way. It
concentrates on the specific objectives or determined the clear set of targets. The
total expenses of the project can easily calculated and can attain the targets with in
the time frame. This tool is very simple and easy to use and it used by the small
companies. It is simple to manage the activities due to the inflexibility of the method.
It is very fast method to accomplish the activities in smoothly way (Ding, 2020).
Critical path method: It is the tool which is used to give the importance to main
tasks and activities. In this the company decides the priority of the tasks, assign the
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duties and the roles to the team, analyses the risk and apportion the resources
efficiently. This method helps to achieve the deadline with in the time frame. It is the
systematic process of the critical tasks and to follow the shortest path to meet the
target. It is relay on this fact that company can not start the new task until the
completion of the previous task. It includes the several factors like the database of
the all activities, time of activities, the relation between the two tasks and the final
point of the activity. It is the breakdown of the larger tasks in to the smaller activities
which helps in the specialization of activity(Kelio, and Upadhyaya, 2021).
Project Tools: It is a structure of the software which helps to prepare the project,
monitor and tack the status of the project. The organization has used the network
diagrams, the project appraisal review technique and the project management
methods. These methods aids the enterprise to keep an proper measurement on the
plan and to find out the any changes if required. It aids to find out the deviations
between the standard and the actual performance. It helps to look out the areas that
the project has show the inaccuracy and has to take all the essential steps by
utilizing the tools of the project.
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC
in application to your project using the appropriate
theories models and concepts
Project life cycle determine the steps of the tasks to be achieved to gain the
maximum advantage from the project. It has a beginning point or the ending point. It
is the grouping of all the activities that has to be followed by the manager of the
project to initiate or complete the project during the given period of time. This help in
the case study of providing the onsite catering benefits to the workers of the
organization. It focuses on the hygiene criteria and the healthy lifestyle of them. The
company purpose is to enhance the productivity by restricting the employees for
unnecessary walking in the outside premises. The organization has used the two
project methodologies like waterfall or critical path method to finish the task in easy
manner. This guides to concentrates on the main tasks and abide the shortest route
to attain the objectives. It helps to finish the task and activities in sequence wise and
the next activity will start when the first activity has taken place (Denkler, 2019).
References
Liu, D. and Qiu, Z., 2020. The Coding Technology of Operation and Management
Risk Characteristics Based on the In-Depth Learning. In Data Processing
Techniques and Applications for Cyber-Physical Systems (DPTA 2019) (pp.
1661-1671). Springer, Singapore.
Wei, L. and Yang, S., 2018, December. Based On Big Data Technology Analysis On
The Mode And Countermeasures Of Smart City Construction Operation
Management. In 2018 3rd International Conference on Smart City and
Systems Engineering (ICSCSE) (pp. 184-186). IEEE.
Dajani, I.K.Z., 2020. Disclosable Version of the ISR-Emergency Operation for
Development-P155732-Sequence No: 10.
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Ding, K, 2020. Architecture, Operation and Implementation for Blockchain-Driven
Turnkey Project Under I4. 0 Workshop Based on Rami 4.0. In 0 Workshop
Based on Rami (Vol. 4).
Kelio, M.R. and Upadhyaya, C., 2021. Reservoir Operation Optimization for Dzuza
Multipurpose Project in Nagaland Using Chance Constraint Linear
Programming. ADBU Journal of Engineering Technology, 10.
Denkler, T., 2019. Presentation at AVIC-Workshop-Analysis of the operation of
accreditation bodies in Europe.
Meng, Z., Tang, T., and Yuan, L., 2021. Analysis of ATO System Operation
Scenarios Based on UPPAAL and the Operational Design Domain.
Electronics 2021, 10, 503.
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