Operations and Services Management in Marks and Spencer

This report discusses the operation management practice in Marks and Spencer, including its impact on efficiency, use of technology, and supporting functions for ensuring organizational success. The report covers supply chain management, planning, sourcing, manufacturing, delivering, and returning. It also evaluates the role of maintenance management, finance and accounting, human resources, information technologies, and facility department in supporting the operation management practice.

Operations and
services management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Explain one operation management practice within a chosen organisation ..........................1
Critically analyse how this operation management practice impacts the marks and Spencer's
efficiency................................................................................................................................2
How technology could be used in this process or how this has already been achieved........4
Supporting functions that are linked to this operation management practice and evaluate how
can they assist with ensuring organisational success.............................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Operation management practice refers to the function of a business that is used to create
the and develop the efficiency of the business and firm. Operation practice converts materials
and labours into products and services in order to maximize the profits of an
organisation(Wójcik, 2020). To perform this study marks and spencers has been chosen to
perform this study, Marks & Sparks is a famous British multinational retailer with headquarters
in Paddington, London, England, M&S was established by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer
in 1884. It provide its product in food items, essentials, clothing, beauty and essentials care,
home products and electronics and many more. This study is going to cover operation
management practice in context to marks and spencers along with how this operation
management practice impacts the marks and Spencer's efficiency. This following report also
includes how technology could be used in this process or how this has already been achieved
along with this it also consist of supporting functions that are linked to this operation
management practice and evaluate how can they assist with ensuring organisational success.
MAIN BODY
Explain one operation management practice within a chosen organisation
For the given question marks and spencer has been taken into consideration, it is one of
the large multi retailer brand of UK. Marks and spencer uses supply chain management to deliver
their products and services to the market effectively. Supply chain is the type of network which
includes various intermediators that perform a specific activity which directly helps in delivering
the goods and services to the customers and market (Wieland and Durach, 2021).
Marks and spencer uses various supply networks and supply chain's hybrid mode, company also
also uses supply chain management and physical distribution which includes manufacturer,
wholesaler, retailer, distributors to perform distribution of goods and services effectively in the
market and to the customers.
The second mode of distribution use by the firm is online mode, it is the medium in which
customer order product through online portal, like apps and websites of the company and firm
deliver products to distributors and then delivery agent deliver the products and services to the
customers. Marks and spencer is the brand of retail chain and their main operation is to sell their
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products and services to the customer so that company diversified the supply chain as business
operations wont get affected. Firm have many outlets to avoid issues of interest in the selling.
Marks and spencer is focused about the efficiency of the business, they always try to keep their
customers with them only by providing them different offers and discounts, new trending
products, clean and good store, supporting staffs and quick delivery of products (Calatayud,
Mangan and Christopher, 2018).
Marks and spencer deals in clothing, food, home furnishing, electronics, baby and toddler
products and many more. They have their stores at various places and in several areas so that
they provides goods to every customer of the market and earn profits from them and keep those
customer brand loyal towards the products. Marks and spencer is now focusing on reducing the
distributing time so that delivery can be done at right time to the customers so that will become
brand loyal as their satisfaction is being reached.
Critically analyse how this operation management practice impacts the marks and
Spencer's efficiency
 Help to improve the quality of product and service:- operational management includes
different activities in it, one of them is process review in which company check quality of
the products and goods which maintain the quality standard of the products. A firm can
also raise its prices of the products according to the quality of the goods and services, as
the better quality of products helps in building and developing brand image of the firm.
Good quality of products and services also helps in marketing of product trough word of
mouth and firms can also mention these plus points of quality in their advertisement to
attract customers.
 Help to improve customer satisfaction:- good quality of products always helps in
providing satisfaction to the customers as they spend their money in purchasing of the
products and if they don't get good quality then its completely waste of money. Customer
satisfaction is really important as if products and services wont be able to provide
satisfaction to the customers then they will shift towards the competitors product for
better quality which will decrease the level of customers loyalty and profits of the firm
(Temnyshov and Belyaev, 2020).
 Increasing Productivity of the organisation:- operational management increase the
productivity of the firm by providing good quality of products to the customers by using
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high quality of raw material. Operational management provides the information of both
productive and unproductive employees to grab maximum potential of outcome from
them(Wamba and Queiroz, 2020). Management use various methods to develop the
process that consumed more time in manufacturing so that it ca be improved and
production can be done in less time. Operational efficiency is the main factor in the
achieving of success of the firm's goals which i8s in favour of the interest of employees
and other members of the business.
 Enhance the competitive advantage:- an organisation transfer its benefits of earning
and operational management to their customers so that they can reduce cost and improve
management which can lead to benefits to bothy consumers and company. It allows a
firm to grab the market and gain more advantages and profits than their competitors by
providing good quality at low price to the customers in the market. Marks and spencer
mange their funding in a way to achi8ve economic of scale by providing products at good
quality to improve the performance of the business and firm and to fulfil the demand of
the market.
 Reduce the working capital requirement:- operational management hold records and
tracks of all the activities and function undertaken within an organisation which includes
or requires capital investment, cost of finance and rate of return helps management to
generate funds for the operations and functioning of the firm to reach to the objective of
the business (Chopra, Joshi and Saxena, 2021). When the operation of the firm become
small then the requirement of fund and money also decrease. Operational management is
one of the main factor that use in reducing the working capital requirement.
 Enhance operational efficiency:- management is the system to mange or organise the
resources in a way to reach to the objective of the firm with proper efficiency and
effectiveness. Operational management gives the direction of reducing the operational
cost in achievement of operational objectives. A firm with operational efficiency have
customer values to increase the branding in the market. Company develops their branding
by satisfying needs and demand of the customer which also help-s in developing the
brand image of the firm in front of new customers and in new market (Mansour, 2022).
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How technology could be used in this process or how this has already been achieved
Supply chain management is adapted by marks and spencers as their main business is to
provide consumer goods and services, so supply management is important to meet up the
demand and needs of the market. Complete process of production manufacturing of goods and
services then delivering them to the market comes under this category.
 Planning:- marks and spencer planned the goals and objectives of the firm which
includes providing goods and services to the customers, manufacture their products
according to the new trends and fashion, prepare all age groups and gender groups
products, rule the market by attracting more customers and beat up the competition. Firm
control their supply according to the need demand and changes of the market along with
change in taste and preference of the customers.
 Sourcing:- it is the mo0pst important part of the business as it includes raw material and
labours, which are outsourced to in the requirement of good and finished output and also
different type of quality of raw materials like cheap, low, medium and high provided to
the customers (Verhagen, de Reuver and Bouwman, 2021). Sourcing of the products and
services done trough the transportation which includes various channels of distribution to
transfer goods to the market.
 Manufacturing:- this department plays one of the most important role in functioning of
the business, it is the engine of the business and supply management system because it
produces products and services according to the demand, needs and wants of the market.
The manufacturing of products includes different variety of clothes in different styles ,
different age and gender groups, several prices on the basis to quality and quantity of
goods. It includes raw material's conversion into finished good then it proceed to testing
and inspection at last to packaging then delivering. In this category of business in also
consist of wastage of raw materials, workers are not appropriately trained and many
more.
 Delivering:- the products and items manufactured or produced in the factories of the
marks and spencer need to supply to the target market so that customer can get the
product on time to fulfil their demand and also company can earn their profits. Delivering
function includes the delivery of products and services to the market and the customers,
this the function where consumer and company interact with each other (Goel and Lin,
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2021). Various mode of transportation used by the firm to deliver their products and
services in the market like, four wheelers to deliver big package and two and three
wheelers for small outlets
 Returning:- it is the process where customer doesn't understand or like the products and
wants to return it back to the suppliers or manufactures, in return of the goods refunding
should be given to the customers, safe payment server should be used so that customers
don't face any insecurity related to the payments and refunds. In return of products
customer not only ask for refunding they also ask for other products so then company will
provide different product according to the changes made by the customers.
Supporting functions that are linked to this operation management practice and evaluate
how can they assist with ensuring organisational success
 Maintenance management:- it is the main function of the firm as it requires in every
department of business (Kucukaltan, Irani and Acar, 2022). Firm develops a maintenance
department which maintain the complete operations of the business and its resources.
Various types of machinery used in functioning of a business and all the machines are
reviewed and repair on regular basis to that they will work appropriately company
provide maintenance so that no problem occur due to the working or non working of the
machines.
 Finance and accounting:- a firm required funding to perform all the operations of the
business, it is very important for the business and operational management. Every finance
related function like giving salaries, wages, bonus, purchasing, operating, transportation
al cost and so many, operates and funded by the finance and accounting department.
Funding is requires to record accounts that gives the data related to frauds or needs to
analyse the need of finance. Supporting activities and operations helps to find the profit
earning of the business operations over the activities.
 Human resource:- all functions requires human personal who are trained and advanced
in each field of their interest and giving, all the firm have human resource department
who's role is to select an effective people for the business operations according to the
requirement of the business. Human resource department not only heir the people they
also provide training and development to the employees, draft posts of advertisement of
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vacancies on different platforms of social media, find perfect suitable match for the job,
takes interviews of the new appliers, gives orientation and induction to the new joiners an
solves the conflicts of arise in between employees and functioning. This department
provide support to each and every department of the firm by recruiting right person at
right time on right job (Maljković, 2018).
 Information technologies:- this department fulfil the requirement and need of the
technology in the operations of the business, functioning performed on the devices
required information technology which helps the business to run their operations and
functioning of the organisation. Information technology department perform so many task
and develops and supports every department of the business by giving them different
facilities to operate. This department maintain servers on the regular basis, attendance
devices, computers and internet connections, websites of the firm and secure payment
methods all are provided and functioned by the information technology department.
 Facility department:- the facility department is consist of office, factories, industries,
malls and others, these facilities required appropriate management to run uninterrupted
working in the business, all the facilities have machinery, electronics, buildings, furniture
and people. The firm has depreciable assets which required maintenance on regular basis
like furniture, computers, lighting and different items. Every business required to have
the registered address to receive notices and mails from courts and others(Avdagić-
Golub, Džubur and Memić, 2021).
In marks and spencer plc the main focus in on transportation and distribution of products and
services from organisation or facilities to the retailers, company should focus on delivering
goods in the market to the customers so that they can grow and survive in front of their
competitors and rule the market.
CONCLUSION
From the above report its has been concluded that operation management practice is the
great tools of management to achieve efficiency in businesses. In context to marks and spencer it
adapt supply chain management to provide the supply of goods and products to the consumer in
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lower prices with high quality. This report includes operation management practice in context to
marks and spencers along with this it also consist of operation management practice that impacts
the marks and Spencer's efficiency. This following study also includes how technology could be
used in this process or how this has already been achieved by the firm, along with this it also
consist of supporting functions that are linked to this operation management practice and
evaluate how can they assist with ensuring organisational success.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Avdagić-Golub, E., Džubur, A.H. and Memić, B., 2021. Quality management as the basis of
business company operations for the purpose of customer satisfaction. Science,
Engineering and Technology, 1(1), pp.52-58.
Calatayud, A., Mangan, J. and Christopher, M., 2018. The self-thinking supply chain. Supply
Chain Management: An International Journal.
Chopra, A., Joshi, N. and Saxena, S., 2021. Ecommerce Business Operations: Going Beyond
Normal through Knowledge Management.
Goel, A. and Lin, M.B., 2021. Resource Requirements in Business Process Modelling from an
Operations Management Perspective. Available at SSRN 3869592.
Kucukaltan, B., Irani, Z. and Acar, A.Z., 2022. Business model canvas for humanitarian
operations of logistics service providers. Production Planning & Control, 33(6-7),
pp.590-605.
Maljković, A., 2018. Assessment of security and success of business operations from public
activity (Doctoral dissertation, VERN University of Applied Sciences).
Mansour, A., 2022. Production and Operations Management.
Temnyshov, I.A. and Belyaev, A.M., 2020, February. Business modeling in business operations
of manufacturing company. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and
Engineering (Vol. 753, No. 8, p. 082027). IOP Publishing.
Verhagen, M., de Reuver, M. and Bouwman, H., 2021. Implementing Business Models Into
Operations: Impact of Business Model Implementation on Performance. IEEE
Transactions on Engineering Management.
Wamba, S.F. and Queiroz, M.M., 2020. Blockchain in the operations and supply chain
management: Benefits, challenges and future research opportunities. International
Journal of Information Management, 52, p.102064.
Wieland, A. and Durach, C.F., 2021. Two perspectives on supply chain resilience. Journal of
Business Logistics, 42(3), pp.315-322.
Wójcik, P., 2020. Disappearance of an entrepreneur and business operations—an outline of the
problem.
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