Operational Management of Tesco: A Continuous Improvement Plan

This report discusses the operational management of Tesco, a UK-based organisation dealing in supermarkets and hypermarkets. It covers the principles of operational management, evaluation of operations management, and continuous improvement plan using lean production and six sigma techniques. The report also provides recommendations for improving operational activities.

Unit 16

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
1. Briefly describe the organisation which has been chosen.......................................................4
2. Distinguish between operations and operational management................................................4
3. Explain the principle of the operational management in relation to the organisation.............5
4. Give a brief evaluation of the operations management of the company for meeting the
requirements of the corporation...................................................................................................6
5. Explain the continuous improvement plan by describing the lean production and six sigma
techniques....................................................................................................................................7
6. Develop a continuous improvement plan................................................................................7
7. Describe the continuous improvement plan by giving some recommendations for improving
the operational activities..............................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................12
Project Portfolio.............................................................................................................................12
Project Title...............................................................................................................................12
Give an overview of the case study...........................................................................................12
State reasons for each stage of PLC which can be applied for selected projects......................12
Analysis.....................................................................................................................................13
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC in application to your project using
the appropriate theories models and concepts...........................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Operations Management deals with the running and the existing operations of the business
activities by addressing the issues that can be faced by the organisation to work accordingly and
systematically. It deals with the administration of the activities which helps in elevating the
efficient and help the organisation to reach to it optimum level in the operations. In the main
objective of the operational management is to allocate the materials and the labour for the items
and the services for utilising it effectively (Al-Amri and Wong, 2019). The report is based on the
operational management of Tesco which is an UK based organisation and deals in the
supermarkets and hypermarket. It has been headquartered in England and it is third highest
retailer all over the world. Further, the principles used by the organisation in relation to
operations by meeting all the requirements. It deals in the continuous improvement of the lean
principles, moreover the continuous improvement plan has been made and recommendations are
made accordingly.
MAIN BODY
1. Briefly describe the organisation which has been chosen.
The corporation is Tesco Plc which is an MNC in the British retail market and operates all
over the world. It deals in providing the groceries and daily essential products by using the
medium of general merchandise. It is an England based organisation in which the gross revenue
which are measures is the third largest in the whole universe of Tesco Plc. It operates across the
five countries in Europe. It was established in the year 1919 by Jack Cohen and started by
dealing in diversity of products (de Sousa Jabbour and et.al., 2018). It is beneficial for the
consumers as they tend to get many items under one roof. It has been expanded and operated in
almost 11 countries all around the world.
2. Distinguish between operations and operational management.
In every organisation whether it be big, small or medium the operational activities are done. It
basis objective is to monitor the activities and process of the production for manufacturing the
items and the services effectively. It is a thinkable situation of the large corporations, as it is hard
to manage the whole organisation’s activities. In this situation, the big companies have a separate

department called the operational functional area which has to be administered effectively by the
senior executive dealing the division. It deals in the process of the collection of the goods and
administering the inventory till the products are been finally ready for the output. It is the tough
work as they have to manage it effectively with the highest efficiency and productivity level by
managing all the possible resources of the enterprise effectively (Schönsleben 2018). It has the
control over the inventory of the products of the firm and is accountable for the manufacturing of
the items and the services. Its purpose is to satisfy the high amount of customers by providing the
good quality and quantity of the goods.
Operations Operational Management
 By considering the organisation
Tesco, its operations are related to the
daily activities of the business which
are performed for achieving the field
goals and objective of the corporation.
 It looks into how the business
activities are performed by the
organisation and aims to manufacture
the products within the set time limit
by the management.
 Its main work is to acknowledge the
errors happening in the manufacturing
process and correcting it by
management the resources
appropriately.
 It deals with the technical problems
also and focuses on the short as well
as the long – term objective of the
organisation.
3. Explain the principle of the operational management in relation to the organisation.
1. Reality: Its main belief is that to concentrate on the global issue instead of focusing only
of the technical problems. Because the tools provide the universal solution which has
been incorporated already in the system. In relation to the company Tesco, the executive
need to find and survey about the taste and preferences of the consumers to maintain the
demand and supply accordingly. It can be done by the help of the technical aspects as the
market is oscillating in nature (Aziz, 2019).
2. Accountability: It is for checking on the activities on the manufacturing process by
considering the production activities. It is able to set the metrics and look into the
activities on that all the goal are met on time. In Tesco, it is very important to apply this

principle top management the operations effectively and efficiently by accomplishing the
goal successfully of the corporation.
3. Change: The change is very important in every organisation as its motivates the
employees to manage its activities properly and will be helpful in the long – term of the
business. The Tesco should thereby modify its practices by applying the new and creative
ideas in the business concern (Dai and Tayur, 2018).
4. Organisation: In the Productions process, it is very significant to interconnect all the
activities of the business as it helps to maintain the operation an organised way. It also
aide in working collaboratively for accomplishing the goals of the business. If Tesco
applies this principle, it will help it to attain the goal of the organisation by ensuring the
activities are completed competently and effectually.
4. Give a brief evaluation of the operations management of the company for meeting the
requirements of the corporation.
The operational management is applied by the organisation to meet the requirement of the
business in a proficient way. The Tesco can achieve the goals by ascertaining:
1. Cost reduction: Under this the business association plans to deliver the items with the
base costs the association should limit its expense inside the right timeframe and produce
similar nature of items for its clients. In regard of the Tesco the chiefs apply the right
procedures so they can create the items with higher productivity and least expense. This
will assist organization with achieving its objective of cost decrease in an effective
manner (Kallio Kallio and Blomberg, 2020).
2. Quality: In the current situation the quality has turned into the main angle which should
be considered by the business association. The clients look for quality from the get go
then it worries over the cost. The Tesco organization needs to keep up with its nature of
the items to draw in clients.
3. Productivity: The fundamental motivation behind Tesco is to upgrade the degree of
usefulness. By further developing usefulness, they can undoubtedly decrease the expense
while keep up with nature of creation. The business association can accomplish this
objective by applying appropriate activity the executive’s procedures in business.

5. Explain the continuous improvement plan by describing the lean production and six sigma
techniques.
It is recognised as the activity which the board is an essential business work wherein the
organisations activities are overseen in the useful manner. It means to improve the general
degree of effectiveness of the business by execution of the appropriate activity, the executive’s
instruments and the procedures (Gozhyj and et.al., 2018). There are not many illustrations of the
management approaches which are applied by the corporation Tesco:
 Six Sigma: This is the measurable strategy which means to work with proficiency in the
general creation. This can remember the different subjects for setting of Tesco, they
execute six sigma procedure to create quality items. It helps organization in lessening
down the wastage with the goal that quality items can be created. It is urgent to give more
elevated level of fulfilment to clients to guarantee regular buy in future timeframe.
 Lean Production: It is a notable method of activity the board which depends on
persistent improvement. It means to further develop the creation cycle continually by
limiting wastage. It works on generally speaking nature of creation to achieve high
consumer loyalty. What's more, lean creation is likewise useful in guaranteeing
opportune inventory of merchandise to clients by keeping up with consistency underway
cycle. In Tesco, they execute lean items with an intend to further develop the general
creation process in a proficient way. Along these lines, they can give raised insight to
clients.
 Just in time: It is a stock administration method wherein organization provides request
for the stock when they really prerequisite of it. This method is applied to stay away from
the circumstance of stock excess and inadequacy.
It is examined that viable execution of six sigma strategy will work on in general proficiency
of organization. With this, organization will ready to work on the nature of items while
moderating wastage. It will empower particular organization to guarantee better client
experience.
6. Develop a continuous improvement plan.
The constant improvement is tied in with working on the general exhibition of the business
substance by accomplishing the objectives in the creation interaction. Here the association

primary rationale is to look at the whole assembling process to recognize any sort of mix-ups
which is there simultaneously and that can be distinguished with perfect timing to make
remedies. Lean creation, JIT are sure strategies that are applied to upgrade the effectiveness of
big business continually. It regards of the Tesco the organization applies a nonstop arrangement
with the goal that they can get the adequacy the creation interaction. The primary reason for the
activity the executives is to work on the nature of the creation and increment proficiency
(Kämppi and Rathod, 2020). There are different procedures which have been applied to have a
further develop plan which is clarified beneath:
 Kaizen: This method is utilised by the organisation to imply the imaginative culture of
the ceaseless improvement. In TESCO, the representatives cooperate so they can
accomplish the objective on the time and they can additionally build the efficiency inside
the business concern.
 Absolute Quality Administration: This is the main strategy which is been embraced by
the organization. It is critical to keep up with the nature of the item which is the principle
point of Tesco and it rehearses this procedure to keep the top notch of items in its
association to fulfil its clients.
 Benchmarking: This strategy is involved by the business association to deliver
normalize items. This is utilized by the directors where they set the benchmark and
afterward further put endeavours to achieve those norms to improve the general
proficiency of the business association.
The plan
Objective Resources Improvement
plan
Time line Responsible
person
Reduction in cost Employees and
equipments
Company can
adopt six sigma
so that the overall
cost of the
company can be
reduced. With the
introduction of
this technique the
31/03/21 Cost manager

company can
reduces the
wastages and
other overheads
and will
ultimately
increase the
efficiency.
Quality Managers and the
safety department
The
administration
and management
of the company
can provide the
safe and secure
environment to
the employees of
the organisation.
This process is
started and will
be completed till
2024.
Department of
maintenance and
repair.
7. Describe the continuous improvement plan by giving some recommendations for improving
the operational activities.
 Taylor Management: Taylor has created logical administration so proficiency of work
power can be upgraded in a proficient way. In setting of the Tesco they follow this
training so directors and representatives both can play out their work in a productive way.
 Flexible Specialisation: This is a method where the organisation utilises its workers who
are exceptionally qualifies and those supplies which can help in expanding the
proficiency of the business organisation (Massacci and Ngo, 2020).
Suggestions:
For Tesco, the organisation it can be recommended that the organisation can utilise the
responsibility standard so every single worker of the organisation stay well acquainted with the

work they need to do in the work environment. This can assist the organisation with keeping up
with the predefined achievement in the effective way.
It is additionally suggested that the organization need to keep up with the solid connection
with its partner to accomplish its objectives and targets for the achievement of the business.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is reasoned that the activity the executives and the undertaking the
board is extremely fundamental part that should be concentrated by the directors of the business
association. The fundamental reason for the activity the executives is to improve the
effectiveness of the creation cycle. There are different standards of the activity the executives
which should be trailed by the association to accomplish the objectives on the ideal opportunity.
There is a constant arrangement which have been made above in the report which the utilization
the strategies the organization can accomplish its objectives and objectives.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al-Amri, A. and Wong, T.C., 2019, March. Challenges of total quality management in higher
education institutions. In 9th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and
Operations Management, IEOM 2019 (pp. 1200-1201).
de Sousa Jabbour and et.al., 2018. Industry 4.0 and the circular economy: a proposed research
agenda and original roadmap for sustainable operations. Annals of Operations
Research. 270(1). pp.273-286.
Schönsleben, P., 2018. Integral logistics management: operations and supply chain management
within and across companies. CRC Press.
Aziz, W.A., 2019. Business process reengineering impact on SMEs operations: evidences from
GCC region. International Journal of Services and Operations Management. 33(4).
pp.545-562.
Dai, T. and Tayur, S. eds., 2018. Handbook of healthcare analytics: Theoretical minimum for
conducting 21st century research on healthcare operations. John Wiley & Sons.
Kallio, T.J., Kallio, K.M. and Blomberg, A., 2020. From professional bureaucracy to competitive
bureaucracy–redefining universities’ organization principles, performance measurement
criteria, and reason for being. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management.
Gozhyj and et.al., 2018, September. Web resources management method based on intelligent
technologies. In Conference on Computer Science and Information Technologies (pp.
206-221). Springer, Cham.
Kämppi, P. and Rathod, P., 2020, October. Applying LEAN Principles to Improve Introductory
Cybersecurity Online Course: Findings From the Pilot Study. In SITE Interactive
Conference (pp. 73-79). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education
(AACE).
Massacci, F. and Ngo, C.N., 2020. Distributed Financial Exchanges: Security Challenges and
Design Principles. IEEE Security & Privacy. 19(1). pp.54-64.

PART 2
Project Portfolio
Project Title
The above project focuses on providing healthy food products to employees hired by an
organisation. The title given is cooking in the house which explains the term in a better way.
Give an overview of the case study.
The report prepared above highlights the working of Mccalure oil company which is associated
with products such as distribution of coal, oil, gasoline and increase demand & supply chain with
the help of expansion in number of clients engaged. The company aims at achieving two
objectives which is to improve standardised living of staff members, increase healthy habits and
reduce time intervals (Corona and San Miguel, 2019). Corporate social responsibility is also
taken in account which helps to decrease the percentage of absenteeism in an organisation.
Overall its main objective is to cook and provide healthy food to staff members present in
company. Mcclure oil company make best use of approaches which promote home cooked food
and support working conditions of people.
State reasons for each stage of PLC which can be applied for selected projects.
PLC stands for management of project life cycle and providing project managers an
innovative and effective way to create, execute and complete a project. The project life cycle
helps the business to manage and choose best tools, methods to stand a chance and prove
themselves and achieve success. The Life cycle consists of 4 steps – Initiation, Planning,
Execution, Completion & Closure of projects.
1. Project initiation: It is the first step of every product's life cycle which helps to choose
project goals, resources available for carrying out operations, roles which will be
assigned to the team. It helps to identify opportunities and increase team size to carry out
operations well before time. It helps to understand what is required, how it can be
completed and served (Donetskaya and Gatchin, 2020).
2. Project planning: Once project goals are set by the company it plans how the operations
must be carried out and what can be the budgets set for the project completion, predict
risks associated and how to put resources at best place possible. It helps to form a chain

between organisation and employees & with customers and organisation too. It helps to
plan objectives, plan how risks can be minimized and expectations of stakeholders be
served.
3. Execution of project: Execution as the name suggests is a step where plans are put into
action and are monitored on a daily and frequent basis. It helps in keeping a track,
measure the progress report, manage quality of products, prepare budgets and carry out
operations accordingly to make the budgets cost effective & increase revenue rates
(García-Gusano, Istrate and Iribarren, 2018).
4. Closure of project: This is the last step of project life cycle which examines whether the
plan made were carried out properly or not. It helps to assess the actual performance with
standard set by the company. It helps to understand where a business lacked and how it
can sort out issues faced during the life cycle of project.
Analysis
 Rotational unified process: The following process comprises of different sections such
as Coordination, transformation, supervision and construction. It will be termed as global
theory that will support in getting users response at their growth sections.
 Agile methodologies: It is an adaptive approach that is used in context of planning and
hold back the way of business. It offers special benefits to support the expansion
activities and unexpected riots between management and labors. It helps in supporting the
various changes in the management.
 Project Leadership: It is seen that if the leadership of a company is effective and
efficient than it becomes easy to achieve the goals of the management. A good leader will
elaborate all the requirements of the project in brief so that a project outline can be
drawn. This outline will help the subordinates to perform the task allocated with the time
period given to them (Grunicke and et.al., 2020).
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC in application to your project using
the appropriate theories models and concepts
Performance management
Corporate management tool is used to evaluate and monitor the work done by the
employees of the organisation. This tool helps in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of

the workers of the organisation. The tools also comprise of some disadvantages with the
advantages as well which are mentioned below,
Advantages: Performance management helps manager in evaluating the performance of
the employees and different suggestions can be drawn out from the data. Evaluation of work will
help the organisation to reward the one's whom are doing well and the remaining have to take
different measures to advance their skills (Notario and et.al., 2018).
Disadvantages: Every aspect has its own positive and negative so does performance
management has. This process is time consuming as it takes a lot of time of the managers and
even of the worker in collecting data. This process can demotivate the one who is trying to
improve their skills by comparing themselves with the one who is at the top.
Key Performance Indicators
This indicator is used by the management to undertake specific task and find out the
essentials of the project which includes the time period required for the task and the
organisational goal the administration want to achieve with it. Some of the key performance
indicators are employee satisfaction, revenue growth and reduction in worker turnover.
 Revenue growth: The objectives of every project is to increase the revenue and
profitability of the concern. It helps in developing the area of the management as well as
the it leads to completion of the project. Projects are under taken with the objective of
earning profits and generating income (Arnett, Sandvik and Sandvik, 2018). (Ding, Ren
and Che, 2019).
 Consumer and employee satisfaction: In this the maximum satisfaction is provided to
the customer so that its outcomes can be enjoyed by the management. Customer are the
ultimate owners, as the business have to fulfil the demand of the customer and deliver
them the product or services they require.
Project monitoring and evaluation
It is one of the important aspect of the project as it is mandatory for every project to put
proper attention on the project. The following plan is aim to provide the healthy food to the
employees and manager of the organisation which is to be supervised by the employees of the
company so that the company may get the best food for the employees and their accountability

will also increase. Performance of the employees will be evaluated on the basis of the work done
which will help in determining the organisational goals. On the other side, managers have to
concentrate on the various issues and resolve them (Casas-Ledón and et.al., 2020). Then
managers allot those issue to the respective department. It increases the chances of the retention
of the employee as their chances of leaving the organisation decreases and the employees
remains in the business for a longer period.
Importance of reliability and validity
Reliability is defined as profitability that means an objective will perform its task for a
specified period of time. Credibility is an important aspect in assessing the quality of the
employees. Reliability comes with the accountability as the employee has to be responsible and
accountable. These both are considered as the most important part of a project and in
accomplishing the managerial aspect of the business concern.
Phases of PLC
Project management life cycle is comprising of four phases which are implemented from
the beginning of the project. It includes initiation, planning, execution and closure. The phases
include leadership which is an essential part to commence the project successfully. Innovative
ideas are used so that the project can be carry out with the utmost perfection. Another phase is
execution phase where all the planning and innovative ideas are merged together so that the plan
can be executed efficiently. Different plans and policies are implemented so that various tasks of
the project can be performed efficiently. In the final stage all the fields are properly aligned and
checked by the leader. It will thus lead to proper completion of the project.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Corona, B. and San Miguel, G., 2019. Social Performance of Electricity Generation in a Solar
Power Plant in Spain—A Life Cycle Perspective. In Social Life Cycle Assessment (pp.
1-57). Springer, Singapore.
Donetskaya, J.V. and Gatchin, Y.A., 2020, June. Development of Design Procedures for the
Synthesis of Design Solutions for Data Management, Design and Production
Procedures at the Stages of the Life Cycle of an Electronic Product. In 2020 Wave
Electronics and its Application in Information and Telecommunication Systems
(WECONF) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
García-Gusano, D., Istrate, I.R. and Iribarren, D., 2018. Life-cycle consequences of internalising
socio-environmental externalities of power generation. Science of the Total
Environment. 612. pp.386-391.
Grunicke and et.al., 2020. Traffic tunnels–Development of a cross‐asset, reliability‐based life
cycle management. Geomechanics and Tunnelling. 13(5). pp.520-530.
Notario, X. and et.al., 2018, November. The data life cycle management at SOCIB: responding
to science and societal needs. In IMDIS 2018 International Conference on Marine Data
and Information Systems. Barcelona.
Arnett, D.B., Sandvik, I.L. and Sandvik, K., 2018. Two paths to organizational effectiveness–
Product advantage and life-cycle flexibility. Journal of Business Research. 84. pp.285-
292.
Ding, L. and et.al., 2019. Implementation of the “sponge city” development plan in China: An
evaluation of public willingness to pay for the life-cycle maintenance of its
facilities. Cities. 93. pp.13-30.
Casas-Ledón and et.al., 2020. Life cycle assessment of innovative insulation panels based on
eucalyptus bark fibers. Journal of Cleaner Production. 249. p.119356.