Operations and Project Management: A Review and Critique of Operations Management Principles within Tesco

This report provides a review and critique of the implementation of operations management principles within Tesco, including an analysis of the extent to which the operations management of the organisation meets the requirements of the organization. It also discusses continuous improvement as a philosophy and describes the Lean principles.

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
The chosen organization in this report is Tesco private limited. Tesco is a British
grocery and retail chain that operates in multiple countries through supermarkets and
hypermarkets. It is one of the biggest companies in the United Kingdom and as of
2021, it is the 16th biggest company the world. In the UK it has a large market share
in their industry of retail chains(Choi, Wallace and Wang, 2018). It was founded by
Jack Cohen in 1919, when at first he used to sell few things such as books and
furniture's etc. Then he decided to expand the business by opening chains of stores
across the country. Now more than 100 years later it is present in more than 14
countries across Asia and Europe and consisting of almost 5000 stores. In the
beginning it was positioning itself as a low cost retailer but with time it entered the
premium segments too. Along with their retail chains they have been involved in
other segments of businesses through partnerships and joint ventures in multiple
countries(De Regge, Gemmel and Meijboom, 2019). They also operate through their
online website Tesco.com which has been a upgrade from the traditional shops and
stores. It has expanded itself from food to fashion. The company has now been
employing more than 400,000 people across Europe and Asia.
2. An explanation of operation vs operations management
Operations can be defined as the work done practically or something where
principles are used with practical approach. In other words operations is the process
of managing the workings of the business so it runs with efficiency. Though the
specific definition could only be known after knowing the industry of the business.
Also as the size of the business varies the operations will be needing more
manpower to work through(Ferdows, 2018). Operations management is a field of
management which deals with the controlling and distribution of the products that is
relative to the business. It is in considering with the managing of production related
activities regarding the business. Operations and operations management are
different in meaning but are interdependent and is used for improving the same
functionality. Operations deal with management of the working in the organization,
meanwhile the operations management is focused upon managing the operations. It
is making sure that the management of the operations is done properly. Tesco needs
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to make sure that the operations of the businesses are processed well through the
help of operations management(Kumar, Mookerjee and Shubham, 2018). If not
successful then Tesco will have to see whether they could improve on the
operational management.
3. A review and critique of the implementation of
operations management principles within the chosen
organization
The implementation of operations in an organization needs to be implemented
properly with the principles. Tesco needs to apply these principles so as to see that
the production and distribution of the products are done properly too(Lee, 2018).
These principles of operations are :
 Reality- The mangers of Tesco needs to make sure that there are not
unrealistic expectations with the operations of the business.
 Organization- The principle of operation management can only be successful
if the whole organization is interconnected in the business.
 Fundamental- While working as a proper operations management, Tesco
needs to make sure that the processes are on the basis of the fundamentals.
 Accountability- The best way to ensure that everything is running smoothly is
for to communicate processes and analyse things properly.
 Managed Passion- The organization's growth and the success lies in the
satisfaction of the employees. Hence, Tesco should make sure that the
operations manager play a pivotol role in boosting their morale(Pianykh, and
et.al., 2020).
 Change- The change is will always be needed in the business at some point.
So the managers of Tesco should make sure that changes are taken with
awareness.
4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations
management of the organisation in the case study meets
the requirements of the organization
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For the business to be profitable, it is necessary for the companies to follow the
principles of operations management. Tesco has reached a level in the market
where they have continously shown that the managers are taking the right deciosns
for the company(Qi, and Shen, 2019). Bust still they have to work on the
requirements and the demand of their customers and predict these in the right ways.
For that they need to use the operations of management in a proper way.
 The management needs to make sure that the quality of their products are up
to mark and the customers are always happy with the quality and the new
innovations. Tesco will have to make sure that the products they are keeping
in their stores are in demand and are present in bulk.
 Tesco should keep up with the fact that the products that are being sold to the
customers from their stores and supermarket are cost effective products.
There has to be some segments which are needed to be kept as the premium
products as they have their standards in the customer's mindset(Tarafdar,
Beath and Ross, 2019).
 The management that is coordinating the operations have to be sure of the
fact that the workplace is maintained in an effective way. The management
needs to make see that the mission and the vision of the company is well
understood by the employees and if not then explain it to the employees.
 To sort out their products and keep the proper structure and trends alive in
their commodity they need the proper operation management of the products.
The proper structure will be able to rectify the products that are not in need or
are no providing customer satisfaction.
5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a philosophy
and describe the Lean principles
Continuous improvement is the process by which the opportunities can be identified
so as to increase the speed and reduce all the elements that are not required for a
proper work. For an organization's point of view, the operations cost can be reduced
and the profits can be increased with continuous improvement.
Lean Principles
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Lean principles are a set of methodology that is needed for the continuous
improvement in the world of knowledge work. It is not like other methodologies as
this is not a strict practice but is based on the evolution of the change.
The five lean principles are explained below:
 Define Value
Before understanding this principle of defining values, the proper meaning of value is
to be understood. Value can be described as what the customers are willing to pay
for the products. That is based on the latent needs of the customers. Sometimes the
customers might not even know what the value is and so' it is important to define it
properly. As there are new and evolved things that are coming into the market, there
is a requirement for Tesco to define the value of these things.
 Map the value stream
The second principle is to map the value stream that the customers are giving.
Activities that are not valuable would be considered waste. So from this principle
Tesco can use the customer's value as a reference point and identify those activities
which were valuable to the customers.
 Create flow
After removing the elements that were not required from the above principle, the
following is required to create the flow in the process. These steps to create the flow
could include breaking down steps and leveling out the workload etc.
 Establish Pull
This principle describes the management of the inventory to be done properly. This
states that the inventory should be used with proper management and decisions. It
should be done by keeping the wastage as less as possible.
 Pursue perfection
The fifth principle deals with focusing on the perfection while delivering to the
customers. It defines itself as the principle by which every employee should make
sure that while delivering the products, it should be done with perfection.
Six Sigma and its effectiveness
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Six Sigma can be defined as the set of tools that businesses use to reduce the
defects and to improve the operation processes. This process was first invented and
used in 1980's for the continuous improvement of the organization.
 Define: It is required from the businesses to have proper objectives. Tesco
should also make sure that the procedures are defined to the employees for
the proper and continuous improvement.
 Measure: The best way for continuous improvement is to keep the measure of
the qualities and services and the products that Tesco offers.
 Analyze: After measuring the qualities it is important to analyze the
production. It helps in identifying the opportunities and helps in further
procedures.
 Design: Tesco must be making improvement in the design of the structure
that could be helpful in the continuous improvement in the working of the
company(Torlak, Demir and Budur, 2019).
 Verify: This is the final step or principle where the steps done till now are
completed and verified by the company.
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified
recommendations for improvement, based on your review
and critique of operations management principles within
your organization
Planning for continuous improvement will help Tesco to work on the quality or
production issues that arises within the company. Tesco can work on the following
factors if they want continuous improvement:
 Plan:
Planning is the forefront requirement of the companies to achieve goals and
objectives of the organization. By the proper planning the companies could make
sure that the business is meeting the demands and needs of the customers. Tesco
should extensively plan their operation so as to facilitate the right change of their
services and their infrastructure so that the company gets settled for the future.
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 Do:
After planning in a proper way the company should start implementing the plan that
could help them in facilitating the implementation of the designed plan. If the plan is
proper in its structure but the implementation is not in a proper way then the
improvement is likely to be on hold or could become slow or inconsistent.
 Check:
The implementation of the plans would lead to changes in the structure of the
operations or processes. Then Tesco should check whether their plan is been
worked with least errors possible(Wang, Wang and Zhang, 2021).
 Act
It is required to take proper actions so as to rectify and keep the plan in the run for a
long period of time. These actions would be the mainstream requirement in the
evolution of the plans with the changes in the organisation.
7. Conclusion
From this report it could be concluded that there is a difference between operations
and operations management. There are certain principles of operations management
that are needed to be the that are important for Tesco to be followed and to be
considered while making changes in the operations process. Then an analysis was
done in the view of the operations management of Tesco. Also the continuous
improvement needed by the company as a philosophy was understood using the
Lean principles and six stigma. Then the report was concluded with the justified
recommendations for improvement.
References
Choi, T.M., Wallace, S.W. and Wang, Y., 2018. Big data analytics in operations
management. Production and Operations Management, 27(10), pp.1868-
1883.
De Regge, M., Gemmel, P. and Meijboom, B., 2019. How operations matters in
healthcare standardization. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management.
Ferdows, K., 2018. Keeping up with growing complexity of managing global
operations. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
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Kumar, S., Mookerjee, V. and Shubham, A., 2018. Research in operations
management and information systems interface. Production and Operations
Management, 27(11), pp.1893-1905.
Lee, C.K.H., 2018. A review of applications of genetic algorithms in operations
management. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 76, pp.1-12.
Pianykh, and et.al., 2020. Improving healthcare operations management with
machine learning. Nature Machine Intelligence, 2(5), pp.266-273.
Qi, W. and Shen, Z.J.M., 2019. A smart‐city scope of operations
management. Production and Operations Management, 28(2), pp.393-406.
Tarafdar, M., Beath, C.M. and Ross, J.W., 2019. Using AI to enhance business
operations. MIT Sloan Management Review, 60(4), pp.37-44.
Torlak, N.G., Demir, A. and Budur, T., 2019. Impact of operations management
strategies on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions at café-
restaurants. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management.
Wang, S., Wang, X. and Zhang, J., 2021. A review of flexible processes and
operations. Production and Operations Management, 30(6), pp.1804-1824.
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
9

Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC in
application to your project using the appropriate theories models
and concepts p
Project Title
 Reducing the movement of staff from the premises during the lunch break
which is currently creating congestion issues in the local area.
 Helping staff to develop a healthy lifestyle which the organization believes is
part of the CSR and will also reduce staff absenteeism.
An overview of the case study you have been given
The project life-cycle is a framework where there are stages defining the structuring
the project for the project life cycle. The project is for a specific period because it
requires specific conditions to be fulfilled which needs time. Hence, it requires the
right planning and implementation. The Cromwell Tools company is from midland
and have more than 1250 companies(Alexander, Ackermann and Love, 2019). The
project is been done to reduce the absenteeism of staffs in the company during the
premises. Also this project develops a CSR activity to help the people of the
company in taking a proper and healthy lifestyle. If this company want to improve
their performance they should come up with strategies to engage their staffs in the
functions happening in the organization.
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
This is an the first stage of project life cycle which is said to be the thought of fixing
the goal. In this stage the company will evaluate the requirements and needs that
are needed in the growth of the business. In this stage the staffs will assemble and
coordinate with each other. Cromwell tool will have to set their goals and provide
good facilities in order to achieve them(Araújo, and et.al., 2022).
 Project planning
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This is a stage where the planning of the project is done to achieve the proper goals.
In other terms the framework is been made and the resources have been allotted.
There was a requirement of 500000 dollars for Cromwell tools in order to render a
healthy lifestyle in the company. For planning the lean principles and the six sigma
strategy can be very helpful to the company.
 Project execution
Once the planning and initiating part is done the time is to implement that plan. This
needs to be executed by gathering all the resources and reducing the factors that
have a negative impact on the project. Cromwell tools should make sure that the
facilities provided by them are properly executed and that there is no issues
happening once the project is executed. The head of this project should keep the
notice of the project and its timeline(Cavalieri, Cristaudo and Guccio, 2019).
 Project closure
The last stage of the project life cycle when the project finally comes to an end and
now the decision makers of the Cromwell company are responsible for the
consequences that the actions will be bringing through. The closing reports will be
made in this stage and the company will have to look if they have achieved their aim.
At the closing stages it will also be observed if the Cromwell company's employees
are the right people to work on the other projects or not.
Building a case
Executive summary This project has the objective of
minimizing the employees absenteeism
and promote them in living a healthy life
style. Through this project they want to
create strategies in order to provide
facilities that will help in tackling the
congestion issues in the society.
Vision A company's vision is to planning and
make a framework that will help in
providing canteen facility in the premises.
To make a positive impact on the society
by minimizing the congestion issues in
the society.
Mission The mission of the company is to engage
the employees. They want to make good
relations with the society and the
employees and they are working on to
develop CSR activities(Galli, and et.al.,
2019).
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Objectives The objective of the company is to
minimise the movement of staffs in the
premises. Another objective is to make
the staff lead a healthy lifestyle.
Strategies The achieve the objectives of the
company they need to make strategies.
This strategy includes providing better
workplace for the employees in and
providing quality food and lunch area for
them.
Innovation The new information Cromwell company
is looking to bring in the company is the
technological advancement. The
innovative ideas include employees
having smartwatches in their wrists so
that they always keep up with the time
during the lunch hours(Haass, and Azizi,
2020).
Opportunity Cromwell tools have the opportunity to
depend on the software and the Artificial
Intelligence in order to remain aware the
current trends in the organisation.
Improvement For the improvement in the Cromwell
tools company the feedback of the
employees could be a mode of
improvement. Also they need to
evaluate on the quality of the food they
are providing to the employees to make
sure that no additional requirement is
needed(Orgut, and et.al., 2020).
Resources Required Cromwell tools company does require
resources for implementation of this
project. The resources will include
kitchen equipments, material, foods etc.
To make healthy foods for the employees
the good quality food material is required.
Work break down structure
Work break down structure is a type of structure in which the the division of the
project with the proper timeline. This will help the staffs in completing their objective
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before the deadlines. For this proper leadership is needed to be carried out. The
Cromwell company uses this to guide the staff in carrying out the tasks in proper
time. It helps in solving all the confusion that may arise in the working. It also helps in
making employees stick to their goals and objectives(Ouazzani-Touhami, and
Souissi, 2020).
Gantt Chart
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used
To make sure that the objectives are being fulfilled and the project is progressing
well, the project life cycle is needed. The stages of the project life cycle is helped in
analyzing the project and making its functioning smooth. This method also helps in
analyzing the risk and ideas involved in the project. These methodologies are useful
in collecting the resource and making plans. The company requires the employees to
make a project plan in order to achieve the objectives. In order to keep up with the
performance the company needs to adopt technologies and software.
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Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC
in application to your project using the appropriate
theories models and concepts
An important framework that is used to plan, initiate, execution and closure of a
project is known as project life cycle. This life cycle plays a unique role in setting the
ideas regarding the project which helps the employees in completing them. The
Cromwell tools company have the requirement of having successes in the business
and resolve their issues of being absenteeism. They could use the waterfall
techniques to deal with the project management issues. They could also implement
six sigma principle which could help them in innovation and modification(Yong Kim
and Thuc, 2021).
Conclusion
It is concluded from this project that the a project life cycle is needed to make proper
implementation of the projects which includes supporting documentation including
business cases, project plans, cost benefit analysis and work breakdown structure.
To implement a project properly the there has to be project initiation, planning,
execution and closure. Then the project methodologies and the tools used were
made known. Also the effectiveness of the project life cycle in the application to our
project using appropriate theories and models were critically evaluated. The PLC
helps the company to complete the tasks within the deadline and increases the
overall productivity.
References
Alexander, J., Ackermann, F. and Love, P.E., 2019. Taking a holistic exploration of
the project life cycle in public–private partnerships. Project management
journal, 50(6), pp.673-685.
Araújo, and et.al., 2022. Improvement factors of constructability and occupational
safety on project life cycle phases. Automation in Construction, 138,
p.104227.
Cavalieri, M., Cristaudo, R. and Guccio, C., 2019. On the magnitude of cost overruns
throughout the project life-cycle: An assessment for the Italian transport
infrastructure projects. Transport Policy, 79, pp.21-36.
Galli, and et.al., 2019. An Investigation of the Development of Shared Leadership on
the Six Sigma Project Life Cycle. International Journal of Information
Technology Project Management (IJITPM), 10(4), pp.15-78.
Haass, O. and Azizi, N., 2020. Challenges and solutions across project life cycle: A
knowledge sharing perspective. International Journal of Project Organisation
and Management, 12(4), pp.346-379.
Orgut, and et.al., 2020. Critical factors for improving reliability of project control
metrics throughout project life cycle. Journal of Management in
Engineering, 36(1), p.04019033.
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Ouazzani-Touhami, K. and Souissi, N., 2020, December. Towards a reference life
cycle of a simulation project. In 2020 IEEE 2nd International Conference on
Electronics, Control, Optimization and Computer Science (ICECOCS) (pp. 1-
5). IEEE.
Yong Kim, S. and Thuc, L.D., 2021. Life Cycle Performance Measurement in Public–
Private Partnership Infrastructure Projects. Journal of Infrastructure
Systems, 27(4), p.06021001.
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