Operations and Project Management: Review and Critique of Operations Management Principles in Tesco PLC

This report reviews and critiques the implementation of operations management principles in Tesco PLC, a British manufacturing company of groceries and general merchandise retails organization. It explains the concepts of operation and operations management, and analyzes the extent to which the operations management of the organization meets the requirements of the organization. It also discusses the concept of continuous improvement plan and provides justified recommendations for improvement based on the review and critique of operations management principles within the organization. The report concludes with a discussion of the lean methodology and its 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 3
2. An explanation of operation vs operations management 3
3. A review and critique of the implementation of operations
management principles within the chosen organization 4
4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations management of
the organisation in the case study meets the requirements of the
organization 5
5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a philosophy and
describe the Lean principles 7
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified
recommendations for improvement, based on your review and
critique of operations management principles within your
organization 8
7. Conclusion 9
References 9
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1. An introduction to chosen organization
Tesco PLC is a British manufacturing company of groceries and general
merchandise retails organization. Since the period of 1960s, Tesco as an
organisation has developed itself in areas such as the retailing of books, clothing
products, electronics, furniture's, toys, petrol, software, financial services,
telecommutes and internet services. Tesco has established its shops and stores in
five countries across the whole Europe and also in Asia. It is the market leader of the
groceries sector in UK. Tesco is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is also a
component of the FTSE 100 Index (Al-Dulaimi, Wang and Chih-Lin, 2018). The
company is the third largest retailer when compared in terms of profit and in terms of
revenue it is the fifth largest company in the world.
2. An explanation of operation vs operations management
Operations in business terms is the set of various functions that constitute together
for the operations of a business enterprise. These functions are of manufacturing,
production and supply. Operations are a set of procedures that are taken into
consideration to achieve the objective of profit maximization in the enterprise. It
takes care of all the factors relating to the customers needs and demands in the
market. It involves the process of considering the best assurance of product quality,
preparing for the process plans relating to production, appointing ideas for
engagement in business and resource utilization's.
Operations management refers to the management of the business practices in an
organization for the purpose generating the maximum efficiency possible in an
enterprise. The term operations management is related to converting the raw
material and labor work into the production of actual goods and services. This
process is aimed to be done in the most effective and efficient way possible to make
sure that the objective of profit maximization in an organization is fulfilled. The
management considers to attempt for making efficient productions and balancing the
overall cost with revenue in the organization so as the business is able to bring forth
the highest net operating profit from its operations (Albergaria and Jabbour, 2020).
The objective of operations management lies in effective utilization of company's
resources relating to material, labor and machinery of the enterprise.
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Operations Operations Management
 Operations relates to the day-to-
day activities involving the
production of goods or services
in the business, the
management of the stock in the
business or the maintenance of
the stock and raw materials.
 Operations in Tesco regards to
its dealings of marketing and
selling their goods and
commodities in the market to
amplify the business revenue
and profits which it aims to
generate in an efficient manner.
 Operations management entirely
relates to the procedures including
the management and maintenance
of the efficiency taking place in the
production. Operations
management provides the
administration with the capacity of
keeping up with the overall
business efficiency and frequent
occurring issues, which the
administration feels to withdraw
from the enterprise (Brown,
Bessant and Jia,2018).
 For example, Tesco implements
the alterations and changes in the
products that it deals in applying
the modified and better raw
materials, labour and machinery for
the purpose of bettering the entire
product system in the business.
The employment of improved
production constituents aids the
business of Tesco in higher yield
and revenues on comparison to
pervious years.
3. A review and critique of the implementation of
operations management principles within the chosen
organization
Operation management principles are a set of principles such as quality controls,
proper plannings which assist the enterprise by proving to be useful and essential in
guiding the enterprise on its way to achieve the results that it aims for.
1. Reality: The operational managers of the organization should put their focus
upon generating a real answer and solution for the problem as the business
can never reach upon a universal solution for any business problem only
based upon the grounds of utilizing various tools or techniques. Hence the
focus must be on solving the problem accurately and according to the
business needs (Yang and et.al., 2020).
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2. Success: managers in the organization clearly have a firm mindset for what is
considered to be successful for the organization and what shows that the
organization lacks in its profit numbers (Erjavec and Trkman, 2020). These
parameters help the employees in the enterprise to work in a way which is
aligned to the organizational success path and hence achieve goals and
objectives in an efficient manner.
3. Accountability: Managers in the business enterprise are expected to be
observant of various activities that take place in the business. It is essential
for the business managers that they lay upon some specific rules and metrics
to make the targets achieve in an efficient manner where the subordinates are
well aware of their tasks and responsibilities and are accountable for their
respective tasks.
4. Organization: All the activities in the business organization are
interconnected in the manner in which the production and manufacturing take
place. These should be accordant and predictable to the workers in the
organization. They should be in the position top aim for achieving the
organizational goals while avoiding any failure on task completions.
5. Fundamentals: The business should be well versed with the fundamental
ideas and values of the enterprise so that it can focus upon achieving efficient
organizational achievement of objectives. It is very important that the business
chooses the accurate and correct sources so that the desired results could be
achieved.
4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations
management of the organization in the case study meets
the requirements of the organization
Operations management is an essential part of any enterprise as businesses have
an effect of any changes that occur in the surroundings. The principles of operations
management help the organizations to implement the necessary changes in an
organization while keeping in mind the necessities that the business needs to follow
for not loosing upon its authenticity and effectiveness while working upon the
principles to apply them in the operations of the business (Guhaand Kumar, 2018).
Tesco applies these concepts with a view to work upon the issue which it faces in
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the production and sales activity and also in the process of a particular task
completion. As Tesco represents to be one of the largest retailing stores in the UK,
these operations principles are duly applied to benefit from the market that it
captures and aim for profit maximization while creating products and processes with
minimum costs. Operations management is assisting Tesco as an organisations and
fulfilling its requirements and demands of customers in the following ways:
 With the adoption of these operational management principles, Tesco has
been benefiting its operations in numerous ways. This includes rendering the
products and services as demanded by their customers through the
assistance of operations management as a concept. This is provided to the
customers in the most efficient cost possible as the company aims to
maximise its production capacity while generating their revenue from the
sales (Lee, 2018).
 Tesco utilises the cost effective techniques in such a way that the pricing
available to its customers is reasonable when compared to its market
competitors. It also aims to eliminate any unnecessary purchases which take
place from the customers point. With this operational management, the
company is able to build upon customer loyalty.
 Tesco has built a super strong workplace environment ensuring that the
employees in the organisation are in proper sync with the operational
processes that occur at work. This assist them in continuing with continuous
quality checks, reviews for their workings. As Tesco has great relations with
its suppliers all over the world, it can acquire the supplies for production as
and when needed making sure that the business never looses upon its
efficiency and utilises its operation to its best capacity.
 The principles in the subject of operations management enable Tesco to
follow up the production activities keeping in mind the frequent changes and
market trends that take place (Lewis, 2019). This shows that the customers
are the first priority for Tesco and it prioritizes them in the entire process of
operational management converting even a new shopper to a satisfied
customer. It also depicts that the business managers at Tesco are able to
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analyse and evaluate the business trends successfully an can implement the
same for organisational benefits.
5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a philosophy
and describe the Lean principles
A continuous improvement plan is defined as the base of different activities which re
formulated to bring upon a step wise continuous improvement in the products,
services or the procedures of an organization with the help of ongoing processes,
reviews, action plans and the data management of the enterprise. It puts into action
the goals and objectives of the organization and what are the roles and
responsibilities that are initiated for achieving that organizational goal with an
ongoing work environment. The gradual improvements are key to a breakthrough
result that the organization aims to achieve.
Lean Methodology: It is a method which aims to implement optimization in the
resources, efforts, the individuals and the energy within the organization for the
purpose of generating value for the customers of the enterprise. It aims t eliminating
waste and bringing the idea of complete continuous improvement.
The five principles of Lean Methodology are:
 Value: This principle aims at understanding the value which will be valued by
the customers in the product or services which the organization provides for. It
utilizes to generate the satisfaction which can be measured by the customers
in monetary terms.
 Value stream: This aims for finding what is the proposition which is required
for maximizing the value in the product or services and how the waste from
the whole procedure can be eliminated through the opening process of
designing to the last step of production.
 Flow: This aims to generate the flow required in all the processes and also to
synchronize the different processes smoothly with one other. It eliminates the
presence of any conjunction in the entire process of the production in an
organization.
 Pull: The principle of flow is accessible and can be taken into action with the
assistance of pull principle as it says that anything can only be produced or
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formed only if it generates a product necessity hence generating a delivery
cycle which is very short and easily accessible.
 Perfection: The last lean principle says that an organization can easily
pursue the concept of perfection in its processes and working only if it
constantly engages itself into the processes of problem solving (Wong and
et.al., 2021). This aids to utilize lean thinking and continuous betterment in the
administration as a component of the enterprise and its culture.
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified
recommendations for improvement, based on your review
and critique of operations management principles within
your organization
Continuous improvement plan defines the set of processes which together aim to
provide changes and modifications as and when needed by the business in the form
of transformational small and continuous changes that assist an organization in
improving its products, services and other processes. The continuous improvement
plan for Tesco as an enterprise can be formulated as follows:
 Plan: This step defines the identification of a suitable opportunity and plan
upon a suitable change policy for the business which may prove to be fruitful
in future for the enterprise. Tesco with the evolution of an understanding for
the suitable market changes and developing needs on the basis of the
changing necessities and requirements of the customers in the market can
level up its working and revenues for the business (Tianand et.al., 2022).
 Do: This involves the real world and actual implementation of the policies and
projects that the business aims to implement in its workings. It includes the
execution of the plans that the company formulated while observing the
trending market situations and customer requirements.
 Check: It involves a continuous checking of all the plans and procedures that
the company implemented for the purpose of examining the level till which the
policies and plans could be actually implemented and on what levels the
company failed to apply the new changes as it helps the company to also
examine the areas which can prove to be a difficulty while applying the new
changes in the business.
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 Act: As and when the changes and the policies that the business planned
upon are observed to be successful for the business environment and
workings of the company, Tesco should then aim for implementing these
policies and plans on a higher scale to maximize the efficiency and profits.
Whereas the areas which he company feels are not as successful should be
worked upon again with the continuous improvement plan.
7. Conclusions
From the above report, it can e concluded that operation and operations
management are two interrelated but different concepts,. Operations where means
the production and manufacturing of goods and services, operations management
refers to generating the maximum efficiency in an organization with the assistance of
the management of the business practices. This report explains the various concepts
with Tesco as its base and explains the concept of continuous improvement plan for
Tesco as an organization. The lean methodology is also given to conclude upon the
principles which assist companies in generating methods of continuous improvement
plan. The justified recommendations for improvements and the necessary
operational management principles are also given on the formulation of this plan for
Tesco as an organization.
References
Al-Dulaimi, A., Wang, X. and Chih-Lin, I. eds., 2018. 5G Networks: fundamental
requirements, enabling technologies, and operations management. John
Wiley & Sons.
Albergaria, M. and Jabbour, C.J.C., 2020. The role of big data analytics capabilities
(BDAC) in understanding the challenges of service information and operations
management in the sharing economy: Evidence of peer effects in
libraries. International Journal of Information Management, 51, p.102023.
Brown, S., Bessant, J. and Jia, F., 2018. Strategic operations management.
Routledge.
Erjavec, J. and Trkman, P., 2020. Behavioural operations management-identification
of its research program. International Journal of Services and Operations
Management, 36(1), pp.42-71.
Guha, S. and Kumar, S., 2018. Emergence of big data research in operations
management, information systems, and healthcare: Past contributions and
future roadmap. Production and Operations Management, 27(9), pp.1724-
1735.
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Lee, C.K.H., 2018. A review of applications of genetic algorithms in operations
management. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 76, pp.1-12.
Lewis, M.A., 2019. Operations management: A research overview.
Tian, Y., and et.al., 2022. Hybrid modeling methodology for integrating customers’
behaviors into system simulation to improve service operations
management. Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, 115, p.102445.
Wong, L.W., and et.al., 2021. Psychological and system-related barriers to adopting
blockchain for operations management: an artificial neural network
approach. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
Yang, L., and et.al., 2020. Operations management of wind farms integrating
multiple impacts of wind conditions and resource constraints. Energy
Conversion and Management, 205, p.112162.
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Table of Content
Part 2: Project Portfolio
Project Title 12
An overview of the case study you have been given 12
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 12
 Project planning 12
 Project execution 13
 Project closure 13
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used 13
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC in
application to your project using the appropriate theories models
and concepts 14
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Project Title
The title of the project is based upon providing an on-site food catering
facilities to the employees in an organization consisting of 1250 employees. It also
projects to solve the problem of employee absenteeism and conjunction and
disturbance takes place in the organization due to employees having continuous
movements in the premises.
An overview of the case study you have been given
The case study is based upon an organization which is dealing with the issue of
congestion and continuous disturbances in the organization which consists of 1250
employees. It aims to reduce the congestion and constant movement in the
organization during the lunch hours and even after that as it affects upon the
efficiency of the company ad fails to deliver the targeted output from the
organization. It also impacts the organizations image in the a marketplace and their
healthy lifestyle routine too as continuous movement outside the office premises for
the consumption of food leads to a high junk food consumption and hence affects
their healthy lifestyle in the long run (Basson and et.al., 2019) . The search for
suitable action plan will certainly assist in reducing employee absenteeism in the
organization. The company also needs to implement and bring upon some suitable
policies, ideas and concepts and their respective changes which can assist in
reducing employee absenteeism. It will also assist in increasing working efficiency
and creating a healthy lifestyle for the employees of 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
Write Project initiation is the first step in the life cycle of initiating the project planning
procedure. It defines the entire project which the company plans upon and whether
the project being discussed and formulated is beneficial for the company or not. This
aims to find what is the business value that it adds to the entire business
organization. This information is then utilized and taken into account to secure but-in
primary stakeholders (Pachecoand Heidrich, 2021).
 Project planning
This step in the project planning management involves creating a detailed business
objectives that the business aims to achieve and also establish a project road map
so that the organization is able to achieve a certain set of goals in a prescribed time
frame without any hurdles or difficulties. It primarily define the resources and stages
that the business requires in order to successfully achieve the objective it aims for. It
involves four steps to set up project planning:
 Setting measurable objectives
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 Identifying deliverables
 Scheduling
 Planning tasks
 Project execution
It is the step in project management which is responsible for putting everything which
is planned by the organization into action as to utilize all the resources and
information that the organization collected for the project and to execute the project.
In this step, all the plannings, researches and findings of the company comes into
real existence as the project is executed into real world scenario (Moynihan, 2018).
The project team in the business makes sure that the project is executed in the best
way possible and aims for the best results possible from it. All the essential business
resources, risk factors are taken into consideration and everything which can halt the
project is eliminated to guarantee the project its success. Project execution process
strongly determines the success or failure of the project and hence is implemented
and executed by the business organizations in the most careful manner. Therefore,
the business should look upon each and every plan, procedure and opportunity to
provide the employees with canteen facilities and develop a healthy lifestyle among
them.
 Project closure
Project closure is the debriefing of the highlights and results of the project with the
key stakeholders of the company. It involves the comparison and discussions
regarding the project planned as it was initiated and the actual project results after
project closure that the company received. The stakeholders check upon the
deliverables that the company promised in the project, evaluates them and
compares them to the outcome which was desirable to the business (Maramand
et.al., 2019). This is the most essential procedure as it evaluates whether the project
was beneficial for the organization or not. In this case study, the project will b
regarded as a successful project only when the company is able to control upon its
employee movement within the office premises to reduce continuous conjunction
and also is able to build upon an On-site catering services for its employees to help
them build upon a healthy lifestyle. All the targets which were settled by the
company must be achieved for determining the project as successful.
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used
Project Methodologies: A project management methodology is a one which
involves a set of principles and practices that assist an organization in organizing
and formulating the projects for ensuring optimal project performance (Khan, Hamre
and Nabili, 2020).
The project methodologies used in planning, initiating and executing the above
project are:
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 Waterfall Methodology: This is a sequential process of growth and
development which flows like a waterfall in all the various phases of a project.
Each phase completes itself before the other phase initiates hence the
success of this method depends upon how efficiently and successfully the
previous step is executed to make sure that the next step also provides for
effective results. The tasks are completed in a sequential manner and the
area to commit mistakes in this methodology is very low as the project and
everything that is involved in the project is already planned. It is a
disadvantage of this methodology that the scope for adaptation in this
methods is not very good as this methodology finds it hard to establish any
necessary changes in the method as and when the project progresses.
 Agile methodology: This methodology is based upon small tenures of
project works which are consistently dealt with constant testings, frequent
adaptations in the project. The primary principle in agile methodology is that it
is very cooperative, fast and accessible in comparison to other methodologies
of project management. This is also highly data driven and hence is easily
adaptive to any data changes that may occur in the project.
Project Tools: The project tools utilized by the administration for an impelling project
initiations and completion of the project are the tools such as network diagrams,
project evaluation and review techniques and project documentation tools. These
tools assist the business to maintain an effectual check on the project and the
improvements that occur while the project develops in the entire process (Helmold
and Terry, 2021). These tools also aid the management and administration to
review and apply the changes which are needed as and when the need for these
changes is felt in the project and its development. The tools help to look out on all
such areas where the project is lacking and take the necessary actions with the help
of these project tools.
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC
in application to your project using the appropriate
theories models and concepts
Project life cycle defines the sequential steps and procedures that are essential for a
project to progress and for its completion. This is primarily the arrangement of all the
necessary procedures which are required by a project manager for a successful
initiation and completion of the project. The sequence in Project life cycle is of
initiation, planning, execution, review and closure of the project. It plays a very
important part in the above case study of establishing an on-site catering services for
the employees in the organization and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle foe them. It
assist the organizations to evaluate and define the deviations, if any that occur in the
project while its completion (Dutta, 2019). The deliverables of healthy lifestyle and
on-site catering are achieved by the organization when the project that was initiated
completes itself successfully. The project methodologies and models such as
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waterfall methodology and agile methodology are utilized by the organization to
make sure that the project is backed up by each and every techniques, methods and
models that are required for the project to be successful. The effectiveness of the
project can be measured by this concept that the key performance indicators in this
project are primarily employee satisfaction and the internal process quality which will
effectively judge whether the project is successful to chive its desired objective or
not.
References
Basson, C.I., and et.al., 2019, January. Gamification and Game Development for
Educational Agile Operations Management in Robotics Research. In 2019
Southern African Universities Power Engineering Conference/Robotics and
Mechatronics/Pattern Recognition Association of South Africa
(SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA) (pp. 23-28). IEEE.
Dutta, A., 2019. TLP for Operations Research 2018-2019.
Helmold, M. and Terry, B., 2021. New Competencies and Skills in Operations and
Supply. In Operations and Supply Management 4.0 (pp. 115-123). Springer,
Cham.
Khan, A.A., Hamre, I.B. and Nabili, A., 2020, November. Driving Operations
Efficiency Through Right Skilling and Remote Operations. In SPE Norway
Subsurface Conference. OnePetro.
Maram, V., and et.al., 2019, August. Selection of software in manufacturing
operations using analytic hierarchy process. In AIP Conference
Proceedings (Vol. 2138, No. 1, p. 040016). AIP Publishing LLC.
Moynihan, G. ed., 2018. Contemporary Issues and Research in Operations
Management. BoD–Books on Demand.
Pacheco, D.A.D.J. and Heidrich, G.D.G., 2021. Revitalising the setup reduction
activities in Operations Management. Production Planning & Control, pp.1-
21.
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