Logistics and Supply Chain Management Analysis

This assignment involves a comprehensive analysis of logistics and supply chain management concepts, theories, and practices. It includes discussions on risk management strategies, quality management approaches, and performance measurement techniques in the context of logistics and supply chain operations. The assignment also explores the impact of technology on logistics and supply chain management, including big data analytics adoption. A thorough literature review is provided, citing relevant studies and research papers to support the analysis.

Understanding
Operations, Logistics
and Supply Chain
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction to Nuffield Health and the Two Topics Chosen.....................................................1
Explanation of Theories to Managing Quality, Its Application, Critical Analysis and Example
.....................................................................................................................................................2
Application of Theories to Managing Business Relationships in Supply Chains, Its
Application, Critical Analysis and Example...............................................................................5
Triple Bottom Line Approach.....................................................................................................6
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Operations Management refers to the process which helps in the successful completion of
different operations which are carried out in an organisation with efficiency in the task they are
provided with. Logistics refers to the planning and execution of transportation and storage of the
products and services of a company. It will also help companies in meeting and fulfilling the
needs and demands of customers in the market within the specified period of time so that the
customers do not face any deficiency related to fulfilment of needs and demands of their
customers. With the help of proper management of different operations of the organisation, it
will be possible to make the completion of the work on time and achieve efficiency in the work
which will further help in the achievement of goals and objectives of the company. The
definition of supply chain management can be provided as concentration of a company on the
maintenance of good relation with different factors covered in the supply chain management
process. The company chosen for the completion of this assignment is Nuffield Health, England.
This assignment will be concentrated on the operations management, supply chain management
and logistics for the efficient working of a company. Further, the focus will be made on the
application of different theories and models in relation to managing quality and good
relationships with the factors covered in supply chain management.
MAIN BODY
Introduction to Nuffield Health and the Two Topics Chosen
Nuffield Health was founded in the year 1957 and is headquartered in the Epsom, United
Kingdom. The following not for profit organisation is covered under the Secretary of State for
Health and Social Care (Choi, Chiu and Chan, 2016). The number of employees working in the
organisation are around 11,000 approximately. The purpose of this organisation for which it is
working is related to providing the customers with health and social care services for the
improvement in the overall condition of their users of health and social care services. The
following health and social care organisation provide their users with many services such as
hospitals, medical centres, health clinics, fitness and rehabilitation, well being gyms,
physiotherapy, nutritional therapy, occupational therapy, employee well being and many more
for good health and well being of their employees. The company provides the health and social
care services to the legal UK residents regardless of their nationality gives access to all full
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breadth of critical as well as non critical issues without payment of any amount except for some
specific such as eye tests, dental care, prescriptions and long term dental care. The focus of this
assignment will be made on two main topics which are essential for every organisation such as
Managing Quality and Managing Relationship with People Covered in Supply Chain
Management.
Managing Quality makes its focus on the management and continuous improvement in
the quality of services, an organisation is providing to their customers for the satisfaction of their
needs and wants (Christopher, Harrison and van Hoek, 2016). With the help of reviewing and
reformulating the policies of the organisation, it will be possible for organisations such as
Nuffield Health to know about the weaknesses that where the services of the company are
lacking behind, so this will make possible for the company to have the grounds of improvement
in the quality of their services.
In Supply Chain Management, different factors such as customers, retailers, wholesalers,
society and many more are covered with the help of which the products and services of an
organisation gets a special place in the market and is able to give the organisation sustainable
amount of profit. So with the help of proper management and good relationship with the people
covered in this factor, it will be possible to make possible to increase the market share, revenues
and incomes of the company and also to achieve goals and objectives of the company.
Explanation of Theories to Managing Quality, Its Application, Critical Analysis and Example
Nuffield Health is headquartered in London and provides health and social care services
to the users. The main purpose of this hospital is to provide their customers with the best possible
medical services for the betterment in their health and well being. So for the improvement in the
overall condition of their services, the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the working
of Nuffield Health. With the help of this approach, it will be possible for the organisation to
make continuous improvement in the overall services of the organisation (Coughlan and et. al.,
2016). The definition of this approach can be provided in the way as it is the customer oriented
process which works for the up gradation of the business to a certain next level for the making
organisation able to have sustainable competitive advantage.
This approach focuses on the identification of areas where the errors are occurring in the
process of production of the company. This identification helps in the knowing the issues of the
problem and the effected parts as well. So not only the problem is rectified with the help of this
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approach but also the other effected parts could also be made good and improvement in the
quality of services of the company could be made. On the very basis of this benefit of TQM
Approach, the impact has been drawn on various parts of the company such as the profitability,
improved customer base, enhanced market image of the company and many more. So not only
the profit but also with the improved services, it will be possible to reduce the number of ill
people in their country which will lead to economic growth of the company (DuHadway,
Carnovale and Hazen, 2017). It will also lower down employee absenteeism rate in the
organisations due to illness and other relates reasons. The description of the principles of TQM
Approach are being discussed as under:
 Total Employee Involvement: In order to make improvement in the overall quality of
services, Nuffield Health is required to make sure about the involvement of all the
employees of the organisation. They should not be restricted to their own duties but their
nature should possess the feeling that where ever they see or find any issue or mistake in
relation to services of the company, they should inform to the superior for rectification,
knowing reasons and make sure about non repetition of error.
 Customer Focused: The services of an organisation should be made and designed in
accordance with the needs and requirements of the company so that they could deliver the
best services to their customers. For example, in case a customer is suffering from
diabetes and the treatment provided is of cholera, this does not make any sense. As it is
important for organisation to provide the customers with right treatment which is of
Diabetes in order to make the patient to feel well and good.
 Strategic and Systematic Approach: In this principle, the focus is made on the
improvement in overall quality of services of the company such as by formulating
policies and tactics that provides proper ways of working to the company (Durach,
Kembro and Wieland, 2017). TQM is a systematic approach that provides the
organisation with a systematic way of working which will remove many hurdles from the
work such overlapping of work and many more increasing the efficiency of the
organisation.
 Communication: It refers to the process with the help of which facts, feelings are
transferred from one person to another in an understandable way. With the help of this
principle, it will be possible to deliver the best services to the users of the organisation.
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This will also help in establishing proper coordination and cooperation in between
different employees of the company. They will understand better the issues and problems
faced by the company and also impact positively on the satisfaction level of the
customers.
The application of this approach in the working of Nuffield Health will prove to be
beneficial for the company as this approach focuses on increasing the market base as well as
considers about the quality aspects of the company. This will also impact on the tastes and
preferences of the company with the changing processes and work of the company. As with the
help of market analysis, it will be possible to make the services of the company according to the
needs and demands of customers. After the market analysis, the employees of Nuffield Health
should be communicated with needs and demands and the required changes to be made in the
services so that it could be made according to them and provide them with the best satisfaction
and treatment for their illness (Lai, Sun and Ren, 2018). With these strategies and tactics,
Nuffield Health could achieve faith of their users and could serve for a long duration of time
serving the needs and demands of users.
Example: An example of Hospital which had applied this approach in their work context
is Arnold Palmer Hospital which has also achieved great success with the implementation of this
approach in the working and has made improvement in their quality as well. So the
implementation of this approach in the working of Nuffield Health will also be beneficial as the
company will also receive good results from the work.
Critical Analysis
Along with the benefits which TQM is providing to the respected organisations, there are
also some other limitations from which this approach suffers. It is related to the time which it
takes in order to give the results to the organisation. The following approach is very time
consuming process and needs to be done very carefully, single mistake could spoil the results of
the whole approach and will also provide the organisation with wrong results (Moreira and
Tjahjono, 2016). So in order to get real outcomes from the application of this approach, it is
important to make sure about to check every minor progress of the approach and eradicate all
deviations from the approach in order to get positive and accurate outcomes.
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Application of Theories to Managing Business Relationships in Supply Chains, Its Application,
Critical Analysis and Example
Operations Management is mainly concerned with main areas of operation of an
organisation such as Nuffield Health, and with the help of proper management of operations of
an organisation, it will be possible for them to make improvement in their services which they
are providing to their users and will also be able to make improvement their working procedures
and the quality of their services. The main objective of operations management is related to
achieve the highest level of efficiency possible from the working of the employees working in an
organisation (Oloruntoba, Hossain and Wagner, 2016). Same applies in context of Nuffield
Health as well that in order to make improvement in the services and achieve efficiency of
working of Nuffield Health, it is important to make use of Business Network Approach and with
the help of this approach, it will be possible to achieve the highest level of efficiency within the
organisation which have been described as under:
Business Network Approach
The following is an open system approach which makes sure that business is interacting
with factors of business environment in a positive manner. The existence of relationship in
between the organisation and different factors such as suppliers, customers, competitors,
employees and many more should be good enough to make the firm able to have good relation
with their employees so that Nuffield Health could have sufficient market growth, profit and
ensure their survival in the marketplace (Yuen and Thai, 2017). According to this approach, a
network of business model is been created where the business defines interrelation with different
factors such as actor, resources and many more. Here, actor is considered to the organisation
which describes their relation with different factors and makes utilisation of resources which are
technical, personnel and the capital required in an organisation in proper way. So with
application of this structural dimension it will be possible to maintain series of network with
their various stakeholders as well as with activities and resources for its efficient working.
Application of Business Network Approach in Nuffield Health
The series of network made with the help of this approach is being explained as under:
Customers: These are those person who makes purchases of the products and services of an
organisation. So better relation are important with this factor as to make the sales and profit of an
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organisation. Nuffield Health will manage proper relation with this factors by knowing and
fulfilling the needs and demands of their customers.
Employees: These are the persons who works for the achievement of goals and objectives of the
organisation. In case of Nuffield Health, the improvement in relation will be made with the help
of providing employees with good working environment, incentives and good salaries so that
their motivation and dedication level could be maintained (Quang and et. al., 2016).
So this model makes clear that implementation of this model will not only help in
creating good relationship with factors but will also provide positive output to Nuffield Health
due to good relation maintained with them.
Triple Bottom Line Approach
The following approach is a framework with the help of which focus is made on three
aspects such as social environmental and financial. The benefit of this approach is related to
achievement of higher performance and business values. The description of three categories is
provided as under:
Social Aspect: With the help of focusing on this aspect, it will be possible for Nuffield Health to
create good image in the minds of service users such as providing good and equal treatment to
all, fair wages to employees and many more (Yazdani and et. al., 2017).
Economic Aspect: In case of health and social care organisations, profit is not at utmost priority
but services provided to users is more focused. The main source of getting funds for medicines
and other things, it comes from tax received by the government of UK. So this is also another
reason which increases efficiency of Nuffield Health.
Environmental Aspect: The working of Nuffield Health does not impact much on environment
except the wastage comes from medicines for which there are proper means of disposing them.
So overall good relation could be maintained with different factors and efficiency could be
achieved in the working of organisation (Stevens and Johnson, 2016).
Recommendations
It is recommended to Nuffield Health to implement TQM Approach by properly
analysing both the positive and negative points of this approach. It is also lengthy and complex
process so Nuffield Health must make proper and accurate implementation of this approach to
avoid further discrepancies in the result acquired by implementing this approach. Further, the
recommendation is also provided that development and evaluation of policies and strategies of
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working of Nuffield Health must be done on regular basis so that working efficiency could be
achieved and deviations could be reduced.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment, it has been concluded that operations management, logistics
and supply chain management are important part of an organisation on which continuous focus is
important to achieve efficiency in working. Additionally, the conclusion has been drawn that
application of TQM Approach and Network Approach in order to make improvement in services
of organisation and maintain good relationship with different factors in supply chain.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Choi, T. M., Chiu, C. H. and Chan, H. K., 2016. Risk management of logistics systems.
Christopher, M., Harrison, A. and van Hoek, R., 2016. Creating the agile supply chain: issues
and challenges. In Developments in logistics and supply chain management (pp. 61-68).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Coughlan, P. and et. al., 2016. Operations and supply chain management: The role of academics
and practitioners in the development of research and practice. International Journal of
Operations & Production Management. 36(12). pp.1673-1695.
DuHadway, S., Carnovale, S. and Hazen, B., 2017. Understanding risk management for
intentional supply chain disruptions: Risk detection, risk mitigation, and risk recovery.
Annals of Operations Research, pp.1-20.
Durach, C. F., Kembro, J. and Wieland, A., 2017. A new paradigm for systematic literature
reviews in supply chain management. Journal of Supply Chain Management. 53(4).
pp.67-85.
Lai, Y., Sun, H. and Ren, J., 2018. Understanding the determinants of big data analytics (BDA)
adoption in logistics and supply chain management: An empirical investigation. The
International Journal of Logistics Management. 29(2). pp.676-703.
Moreira, M. and Tjahjono, B., 2016. Applying performance measures to support decision-
making in supply chain operations: a case of beverage industry. International Journal of
Production Research. 54(8). pp.2345-2365.
Oloruntoba, R., Hossain, G. F. and Wagner, B., 2016. Theory in humanitarian operations
research. Annals of Operations Research, pp.1-18.
Quang, H. T. and et. al., 2016. An extensive structural model of supply chain quality
management and firm performance. International Journal of Quality & Reliability
Management. 33(4). pp.444-464.
Stevens, G. C. and Johnson, M., 2016. Integrating the supply chain… 25 years on. International
Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management. 46(1). pp.19-42.
Yazdani, M. and et. al., 2017. A group decision making support system in logistics and supply
chain management. Expert Systems with Applications. 88. pp.376-392.
Yuen, K. F. and Thai, V. V., 2017. The influence of supply chain integration on operational
performance: A comparison between product and service supply chains. The
International Journal of Logistics Management. 28(2). pp.444-463.
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