Operations and Project Management: Review and Critique of Unilever's Operations Management Principles

This report discusses the importance of operations and operations management in an organization, with a focus on Unilever. It reviews and critiques the implementation of operations management principles in Unilever, analyzes the extent to which they meet organizational requirements, and suggests a continuous improvement plan based on the review. The report also discusses the lean principles of operations management and their application in Unilever. Subject: Operations and Project Management, Course Code: Unit 187, College/University: Not mentioned

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 4
3. A review and critique of the implementation of operations
management principles within the chosen organization 5
4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations management of
the organisation in the case study meets the requirements of the
organization 6
5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a philosophy and
describe the Lean principles 8
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified
recommendations for improvement, based on your review and
critique of operations management principles within your
organization 9
7. Conclusion 10
References 11
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1. An introduction to chosen organization
Operations management creates the efficiency level of an
organization. It converts the raw materials into the finish goods and
increase the profit of an enterprises. It balances the revenue and costs
to achieve the operating profit. It uses the resources from workers,
materials and technology. The managers provides the goods on the
basis of the client needs. It manages various strategies like as size of
the manufacturing plants, implementation strategies and project
management tools. The main objective of the operations management is
to manage the stock through the supply chain management technique. It
focuses on the local demand as well as global demand of the customers.
Top level managers are developing the new technology and revalued
the current technology. There are two main key points that are
considered by the operations managers such as operational and
productivity. They control the developing process and enterprise
operations in the best manner (Agostino and et.al, 2019). In this report,
discuss about the operation and operations management. Further in this
report discuss to the improvement techniques of operations
management. This report discuss to the Unilever company that is
situated in London. It is a multinational consumer goods company. It
includes the products such as food, ice cream and beauty products. It is
famous of the soap produce. It supplies the products within 190
countries. The most famous brands of Unilever are dove,lux and sun
silk. It is managed the three divisions such as foods, house care and
beauty products. It is a listed on London stock exchange and secondary
listed on Euronext Amsterdam. In the year 1930s, it was founded the
new venture in Africa and America. It was not capable to reinvested its
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fund in Europe city because it bought the new business in the UK.
Operations management also plays an important role to the Unilever. It
improves the efficiency level of the workers (Babich and Birge, 2020).
2. An explanation of operation vs operations management
Operation- It is a balanced and an top-quality output from various
inputs. Operations control is a multidisciplinary region because there are
numerous resources in an operation. As an example, raw materials,
manufacturing structures, best manage and evaluation, finance,
advertising and marketing and employer guidelines. It manages the
internal function of an enterprise in order to make sure that the internal
functions of an enterprise are conducted smoothly (Erzurumlu, 2018).
Operations management- It is concerned of business activity and
focuses on the profit of an enterprises. It includes the various activities
like planning, organization and staffing. The top level manager ensures
that the enterprise successful converts the raw materials into the finished
goods in an optimum manner. It is a very important concept of an
organization. It plays an vital role in the success of an enterprise. It
includes all the activities which are necessary to deliver the goods.
When Unilever produces the products then operations management
manages the various activities such as storage management, product
quality and controlling the stock. The difference between operation and
operations management are as follow:
Basis Operation Operations management
Definition It produces the products and
services of the company.
It produces the products and
services of the company.
Focuses It focuses the controlling and
planning function of an
organisation.
It focuses the controlling and
planning function of an
organisation.
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Area Unilever are managed the day
to day activities of the
production department.
Unilever manages all the
activities of an entire company
rather than focuses on the one
department.
Example It is concerned the packaging of
the products and the
movement of the raw material
(Latief, 2018).
It is set the rules and regulation
to the employees and company.
Concept The concept of Unilever is
based on the production and
manufacturing.
The management level concept
of Unilever is applied on the
entire company irrespective of
the individual department.
3. A review and critique of the implementation of
operations management principles within the chosen
organization
Operation and operations management both are very important
term in each enterprise. It is concerned all the running activities of an
organization. Unilever is engaged the various products such as food,
personal care and cleaning agents. It is the management of business
activities that develop products and services. In the context of
manufacturing, it converts the raw material into the finish goods. Unilever
is applied the operations management in the entire function to achieve
the organisation objectives. The principles of operations management is
applied by the Unilever that are as follow:
1. Reality- Top quality level management needs to focus on the
requirement of the company (Mohanty and Vyas, 2018). It should not
focused on one technique, one project and one solution. The
problem-fixing method need to always are trying to find to restore
provider methods that have an effect on the organization at scale.
The company should focused the products design, training and
process activities. Unilever focuses all the function of production
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activities rather than one product. It provides the better services of
their clients (Parkhi, 2019).
2. Organization- It creates the interrelationship of all departments.
The service managers give the guidelines to the technicians. The
service manager should to improve the quality regularly of the
products and services. The quality level mangers to check the
quality regularly and satisfied the customer needs.
3. Humility- It is very difficult process to improving the delivery and
customer satisfaction. It plays an important role in the Unilever. It
identifies the customer needs and provide the better services of
their consumers.
4. Success- The Unilever can survive till long term if they provide the
goods on the basis of consumer needs. If the company wants to
success then it should determined how to develop a consumer
centric field service business (Raut and et.al, 2019).
4. An analysis of the extent to which the operations
management of the organisation in the case study meets
the requirements of the organization
The case study of Unilever is defined the importance of operation
and operations management. Operations management is the most
important area of corporation to provides the high quality of goods and
services of their consumer at reasonable cost. The concept of operations
management will support company to recap their management activities
and also acquire the theoretical and practical knowledge about the
operations concepts. In that days Unilever must to retain in the dynamic
environment where key materials are scarce and opportunities of
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enterprise is common (Ren and et.al, 2020). The government regularizes the
high level of rules and regulation but the company does not meet the
rules. After implementation the concept of operations management
Unilever the following changes are to made:
 Operations management is manged the capacity of the company
and fulfill the consumer needs with available resources at he
specific time period. It includes the capacity, supply and demand in
better manner in successful capacity planning process.
 Unilever focuses the cost effective approach in operations
management. It will support to maintain the customer loyalty with
their brands. They provide the goods and services at affordable
cost with high quality.
 To apply the principles of operations management the Unilever
maintains the effectiveness in their workplace. Mangers should
achieve the company goals with focusing the workers goals.
 Sometime ago the Unilever sells their product in local market but
after introduce the new technologies and techniques they sell their
goods across 190countries.
 The traditional system of the production is very expensive but the
new technologies produces the goods at affordable costs. It
produces the goods with the minimum wastage.
 The FMCG industry should develop the business intelligence to
achieve the profit of the company. It provides the best decision of
the company. It improves the overall efficiency of the FMCG
industry (Tönnissen and Teuteberg, 2020).
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5. Discussion of continuous improvement as a
philosophy and describe the Lean principles
The lean principles of operations management is applied to the
Unilever. It focuses on the continuous improvement. They describe the
better experience of their customers. It provides the various benefits to
the workers such as improvement bonus, house rent allowance and food
allowance that the workers are retained in the company in long term. It
offers the various services such as online delivery goods services and e
commerce services. It examines the existing business process and gives
the guidelines to the customer (Wu, 2019). The principles are improved the
efficiency in the workplace and includes:
1. Define value- It is very important principle of the continuous
improvement plan. To understand this principle first of all to
define the value. Value means what amount is paid by the
customer. It is paramount to discover the real wishes of the
consumer. Once in a while clients may not recognize what
they need or are not able to articulate it. It is specifically
common in relation to novel merchandise.
2. Value mapping stream- The main focuses are to evaluate the
consumer values. Unilever look out all the elements of
product quality and final price of the goods. It reduces the
wastage elements.
3. Pull establishment- Product quality is the main area that are
focused in this principle. In this principle the company
produces the product to the customer requirement.
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4. Create flow- In the above principles the reduces the
wastage, the following principles describes that all the
activities are run smoothly with right time. The various
activities are included in this principle such as breaking down
steps, developing cross functional and training of the
employees.
5. Pursue perfection- The above four activities such as
identifying value, create flow, mapping stream and pull
system were prevented the wastage. The fifth principle is the
most important of the above four principles. It creates the
improvement plan of the enterprise structure.
6. A continuous improvement plan, including your justified
recommendations for improvement, based on your review
and critique of operations management principles within
your organization
The continuous improvement plans are applicable to the Unilever. They
are provided the various techniques and tools to the improvement of the
FMCG. It delivers the goods in the local market as well as global market.
The following improvement plans are applicable on the Unilever are as
follow:
Plan- It offers various services and goods of the customer. The FMCG
should make a plan in according to the business requirement. It requires
to make the day to day plan to according new development of the
products.
Do- Unilever required to provoke acting exercises in order to fetch
enhancement and changes of their administrative center. These
activities should be conducted in short term period.
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Check- The changes should be monitored on the regular basis that they
are applied in the company frequently. The FMCG industry focuses all
the activities and considered those activities that are necessary in the
company success. The company should considered the small things
because sometimes the small things can occur big looses to the
company.
Act- The colon planning dopes not changes the frequently or itself, it is
needed the some action are conduct by the management.
7. Conclusion
In the above report concluded, there are two basic keys operation and
operations management that manages all the entire function of the
company. The principles of the operations management are also provide
the direction of the company. The lean principles satisfy the consumer
needs to provide the better services and goods. Operation and
operations management plays a vital role to the Unilever. The
improvement principles of the operations management provides the
strategic tools and techniques to the company that they can used in the
production process and improve the quality of production. The lean
principles define the value of the customer. It encourages the top level
management that they are established the business in new country. It
focuses on the past, present and future activities of a company.
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References
Agostino and et.al, 2019. Modeling and simulation of operations: A case study in a port
terminal of vale S/A. In New global perspectives on industrial engineering and
management (pp. 91-99). Springer, Cham.
Babich, V. and Birge, J.R., 2020. Foundations and trends at the interface of finance,
operations, and risk management. Operations, and Risk Management (December 28,
2020).
Erzurumlu, S.S., 2018. What can the innovator learn from the operations manager? An
operations view of innovation strategy. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 46(2).
pp.97-102.
Latief, Y., 2018, January. Development of quality management system in the process
implementation maintenance risk-based in government building. In 8th International
Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, IEOM 2018 (pp.
689-697). IEOM Society.
Mohanty, S. and Vyas, S., 2018. It operations and ai. In How to Compete in the Age of
Artificial Intelligence (pp. 173-187). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Parkhi, S.S., 2019. Lean management practices in healthcare sector: a literature
review. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Raut and et.al, 2019. Linking big data analytics and operational sustainability practices for
sustainable business management. Journal of cleaner production, 224. pp.10-24.
Ren and et.al, 2020. Demand forecasting in retail operations for fashionable products:
methods, practices, and real case study. Annals of Operations Research, 291(1). pp.761-
777.
Tönnissen, S. and Teuteberg, F., 2020. Analysing the impact of blockchain-technology for
operations and supply chain management: An explanatory model drawn from multiple
case studies. International Journal of Information Management, 52, p.101953.
Wu, S.J., 2019. Assessing the individual and synergistic effects of quality management
practices on operations performance. International Journal of Productivity and
Performance Management.
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Table of Content
Part 2: Project Portfolio
Project Title 13
An overview of the case study you have been given 13
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 14
 Project planning 14
 Project execution 15
 Project closure 15
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used 16
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC in
application to your project using the appropriate theories models
and concepts 17
Conclusion 18
References 19
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Project Title
The aim is to develop and implement a plan for delivering of good quality
products in market and retain sustainable customers on which company can trust.
An overview of the case study you have been given
Project life cycle is a framework of numerous operations that will maintained
or completed in a manner that is systematic and helps the organization in earning
higher amount of profit margin from that specific project. In company's projects, it
plays an important role that must be done only for the limited time period. Every
organization maintains deadlines for the project to achieve their organizational goals
efficiently and effectively. All these maintained and controlled only through the
effective planning, initiating and by efficiently executing. The report involves the
study of effective project life cycle process of the organization that will help the
business in completion of project in an effective and efficient manner. For effective
completion of project company can also use many techniques or tools available such
as project life cycle that gives management an effective way for the task completion,
with the systematic process of project life cycle, business can identify numerous
threats, opportunities, advantages and risks associated through this tool. Report will
also described major elements of project life cycle that are its stages (Ariningsih,
Artini and Marsakawati, 2021).
Project life cycle: It indicates the effective business tools that will support the
company in the effective planning, initiation of project and its proper execution. It is
defined as the whole time period of given project, which is identified into various
phases for assessment of how the project is performing and what type of results it
yields. Project life cycle begins with the effective and strategic plan, evaluation and
analyzing the problems that arises during project process and then execute the
whole plan in effective manner to accomplish the desired objective of organization.
Project life cycle includes the major four phases which supports the whole
management in analyzing, evaluating the overall functions of the project (Aston,
2020). These four phases are project initiation, planning, execution and lastly closure
are described below.
An explanation of each stage of the PLC that applies to
your selected project, including supporting documentation
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for each stage (e.g., business case, the project plan, cost-
benefit analysis and work breakdown structure):
 Project initiation
The very first stage that is about identification of different modules and other
useful things that all are necessary for completion of project. Initiation of project
refers when business introduce a new plan or though for achieving the organizational
objectives. Business can identify their respective objectives, purpose of project along
with this can also analyze the upcoming and hidden opportunities, problems that
might arise in near future. Overall project initiation helps in determining the insight to
the project, what the actually project needed for the completion of task on time, task
must be completed in effective manner. Another way is creation of the diagram of
workflow that consists of visualization of data or information that will help through this
technique in analyzing the performance of team members. Then the budget
estimation that provides a clear image of finance such as estimation of cost for
analyzing that how much amount will spend on the resources, equipment in regular
working days within workplace. Furthermore, the employees will have to perform in
coordination to develop the required plans and policies. The goals and objectives are
set as per there objectives of providing good quality of commodities by ensuring
good technology in manufacturing process (Bulai and Horobeț, 2018).
 Project planning
After initiating the project, organization is required to practically move into
planning process. Project planning is pervasive in nature as it requires in each
organization, department from high to lower level. It refers to building the effective
infrastructure of project that will help the organization to achieve their objectives
efficiently and effectively. This stage will help in analyzing the real steps for the
projects and then identify the most appropriate step that is beneficial for achieving
the goal (Wang, Yang and Quan, 2020). During the planning the establishment of
task prepared that effectively coordinate for project procurement, graphics and for
effective execution. This process includes budget allocation, essential material for
the project, documentation, forecasting and managing risks, channelizing
communication among stakeholders and all team members all these helps in
effective completion of project. In this stage, the management administrates that
method for effective usage of resources and plan the budget while tracking the risks
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or problems in relation to the project. The company requires a relevant budget to set
up the facilities for better performance by way of looking for more resources.
Furthermore, the company may apply lean principle and other continuous
improvement methods to improve its working and reduce wastage (Fairhurst, 2020).
 Project execution
It is completion of project, execution of project states that when all plans
executed in an effective manner. This process only execute by analyzing or
maintaining all necessary information, resources and avoiding all the factors that
might adversely affect on project. This is the responsibility of organization for
executing the plan firstly identification of risk, employees engagement and usage of
effective tools and techniques which helps the business in proper scheduling of
project as same as starting phase of project or in last stage of project, working on
these factors can provide a direction in the completion of project in an effective and
efficient manner. There are also many types of software that are available for
effective execution of project that provides a proper framework for the finance and
operations of project such as outflow or inflow of monetary resources, that are
essential components in effective completion of project. There are also some other
software for project likewise business automation it is very effective software that
connects all the operations, operates and manage them on a single platform which
help in controlling the risks that lowers the cost and helps in enhancing the
desirability (Gomez, and Cruz-Reyes, 2019).
 Project closure
Closure of project defines as the completion of any project, that includes the
final results, releasing of scare resources, documentation process, evaluating the
project phases with appropriate performance, participation of all team members and
lastly conducting the critical review, feedback. Evaluation of project performance
consists of overseeing the objective or goals of the project weather these are
accomplished or not. Evaluation of team performance involves to check over the
tasks completed by individuals, like check weather they complete their operations
appropriately with right time or not and also check the quality of final task. In this last
stage, organization also check the whole documentation and give feedback such as
they must be confident about all the aspects regarding the project that must be
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completed on time, after that take feedback about the projects (Lara, Hendrickson
and Mapar, 2018).
There are some key components for the project closure:
Business case: Business case refers to which is established in the beginning
phase of project and help in identification with the purpose that how, why and what it
is beneficial or worth for doing this project. Maintaining the business case includes
and brings all the problems that occur while completing the project along with risks,
benefits and cons of ongoing situation and provides an effective and clear vision for
forecasting the future conditions that will help the organization in making strategic
plans for successful completion of project.
Project plan: Proper project plans helps the organization in delivering the
results in the given time span that will help in channelizing better communication with
other team members that provide essential data or information to the team members
on time and help stakeholders in understanding that what is required or what not.
Cost benefit analysis: It refers to the systematic manner that will help
organization in evaluating the decisions regarding the plans that should be followed,
and which should not. This also includes many methods and tools of financial
metrics such as saving cost, revenue earning for further procedures in the project
(Matvienko, 2021).
Work breakdown structure: It is the foremost technique that is defined as
breakdown of work into small pieces of tasks. This techniques provide support to
business in effective management as the task is categorized according to the
requirement of project that will be completed in the short span of time as that will
also supports the company in achieving the goals of project effectively and efficiently
with proper teamwork management in order to complete works before the deadlines
of project.
Analysis of the project methodologies and tools used
In respect of projects tools and techniques, main role is played by project life
cycle. It become necessary for the organization to use these methods, tools or
techniques that will help in the systematic and smooth functioning of the business.
Project involves particular operations sets that an company should take care to attain
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their goals. In this whole process of project the project life cycle plays an important
role, that includes budget, quality of project, techniques as well as scope of project.
Today's projects are highly focused on the proper and effective planning, scheduling,
effective initiating and executing as well. Some methodologies of project such as
complex projects, simple projects and software project techniques. All these
methodologies supports the business in finding the right way. There are also various
threats and methods that are related with the objectives of the project. All these are
efficient for taking the decision regarding the execution of project. The fundamental
theory used for this purpose of project life cycle, that defines how the project is
performing at every stage. It also helps in identifying the risks associated with the
given project and the objectives it aims to achieve. By planning for every stage
individually involved in the management can allocate resources efficiently, prepare
every individual involved in the business as well as avoid malpractices that could be
done by employees who take advantage of loop holes in the company. Moreover,
organization must use various technological tools and software that are available to
increase the performance of employees (Mousavi, Antucheviciene and Mojtahedi,
2019).
Review and critically evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC
in application to your project using the appropriate
theories models and concepts
In this organization field project life cycle plays an important role that includes the
various systematic steps such as project planning, initiation, execution and project
closure. All these project life cycle stages plays an essential role in evaluating the
ideas and thoughts with main objectives of the company that provides correct
direction to the employees in completion of tasks. It has evaluated critically that the
project life cycle is an efficient way for initiating the project plan only by determining
and evaluating the threats, scope within the project process, with the proper
controlling and monitoring, observing every steps on the project progress helps in
taking effective right action on time. Project life cycle is an effective technique that
help the organization in achieving predefined goals effectively. Being an organization
that provides better customer services and products according to the needs and
wants to execute a project differently as compared to other companies in the market.
Henceforth, it relies heavily on the lean principles and concentrates continuously on
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improving the methods and techniques adopted. The company applies project life
cycle process with the help of different business models, such as the waterfall
technique that helps in defining employees contribution towards project, innovations
adopted and tools used. Also, the six sigma principle, that is also continuous
improvement method and can benefit the application of changes in project life cycle.
It is the duty and authority of project manager to take care all the steps must be
completed appropriately and corrective measures at the right time. But after the
study of project life cycle, considered as it an effective technique in order to achieve
organizational objectives and captures large share in the market (Muhtaseb, 2020).
Conclusion
The conclusion can be drawn from the above report, that project life cycle
plays a vital role in completing the project successfully that includes numerous
effective and systematic stages such as planning of project, project initiation,
execution and the last one is closure of project. All these phases from project life
cycle perform a significant role in determining and evaluating the creative thoughts or
ideas as well as the major purpose of that specific project in the Unilever that
provides useful direction to the workforce for managing and performing the tasks in
effective manner. Project life cycle critically analyze and evaluate the threats and
opportunities as well within project process, with the help of effective and strategic
planning, monitoring and controlling. Project life cycle is an effective technique that
helps the Unilever in achieving desired goals with sustainability. It ensures that
organization generate high amount of profit by implementing this framework because
it enables the whole management to perform their functions in a systematic ways.
From the concepts explained above, it can be determined that executing a proper life
cycle of any project is very crucial in order to get great results from that project.
Furthermore, in the report, analysis of various tools and methodologies is done.
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TECHNOLOGY IN LEARNING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN HIGHER
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Muhtaseb, A., 2020. Pilot E-Portfolio Project for Communication Studies Graduate
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