Operations Management Analysis: C-Quest Marine Laboratory Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the operations management at C-Quest Marine Laboratory, focusing on the company's activities and the challenges it faces. The report examines the current operational practices, including the company's strategic focus on target audiences and its expansion plans, such as the development of a second-level platform. It identifies key issues such as marketing challenges in the age of social media, increasing competition, seasonal demand fluctuations, and operational inefficiencies related to permits, supply chain, and cash flow. The report also highlights broader problems within the tourism industry, including safety and security concerns, employee retention, political conditions, fuel costs, taxation, infrastructure deficiencies, and the need for skilled tour guides. Finally, the report concludes with recommendations for improving operational efficiency and revenue generation, such as implementing effective supply chain management and optimizing cash flow.

Running Head: Operations Management
Management
Operations Management

Operations Management 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Current operational activities of Marine laboratory........................................................................2
Issues and root cause of the C-Quest Marine Laboratory................................................................3
Identification and specification of the problems.............................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Operations Management 2
Introduction
Organization management defines the administration of the business practices that help in
creating a high level of the efficiency in an organization. The main aim of the operation
management is to convert the resources into the goods and services that help in maximize the
profit of an organization. Each and every business wants to utilize the resource with full
efficiency (Galliers, & Leidner, 2014). The report includes the analysis of the operational
management of the C-Quest marine laboratory. The manager who manages the operation tries to
bring some innovative and effective ideas into the work that enhances the demand of the
customers for the particular products. This management becomes a challenge for the manager as
a manager need to take tough decisions considering the situation (Pwc, 2017). The decision over
here consists of a size of the plants, strategic decision related to the administration of the
company, bringing innovative ideas, etc.
The report talks about the operational issues that hamper the current operations of the CQuest
marine laboratory. Operation activities include directing, controlling, and outlining the working
in the organization. The report also consists of the problems that are generally occurring in the
hospitality industry.

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Current operational activities of Marine laboratory
C-Quest marine laboratory is based on Great Barrier Reef. The marine laboratory comes under
the tourist places. It consists of 600M2 floating permanent platforms. The operations of the
company are related to the marine laboratory with scientists study.
 Currently, the main focus of the C-Quest marine laboratory is in forming the strategy for
the target audience. The organization working shows that organization keeps changing
the target segments (Bernstein, 2014). Changing target is necessary for the company and
these changes in the target audience come considering the season. According to the
seasons in the northern hemisphere the demand increase due to vacations in May to
October. Similarly, Australian and New Zealand tourist visit in the month of the
November and April along with the southern hemisphere tourist.
 The organization is bringing an improvement in the quality of the services it is providing
to its customers. Managing the quality can be considered as the one of the operational
activity. To increase the level of satisfaction of the customer organization need to
enhance the quality of the services (online kettering, 2016). Hence, they will be able to
attract more and more tourist towards the marine laboratory. This fosters the growth and
success of the company.
 Operational manager of the organization tries to add-on new innovative ideas into the
business day-to-day operations (Heizer, 2016). For instance, the organization can provide
a tubular walkway to the customers or tourist so that they can get the facility of analyzing
the underwater observations. The organization can facilitate the tourist from the facility

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of snorkeling or diving tours. This may attract the tourists towards the fun activities they
will like to participate.
 As per the case study, the company granted a marine park permit five years ago. The step
was taken by the company to share their eco-marine science venture with the 120 tourists
per trip. The CQuest marine operated a company that operates a catamaran (who has the
license to carry 100 people). The appointed company helped the organization to transport
tourists from 30 nautical miles from Trinity inlet in Cairns to the platform. The whole
activity needs the management of the tourist at the same place. Similar to this plan now
company is making plan $3m expansion that includes the second level to the platform.
This planning helps the company in enhancing the brand value and success of the
company. In the second level, an organization will provide overnight accommodation for
10 tourists. Along with the scientific staff of 4 that remain on the platform. Planning is
one of the important activities that are included in the operations management. This is
one of the most important activities that need to be considered but planning decides the
success and failure of the task depends. The company is planning for providing the
facilities of the kitchen and bathroom amenities. This shows that the company is focusing
on the value-adding activities that help the organization in delivering the customer
satisfaction.
 Apart from the enhancement in the customer satisfaction, there will be a competitive
advantage to the company. Nowadays in each and every field, there is a tough
competition among the marine laboratories. By managing the operations organization is
trying to bring effectiveness in the working.

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Issues and root cause of the C-Quest Marine Laboratory
There are numerous of the issues and root cause from which marine laboratory is dealing today.
With the emergence of the social media marketing, the trend of the marketing is changing. For
dealing with the marketing issue company needs to adopt few changes in the way of marketing.
Hence, this will enhance the knowledge of the employees in the organization. The operations
manager will be able to make the effective decisions.
 The competition is increasing day by day and it is becoming leading issue for the
organizations. For facing the competitive world company needs to implement new
strategies and plans. The strategic plans help the company to deal with the threat of the
rivalry.
 Monsoon season with cyclones is one of the common threats for the organization. CQuest
marine needs to manage the supply side because there is a seasonal fluctuation in the
demand as per the media reports. There are a threat and danger from the cyclones, salt-
water crocodiles, and marine stingers (Vernberg, & Vernberg, 2013).
 Improper utilization of the permits by the organization. Cooperation in the operations
management is one of the root issues that are found in the organization. For instance,
company permit to 120 tourists to visit anytime but only once. The organization also
provided the facility of the transportation by forming operation with the catamaran. The
operation manager heightened that they can secure a faster catamaran that can probably
do 2 tourists rotations in a day. The initial slot can come in the morning and departure at
the time of the lunchtime. The second slot can come in afternoon after the departure of

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the first slot. This would have provided an opportunity of earning the double amount
from tourists.
 The organization realized that they are still relying on the traditional tourism supply chain
to source passenger loadings. Supply chain plays an important role in the working of the
company. Over here it is clearly mentioned that company needs to find a better way to
bring changes in the supply chain. Not only the supply chain but the cash flow that is
undertaking is not effective. CQML is going to receive the payment from the tourism
agents 90 days after the tourists have paid the amount or experienced the trip. The tour
agents deduct 40% out of the retail price as their commission and then give rest 60%
amount to the company. The retail price of the tour charged to the tourist is approximate
$199; this includes lunch at the time of morning tour tourists or canapés and wine at the
time of the afternoon tour. Better cash flow may bring an effective way of working for
the company and might be possible will help the organization in enhancing the profit
(Kroes, & Manikas, 2014).
Identification and specification of the problems
The tourism and travel business is included in the hospitality industry. Scrutinizing and
management of both the field together are not an easy task. The companies manage both tourism
and travel need to face some of the difficulties. The tourism sector is continuously expanding
across the world (Smith, 2014). The problems that are faced by the businesses in this sector
include safety and security. Safety and security are one of the leading issues in this sector. Those
businesses who are leading in this industry provide lip-service to security issues than then
opposing the problems from roots (Hitt, Carnes & Xu, 2016). There is a numerous number of

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tourist officers who don't have any contact with the local police departments. For the tourism
sector, visitor's security is a primary focus as this may cause a loss in the future.
Employee retention is increasing day by day in the tourism industry. Frontline employees receive
low pay and are not loyal towards the company. The employees worked for the tourism
companies can easily switch job. The employees in the tourism industry easily get a job (Terera,
& Ngirande, 2014). This may lead to the challenge for the companies as they want skilled
manpower which is difficult to maintain in this industry. HR needs to recruit skilled labor for
their organization (Baum, 2016). Another problem that is frequently faced by the tourism
industry includes the problem of the political conditions. The tourism sector has to deal with the
changes in the policies made by the government. Though the government said that they support
tourism but the restriction makes it more complicated (RSM, 2017). Tourism and travel sector
have a huge dependency on the cost of the fuel. The gasoline and fuel cost impact the whole
industry, summer is peak time when most of the tourist spends an amount on the travels. This
problem may force tourist to adjust their spending as they don't want to pay high charges for the
fuel. The industry needs to find out the best solution to come out of the challenge.
Tourism is an extremely taxed industry. The amount that the travelers have to pay is huge
because they have to bear charges such as airline ticket, hotel, rental car, etc. government of the
different countries claims that they provide additional benefits to the tourists (Becker, 2016).
Often government failed to complete whatever is committed by them. World tourism needs to
work on the infrastructure facility to create customer loyalty. These infrastructure facilities
include proper handling of arriving passengers, transportation of the luggage of the customers,
waiting area, reception area and other facilities. Companies need to develop proper facilities so

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that customers don’t face any problems in terms of the infrastructure of the hotels. Lack of
knowledge of the tour guide, most of the people believe to hire tourist guide so that they get to
know more about the tourist places. The tourist guide helps the tourist by giving them
information about the tourist places where they can visit. There are very few tourist guides who
can speak in the multiple languages (Cetin, & Yarcan, 2017). This shows the lack of education
and training that may lead to the losses to the tourist companies. Over here, to come out of these
challenges the companies need to facilitate proper training facility or need to hire trained and
skilled employees.
Tourism and transport forum CEO John Lee said that Australia needs to introduce working
holidaymaker visa with other countries such as Australia and China accept Indonesia. This is not
only for the Australia but for the whole world. Companies should do tie up with the other
countries to enhance the tour packages (News.com.au, (2012). This may promote the tourism
activity from the company's side. As people avoid going on vacations due to the rise of the prices
of the airline tickets or hotels.

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Conclusion
The above report includes the analysis of the operational management based on the case study.
The company’s operations shows that company is planning to expand platform. The improper
utilization of the permit can be resolved. Company should appoint trained and skilled operation
manager expert. The expert can evaluate the strategies and plans for proper utilization of
resources. This will enhance the revenue of the company. C-Quest marine can try to implement
the effective supply chain which helps the company in dealing with the agents. Cash flows play
an important role in organization so company should keep an eye on the cash flow management.
The reason C-Quest generally faces issue related is cash flow. The company should add-on
services to enhance the demand of the customers or to attract tourist.

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References
Baum, T. (Ed.). (2016). Human resource issues in international tourism. Elsevier.
Becker, E. (2016). Overbooked: the exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and
Schuster.
Bernstein, J. S. (2014). Identifying Market Segments, Selecting Target Markets, and Positioning
the Offer. In Standing Room Only (pp. 125-143). Palgrave Macmillan US.
Cetin, G., & Yarcan, S. (2017). The professional relationship between tour guides and tour
operators. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 1-13.
Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (Eds.). (2014). Strategic information management: challenges
and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Heizer, J. (2016). Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Hitt, M. A., Carnes, C. M., & Xu, K. (2016). A current view of resource based theory in
operations management: A response to Bromiley and Rau. Journal of Operations
Management, 41(10), 107-109.
Kroes, J. R., & Manikas, A. S. (2014). Cash flow management and manufacturing firm financial
performance: A longitudinal perspective. International Journal of Production Economics,
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News.com.au. (2012 April 21st). Big challenges facing Australian tourism in 'Asian Century'.
Assessed on 18th August 2017. http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/big-

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challenges-facing-australian-tourism-in-asian-century/news-story/
2b523420848208acf8687a68bd12949d
Online kettering, (2016). What are the current 5 challenges of operations management?.
Assessed on 18th August 2017, https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/10/18/what-are-5-
current-challenges-operations-management.
Pwc, (2017). Operations, Assessed on 18th August 2017.
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/operations.html
RSM. (2017). Seven big issues for travel and tourism in 2017. Assessed on 18th August 2017.
https://www.rsmuk.com/ideas-and-insights/seven-big-issues-for-travel-and-tourism-in-
2017
Slack, N. (2015). Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Smith, S. L. (2014). Tourism analysis: A handbook. Routledge.
Terera, S. R., & Ngirande, H. (2014). The impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee
retention. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 481.
Vernberg, F. J., & Vernberg, W. B. (Eds.). (2013). Pollution and physiology of marine
organisms. Elsevier.