Analyzing Operations Management Issues at Greenland Garden Centre

This case study examines the operational issues at Greenland Garden Centre, a business located in the Cotswolds. The assignment begins with a mind map identifying problems related to inventory management, staffing levels, sales area inefficiencies, and customer service delivery. The solution then applies operational models such as the input-process-output, value chain, and business process mapping to analyze the business. The input-process-output model considers external factors such as weather and market environment, as well as internal resources like staff and inventory. The value chain model outlines the primary and support activities, including logistics, operations, marketing, and human resources. Business process mapping covers the key departments: marketing, finance, supply chain, and human resources. The assignment concludes by summarizing the key operational problems faced by John Smith, including customer seating, high maintenance costs, staffing skill demands, and inventory management challenges. The document offers a comprehensive analysis of the business's operations and provides solutions to improve them.

Running head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

1KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
Introduction
The paper aims to draw a mind map for identifying and exploring the staff, operations
management and technology issues occurring at Greenland Garden Centre. It also takes into
consideration that how the operations can be improved at Greenland Garden Centre
considering the potential issues. The paper also discusses on the main micro operations in the
Greenland Green Centre through theatrical models of input-process-output model, value-
chain model and business process mapping model. Finally, the paper focuses on the problems
in the business operations how John Smith can manage them.
Discussion

2KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
Part 1
Figure 1: Mind map of the operational issues of Greenland garden center
Source: Created by author
Operational Issue 1
The annual ordering of inventory is not available often due to seasonal changes. The
weather is a huge determinant in the business. The inventory of high maintenance and
expensive plants in the odd seasons are disposed off as scrap consuming 20% of the total
revenue of the company. The out of stock problem is directly proportional to the discounting
issue. The limitation of inventory stocking with seasonal adjustments on the shelf becomes
difficult for shelf clearing within the stipulated time for bedding plants The restaurant
products manufactured like barbecues being non-perishable products are to be sold at high
discounts to clear the space.
The issue can be improved through stocking up the important inventory within the
lead time with emergency and safety stock. There should not be much buffer stock to lead to
obsolescence but the stocking and inventory management should be as per the fast and slow
moving inventory system as the industry is a seasonal business (Tkachuk and Vitriak 2019) .

3KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
The non-perishability nature of the products make it mandatory to provide the service with
just in time delivery system to the customers.
Operational Issue 2
At peak times it can be found that 80 staff are present while at the lean season, the
number can reduce to 20. The staff are very much required to assume the roles and give the
customers a speedier delivery. Another issue is role limitation. There are 85 staff presently
with 12 clarified roles in the organization, each staff assigned to the specific department can
perform that role with efficiency only. The gap in multiskilling make the organization go
through business fluctuations in terms of labor turnover or shortage of posts.
The issue can be improved through proper design of job description and the
recruitment of staff for the fulfillment of the job roles. The staff should be selected as per
their flexibility of roles and the timing of the shifts. The recruitment procedure should be
conducted in advance. The staffs should also be trained with the job rotation and the multiple
skills to help in the shortage of labor situations to the company.
Operational Issue 3
The third operational issue being the sales area. The indoor sales division has the
problem of excess service and product distribution due to wide range of product portfolio.
The virtual merchandising of the products and the company outlay requires extra effort from
the labor and the budget behind it huge. The outdoor maintenance of the garden with
restaurant layout and the ornamentation not only require the extra time and effort but also the
overall financial budget flow with the allocation of funds get low.
The issue can be improved through limitation of product portfolio or the services
should be restricted with a certain period of time. The delivery timings with the provision
should be organized with no clutter in delivery. The outdoor maintenance should be kept
within the budget with limited virtual merchandising as per the requirements to attract the
customers.
Operational Issue 4
The fourth operational issue is of the customer management. The major problem
occurring in this division is the service delivery. The provision of toddlers and infants with
toys and play environment are easy to afford, but thee lunch requirement of the toddlers get

4KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
difficult due to different types of pending orders as per the batches. The queue system of
customers waiting turn out to be very frustrating for the customers with low tolerance levels.
The customers like teenagers and the old people consume much time in the seating and
finishing the service delivered to them. The customers are seen to occupy their positions and
spending quality time while the other customers leave for waiting too much.
The issue can be solved with making the customer queue management more
organized and provision of the services with more seat allocation. The staffs should provide a
speedy delivery within the short time possible for not making the tolerance level of the
customers decrease (Wilson et.al, 2016).

5KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
Part 2
Figure 2: The input-processing-output model
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/nput-Process-Output-Model-of-
SE_fig1_237081689
The inputs here in terms of environmental factors are the weather and the
infrastructure of the Greenland. The transportation system and the market environment of the
gardening industry with completion is the input for the business functioning primarily. The
organizational resources like the staff and the inventory of the business in terms of gardening
products and the restaurant service with added services are the input. The individual
resources here are not as much, but the staff contribution of efforts in terms of learning and
the owner’s capital fund are the individual inputs. The processing occurs through the mixture
of the organizational resources with the individual resources. Both of these resources are
directly proportional to the external and internal environment factors. The labor market
influence the functioning of labor shortage, the skilled manpower makes the maintenance and
delivery of services in the company while the capital fund of the owner is used in emergency
period. The output delivered through service to customers by creating a competitive
advantage. This competitive advantage of product and service delivery with the unique
proposed acquisition make the revenue generation with profit for the company. The profit
generation and the revenue together make the individual benefits of more training and

6KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
incentives for the staff, organizational benefits of market power gain and the market share
capturing. The social benefits lie in the way of corporate social responsibility in the village
community and to the public with more added services.
Figure 3: Value Chain model
Source: https://sim.sbio.vt.edu/?attachment_id=2228
In the primary activities, the inbound logistics consist of the gardening products and
the inventory stock piling as per the seasonal plants and the restaurant food production in
batch to the customers, the outbound logistics consist of the virtual merchandising through
expensive decorations and the added services to support the primary gardening services, the
operations consist of restaurant food delivery service with the gardening (Rough 2018). The
added services consist of the pet care, kitchen equipment, flower cutting, books and toys as
well as provision with the lunch and beverages for the customers as per the occasions, the
marketing and sales consists of the gardening plants and the virtual merchandising of the
added services to the diverse portfolio of customers as per their age and needs with public
relation promotion of personality gardeners, the service consists of more than gardening and

7KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
extra attraction services for the tourists and the residents of the area. The after-sales services
are provided with the gardening plants purchase by the customers.
In the support activities, the firm infrastructure consists of the outside space with
parking and enough wide space for the seating arrangement and the customers to walk and
have personal time spending with their family along with the provision of parks for toddlers,
the human resource department consist of the 85 staff with 12 different departments from
dining to administration with full time /part time/ casual staff as per the shift timings in the
company, the technology department consist of not much but the required knowledge and
provision of maintenance of gardening inventory, the procurement division consist of
seasonal stocking of the inventory like plants and the certain types of food supplies for the
restaurant outlet (Muller 2019). .
The business process mapping of the company involves the overall operations
conducted by the company. The business operations can be divided into marketing, finance,
supply chain and the human resource here (Bogoviz et.al, 2019). The marketing section deals
with the sales of the servicing provided by the staff to the customers. The finance department
deals with the allocation of funds and the funds required for the maintenance of assets and
liabilities in the business (Zamora 2016). The supply chain consists of the procurement of the
inventory to the dispatch to customers. The stock piling with stores management and the
warehouse of dispatch to customer with the billing procedure completes the chain (Polling
et.al, 2019). The human resource department consists of the management of the staff as per
the order taking, order making and the order delivery in the restaurant outlet. The gardening
staff has their roles and responsibilities divided into provision of billing, cutting flower,
gardening arrangements. The other staff have the added roles of pet care, kitchen equipment
handling, etc.
The problems evaluated as faced by John Smith in developing his business are:
Problem 1 – Improper customer seating arrangement and segmentation
Problem 2- High maintenance and financial incapability
Problem 3- Demand of staff right skill set
Problem 4- Lack of inventory management

8KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Greenland Garden center has used the mind map to see the issues
occurring in the operation like the inventory problem, staff demand, customer delivery and
the high price maintenance with wide product range. The value chain model, the business
process mapping with the input –processing-output model showed the overall business
functioning.

9KNOWLEDGE WORKSHEET
Bibliography
Bogoviz, A.V., Lobova, S.V., Ragulina, J.V., Alekseev, A.N. and Khachaturyan, A.A., 2019.
The Basic Principles of Functioning and Development of Modern Business Systems.
Specifics of Decision Making in Modern Business Systems: Regularities and Tendencies,
p.31.
Muller, M., 2019. Essentials of inventory management. HarperCollins Leadership.
Pölling, B., Prados, M.J., Torquati, B.M., Giacchè, G., Recasens, X., Paffarini, C., Alfranca,
O. and Lorleberg, W., 2017. Business models in urban farming: A comparative analysis of
case studies from Spain, Italy and Germany. Moravian Geographical Reports, 25(3), pp.166-
180.
Rough, B.A., 2018. The structure and development of commercial gardening businesses in
Fulham and Hammersmith, Middlesex, c. 1680-1861. (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Cambridge).
Tkachuk, V.A. and Vitriak, O., 2019. Perspectives of Development and Enhancement of the
Efficiency of the Functioning of Small Forms of Business on the Village. Problems of World
Agriculture/Problemy Rolnictwa Światowego, 19(1827-2019-4179), pp.108-115.
Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V., Bitner, M.J. and Gremler, D., 2016. Services marketing: Integrating
customer focus across the firm.
Zamora, E.A., 2016. Value chain analysis: A brief review. Asian Journal of Innovation and
Policy, 5(2), pp.116-128.