Operations and Project Management Analysis of Hercules Cycle Company

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of operations and project management, utilizing the Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited as a case study. The introduction defines the core concepts of operations versus operations management and highlights the importance of operations management. Scenario 1 delves into the review and critique of operations management principles within Hercules Cycle, examining aspects like reality, organization, humility, success, accountability, causality, change, customer collaboration, competition, and quality control. It analyzes the extent to which operations management fulfills organizational requirements and discusses continuous improvement along with lean principles. Scenario 2 covers the project life cycle (PLC) and its application, offering a critique of PLC implementation effectiveness. The report emphasizes continuous improvement philosophies like Kaizen and outlines operation improvement strategies, including employee empowerment, long-term result measurement, and a focus on lean principles. The report provides a detailed overview of the key concepts and their practical applications within the context of the case study.

OPERATIONS AND PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SCENARIO:1..................................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................3
2. Operation Vs. Operation Management...................................................................................3
3. Review and critique of implementation of operations management principles within
Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited............................................................................3
4. Analyse extent where operations management of organization of case study fulfil the
requirement of the organization..................................................................................................5
5. Continuous improvement along with lean principles..............................................................6
6. Continuous improvement plan by applying principles of operation management.................7
7. Operation improvement by applying continuous improvement principles.............................7
SCENARIO:2..................................................................................................................................8
1. Case study overview...............................................................................................................8
2. Project life Cycle and different phases....................................................................................8
3. Application of stages of PLC in the current project................................................................9
4. Critique and review of PLC implementation effectiveness by suitable model.....................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Operation and management of the project means how important is the operation in the
management of the project. Here in the study Hercules Cycle is taken for the study. The
difference between operation and management of the operation is discussed in detail. Importance
of operation management is discussed here. Continuous improvement along with the lean
principles have been elaborated in the study (Artto, Ahola. and Vartiainen, 2016). There are
various principles of operation management and they are related with the continuous
improvement are discussed in detail. The PLC is also described in the study.
SCENARIO:1
1. Introduction
The Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited is a British Bicycle manufacturer
established in 9 September 1910 in Aston England by Edmund and Harry Crane producing 25
bicycles a week initially.
2. Operation Vs. Operation Management
Operation is the action and decision withdrawn by the participants and members of
business affecting factors such as production, distribution, management, service, etc. required for
a company to function requiring use of resources and assets. The procedures are used to create
goods and services and marketed ad sold to the final consumers. The activity focus on increasing
the value to customers. Whereas operations management is administration of business practices
generate maximum level of efficiency possible (Camilleri, 2016). To maximise the profit of the
organizations the procedure is concerned in converting materials and labour into goods and
services. The activity focuses on balancing cost with revenues to achieve maximum operating
profit possible.

3. Review and critique of implementation of operations management principles within Hercules
Cycle and Motor Company Limited.
 Reality – No tool is able to present a universal solution thus the type of activity in
Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited need to focus on overall problem rather that
just techniques so as to maintain the further growth of the enterprise by reducing the
movement of staff and providing CSR activities but on the other hand it requires lot of
time, money and resources to maintain the focus on different problems at time and will
lead to confusion and inefficiency in the working patterns.
 Organization – In the Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited facility, everyone is
interconnected. The activities in this organization are consistent and predictable (Choi.
and et.al, 2018). With the involvement of this element the operations tend to earn income
and profits whereas on the other hand the elimination of this activity will lead in the
elimination of the profit element.
 Humility – The implementation of trial and error programme are extremely costly so the
managers are responsible to understand it's importance and must resolve the issue of staff
movement and implementation of CSR activities (Haniff. and Caldwell, 2019). The
implementation of this program in Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited will lead
the production activity in long rum and helps in saving money, but on the other hand the
activity will lead to the demoralizing the values of staff and slowing the rate of operations
and other business activities.
 Success – The Hercules Cycle Motor Company Limited must know that there are several
definition of what really success is, where the interest of consumers must always be taken
into regard. The Hercules must focus that if they keep the customers happy they will be
coming back to them making them their loyal customers. The case need to strengthen the
employees by keeping the morale of the employees high by implementation of several
CSR activities and motivating them to work effectively.
 Accountability – The Hercules Cycle Motor Company Limited must be accountable in
order to run it's manufacturing operations (Maylor, Turner. and Murray-Webster, 2015).
The factor persists that accountability is must as the managers of Hercules are expected to
set rules and metrics while measuring periodically if these at met on time or not. The
dedicated staff is assigned duties to monitor the activity of staff movement is happening

in a controlled manner or not and establish posts that monitor the happen chance of the
CSR activities for the betterment of the environment.
 Causality – The problem's in this case are similar to it's symptoms, where they two had
underlying causes. If Hercules Cycle Motor Company Limited is trying to get rid of the
problem forever, they must remove the underlying cause or the root of it as well by
implementing several laws and policies for controlling the staff health as a part of CSR
activity.
 Change - The Hercules Cycle Motor Company(HCMC) must consider the positive side of
change as they are beneficial for the processes and procedures by reducing staff moment
and saving time. The process in the HCMC will ensure managing the CSR activities for
the good of environment but on the other hand the employees of the firm might get
factors of boredom and reduce their work efficiency.
 Collaborating with customers – The HCMC must identify the needs and demand of the
customers. The technique in firm will provide complete insight of what can be done to
better the product and organize the production facilities according to the requirements.
 Knowing the competition – The HCMC must identify it's competitors. To gain
competitive advantage amongst it's competitors the firm must understand it's customers,
products, practices.
 Quality Control – The Hercules Cycle Motor Company must know that the most
important function of manufacturing process is quality control. The lack of it in the
process of manufacturing cycles will dis satisfy the customers/ consumers (Meredith,
Mantel Jr. and Shafer, 2017). The HCML must use best processes, materials and partners
for manufacturing quality and durable products.
4. Analyse extent where operations management of organization of case study fulfil the
requirement of the organization.
The extent to which operations management of the organization meet the requirement of
the organization.
Operation management is the management due to which highest level of effectiveness as
well as efficiency is possible in Hercules Cycle and Motor Co. Operation management make the
organization profitable and also planning for any action required in the future. Here the main
objectives of Hercules Cycle are reducing the staff movement which is causing congestion in the

company. Via operation management this objective can be met by doing analysis why the staff
used to do moment and what is the reason behind it (Ochieng. and et.al, 2018). There after report
is made on the moment of the staff in which the causes as well as solutions will be mentioned.
The solution here for the Hercules Cycle will be applying the change management theory in
which the vision of the company will be effectively communicated to the employees. It will be
communicated to the employees that your moment in the lunch in casing congestion via posters
at that place.
If the employees are keeping themselves away irrespective of valid reason then again the
Kotter theory will be applied in order to meet the objective, Obstacle which are allowing to take
the employee leaves will find out and then strict actions will be taken against them which may
also can be termination form the employment. And also leave will not be granted to the
employees if the reason is not valid.
5. Continuous improvement along with lean principles.
Continuous improvement is the process based on the previous result of the company
continuous improvement is made which can be filling up the bottleneck which is hindering the
manufacturing of cycles such as employees not taking interest due to improper training (Perry.
and et.al, 2018).
Lean manufacturing is the process in which the waste activities are removed and focus is
given more towards the productivity improvement. |There are 5 lean principles which are applied
to improve the productivity.
Identifying value form the view of customers
Value of the product is defined by the customer and producer finds out how much the
customer can pay for the product (Pheng. and Meng, 2018). According the producer removes the
not required cost of the product in a way that reduces the price of the product and increases the
profitability of the product.
Mapping of value stream.
Here examining of the process involved in producing a product is analysed. The waste
steps are eliminated in this step.
Creating flow
Here elimination of the waste is done removing the barriers of the function in the
production.

Pull system establishment
Instead of push system pull system is used here. Inventories are determined in the
advance in order to make the product as per the forecast.
Pursue in the continuous improvement in the process
Here the root causes for the waste are tagetes and then waste issues in the quality are
eliminated.
6. Continuous improvement plan by applying principles of operation management
Hercules will apply the continuous improvement philosophy of the Kaizen which means
“change for better”. The change will be made considering the goal of the organization. There are
5 steps in Kaizen such as Standardize in which the Hercules will engage in the process. Measure
in which the process will be analysed that how much effective the process is. Comparison is
done from the previous performance whether the company is meeting the goals or not (Reid. and
Sanders, 2015). Innovative is the fourth step in which the redundancy, hindrances as well as
waste is removed. The last step in Kaizen is Repeat in which all the process which bought good
results in the company due to change is repeated again.
All these steps will followed by applying 3 operation management principles such as
Reality in which Hercules will focus on overall problem instead of techniques used. Because
solely techniques can not bring over all results. Humility will used which in order to save time as
well as cost in the trial and run of the product manufacturing by Hercules. Hercules will then
doing quality control, the focus will be given to customers, the quality control will be done by
consistently taking the feedback of the product and by applying the standard control charts.
7. Operation improvement by applying continuous improvement principles
The operations of Hercules can be improved by using these principles:
Employees to be considered as most valuable asset of the company
This principle will be applied by Hercules, where the organization will encourage the
team work activity in which there will cooperation among office staff and the factory staff. This
will improve the operation by more participation of factory staff of the orders given by the office
staff.
Measuring results on long term basis
As per this principle it is important to measure the performance of the employees in order
to know the efforts and adjust the work accordingly (Schwalbe, 2015). This principle will work

on the long term basis in which if the performance of the employee is weak then reason for the
weak performance will be find out and action against the same will be taken.
Focus on leaning
Hercules will focus on continuous improvement of the employees by providing them
training and development which will make them always motivated and focused towards the
work. This principle will improve the operation of the company by increasing the productivity
among the employees, which will reduce the time taken to complete the task.
SCENARIO:2
1. Case study overview
The large manufacturing company known as Hercules is chosen in which there are 1250
employees and all these employees are having different roles in the organisation. There are office
staff as well as factory workers they are on the extensive site spread across various buildings. I
am a member of the project and I am responsible for the change for Hercules. I am suppose to
manage the project which is in house which is asked to me by the line manager. How the real
terms thorough understating will prevail in order to complete the project by proper planning. The
main objective of the project fro the completion are two:
Reduction is the movement of the staff which is the cause of the congestion issue.
Developing life style which is healthy by promoting CSR activities in order to reduce the
absenteeism.
All these objectives must be analysed by me by applying the Project Life Cycle. By using
the leadership as well as various methods and tools I am required to give the conceptual as well
as theoretical understanding of the project. Using the PLC I am required to produce portfolio
which includes.
Initializing of the project.
Planning of the project.
Execution of project.
Closure of the project.
2. Project life Cycle and different phases
Project Life Cycle contains proper sequence in which the project will pass through. PLC
is modified as per the needs of the project in which various changes such as increasing the cost
of the project, increasing the duration of the project and decreasing the duration of the project all

these changes are made considering the needs as well want of project (Slack. and Brandon-Jones,
2018). Every project have starting, middle period and closure period form which the project
passes through. PLC passes through mainly four stages which are explained below:
Starting phase
It this phase what are the objectives and needs of the project is determined which is
considered as project problem as well as opportunity (Swink. and et.al, 2017). What are the
problems in the project and how to correct the project issues are determined in this phase. After
considering all the factors the project manager approve or decline the project.
Phase of Planning
Considering all the aspects a proper plan is made in which development of the project is
further enhanced. In the planning phase identification of the work to be done is made. The
requirement of the resources in the project which can be the budget of the company, number of
labours required to completed the project, time required to complete the project and the roles and
responsibilities of eh employees are mentioned clearly. The strategy is also mentioned which will
result in effectively completion of the project. Proper schedule is made in planning in which how
much task must be completed at how much time is mentioned.
What are the risk involved in the project is determined and the management of the same
is reflected in the plan. The risk factors are categorised in to three rank such as negligible risk in
which the risk can be ignored, moderate risk in which the project manager must be alert for the
changes to be made in the project and the high level risk in which the manager must think of
winding up of the project.
Phase of Implementation
In that phase the project is implemented according to the plan. Implementation of the
project is done step by step in which the manager timely get the update of implementation
(Verzuh, 2015). The staff of the projects communicate with the manager if there is any change
required or not in the project and accordingly the changes are implemented. The implementation
is compared with the plan and deviation if any is filled out.
Last phase- closing phase
This is the last phase in which the project is delivered to the customer. All the documents
and reports are delivered to the customers in that phase. Feedback is taken from the customers

about what went well and what needs to be improved. If the customer is dissatisfied with the
project then required changes are made.
3. Application of stages of PLC in the current project.
Project initializing phase
In this phase the two objectives are given consideration in the project which are removing
the congestion which is due to moment of the staff in the lunch and reducing the staff
absenteeism by CSR activities by creating healthy work environment (Artto, Ahola. and
Vartiainen, 2016). The healthy work environment will made by developing a park in which
various recreational activities will be conducted such as sports, meditation and work out. The
reasons which are causing the labour to do absenteeism is determined which are due to poor
working environment and lack of interest among the employees. This problem will be sought out
by conducting a meeting in which recreational activities are conducted in order to motivate the
employees and also creating interest among the employees.
Planning phase
In this phase the company will set the policy of two days off for the workers. The budget
for the company is going to be 100000 dollars which will be segregated by purchasing raw
material, concrete and paying the labours. Risk involved in the project is strike out of the labours
and this will be solved by hike in the wages of the labour. It is planned that in the first half
around 75 percent of the project will be completed and in the remaining time finishing of the
project will done (Camilleri, 2016). Cost benefit analysis will be implemented by reducing the
cost in the waste activities which are producing zero result such as using environment friendly
equipment which are cheap and bringing profitable result.
Implementation phase
The plan made is implemented and evaluation of the same will be done on monthly basis.
Any deviation which can be due to stick of the labours and machine breakdown will be sought
out by machine up-gradation on regular basis and also regular training will be provided to the
staff. Here the hierarchy followed will be labour will report to the supervisor, the supervisor will
report to the manager and the manager will report to the project manager about the progress of
the work.
BUSINESS CASE
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors

onsite catering 19 days Wed 9/18/19 Mon
10/14/19
planning 7 days Wed 9/18/19 Thu 9/26/19
stakeholder discussion 3 days Wed 9/18/19 Fri 9/20/19
set aim and objectives 1 day Mon 9/23/19 Mon 9/23/19 3
allotment discussion 3 days Tue 9/24/19 Thu 9/26/19 3,4
Implementation 9 days Fri 9/27/19 Wed 10/9/19
cost allocation 3 days Fri 9/27/19 Tue 10/1/19 5,4
team allotments 2 days Wed 10/2/19 Thu 10/3/19 7
Raw material
purchase 4 days Fri 10/4/19 Wed 10/9/19 8,3,4
monitoring 2 days Thu 10/10/19 Fri 10/11/19
Close monitoring of all
activities 2 days Thu 10/10/19 Fri 10/11/19 9
Closure 1 day Mon
10/14/19
Mon
10/14/19
End of project 1 day Mon
10/14/19
Mon
10/14/19 11
PROJECT PLAN

WORK BREAK DOWN STRUCTURE