Operational Planning Report: Strategies, Performance, and Resources

This report provides a detailed analysis of operational planning, encompassing various models and methods like Colour Petri Nets, alongside both formal and informal approaches. It explores the crucial role of operational plans in achieving organizational objectives and delves into the budgeting process, including identifying information flow, measuring factors, gathering historical data, making projections, and determining the breakeven point. The report also examines alternative approaches to developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), emphasizing industry benchmarks, internal processes, and the SMART model. Furthermore, it addresses legislative and regulatory contexts, such as the Age and Sex Discrimination Acts and the Fair Work Act. The report includes an analysis of a Blue Tongue College simulation, outlining the development of an operational plan with tasks, consultation processes, and contingency plans. It also covers resource requirements, strategies for resource acquisition, performance monitoring systems, and recommendations for variations to the operational plan, culminating in a comprehensive understanding of operational planning principles and practices.

Running head: OPERATIONAL PLANNING
Operational planning
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1OPERATIONAL PLANNING
Question 1
Models and methods for operational plans
Colour Petri Nets is a model and tool used for operational planning. This is a modelling
language capable of graphically representing the concurrency, system concepts and non-
determinism. This can be conducted at diverse levels of abstraction by combining mathematical
framework and functional programming language to develop synchronization, resource sharing,
allocation and concurrency.
Formal method
 Discuss with the stakeholders about the specifications
 Document the specifications and sent for approval
 Necessary changes are made if stakeholders requires changes in operation plan
 Develop the operational plan and the actions that have to be taken
 Allocate resources and assign employees to each of the tasks for effective execution of
the operational plan
 Set benchmark performance to maintain the quality of the project
 Monitor the progress of the operational plan and take necessary actions for any deviation
Informal Method
 Discuss ideas with the stakeholders
 Implement the plan immediately
 Monitor the plan to evaluate the output

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Question 2
Role of an operational plan in achieving the organisations objectives
Organizational structure will consist of factors such as roles, responsibilities and rules.
Organizational structure will develop a system in order to achieve the organizational goals. The
flow of information with the organization is determined by the organizational structure. A
specific example is a centralized structure where information flows from top down and on the
contrary information flows at different levels with the organization.
The objectives define the structure of any organization and the organizational structures
are developed in as such way in order to facilitate the realisation of objectives.
The operational plan are developed based on particular objectives and unlike
organizational structure the objective of each operational plan are different and keep on changing
depending upon the requirement.
Question 3
Explain the budgeting process.
In order to develop an effective budget the organization will have to prepare for
contingency at all times. In order to achieve this, the organization will have to divide the tasks
into three categories and they are essential, desirable and dispensable. The budgeting process of
any organization will remain the same depending upon the type of budget. The five processes are
as follows:
 Identifying the information flow where the organization can either use top down
budgeting or bottom up budgeting

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 The organization will have to identify the factor that will measured and the priorities in
the budget
 The organization will have to gather historical data which will consist of developing sales
information and expense information
 The organization will have to make projection based on the collected historical data and
budget will totally depend on the projection. It can either incremental budgeting or zero
based budgeting and some companies use hybrid approach.
 The final step of budget is breakeven point determination
Question 4
Alternative approaches to developing key performance indicators
In order to develop indicators of performance the organization will have to analyse
essential sources of information:
 The organization will have to analyse the industry benchmarks which is same for all the
companies in the sector
 The organization will have to evaluate the benchmarks used by the other companies to
develop the indicators
 Moreover, the internal organizational processes will have to be evaluated to develop
quality standards in order to control the quality of the products
 The historical data related to pervious performance indicators will also have to be
examined to identify the key performance indicators
The indicators will have to be allocated to all areas of business processes and this will consist
of measuring of all operational processes such as inputs, outputs and process outcomes.

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The qualities of the key performance indicators will have to developed based on the SMART
model which will check the appropriateness of each KPI.
Question 5
Legislative and regulatory context relevant to the operational plan
Legislation Explanation Operational relevance
Age discrimination act 2004 This act has been developed to
prevent workplace bullying and
discrimination between based on
their age.
This will censure that people of
having the capability to
contribute to the operational plan
irrespective of their age group.
Sex Discrimination Act 1984 This act was to develop the
employees irrespective of their
sex, marital status and sexual
orientation.
The employees having the
ability to takes part in the
required operational plan will
have to be incorporated
irrespective of their sexual
orientation and gender.
Fair Work Act 2009 This act had been developed in
order to provide the employees
with their basic workplace
including the national
employment standards, national
minimum wage standards and
workplace conditions
The employees should be made
to work in good and hygienic
working conditions by providing
them with their basic rights and
wages
Workplace Gender equality Act
2012
This act has developed in order
to promote gender equality in
The organization should provide
equal opportunity to all the

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workplace and increase the
number of female employees.
This will also foster
communication between both the
genders in terms of their
operations.
employees irrespective of their
fender so that female employees
can take initiatives in working as
a part of the operational plan
Racial Discrimination Act This law has been developed in
order to protect the diversity
within the organizational
workforce.
This will enable employees every
race to work as a team to reach
the organizational goals of the
organization
Event 2 – Blue Tongue College Simulation
1.1 Research and analyse documents
The analysis of the five provided template has been analysed and shows relevant
findings. The findings of the study shows that initially the majority of the student have been
attending their classes but the attendance stared dropping after the first few days and after the
20th day, the attendance is very low.
The performance of the trainer is quite high on all the questions but out of all the
questions question 2 has the weakest response and other questions have a moderate response.
The student support officer has been rated high on both the months but as the response
rate of the survey is 25%, it is one of the biggest limitations of the survey. The sample size for
the study is 1 which means that survey does not hold any significance.

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The result from survey conducted on the assessment materials shows that there is positive
response on this survey and the response rate is 60%. Therefore, the survey is valid and but
higher attendance could have provided better data
The allocated budget is moderate and moderate allocation of resources is possible with
the given budget. Therefore, additional budget is required to fulfil the objective of the study.
1.2 Develop the Operational Plan
Task Name Duration Start Finish
Operational Plan 60 days Mon 5/7/18 Fri 7/27/18
Initial Phase 15 days Mon 5/7/18 Fri 5/25/18
Discuss requirements with the
stakeholders 1 wk Mon 5/7/18 Fri 5/11/18
Document specifications 1 wk Mon 5/14/18 Fri 5/18/18
Deploy plan 1 wk Mon 5/21/18 Fri 5/25/18
Marketing plan 15 days Mon 5/28/18 Fri 6/15/18
develop effective social media web
pages 1 wk Mon 5/28/18 Fri 6/1/18
Increase presence on Twitter 1 wk Mon 6/4/18 Fri 6/8/18
Search Engine optimization and
Marketing 1 wk Mon 6/11/18 Fri 6/15/18
Course Modification 15 days Mon 6/18/18 Fri 7/6/18
Identify the present Student
requirements 1 wk Mon 6/18/18 Fri 6/22/18
Develop new courses 1 wk Mon 6/25/18 Fri 6/29/18
apply courses 1 wk Mon 7/2/18 Fri 7/6/18
Monitoring and Control 15 days Mon 7/9/18 Fri 7/27/18
Evaluate the marketing strategy 1 wk Mon 7/9/18 Fri 7/13/18
Evaluate the new courses 1 wk Mon 7/16/18 Fri 7/20/18
Make necessary changes 1 wk Mon 7/23/18 Fri 7/27/18
1.3 Develop consultation processes
Managemen Trainer Support

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t officer
Outcomes
To increase the number of student by using effective marketing strategies
To increase the number of courses and implement new courses according to
the needs of the consumers
Key Message
The strategies would be developed in order to achieve the set target by the
stakeholders
Channel
The use of social media websites like Facebook and Twitter
The use of tools such as search engine optimization and search engine
marketing
Responsibility The project manager and specialists are responsible for this project
Frequency Conducting based on the developed communication plan
1.4 Develop contingency plans
The essential risk factors in the study are the lack of skilful tutors, unable to identify the
effective new subjects and inefficient segmentation. In order to mitigate this factor , the market
and the rival companies will have to analysed effectively and an effective communication plan
will have to developed for improving team work.
1.5 Develop proposal for resource requirements

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Resource required: Marketing team, search engine optimization, market survey, business
analyst
Owner: Blue Tongue college simulation
Current situation: The organization has been facing issues with the number students they
have and the attendance. Therefore, they need to increase the quality of resources provided by
them to the consumers.
Impact: This will facilitate in increasing the business of the organization and maintain their
sustainability.
Options to address issues: in order to address the issue the organization will have use
effective digital marketing strategy.
Preferred option: Use of Facebook and Twitter, email marketing

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Return on investment (cost versus benefits) in the long term the investment will yield more
revenue than the cost.
Risks: change in consumer trends, the competitors in the market
1.6 Present plans for approval

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Task Name Duration Start Finish
Operational Plan 60 days Mon 5/7/18 Fri 7/27/18
Initial Phase 15 days Mon 5/7/18 Fri 5/25/18
Discuss requirements with the
stakeholders
1 wk Mon 5/7/18 Fri 5/11/18
Document specifications 1 wk Mon 5/14/18 Fri 5/18/18
Deploy plan 1 wk Mon 5/21/18 Fri 5/25/18
Marketing plan 15 days Mon 5/28/18 Fri 6/15/18
develop effective social media
web pages
1 wk Mon 5/28/18 Fri 6/1/18
Increase presence on Twitter 1 wk Mon 6/4/18 Fri 6/8/18
Search Engine optimization and
Marketing
1 wk Mon 6/11/18 Fri 6/15/18
Course Modification 15 days Mon 6/18/18 Fri 7/6/18
Identify the present Student
requirements
1 wk Mon 6/18/18 Fri 6/22/18
Develop new courses 1 wk Mon 6/25/18 Fri 6/29/18
apply courses 1 wk Mon 7/2/18 Fri 7/6/18

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Monitoring and Control 15 days Mon 7/9/18 Fri 7/27/18
Evaluate the marketing strategy 1 wk Mon 7/9/18 Fri 7/13/18
Evaluate the new courses 1 wk Mon 7/16/18 Fri 7/20/18
Make necessary changes 1 wk Mon 7/23/18 Fri 7/27/18

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Task 2: Plan and manage resource acquisition
2.1 Develop and implement strategies for physical resource
The organization will require new technologically superior gadgets to ease the learning and
purchase in new projectors
2.2 Develop and implement strategies for recruitment of an additional Trainer
In order to recruit an additional trainer, the organization will have to develop increase the pay
scale and appoint highly experienced and skilled trainers having industry experience.
2.3 Incorporate intellectual property rights requirements in resource allocations
The organization would not be able to material and sources of any other rival company
which will lead to the violation of the intellectual property rights.
Task 3: Monitor operational performance
3.1 Develop performance system
The organization will develop a system based on the key performance indicators to to
track the activities and evaluate the performances.
3.2 Identify areas of underperformance
The attendance is the lowest after the first two weeks which shows that students hav to
be improved by increasing the quality of the materials and trainers.