Operations Management Assignment - KSA 2020: Strategy & Processes

This Operations Management assignment solution addresses key concepts within the field. It begins by defining Operations Management and identifying crucial changes in the business environment, such as population shifts, economic activity, and socio-political factors. The assignment then delves into Operations Performance, outlining objectives like speed, quality, and flexibility, with real-world examples. The 'Top-Down Model of Strategy' and the concept of 'Core Competency' are explained, followed by a discussion of Business Processes and their relationship to Operations Performance Objectives. The '4 Stage Model of Operations Contribution' is analyzed, with the positioning of company operations functions. The role of ERP systems in integrating organizational information is explained with an illustration and benefits are provided. The terms 'Planning and Control' are defined, and the P:D ratios are analyzed. Furthermore, the assignment explores stress causes and mitigation strategies, along with an explanation of Ergonomics and its principles in the office environment.

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Question 1
a. Define the term 'Operations Management' and list at least five
changes in the business environment that are shaping a new
operations agenda.
According to Medushevsky (2014), operations management refers to the administration of
practices of business for creating efficiency of the highest level within an organization.
However, it relates to the conversion of labor as well as materials into services/goods with the
maximum possible efficiency to maximize the organizational profit.
As far as changes in the environment of business are concerned, the five major indirect
drivers are influencing the services of ecosystems as well as the ecosystem are:
 Change in Population: It includes migration as well as growth in the population. In the last
four decades, it has been witnessed that the population of the world increased twice in 2000,
making it 6 billion, along with growth taking place in countries that are developing.
 Economic Activity Changes: In the last five decades, the activity of the global economy has
accelerated. As there is growth in the economy, the demand for ecosystem
services accelerates and also the consumption structure also changes. The income share
which has been devoted to food reduces in favor of industrial services as well as goods.
 Socio-Political Factors: Such factors include processes of decision-making as well as the
extent of participation of the public in them. The fashion toward institutions of democracy
over the five decades has helped in the empowerment of communities locally. Also, there has
been an acceleration in agreements of a multilateral environment.
 Religious & Cultural Factors: Culture is defined as the notion, values, and norms shared by
a group. It conditions the perceptions of the individuals in the world and suggests various
courses of action having an important influence on various drivers, such as the behavior of
consumers.

 Technology & Science: An extreme advancement was witnessed in the 20th century in the
process of understanding the working of the world and in the applications of the knowledge
technically. In the output of agriculture, over the last four decades, much of the increase
emerged from an acceleration in yields per hectare instead of an expansion of the area.
b. Define the term 'Operations performance' and describe 5
Operations Performance Objectives using a real-life example to
justify your answer
According to de Leeuw and van den Berg (2011), operation performance refers to the
measurement of results relating to the assets used for achieving the results. For this
presentation, this efficiently could be deemed incorrect as the output ratio performed by
activity or process related to the required total energy spent.
In addition to this, the objectives of operational performance refer to the areas of operational
performance that a company tries improving in a bid for meeting its strategy of the
corporation. Here are the five operations performance objectives-
 The Objective of Speed
This objective measures the speed at which the company can deliver the products, therefore,
generates quotes on sales. The particular objective is concerned with these issues as the time
taken by it to manufacture as well as a process one or more company’s products or the time.
 Product’s Quality
The quality of a product is considered for measuring how well a product conforms
corresponding to certain specifications.
 Costs Variation
The cost variation objective considers the degree of variation present in the cost unit of a
product by changes as measured in various factors, which includes a variety of products as
well as the volume.
 Operational Flexibility

As stated by Kulchania and Thomas (2014), flexible operation refers to the operations that
can configure the lines of the product to deal with requirements together with adjusting these
lines of product quickly to fresh requirements. The second is related closely to the objective
of speed.
 Operational Performance Dependability
The objective of operational performance measures the dependability of the company in
terms of timely delivery of the products to its respective customers, about planned costs as
well as prices. The ability of the product to function in a pre-determined way consistently
over a while is also a measure of dependability.
Question 2
a. Describe and illustrate the 'Top-Down Model of Strategy' and explain the term 'Core
Competency' in relation to the illustration.
According to Perry and Tucker (2018), the Top-Down Model of Strategy involves fetching
material in bulk and further fragmenting it. Making it crush and grinding now is treated as
operations of low-technology.

.
According to Eckel et al. (2016), core competency refers to the combination of skills as well
as resources distinguishing a firm in the market and are, therefore, the base of
competitiveness of the company. In the illustration below, core competency can be defined as
the 'unique selling proposition' of the company which makes the company stand out from its
marketers; this could be the advertisement which must be made extraordinary and catchy by
the advertising agency for attracting its potential customers.
b. Define the term ‘Business Process’ and explain the relationship between the Process
Design Objectives and the 5 Operations Performance Objectives.
According to Nadarajah and Syed A. Kadir (2016), the business process refers to the
collection of interconnected tasks that accomplishes searching the product/service delivery to
the client. This particular need to involve the defined inputs together with a single output.
Such inputs are found on various factors which directly/indirectly contributes to the value-
added of a product/service.
Question 3
a) Describe the ‘4 Stage Model of Operations Contribution’.
The four stages model of operation contribution areas such-
 Stage 1: Neutral
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At stage 1, the companies to the requirements are reactive rather than being proactive. The
prime emphasis is avoiding major mistakes. The Only focus is to avoid a big mistake.
Stage 2: Supportive
The supportive stage refers to adopting practices of the industry by making comparisons to
others in the industry. In case the stage is properly implemented, the companies become
capable of implementation of the strategy of the business, regardless of providing an
advantage in the competition.
 Stage 3: Externally Neutral
Implementation of the strategy of operations takes place about the strategy of the business at
this particular stage. Therefore, the main objective is the creation and optimization of the
process continuously for creating a competitive advantage.
 Stage 4: Externally Supportive
This stage is about conveying operations like competitive advantage through capability as well
as to make a strategy for the overall organization around the operations.
b) Explain with justification, where would you position the following two Company
operations functions on the above 4 Stage Model of Operations Contribution illustration
(by Hayes and Wheelwright model of operations contribution)?
Operation One: it provides the basis on which it competes –it recently developed advanced
AI software to enable the company to access new larger corporate clients who, in addition to
basic accountancy services, value the customer intelligence that working with it can offer
them.
Answer: This is positioned as Stage 4, i.e., externally supportive. This is because here it
provides based on its competition. Also, in stage 4, the intent is to provide a source of
competitive advantage.
Operation Two: is better than most of its competitors and has an active voice in the strategic
direction of the firm. Recently, the operations team worked closely with marketing to respond
to a key client's request to develop more automated processing of high-volume, low- variety

work on their behalf. The initiative has proved successful, so marketing is becoming
increasingly keen to build on this internal ‘win-win relationship.
Answer: This is positioned as stage 2: externally neutral referring to the fact that objective
is to maintain a competitive advantage
Question 4
a. ERP Integrates information from all parts of the organization.
Explain this statement using an illustration and list 5 ERP
benefits.
According to Vasiljeva and Berezkina (2018), the ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning
refers to a process adopted by companies for management and integration of the essential
parts of their businesses. Most of the applications of ERP software are significant as they help
in the implementation of resource planning through the integration of all of the required
processes for running the companies with one system.
The below illustration can help in understanding ERP in a better way-
Moreover, as far as benefits of ERP are concerned, here are following five
benefits -
 Better Service for Customer
 Reductions in Cost
ERPPlanningInventoryPurchasingSalesMarketingFinanceHumanResource

 Accelerated Automation
 Opportunities for Growth
 Visibility
b. Explain the terms ‘Planning and Control’. Analyze the illustration
below indicating the different P:D Ratios for Responding to
demand
According to Maguire (2012), the terms planning and control is related to the reconciliation
between the requirements of the market and what the resources of the operation can deliver.
The activities of planning and control provide the procedures, systems as well as decisions
bringing various aspects of parallel supply and demand.
In the above illustration, the P:D ratio in the first example of ‘advertising agency,
construction project’ is 1: 1. This is because P=D, which means the demand time is equal to
the time taken for delivering the final good, or it can also be said as the management of the
flow of operation. However, in the second example of website development, customer
furniture production, the P:D ratio is 1:2 which means the time taken by the production cycle
is twice the time expected by the customer to get its demand fulfilled, i.e., receiving the
furniture or getting the website ready.
Question 5
a. Minimizing the causes of stress in organizations is vital for all
staff concerned. Discuss at least five causes of stress and
suggestions on how to deal with each of them.
The five causes of stress in an organization are as follows-
 Long Working hours: According to Kawada (2016), the long working hours are connected
with insufficient recovery as a result of reduced hours of rest times as well as sleep.
Moreover, working long hours are connected with extended exposure to dangerous working
condition. It is because of this, the influence of working for long hours must be investigated
in terms of other conditions of working, including stressors of the occupation.
Suggestion: Recharging yourself sin between work & Establishment of boundaries.

 Excessive Workload: Financial issues, job insecurity, and the competition of job in the
market propel employees in taking on heavy workloads and making compromises. Also,
working for long hours is connected to commitment as well as with loyalty in most of the
organizations. In the present scenario, it is common to see employers requiring their staff
to work till late at night or, at times, could also cancel plans at the very last moment,
leading to burnout and stress in the long run.
Suggestion: Looking for other ways to do the job & Prioritizing and scheduling deadlines
 Urgent Deadlines: Deadlines set randomly might not consider the amount of work required
for completing a project. Therefore, looking at an emerging deadline which an individual
already knows is next to impossible to meet or it requires working overtime which, as a
result, becomes stressful.
Suggestion: Avoid Panicking from the deadline & Assessing the feasibility of the deadline
 Changes to duties: According to Oxtoby (2016), in any particular organization, as
mentioned any change to the role of an employee has the potential of causing stress
Suggestion: Creating Allocation of Goal & Time & Reconsidering the meetings
 Fewer Opportunities for Promotion: The consequences of stress can be high blood
pressure about stroke or heart attack. In an organization, not all individuals are capable of
handling urgent deadlines and high demand
Suggestion: Building Social Support & Considering Emotional Intelligence at work.
b. Explain the term ‘Ergonomics’ and list at least 3 Ergonomic
principles in an Office Environment
According to Kawai (2017), ergonomic is the process of arrangement or designing products,
workplaces, and systems to make it appropriate for its users. Also, according to Toomingas
(2014), ergonomics refers to the branch of science aiming to learn about limitations as well as
the abilities of the human and consequently applying this learning for improving the
interaction of people with environments, products and systems.

As far as three ergonomic principles in an office environment are concerned, we have-
Principle 1: Maintaining Neutral Postures
The neutral postures are the postures where the torso is balanced and aligned at the time of
standing, sitting, etc. giving minimum stress to the body and making the joints aligned.
Principle 2: Working in the Comfort Zone
The respective principle is much similar to maintaining a neutral posture, at the same time
worth expounding upon here.
Principle 3: Allowing for Movement/Stretching
While working at the workplace, working for long hours in a static position can develop
fatigue in your body, known as a static load.
Part 2
Question 6
a) Using the table below, determine at least 4 Inputs, 4 Transformation Processes, and 1
Output for the following operations:
Department Store
Frozen food manufacturer
Operation Some of the Operation’s Inputs Some of the Operation’s Processes Some of the Operation’s
Outputs
Departme
nt Store
Furniture,
Homeware &
Customers
Displaying Furniture,
Restoring Visual Display &
Warehouses and,
Answering Queries
Satisfied
Customers

Frozen
Food
Manufactu
rer
Eatables,
Cold Water &
Cold drinks
Storing eatable food, using
cold water for drinking &
cold drink for selling
Increase in the
number of sales
b) Calculate the productivity for the following operations:
A team of workers makes 400 units of a product, which is sold in
the market for $10 each. The accounting department reports that
for this job, the actual costs are $400 for labor, $1,000 for
materials, and $300 for overhead.
Total units produced= 400
Selling Price of each unit=10$
Solution-
Total Costs Incurred= 400(labour)+1000(materials)+300(overhead)= 1700$
Cost of one unit produced=400/10=40$
Productivity=1700/40=42.5
Question 7
Using the ‘4 Vs. ’ analysis model determines which one should it be?

Based on the analysis of the 4vs model, among all the one that should be followed is 'on
velocity' which is the second option. According to Nelson (2018) & Kaur and Sood (2017),
there is a continuous flow of cakes which leads to the generation of more income than from
their existing products, ultimately making it even more distributed.
Question 8
a. Why would an airline use a catering services company rather than
organize its onboard services?
This is because preparing food for so many people based on proximity
rather than accuracy would be a difficult task for the airline onboard
services. Moreover, using catering services would benefit them as the
service provider would take care of all the need right from the food to
packing, which would be a problematic task for the onboard services.
b. What are the objectives of the main operation that a catering
services company must achieve to satisfy its customers?
Good quality of Food, On-time Delivery and Good Packaging
c. Why is it important for airlines to reduce turn-around time when
an aircraft lands?
This is because the arrival/departure time of flight most of the time is uncertain and the

customers take time in settling in the flight.
d. Why were the Northern Foods – DHL consortium a threat to more
traditional catering companies?
This is because the Northern Foods-DHL consortium provides food on time and also they are
located near the airport.
Question 9
a. Which step is the bottleneck for the Standard car wash process?
For the Deluxe car wash process?
Standard= A2, Deluxe= A4
b. What is the capacity (measured as customers served per hour) of
Keith's Car Wash to process Standard and Deluxe, customers?
Assume that no customers are waiting at step A1, A2, orA8.
Can't e be estimated as we don't know whether customers are or aren't
waiting at other steps other than A1, A2 or A8.
c. If 60 percent of the customers are Standard and 40 percent are
Deluxe, what is the average capacity of the car wash in customers
per hour?
100/2=50/8=6.25
d. Where would you expect Standard wash customers to experience
waiting for lines, assuming that new customers are always
entering the shop and that no Deluxe customers are in the shop?
Where would the Deluxe customers have to wait, assuming no
Standard customers?
Both of them have to wait in A2.

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Kawai, T. (2017). Keynote7 Ergonomics in Advanced Imaging
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