Analyzing Operations Management in COVID-19: BUS 326 Assignment

This assignment solution addresses operations management challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part 1 analyzes vaccine development, launch, and rollout, emphasizing the critical role of Time to Market (TTM) from economic and social standpoints, and potential delays. Part 2 examines the supply chain of Carrefour Saudi Arabia, identifying essential qualities for success in the crisis and factors hindering product availability, along with strategies for balancing capacity. The solution references several academic sources and provides a comprehensive overview of the business challenges and solutions in the context of the pandemic. The assignment includes discussion of lean management, resource utilization, technology adoption, inventory management, and supply chain resilience.

Operations Management in COVID-19 Times
1

Contents
Part 1................................................................................................................................................3
Part 2................................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
2

Part 1
A) Developing a vaccine is a tedious process for any company as it goes from many phases
which tested the credibility of using it on human being with different structure without affecting
their health in a negative way.
Developing: Virus, bacteria or any other particle which caused coronavirus will be studied so
that particle which can nullify the effect of it will be identified. In most of the vaccine,
Thimerosal, Formaldehyde, Aluminium, Gelatin, Monosodium Glutamate etc are used to nullify
the impact of it. After preparing the vaccine, volunteer will be identified on which it will be
tested though company needs to ensure that it won’t affect person health in a negative way.
That’s why various steps is taken before i.e., review of immunization history of volunteer,
monitor of health so that volunteer won’t take anything which might affect the end result, the
patient is educated regarding the process and what he/she must do to identify the best result.
After giving the vaccine, its result and impact is administer and monitor so that it will be modify
accordingly (First Person Injected With Trial Coronavirus Vaccine In Seattle, 2020).
Launching: After getting the result, vaccine will be transformed in solid or liquid way so that it
would be injected in to the human body by other doctors around the world. All the symptoms,
precautions, price, way of using etc is printed on medicine wrapper so that patient would follow
the result for maximum positive effect of it.
Rolling out: It will be rolled out in countries like USA, Spain, Italy, China etc which has large
number cases of Corona Virus as compare to other countries.
B) Time to Market or TTM is very crucial in this case as virus is directly creating negative
impact on patient respiratory organs due to which mortality rate from this virus is increasing on a
regular basis. Besides this, it also depends on the immune system of the patient as young blood
has stronger immune due to which they would be able to tackle the virus for longer period of
time as compare to older or children. In terms of economically, each and every sector in the
whole world is affected negatively due to the lockdown orders of government due to which
companies are facing loss on a regular basis (Sampaio & et al., 2016). Some of the statistics
attached are the impact which Coronavirus has already created in the market (coronavirus
impact, 2020).
3

Figure 1: Oil Prices
Figure 2 Stock Markets
4

Figure 3 Manufacturing Industry
Apart from this, According to Moody’s prediction, India growth rate in the coming year would
be 2.5% because of the Corona Impact. In other example, Germany and Spain GDP will also see
a slump due to the loss. On the other hand, it is also creating social instability in the market as
social distancing is marinated from past many months which is affecting people health, education
system, wealth, habits etc. Various factors which could delay TTM is unavailability of finding
vaccine, breakable supply chain, unavailability of resources due to social distancing etc. To deal
with it, government needs to boost the economy by lowering down the bank rates so that more
money liquidity would be available in the market (Croom & et al., 2018).
Part 2
A) Features which needs to be there in the Carrefour Saudi Arabia is given below,
 Implementation of lean management to its best so that less wastage would be done by the
company resulting in high profit margin
 Usage of available resources to its maximum as in the COVID crisis, there are many
resources which are not available in the market but still it needs to be fulfil by other.
 More usage of technology or robots to conduct business operations as through this way,
social distancing would be maintained without affecting the efficiency of supply chain
5

 Most of the work must be transfer from physically to virtually so that if these type of
cases ever appeared in the future that it won’t affect Carrefour performance in the market
thus gaining competitive advantage over others (Vidal & et al., 2018).
B) Due to COVID crisis, one of the problems which is faced by every retail company is to
provide product to customers at the right time and right place with right quantity. To resolve this
problem, company needs to increase their level of inventory as through this, it would be easier
for them to maintain the balance between supply and demand (Tatoglu & et al., 2016). Though
there are various negative effect of it like increase cost price due to higher inventory but it’s the
right time to pay back the society as company is using their resources to attain their goal from
past many years.
Apart from this, broken supply chain network is the also one of the factor which hinder
the smooth functioning of company. For instance, due to shutdown, employees are not coming to
office premises which lead to lack of resources to run the business operations. Besides this, due
to lockdown between international flights, company are not getting right amount of raw materials
which at last affecting their production and manufacturing unit. To balance the capacity,
company needs to mould their manufacturing strategies according to the circumstances so that
they would be able to use the local available raw materials and then try to make the product from
it, by this means, it will assist local economy as well (Prajogo, Oke & Olhager, 2016).
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Croom, S., Vidal, N., Spetic, W., Marshall, D., & McCarthy, L. (2018). Impact of social
sustainability orientation and supply chain practices on operational performance.
International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
Prajogo, D., Oke, A., & Olhager, J. (2016). Supply chain processes. International Journal of
Operations & Production Management.
Sampaio, P., Carvalho, M. S., Fernandes, A. C., Suarez-Barraza, M. F., Miguel-Davila, J. Á., &
Vasquez-García, C. F. (2016). Supply chain value stream mapping: a new tool of
operation management. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management.
Tatoglu, E., Bayraktar, E., Golgeci, I., Koh, S. L., Demirbag, M., & Zaim, S. (2016). How do
supply chain management and information systems practices influence operational
performance? Evidence from emerging country SMEs. International Journal of Logistics
Research and Applications, 19(3), 181-199.
Vidal, N., Croom, S., Spetic, W., Marshall, D., & McCarthy, L. (2018). Impact of Social
Sustainability Orientation and Supply Chain Practices on Operational Performance.
Online
coronavirus impact. 2020. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-impact-on-global-economy-financial-
markets-in-6-charts.html>
First Person Injected With Trial Coronavirus Vaccine In Seattle. 2020. [Online]. Available
Through: https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2020/03/17/first-person-injected-
with-trial-coronavirus-vaccine-in-seattle/#6a4741e52583
7