University Operations Management Report: A2Z Case Study

This report analyzes the operations management of A2Z, a chain of convenience stores. It begins by outlining the tasks and decision-making responsibilities of an Operations Manager, including workplace demographics, technology, and scheduling changes. It then details the necessary cooperation between the Operations Manager and the Marketing, Finance, and HR managers. The report also explores the service process and physical layout likely used by the stores, as well as key considerations for international expansion. The second part of the report provides a literature review and critique of supply chain management paradigms, including lean, agile, resilient, and green supply chains. It discusses the effects of each paradigm on supply chain and organizational performance, providing a comprehensive overview of operational strategies and their impact.

Running Head: Managing Operations
Managing Operations at A2Z
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Application of Theory....................................................................................................1
Literature Review and Critique of Theory.................................................................5
Lean supply chain management.................................................................................5
Agile supply chain management................................................................................6
Resilient supply chain management...........................................................................7
Green supply chain management...............................................................................8
Reference........................................................................................................................9
Application of Theory

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What tasks and decision-making responsibilities would you assign to the Operations
Manager?
The A2Z store is present in five major cities of United Kingdom and they are
accessible for 24 hours and seven days a week. Being the CEO of the retail convenience store
it was profitable to cater the cities of Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, London and Newcastle
as the population of the cities is growing day by day (Rao and Tilt 2016). The upcoming aim
of catering the market internationally will comprise of taking certain decisions by the
operational manger and is advised to take up the authority and responsibility for managing
the operation (Brewster, Brookes and Gollan 2015). The following task and decisions making
responsibility that must be assigned to the operational manager of the company is discussed
below:
Workplace demographic: it is important for the operational manager to access the workplace
environment and keeps a check on the demographic information of the employees working in
A2Z. This is vital because the department comprise of physical activities like unloading
goods from one retail chain to another (Blake et al, 2015). Hence this requires the employee
to be strong enough in travelling and carrying goods.
Technology: the operation manager must facilitate its employee with an opportunity of
training because this will allow the employee to get the work done fast and can operate
machine more quickly. This will result in more output and less of negligence of work.
Involving the employee into decision making process will assist the manager to create a sense
of ownership of the upcoming challenges.
Assigning duties: the operational manager must involve the staffing changes which alters the
responsibility of the employees and may require them for cross-training in order to cope up
with new equipments and new role. During this phase the operational manager must sense the
ability and qualification of the employee in new roles and can decide on assigning the duties
respectively.
Scheduling change: operational manager must think about the best time for proposed change
or transition. During the peak seasons the products from the central house should not be
overhaul warehouse equipment during sales season like holidays.

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Checking resources: the manger delegates the responsibility of checking the resources, must
suggest for changes and should however verify the needs (Black 2019).
For which decisions would the Operations Manager have to cooperate with the:
i) Marketing manager: the decisions taken by the marketing manager of A2Z comprise
tracking the activities of the filed resources, performance of the advertisement campaign,
managing the marketing budget and however it also ensures that all the materials are in line
with the brand identity (Supanti, Butcher and Fredline 2015). Therefore the operational
manager must cooperate with the decisions taken by the marketing manager because the
manager is expertise in marketing field and knows how to conduct the business in the market
with the existence of the rival firm. The marketing manager needs to coordinate with the
budget allowed from the operational manager and accordingly plan out its advertisement
campaign.
ii) Finance manager: on the other hand the decision taken by the finance manager
corresponding with the decisions of the operational managers holds caters to the
responsibility of holding the financial health of the retail outlets (Musa 2015). Each of the
regional finance managers creates the financial report every month and showcase to the
operational head. However the operational manager must indulge into direct investments and
activities and create to strategies and plan for long term financial goals.
iii) HR manager: the decisions taken by the human resource manager comprise of
developing and implementing the HR initiatives and strategies which is aligned with the
overall retail business strategies. The human resource manger must be supported by the
operational manager in order to bridge the gap and involve the employee relations by
addressing the grievances, demands and issues (Kusumawardani and Agintiara 2015). The
human resource manager must inculcate the decision of recruiting and selecting employees
who are motivated to work and holds the ability of conduct the business activities.

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(c) What type of service process and physical layout would each convenience store be most
likely to be using and why?
In the recent technological development it is a great challenge for the retail outlet to
shape the consumer landscape which tends to be the primary goal of the retail strategy
(Bonges and Lusk 2016). It is important for the customer work together with the merchandise
affect their purchase behaviour. The retail convenience store layout comprise of two main
components.
Store design: the use of the strategic floor planning identifies the space management and
includes the fixtures, displays and furniture.
Customer Flow: determines the outline of behaviour and examines the way the purchaser
navigates the store. It helps in analyzing the customer floor and the common patterns which
merge the customers to interact with the brands based on the store layouts is also critical to
the retail management strategy.
However it is essential for the store layouts to research and understand the customer
navigation at the relation convenience store and can start to influence how they interact with
the brands (Shadel et al, 2016). The convenience store uses the Grid Store Layout where the
design is familiar in almost all the retail chains. This however facilitates the customers to
move more quickly through there is efficient floor space used in standardized fixtures and
displays.
(d) Which do you think would be the key considerations for operations management
decisions the Operations Manager would face when expanding to other countries?
Some of the key considerations for the operational management decisions taken by
the operational manager are:
 Managing overhead: while expanding the business it is important for the
operational manager decide over the operational overheads like the admin
expenses, insurance, utility charges and rent charges (Reid and Sanders 2019).
The excessive charges are particularly the damages if they are not mentioned in a

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correct time. The manager must decide over at spending the utility payments, and
also cater to what can be cut back while expanding.
 Monitoring Performance: the decision taken by the operational head is to
illustrate the team performance and design the set of indicators which shows how
well the team members are performing in the business (Gunasekaran et al, 2015).
The results must be measured before hand and the performance must be measured
as per the progress and evaluate the management cycle.
 Regulation: the problems which can be dealt while expanding is the regulation
and compliance of the particular country. It is determined on the particular sector
it will be operating, evolution of technology with the new set of rules ad
regulation. In such cases fines and penalty comes in play it the problems are not
recognized beforehand.

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Literature Review and Critique of Theory
Supply chain management can be defined as the stream of goods and services which
includes the process of transforming rare materials into finished goods. The supply chain
management of A2Z comprise of active streaming of the business supply side that holds the
behavior to maximize the customer value and gain a competitive advantage in the market
(Azfar, Shahzad and Mumtaz 2017). The following techniques of green, resilient, lean and
agile management paradigms assist the companies in the supply chain management to
become more sustainable and competitive. However the literature review attempts to identify
the paradigms trade-offs and creates the main purpose to analyze the supply chain attributes
which can also be managed.
Lean supply chain management
The lean supply chain management is a term which is introduced for the convenience
store in UK which form the base for the A2Z Production System which comprise of two main
pillars which are mechanized and just-in-time (JIT) production. Hence the focal point of the
lean approach is essential for the convenience store which has been essential to manage the
waste reduction in order to increase the actual value added and fulfill the customer
requirements and also maintain profits. The new structural approach of A2Z creates the way
which is the convenience store uses lean production to alter the natural history of the brands
which are available (Azfar, Shahzad and Mumtaz 2017). This particular approach of supply
chain is based on catering to reduce the cost and increase flexibility hence be more focused
on the process to inculcate the improvement. The changes which is fostering to improvement
are bought through the process of reduction and eliminating waste. This system of lean
supply chain embraces the procedure of the product life cycle which starts with the designing
of the products till the sale of the same, also includes the process of customer order and
delivery system.
The company had comprehensive the scheme of lean production starting from the
downstream level till the top management. The company defines this system of supply chain
as reducing or minimizing the level of waste in the lower level of supply chain either from
the warehouse or from the retail store itself. The distribution of the goods and services in the
store includes the making of the making of right production accessible to the end customers
at correct time and place (Boonsthonsatit and Jungthawan 2015). However the internal

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system of manufacturing comprise of the efficiency and setting up of non-value steps along
the supply chain, economic manufacture of small quantity, increase productivity, cost
reduction and manufacture in a flexible manner.
Therefore at the equipped level in A2Z the lean pattern is incorporated by using a
number of techniques such as visual signals that follow the pulling the product through the
process of acquired number of customers (Afonso and do Rosário 2015). The next way the
management can function is through the process of keeping a visual housekeeping system
which develops organizes over the convenience store.
Agile supply chain management
The align supply chain management system creates the objective of delivering the
right product at the correct time in the right state and accurate place, correct time and labeling
the right cost (Azfar, Shahzad and Mumtaz 2017). The requirement of the customers varies
from changes; the supply chain management must adopt the changes as per the technological
advancement and respond to the changes of the market. In lean supply chain management the
focal point is also on reducing of waste but is align to the supply chain which focuses on the
ability to comprehend and act in response to the market changes. The align system is
important to create a difference in the supply and is associated with scheduling where as this
management system caters to reserve the capacity to cope with violated demands. It caters to
have the ability and respond in a quick manner and make it cost effective to the unpredicted
changes in the store or marketplace and increase the intensity of the turbulences both in
variety and in terms of volume.
This particular type of supply chain management system creates integration in
business partners and enables new competencies in order to take action rapidly to the changes
and repeatedly fragment the market (Tarafdar and Qrunfleh 2017). The main element of align
management is to build up a supply chain management which are dynamics of structure and
the association pattern. It also holds the end to end visibility of in sequence and drives the
event based management. The main difference between the lean and align system of supply
chain is that the purpose of lean management is to create a focus on reducing the cost and
flexibility for the products which are valuable in the convenience store. On the other hand the
align supply chain caters the purpose of understanding the customer requirement by
interfacing the customers and market place and can create the prospect changes (Malakouti,

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Rezaei and Shahijan 2017). The align system create virtual company with the associates that
vary with the different products offered in the market and also caters to frequent changes. The
suppliers in this type of management system comprise of suppliers attribute like speed,
quality and flexibility.
Resilient supply chain management
The next system of supply chain management is the resilient which creates the
evidence of the convenience store and look for out the low-cost solution because of the
weight on the margin and that strength have led to leaner but additional of vulnerable supply
chain. The marketplace in United Kingdom is categorized by senior levels of turbulence and
violations. The supply is defenseless to disturbance and in consequence to the risk the store
continues to increase (Azfar, Shahzad and Mumtaz 2017). However in the olden times the
principle objective of the supply chain design was more of cost effective or catered to service
optimization, consequently the emphasis is more on the resilience. The resilient supply chain
management system many turn out to be the lowly cost and more capable of coping with the
uncertainty of production surroundings. Resilience refers to the capability of the management
system to manage with the uncertain disturbance as it is worried with the ability to return
back to its innovative state or in new one, experiencing a commotion, making it more
attractive and neglect the happening of failure modes.
The aim of this supply chain management system is to create an analysis and manage
to prevent the shifting the undesired states that is one which is familiar with the analysis and
the management to prevent the shifting to the undesired state where the ones the failure
modes occur (Kamalahmadi and Mellat 2016). Hence the aim if the management system
caters to distribute the acceptability of time and also accept the cost on the other hand also
accepts the usefulness of the disturbance by altering the level of the potential threat. The skill
to recuperate the disturbance in the developed responsive capacity through the way of
flexible and redundancy.
The comparison between the align and resilient is to on the manufacturing attribute. In
case of resilient the emphasize to create on the flexibility with the element of negligible batch
sizes and capacity to get better the supply chain responsiveness where the schedule is on
planning the shared in sequence. On the other hand in case of lean there is high maintainace
of average utilization rate. With reference to the lean supply chain the time practice is very

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important, pushing the goods and services from side to side the system based on the demand
of the market place.
Green supply chain management
The last technique of supply chain management system is the green technique which
had catered in emerging the company’s philosophy in order to cooperate with the revenue
system and share the common objective by reducing the environmental risk. Hence this type
of supply chain management system assists in improving the ecological efficiency of this
company and the other convenience store. There are changes in the policy system of UK
government as it had introduced the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipments directive in
the European Union which had converted the industry in being more responsible for post-
consumer disposal (Azfar, Shahzad and Mumtaz 2017). There are more attributes like they
government body has also implemented the sustainability operations across the supply chain
of A2Z. There is also an increased pressure from the society and environmentally concerned
into the managerial activities. However it is important to incorporate the value of
environmental management accomplished into the complete supply chain management
system which brings in sustainability and also maintains the competitive advantage.
The green supply chain management system is prone to put into practice the overall
supply chain management system, from the green purchasing till the integrated life-cycle
management, where the practice leads through the manufacturer, closing the loop and
communicating with the customers in order to reserve logistics. The green supply chain
includes the greening the process of supply chain where it can represent the application of the
management activities and collaborates with the suppliers of the brand (Fahimnia, Sarkis and
Davarzani 2015). Secondly it is the product-based green supply which is proactive approach
and it can be used as an environmental criteria in sharing the risk, join in with new
technology and lastly evaluating the buyers performance. Lastly it can illustrate in the form
of eco-design where the convenience store develops the products in order to make it stronger
and energy efficient and also avoid the use of toxic equipment and disassembled for recycle.

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