Operations Management Assignment - Production & Process Design

This document presents a comprehensive solution to an operations management assignment. The solution addresses the nature of operations management in a paper manufacturing company and an internal design office, detailing their respective production processes and operational decisions. It also explores the concerns various functions (marketing, finance, human resources, accounting, and information systems) might have when transitioning from a batch process to an assembly-line process. Furthermore, the assignment includes a description of the soap-making process observed at the Marius Fabre Soap Factory, providing insights into real-world production methodologies. The solution incorporates relevant references to support the analysis and conclusions.

College of Administrative and Financial Sciences
Assignment 1
Deadline: 07/03/2020 @ 23:59
Course Name: Student’s Name:
Course Code: Student’s ID Number:
Semester: 2nd CRN:
Academic Year: 1440/1441 H
For Instructor’s Use only
Instructor’s Name:
Students’ Grade: Marks
Obtained/Out of
Level of Marks: High/Middle/Low
Instructions – PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY
 The Assignment must be submitted on Blackboard (WORD format
only) via allocated folder.
 Assignments submitted through email will not be accepted.
 Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented,
marks may be reduced for poor presentation. This includes filling
your information on the cover page.

 Students must mention question number clearly in their answer.
 Late submission will NOT be accepted.
 Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying
from students or other resources without proper referencing will
result in ZERO marks. No exceptions.
 All answered must be typed usingTimes New Roman (size 12,
double-spaced) font. No pictures containing text will be accepted
and will be considered plagiarism).
 Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted.

Learning Outcome:
 Demonstrate the concept of operations functions, supply chain strategy and
issues required for a new production design.
 Exhibit the factors to determine the production and service processes.
 Demonstrate process-flow analysis, process design solutions, operations
strategies in the business operation.

Assignment Question(s):
(Marks 5)
1) Describe the nature of operations management in thefollowing organizations. In
doing this, first describe the operation process of theproduction system. Second,
identify operations decisions.(Marks 3) (word count maximum:500)
 A paper manufacturing
 An internal design office
2) Suppose that a firm is considering moving from a batch process to an assembly-
line process to better meet evolving market needs. What concerns might the
following functions have about this proposed process change: marketing, finance,
human resources, accounting, and information systems?(Marks 1) (word count
maximum:150)
3) Take a tour of the Soap Factory and describe the process used? (Marks 1) (word
count maximum: 100)
https://www.marius-fabre.com/en/content/34-movies

Answer:
1) Paper plays an important role in the daily life of people and they are utilised for many years.
Paper is generally made with pulp of woods and it is an eco-friendly product (Roth & Rosenzweig,
2020). Operations procedure of the production system:
The first phase is the preparation of raw materials. The raw materials are prepared from the
wood that is delivered to the production system of the company. The woods are cut into various steps
to make the procedure better.
The second stage is the separation of fibres where various types of techniques of pulping are
used in order to make the pulp.
The third stage is the procedure of bleaching where the pulps are bleached with strong alkali in order
to remove the lignin.
The last stage is papermaking where the bleached pulp is cut into shapes and they are put
into a heat box in order to make paper of various shapes and sizes.
The operational decisions must be taken by the production manager at each phase of the
paper manufacturing. During the first phase of manufacturing of paper, the operations decisions that
must be taken is finest quality wood must be taken and the sizes of the wood must be specified by the
production manager. In the second stage of the procedure, the decisions that must take decisions
about the techniques that must be used for the separation of fibers. At the third stage, the manager
must take decision about the alkali that is used in order to bleach the pulp and in the fourth stage; the
manager must take decision about the shape and the size of the paper that will be manufactured. The
manager must take decisions about the quality of the product, the shape and design of the product,
management of inventory and the way woods will be transported to the production system of the
company.

The internal design has various procedures in order to manufacture a design for other
companies. The first step is to get the blueprint of the design. The second step is to get the required
materials those are needed for the design (Haksever & Render, 2017). The third step is to get the
human resources for the design. The fourth step is to design the things with the help of the blueprint
that is developed.
The decision is made by the manger of the company. It is the task of the manager to make
important decision regarding the quality of the design. The manager must take decisions ‘about the
inventory that if any material is not present then they have to purchase it. The decision must be taken
about the transportation of the goods to the production system.
2) Marketing: the concerns that marketing will have from process changes is that the products are
launched very late therefore, marketing of the products will be difficult as the products will be
launched late (Manzini, Erik & Urgo, 2018).
Finance: the concerns that finance will have due to change in the procedure is that more money will
be required as the products will be assembled at various stations and the more budget is required by
the company and it can lead to lack of budget in the company.
Human resources: the concern that the human resources will have due to the change in procedure is
that more human resources are required at every workstation as the parts of the product will be
assembled at every workstation. Therefore, more wages will have to be given to the human resources
Accounting: As the parts of the product will be assembled at each of the workstations, the
accounting has to keep track of the information of accounting at each of the workstation which will
become very difficult. There can errors when keeping track of all the information
Information systems: Each of the workstation will assemble different parts in the product.
Therefore, the information systems have to keep track of all the information in all the workstation
and they have to assemble it together. Therefore, it will be a complex procedure.

3) The process of making the soap in the company provided in the video link is as follows (Burleson
et al.,2017):
The first step is to mix the vegetable oils and the soda ash. The vegetable oils become soap
paste under the action of heat and soda.
The next stage is cleaning the paste with water in order to remove additional soda
The next stage is heating the paste in order to make the paste liquefy more
The next stage is cleaning the paste with water in order to remove the impurities present in the soap.
The hot paste is poured in cooling tanks and then they are left to cool down.
The next stage is to dry the paste in a room and then paste becomes soap. Then the soap is cut into
shapes and sizes according to the company.

References
Burleson, G., Butcher, B., Goodwin, B., Sharp, K., & Ruder, B. (2017). Soap-making process
improvement: Including social, cultural and resource constraints in the engineering design
process. International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering, Humanitarian
Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship, 12(2), 81-102.
Haksever, C., & Render, B. (2017). Service and Operations Management. World Scientific
Publishing Company.
Manzini, M., Erik, D., & Urgo, M. (2018). A proactive-reactive approach to schedule an automotive
assembly line. In PMS2018-16th International Conference on Project Management and
Scheduling (pp. 152-155). ITA.
Roth, A., & Rosenzweig, E. (2020). Advancing Empirical Science in Operations Management
Research: A Clarion Call to Action. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.