Mark & Spencer's Operations Management: BM563 Coursework Report

This report provides an analysis of operations management practices at Mark and Spencer, focusing on supply chain management, quality management, and the integration of technology. It critically evaluates the impact of these practices on the company's efficiency and success. The report also explores how technology has been embedded in the operational management process and discusses supporting functions that contribute to organizational success. It highlights areas where Mark and Spencer excel, such as maintaining a strong supply chain and emphasizing quality, while also pointing out areas for improvement, such as adapting to changing customer demands and leveraging technology more effectively. Desklib offers similar solved assignments for students.

OPERATIONS AND
SERVICE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Operation management practice in Mark and Spencer:...............................................................4
Critical analysis of operational management practice which impact the efficiency of the
business organization:..................................................................................................................5
The ways in which technology has been embedded in operation management process and how
this has been already achieved by mark and Spencers................................................................7
Supporting functions of operational management practice that evaluate the ways to assist
organizational success..................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Operation management means handling and managing operations of business to create
efficiency within a business organization. Business operations are usually concerned with
manufacturing and production unit where the company required raw material, labour and other
resources for the production process (Barnes, 2018). Operations management is one of the most
important thing in the business as they ensure the smooth flow of the process and help company
to generate surplus profit. This study is based on Mark and Spencer, this company is well know
for its retail products which include clothing, home decor. Furniture. Food and beverage and
many other product. Mark and Spencer is one of the largest retail company in the world (Mark
and Spencer, 2021). In this report we will discuss operational management practice in the
business organization and discuss how this impact the business management. Later we will
discuss how technology is beneficial in the process of operation management. At last, we will
discuss functions of operation management within a business organization.
MAIN BODY
Operation management practice in Mark and Spencer:
Operation is one of the most important thing in the business organization, these
operations are related to management of manufacturing and production unit. Although there are
certain types of operations in the business which help company to reach the desired result.
Operation management is one of the most difficult and challenging process in the business as it
required various management practice and if the company have ability to management their
operation effectively then they can increase the overall efficiency of the business organization
(Brown, Bessant and Jia, 2018). Mark and Spencer is the best example of operation management,
this company have been handling their business operation so effectively that they have become
efficient enough to become a market leader. One of the best practice of operation management of
mark and Spencer are:
Supply chain management: supply chain is the heart of the business operation, this means
business have been successful delivering their goods in the market and fulfilling the demand of
the customer. It is very crucial for the business to strong their supply chain because demand may
shift the customer to the competitor who tend to provide goods on the high demand. The Mark

and Spencer have one of the strongest supply chain which keep the customer satisfaction high
and maintain their position in the market (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger, 2021). This
company have been well-known its fast supply of the products and service in the market but still
at some point this company lack behind and let the competitors steal the customer from target
market. Most of the recent case of failure in supply chain of this company was then it unable to
provide trendy cloths to the customer as they have expected that Mark and Spencer will be the
provider but due to weak supply chain this company have lost a wide range of clothing customer
and made them jump to their competitors. But still at some point this company have been
satisfying its customer with its strong supply chain in the operation management of the business
organization.
Quality management: quality is one of the most important part in the business, this means the
level of richness of a particular product. Every business organization try to develop high quality
product to fulfil the demand of the customer in the market. Quality can be improved through
certain ways, these ways are very beneficial (Chary, 2017). Customer demand high quality
product from the business as they are willing to pay the desired price if the quality of the product
is high. Many times business fairly provide high quality product to the market but sometimes
they violate the price with the quality which impact the brand name and image. The Mark and
Spencer provide high quality product to the market as they know the value and importance of
keeping the customer satisfied. This company have been providing quality product but the price
range may be not suitable for some customer, although this company provide reasonable price
range to the customer. The Mark and Spencer try to improve the quality of the product by
applying TQM practice, these Total Quality Management practice include:
TQM is core operational management practice which allow company to effectively
manage their quality of the product, this highlight certain important element in the process.
These techniques usually make an organization customer focused which means they will deal
and only focus on the improvement of the products to win the customer in the target market.
Critical analysis of operational management practice which impact the efficiency of the business
organization:
Operation management ensure that efficiency remain high in the business organization,
the main purpose of operational management is to bring the highest level of efficiency in the
business organization. The Mark and Spencer effectively manage their operation to increase

efficiency in the business organization, it is very clear that if business have ability to manage
their operation than they will become market leader. Operational management practice of Mark
and Spencer which include supply chain management highlight that business increase their
efficiency by managing supply chain of the company, it is very clear that supply chain
management is a broad term which include all the activities which required in the management
of supply.
Operational management practice impact the business organization in the certain ways such as:
Supply chain management: managing the supply chain is one of the most successful of method
to increase efficiency in the business organization, supply chain impact the business in certain
ways (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger, 2017). The company need to focus to improving
supply chain to improve overall efficiency of the business. The Mark and Spencer manage their
supply chain effectively which impact the overall performance of the business. Supply chain help
company to ensure the customer always remain satisfied. There the certain benefits of supply
chain management such as:
Customer satisfaction: customer satisfaction is very important for every business organization,
when a customer is satisfied then business tend to grow but if the customer is not happy with the
supply of the product then the overall efficiency of the business will be decreased. The Mark and
Spencer keep their customer satisfied by providing high quality product and service. This
company understand the value of customer and its satisfaction level, they try to provide quality
products but still at some point this company lack in satisfying their customer (Wisner, 2016).
Mark and Spencer have wide range of product which means they might be facing certain issue in
the supply chain but this impact overall performance of the company. Many customers are
satisfied with clothing provided by the company but some part this company have fail customer
satisfaction for example there was high demand of books in the market, book reader was
expecting supply from Mark and Spencer but the company fail to deliver the product.
Other operation management practice which help company to increase efficiency such as:
Control of inventory: controlling inventory is another important task, al thought this is
somehow related to the supply chain. Controlling inventory means business try to keep eye on
stock which is available to them and the stock which need to be fulfilled. There are certain period
in business process where the company unable to keep inventory which decreased their

customer. This operational management practice highlight and remind business to keep extra
stock in case of high demand in the market.
Raw material: raw material is essential element in operation of the business, without raw
material a business can not deal in the market as there will be no products available. The quality
management is somehow related to the availability of the raw material. The Mark and Spencer
keep the raw material available with them as they know the quality is concerned with
management of raw material.
Administration: administration means the overall overview of the operational or business part,
this means the head control of the process. Every company have administration which allow
them to manage their business and provide guidelines in the management. Operational
administration is very important as this provides rules and regulation and guidance to the parts of
operation management (Reid and Sanders, 2019). Administration keep eye on activities of
operation such as checking availability of raw material, labour required, finance, supply chain
management, quality management, resource management and other type of activities which
impact the efficiency of the operations of business. Administration impact the efficiency of the
business organization.
Business organization try to manage their operation in certain ways that efficiency is
increased manage is been done effectively, although operational management is very challenging
this requires business to stay strong in the market. A weak operational management make it hard
for business to survive in the market, Mark and Spencer need to manage their operation more
effectively to increase the overall efficiency of the company, this operational management
practice many be beneficial for Mark and Spencer, but they need to focus more on other
operational management practice to increase the efficiency in the business organization.
The ways in which technology has been embedded in operation management process and how
this has been already achieved by mark and Spencers
Over the past few decades, it has been evaluated that technology has changed the whole
way in the Mark and Spencers have conduct their business within the competitive environment.
Advent of the technology in operation management has enhanced the overall productivity of the
establishment (Kumar, Mookerjee and Shubham, 2018). The scope of technology and operation
management has greatly involves over a period of time and has moved from development of

goods and services into innovative scheming, administration and improvement of complete
processes as well as systems. Usage of technology into consideration, ensures that the firm are
effectively able to reduce their production costs, improve the delivery process, standardize and
improve quality along with focusing towards customization of products. It involves effectual
integration of technology into the production system of Mark and Spencers which helps to
enhance the productivity of the establishment. However, bringing technology into consideration
is highly complex process and it requires fulfilment of certain steps such as:
 Technology acquisition: Technology that has been acquired should align with specific
objectives of the enterprise and should be approved after elaborate cost benefit
evaluation.
 Technology integration: It affects all the necessary aspects of production related to the
firm i.e. labour, capital and customer (Deshpande and Swaminathan, 2020). Therefore, a
solid technology integration plan is required.
 Technology verification: After the integration of technology, it is significant to check
whether technology is delivering operational effectiveness and is been utilized to its
fullest or not.
Technology is getting extensively used into customization of designs of products and
services. The usage of computers and supporting technological system is integral part of modern
industry and service sector. Technology that has been used in manufacturing and designing of
products and services within the Mark and Spencers are:
 Computer aided design: It facilitates linking of two or more complex components of
design at very high level of accuracy thus delivering higher productivity.
 Computer aided manufacturing system: It is highly essential in operating any
machines and therefore computerized numerically controlled machines are used, thus
ensuring the highest level of accuracy (Choi, 2019).
 Standard for the exchange of product data: It shares the process of sharing product
across all phases of product life cycle and serves as neutral file exchange.
Although, there are few software systems that has been used within the manufacturing
functions in the Mark and Spencers with pother business functions of establishment. Some of the

common software system are enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, new
product development and customer relationship management of Mark and Spencers (Smilowitz
and Keppler, 2020). Enterprises resource planning links all business activities or functions like
marketing, manufacturing human resource and finance through a common software platform
within the Mark and Spencers.
Supporting functions of operational management practice that evaluate the ways to assist
organizational success
In Marks and Spencers, the operations component is accountable for the transformation of raw
material into final and finished products and services. Operations management has been defined
by the administration of all processes related to the production of items. There are few supportive
functions of the operational management practice of the Mark and Spencers are:
 Appropriate planning: It involves choosing the location for the business practices and
scheduling production. The business location is directly related to the way in which it can
become successful (Martin, Elg and Gremyr, 2020). Among all the factors, the markets,
raw materials, labour supply and transportation facilities is greatly significant for the
establishment.
 Scheduling: It includes setting of beginning and endings of each step in the complete
production procedure. It includes planning and checking the usage of labour, materials
and machinery so that production moves smoothly. This phase ensures that work will be
completed on time whether it is manufacturing the products.
 Organizing: It is the activities that generate structure of assignments and authorities.
Operations managers of M&S establish a framework of roles and the flow of information
within the operations' subsystem (Kühlewind and et.al., 2017). They determine the
actions to achieve goals and assign authority for carrying them out.
 Purchasing: In order to do business, the Mark and Spencers requires raw materials to
produce their goods and services. It also must have machinery, office supplies, and other
supplies the company requires. The management of the company must be aware about the
production such as what to purchase and from whom to buy.
 Controlling: It is about monitoring the tasks along with planned performances. To make
sure about the plans for the operations' subsystem are accomplished. In this, controlling

costs, quality and scheduling is the major functions among the controlling process (Brito,
Júnior and da Costa Diniz, 2020).
 Quality control: It is about checking the quality of products and services. It includes
overseeing the grade and freshness of goods along with their strengths and workability.
The system of effective quality control within the M&S are highly simple in order to test
various products that has been offered by the establishment.
 Inventory control: Manufacturers and supermarkets such as Mark and Spencers, also
keep their stock of finished goods on hand for sale but inventories are costly in nature.
The more inventory the M&S has, the less capital it has for other activities.
Hence, the whole procedure involves creation of goods and services including
transformation or converting inputs into outputs (Charles, Emrouznejad and Gherman, 2021). To
make that desired outcome are obtained that should be taken into account in which various
measurements and points needs to be considered into transformation process.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that operational management plays a major
role in complete establishment management in production enterprise. Various supporting
functions of Mark and Spencers operational management had been discussed within the report.
In each of the fields the operational managers conduct effective decision-making of the
organization.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Barnes, D., 2018. Operations Management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Brito, J.A.S., Júnior, N.T. and da Costa Diniz, R., 2020. Operations flexibility in events
organization. Tourism Management, 76, p.103959.
Brown, S., Bessant, J. and Jia, F., 2018. Strategic operations management. Routledge.
Charles, V., Emrouznejad, A. and Gherman, T., 2021. Strategy Formulation and Service
Operations in the Big Data Age: The Essentialness of Technology, People, and Ethics.
In Big Data for Service Operations Management. Springer.
Chary, S.N., 2017. Production and operations management. McGraw Hill Education.
Choi, T.M., 2019. Publishing operations management research in transportation research–Part E.
Deshpande, V. and Swaminathan, J.M., 2020. Introduction to the special issue on responsible
operations and supply chain management. Manufacturing & Service Operations
Management, 22(6), pp.1107-1111.
Ivanov, D., Tsipoulanidis, A. and Schönberger, J., 2017. Global supply chain and operations
management. A decision-oriented introduction to the creation of value, 2.
Kühlewind, M., and et.al., 2017, November. A path layer for the Internet: Enabling network
operations on encrypted protocols. In 2017 13th International Conference on Network
and Service Management (CNSM) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
Kumar, S., Mookerjee, V. and Shubham, A., 2018. Research in operations management and
information systems interface. Production and Operations Management, 27(11),
pp.1893-1905.
Martin, J., Elg, M. and Gremyr, I., 2020. The Many Meanings of Quality: Towards a Definition
in Support of Sustainable Operations. Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence, pp.1-14.
Reid, R.D. and Sanders, N.R., 2019. Operations management: an integrated approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Smilowitz, K. and Keppler, S., 2020. On the Use of Operations Research and Management in
Public Education Systems. Pushing the Boundaries: Frontiers in Impactful OR/OM
Research, pp.84-105.
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Wisner, J.D., 2016. Operations management: A supply chain process approach. Sage
Publications.
Online:
Mark and Spencer, 2021. Welcome to Mark and Spencer., [Online]. Available Through.,
<www.marksandspencer.in>
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