New Zealand Post Operations Management: Challenges and Strategies

This assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of operations management at New Zealand Post, a long-standing company in New Zealand. It examines the principles and practices of operations management, including variance, accountability, fundamental principles, organization, and reality, within the context of the company's diverse portfolio, encompassing banking, payment services, distribution, logistics, marketing, and traditional mail delivery. The analysis highlights the impact of technological advancements on the postal service, emphasizing the need for innovative approaches to address challenges and improve efficiency. Furthermore, the assignment delves into practices such as storage, dispersal, and supply chain strategies, as well as risk and human resource management. It also explores continuous improvement models like Six Sigma and PDCA, alongside internal and external compliance requirements, ultimately offering recommendations for embracing new technologies and aligning with relevant criteria and legislation to enhance revenue and sustain competitiveness.

Running head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Assessment 2
Operations Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Introduction
New Zealand post is the oldest and one of the renowned companies that exists in New
Zealand. The company was established in the year 1840, and the company was run by
government initially, but later on it became a state owned enterprise in 1987. The company can
be considered to be good employer and also a commercial enterprise. Since the company turned
into a state owned enterprise, it has started to earn profits for the company. The New Zealand
posts has accrued billions of dollars of the revenue from the taxes and dividends. It is one of the
largest company in New Zealand and it has 10,000 employees in total, with an additional
employee of 7000 (Nzpost.co.nz, 2019). The post has the responsibility of operating on a wide
range of portfolios that includes the banking, payment services, distribution of goods, logistics,
marketing, and information management. The main functions of the is to process and deliver the
domestic mail. The governing body of the company includes the a total of 8 executive directors.
There are 2 share holder minister that are the part of the minister of finance and the minister of
the state owned enterprise. The company presently has 2300 employees that are spread all over
the country. It is important to mention that these employees have the duty of distributing mails
all over the 120 places with 1.4 million addresses throughout the country. There are even 535
rural owners of the post that have the distribute mails all over the country that have 200000
destinations (Nzpost.co.nz., 2019).
Analysis
The operations management is described as the procedure of management that includes
the planning, organization and supervising processes and it leads to maximum improvement of
the by achieving high amount of profitability. In order to support the strategic goals of a
company, the everyday operation includes the goals of the company. For effective management,
prior the operation management, deep analysis and the deep measurement of the processes is
necessary (Brown, S., & Bessant, 2013).
The different principles of the operation management include the following:
 Principle of variance- the process of variance must be encouraged in a company, and
it means that it is source of creativity.

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 Principle of accountability- it is expected that the managers will set the rules and
metrics such that the subordinates’ accountabilities can be checked and the goals are
also met. It is important to know that worker puts their effort through this way
(Coplac-gprd.org., 2019).
 Principle of fundamental- to achieve 80 percent of a job one must emphasize on 20
percent of the overall task. This is the Pareto principle and it signifies one must
adhere to the records and the discipline. While it is important to highlight that 20
percent of will come from the application of the new processes and new
technologies.
 Principle of organization- here all the aspects of the production are brought close
together to form an individual entity. It is vital to highlight that the different process
of the manufacturing process is all connected together and they are predictable and
consistent (Coplac-gprd.org., 2019).
 Principle of reality- without focusing on the techniques, the operation management
must focus on the problems and the issues. The main logic is that there is no single
solution for all the problems.
New Zealand like any other organization is a profit making entity, however the advent of
the internet, ecommerce has highly reduced the revenues of the company. The present day
technological advancement has rendered the company to lose a lot of money currently. Thus, the
operation must take up the vital responsibility of treating the problems separately and consider
treating the same. While it is important to mention that the no people uses the postal now the
way it was previously used 20 years ago. The ground reality is that people no longer use the
postal service and no longer the services can be sustained with old business strategies. The
principle of reality explicitly connects with the above mentioned reality. The principle of
organization focuses on the fact that all the processes are connected with each other. Thus, the
different types of the processing and the delivery related processes like the sorting of mails,
processing and the delivery of the mails are an interconnected parts of operations. Thus, it is
important to mention that the diverse aspects of delivery and processing of mails must be
conducted in a consistent manner so as to achieve the desired outcomes and results. The principle
of fundamental assures that the 20 percent of the important aspects must be focussed upon so as
to receive 80 percent of the report. The 20 % of the different facets of the postal services will

3OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
generate 80 % of the profit. The next principle of the accountability reveals that the management
has the sole authority of setting goals and metrics so that the workers can be put their best
efforts. The objectives and goals can be set which the work can be done according to the metrics
set by the managers. It is vital to mention that the company has lost a lot of revenue and it is
currently reducing the cost of performing the business. Thus, it is a necessity that the variances
can be measured accordingly. However, the new ways can be innovated so as to increase the
quality of variance.
Practices of the operation management- it is a method of operating or providing a
service. the daily practices include the practices that occur in a business so as to ensure the
productivity and safety (Golicic & Smith, 2013).
The three vital operation practices include storage, dispersal and supply chain strategies.
The supply chain strategy facilitates the development and the execution of the plans such that
the important players can be integrated. This includes the mail receivers, distributes, mail sorters
and mail senders. The second important aspect is the mail distribution. The mails received from
the senders needs to be sorted and segregate as per the address before the delivery can be
conducted (Rushton, Croucher & Baker, 2014).Storage can be considered as an important
measure of the mail service. It is also important for the operations management and it involves
the mail storages as per the respective addresses. The crucial two facilities practices involves
the human resources and risk management. The operational risk management can be defined as a
process management effectiveness and the various risks that occur during the operations. The
New Zealand posts have certain risk that emanate from the storage and the delivery of the mails.
The delay in the delivering mail is a potential risk factor. The Human resource department will
explicitly recruit the proper individual depending the need of the company. The APICS OMBOK
framework describes the issues that occur in operation management profession (Tyagi, Varma &
Vidyarthi, 2013).
Principle and models for a continuous improvement-
 Improvements are made on the basis of smaller changes and it is capable of
bringing paradigm shift. The same is also applicable for the New Zealand posts
and it means that small changes are necessary to transform from loss making to
profit earning economy.

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 The employees and their ideas valuable and they must be able to handle the
reality. Therefore, the values can be considered in bringing vital changes.
 Implementation of the incremental improvements are expensive and therefore it is
necessary to implement shorter changes. This idea applies for the company as
well.
 Improvements reflects and thus positive results help in improvements and it
proper changes are brought into the system (Dombrowski & Mielke, 2013).
 Models (six sigma)- it improves predictability and removes variability. For the
New Zealand posts, a stable environment for business can be achieved through
the measurable processes, strong commitment, quality improvement (Pyzdek &
Keller, 2014).
 Models (PDCA)- the PDCA is 4 step model that emphasizes on the fact that New
Zealand posts might have a strong plan that can be implemented in small manner.
In the phase of check data, data collected will form the final process and help in
the final process (Pyzdek & Keller, 2014).
External and internal compliances- the internal compliances will be related to the
maintenance of the internal quality standards by providing employment to the senior
management and follow the requirement of ethical behaviour, operational policies and
procedures. the external compliances would involve the compliance with the environmental;
management, fiscal requirements and compliance with the requirements of safety and health
legislation.
Conclusion and recommendation
The usage of the various principle of operation management is actually applicable for
each and every aspect of the organization and business so that the operational effectivity can be
reached. The existing operational activities of the company focuses on the processing of the
mails and the delivery of the same to the receivers. The principle and the models have mentioned
that small changes are vital and as well as beneficial for long term plans. The external and the
internal compliances can be depicted as the basic aspects that support to achieve a superior
operational efficiency.

5OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
The New Zealand posts can on the other hand embrace the new technologies and
incorporate the same into the supply chain and it is can positively help in the increasing the
revenue on a yearly basis. Secondly, in order to sustain in a competitive environment, the
company must align itself with the different types o he criteria and legislation.


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Reference
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