Operations and Project Management Report: ASDA Case Study

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Operations and project management

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................2
P1, M1 Principles of operations management and its implementation within organisation. .2
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................4
P2, M2 Preparing a continuous improvement plan based on principles of operations
management within business..................................................................................................4
D1...........................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3......................................................................................................................................7
P3, M3 Applying stages of PLC within project to produce supporting documentation to
complete project including WBS, project plan and case........................................................7
TASK 4....................................................................................................................................12
P4, M4 Effectiveness of PLC in application to project applying models, concepts and
theories.................................................................................................................................12
D2.........................................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Project and operations management are both different concepts. Operations management is a
business function in which various activities are involved in order to produce quality products
and services such as IT, production and accounting operations etc. project management is a
part of operational function which is a planned process to improve effectiveness of
operations. In this context, ASDA which is a British supermarket retailer company is chosen
founded in 1949. The firm offers, general merchandise and grocery products. There are
almost 1, 65,000 employees working with the organisation. The firm has 633 locations as per
2019. In this regards, the report will cover principles of operations management and its
implementation within ASDA and a continuous improvement plan based on principles of
operations management. In addition, the 2nd part of report will apply stages of PLC within
project to produce supporting documentation to complete project including WBS, project
plan and case of Sunshine Drinks Company and evaluate effectiveness of PLC in application
to project applying models, concepts and theories.
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TASK 1
P1, M1 Principles of operations management and its implementation within organisation
Operations can be described as activities that are managed and controlled by organisations in
order to accomplish their aim and objectives in terms of productivity and profitability.
Operations management is important that it helps to produce quality products and services
that are effective in enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty in the market. In this regards,
several strategies and plans are required by manager of the organisation to monitor and
improve performance of employees so that quality services can be produced effectively.
There are different projects managed by employees and management under operations
(Harrison and Lock, 2017). Thus, the importance of managing operations must be considered
by both management and employees in order to implement a successful project to achieve
success. There are different factors associated with new project implementation which are
handles and managed by managing operational activities. The process must be effective to
ensure sustainability within new project. This helps in producing better outcomes and quality
services to accomplish productivity and profitability goals.
In order to achieve success within new project, every organisation requires effective human
resources, efforts, technical equipment and strategies in precise manner. This not only helps
in achieving success but also reduce the costs of operational activities (Kerzner and Kerzner,
2017). An effective management or utilisation of resources helps in improving the
effectiveness of operations. There are various philosophies and principles are associated with
implementation of operations management within organisation practices that helps
management in assisting new project plan and factors effectively. In this regards, the
methodology, concept and principles are described below:
Six-Sigma: Six-Sigma approach is very effective in operations management that it helps in
eliminating errors within the process of manufacturing. It is a data driven and statistical
method used to improve production procedures. The major advantage of this approach is that
it helps to focus on improving quality of new project implementation within organisation. It
helps in enhancing the effectiveness of operations.
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The five principles of this approach are effective for managing operations to improve
production process.
 The approach is focused on continuous improvement in quality required by
consumers in the marketplace.
 The approach understands and identifies the errors within manufacturing or
production process through statistical analysis (Binder, 2016).
 The principle also helps in eliminating variations from operations to improve
production process continuously and effectively.
 A qualified and skilled team is required for this approach guided by leader to manage
the effectiveness of process.
 The management must be flexible according to the principles to bring positive
changes. It requires ability to manage changes during the process.
However, it can be critique about this approach that the implementation of Six-Sigma
approach leads to create bureaucracy and rigidity within decision making and planning
process. The approach is overall focused on improving quality of products and services that
quality control sometimes remains ineffective.
Lean manufacturing: Lean manufacturing process is effective in eliminating wastes from the
production process effectively. The principles of lean manufacturing will help management to
make operations more effective and efficient by adding value in each step of the production.
It can be described as a mechanism used to improve and develop performance of operations
within business (Fagel, 2016). The lean manufacturing principles within operations help to
minimise or eliminate waste resources and improve quality. This helps to satisfy the needs of
consumers in order to manage sustainable performance of organisation. This process is
effective for the implementation of new project to avoid waste from the production process to
improve quality and control costs of operations.
The lean manufacturing effectively reduces the wastes from production process and also
eliminates the out-dated inventory. There is a possible chance of arising errors with the use of
this approach within new project plan or management (Heldman, 2018). The errors can be
found in terms of labour and equipment failure that has a major impact on the process
effectively. It is critique that lean principles implementation required high amount of
investment in order to enhance quality of services butt it also increase costs of operations.
3

TASK 2
P2, M2 Preparing a continuous improvement plan based on principles of operations
management within business
It is very important for the organisations to manage continuous improvement within
operations in order to determine growth opportunities that help in implementing any new
change effectively. The firm has opportunity to enter into a new market with a new product
which will help to attract number of customers and increase its growth. In this regards,
continuous improvement will help in assessing the quality requirements of customers to make
changes in the product accordingly and effectively. It also helps in eliminating waste from the
production process (Shinde and Dhanvijay, 2019). The management is able to make effective
of strategies such as KAIZEN to determine the opportunities to improve services within
production procedure. The strategy is very helpful in increasing quality of products to achieve
success in new project. It is an essential part of operations management and organisation
culture which is required to improve overall performance.
Continuous improvement helps in improving safety at workplace, quality standard and
productivity. There are basically 4 steps involved in the continuous improvement process that
helps in ensuring the quality. In this the four steps known as PDCA cycle are described
below:
4

Figure 1 PDCA Cycle
Plan: Planning is the first stage of continuous improvement plan where the management is
responsible for identifying new opportunities (What is Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle? 2019). It is
done by make creating an effective consumer base and conducting market research based on
the planning of organisation entering into new market. Research and development department
plays a crucial role here in generating idea towards implementation of new project effectively
and efficiently.
Do: The management will execute the plan at this stage. In this regards, the production plan
of new product involve potential results. At this stage, the effectiveness of production plan is
also measured (Lindholm, Laine and Suomala, 2017). In this context, standardisation is use
by the project team members in order to execute the plan in more efficient and effective
manner. The team is also able to measure operations and activities as per the planning of
project. Thus, everyone in the team needs to work according to their responsibilities and
roles.
Check: At this stage, the proposed plan is checked on the basis of variability. This is a crucial
stage where the operational activities are determined according to the expectations of
planning phase in order to evaluate its effectiveness. The stage helps in assisting possible
changes, planning and successful implementation of continuous improvement. The team
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needs more attention at this stage as it helps to identify the errors to eliminate them
effectively.
Act: This is the final stage, where actions are taken on the basis of application, planning and
development. In this stage, actions are taken by management according to the planning of
new project effectively. It helps to incorporate the plan in order to manage changes to modify
the plan and improve quality outcomes.
It can be said that there are different methodologies and principles are used for continuous
improvement in order to manage quality of products or project plan. In this regards, total
quality management, six-sigma and lean manufacturing are some effective approaches
available for management to support the implementation of new project (Kerzner, 2019). The
management can use strategies such as KAIZEN and continuous improvement including
PDCA cycle to manage the quality and effectiveness of services and reducing errors and
wastes from the manufacturing and operational procedure effectively.
D1
It can be said that continuous improvement is a strategy or approach which can be used by
management as principle or effective theory in order to achieve improved efficiency. It can
be also justified that principles of CI not only helps in improving quality of project or product
but also increase effectiveness of operations by reducing costs of various activities associated
with the project or plan effectively. In addition, the strategy is very effective in
implementation of a new project plan as it helps to improve its effectiveness and efficiency in
terms of quality and better results. The PDCA cycle and KAIZEN Strategy will help to bring
all the team members working towards a project together collaboratively to accomplish
incremental and regular improvement in production or manufacturing procedure. This will
help organisation to achieve its new project or product goals to maintain its position
effectively in marketplace.
6

TASK 3
P3, M3 Applying stages of PLC within project to produce supporting documentation to
complete project including WBS, project plan and case
In an organisation, a project is certain temporary task which is undertaken in order to attain a
planned objective. Project of an organisation is bound to be succeeding if it achieved the
goals as per the agreed criteria, within a timescale and budget. Thus, a Project management
can be defined as the method of organising all the activities regarding projects. A project of
the organisation can be new product development or improvisation of existing product with
new feature. Project management is the application of skills, knowledge, tools and methods
that are required in order to meet different activities of a project. Project management team of
Sunshine Drinks in order to carry out the new project has to define the business case which
will be reported to the top executives in order to get approval and required funds.
The business case report of Sunshine Drinks regarding its new project of new drink range of
energy drinks with different fruit flavour with natural filtrated sources. The new project is
beneficial for the organisation as the customers are concerned regarding the beverages with
health and natural ingredients (Heagney, 2016). With good customer base and goodwill,
Sunshine Drinks’ new product will target all age group. Business case will also include the
estimated cost that will be required to successfully complete the project as per the expectation
of the stakeholder and management of organisation. New project of Sunshine Drinks will
include various that are known as Project Life Cycle. The PLC includes involves the
identification and completion of high level activities that will allow the successful completion
of projected staying in budget and estimated time scale. Below presented the stages of
product life cycle of new energy drink project:
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Figure 2 Project Life Cycle
Initialisation: It is the first phase which defines the goal of the project at a wide level
including the stakeholders to integrate their goals and objectives related to project. Sunshine
Drinks’ objective is to successfully enter the market and increase the customer satisfaction
and high sales to stay competitive ion market. Project manager will evaluate the feasibility of
the project in order to undertake it after proper market research and determining its scope
from R&D. After getting approval from the stakeholders, project manager will prepare
project initiation document that determine the different requirements and motive of the
purpose. Project manager will present a business case that includes the cost of the project to
be presented to the management and stakeholders’ of Sunshine drinks.
Planning: After getting approval of the management and stakeholder’s based on the business
case and project initialisation documents. The second phase of the PLC is planning phase,
which lead to break down the larger projects into smaller tasks. Project manager build their
team and the times scale for each task to be completed within the timescale. This phase
includes creating smaller goals for the project with having high potential for success. it can be
said that it is one of the most important phase as the success of the project is depend on
successful execution of planning (Amaral and Araújo, 2017). Planning phase will involve the
project plan, creating a budget plan for energy drink and gathering all the necessary drink. It
is the responsibility of project manager to be an effective leader and communicate the plan to
team members so their job roles and value in successfully completion of the project.
8

Execution: This phase leads to turns the plan into action. Project management of Sunshine
Drinks is crucial to keep the work on track as per the scheduled plan. Manager will monitor
the performance of the project tasks ensuring the proper timeline for each task staying the
project budget. Each task will be effective explained to the team members and performance
report will be prepared and presented to the management and stakeholders of Sunshine
Drinks.
Closure: After completing the work of the project as per the planning, the closure phase has
been started. It can be said that in this phase the project process will be completed. The
manager will evaluate and monitor the success of project of new energy drink as per the plan.
The stage in essential to analyser and monitor the performance of the project as per the set
goals and will determine the project as per quality and the standard made (Kerzner, 2018).
The project manager will review the PLC and make the appropriate changes if necessary.
Documentation related to PLC
Work based structure:
WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors level of risk
1 Identification of needs
Project 5 days Fri 22-
03-19
Thu 28-
03-19 Low
2 Evaluation of needs 4 days Fri 29-
03-19
Wed 03-
04-19 1 Moderate
3 Preparing Test
analysis 11 days Thu 04-
04-19
Thu 18-
04-19 2 Moderate
4 Testing 5 days Thu 04-
04-19
Wed 10-
04-19 1,2 High
5 Plan implementation 4 days Fri 19-
04-19
Wed 24-
04-19 3 Moderate
6 Calculation of Cost 5 days Thu 11-
04-19
Wed 17-
04-19 4 High
7 Preparing Data 7 days Thu 25-
04-19
Fri 03-
05-19 5 High
8 Implementation of
different elements 4 days Thu 25-
04-19
Tue 30-
04-19 4,5 Low
9
Customizations and
integrations
development
5 days Thu 18-
04-19
Wed 24-
04-19 6 Moderate
10
Training and
development
programme
2 days Mon 06-
05-19
Tue 07-
05-19 7 High
11 Reviewing
Performance 2.5 days Mon 06-
05-19
Wed 08-
05-19 6,7
9

Gantt chart and Work Breakdown Structure showing timeframe and stages of
completion:
Rationale for PLC tools and methodologies
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