Operations Management and Project Life Cycle Analysis

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

Operations and Project Management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1: Effectiveness of Operations Management..............................................................................3
P1, M1: Implementation of Operations Management in relation to Six Sigma Methodology and
Lean Principles................................................................................................................................3
LO2: Concept of Continuous Improvement in an Organisational Context.....................................5
P2, M2: Effectiveness of a Continuous Improvement Plan.............................................................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................7
P3, M3 Applying the project life cycle............................................................................................7
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
P4, M4 The application of PLC used in a project............................................................................9
Holistic and focused critiques..........................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
The term operation can be defined as a process by which inputs can be changed to outputs
thereby adding value to the entity that is derived by the process. It is important that the right
quality, quantity, time and place are maintained as they are the basic requirements of any
consumer and thus determine the extent of customer satisfaction. Operations management
involves managing the resources involved in production in such a way that it directly minimises
the cost of production without affecting the four factors of customer satisfaction and thus
increasing the value of the goods produced or services rendered (Heizer et al. 2017). The
resources involved in production are generally the people, technology, materials and information
primarily but the functionality of operations management may go wider than this.
LO1: Effectiveness of Operations Management
P1M1: Implementation of Operations Management in relation to Six Sigma
Methodology and Lean Principles
Operations as a concept can be defined as the the different activities within an organisation
related to the factors of production. It deals with combining the raw materials, labour and capital
into effectively producing the goods or services. It is interdependent on the various other
functions of an organisation including finance, strategy, product design, forecasting, labour
management, technology and competitive analysis of the segment of the market in which the
company functions. Operations management is the management of operations and other
processes within an organisation which if done successfully increases accountability and
accuracy and delivers a much more efficient end result. There are different approaches to
operations management which involve the different key functions of production.
Operations management involves a number of theoretical approaches that take into consideration
the different factors of production that include but are not limited to capacity planning, supply
chain design, inventory management, performance measures and total quality management. It is
critical to take into consideration the direction in which the company wants to travel when
selecting the operation management approach (Rumble, 2019). In a production based company
the concepts of supply chain, quality, inventory and capacity planning are most critical, while in
a service based organisation critical factors include human resources, quality management and

performance management. The different issues that encompass operations management are
primarily related to quantitative, social, ethical and technical context.
In 1909 Frederick Winslow Taylor in his "The Principles of Scientific Management." proposed
that productivity can be increased by optimizing and simplifying jobs. His four principles of
scientific management included
1. Replacing working based on habit and common sense and using scientific training and
method to study the operations and deriving more efficient ways of performing specific
tasks.
2. Matching workers wo jobs based on their capabilities and motivation rather that simply
assigning them just any task. Training them in that specific work will achieve maximum
efficiency.
3. Monitoring worker performance, approving instructions and supervision and ensuring
that they are working in the most efficient manner.
4. Allocating work between the managers and the workforce so that managers can
concentrate on planning and training while workers perform their designated tasks with
efficiency.
These principles became widely practised after the industrial revolution and resulted in
widespread cooperation between the workforce and the management which eventually developed
into teamwork which is now commonplace organisations. Hile pure Taylorism is not used in
today's operations management approaches, it provided various significant contributions in
management practices (Hitt, Xu and Carnes, 2016). It introduced training procedures and
systemic selection, ways to study workplace efficiency and encouraged an idea of organizational
design in a systematic way.
One of the modern day concepts that has been derived from Taylor's principles is flexible
specialisation. The refers to an organization that is looking towards making it more competitive
by using equipments and machinery that has multiple uses. It also trains its employees not in
particular tasks but equip them with multiple skills so that they gather the ability to adapt quickly
which is crucial in today's rapidly changing marketplace. Lean production is another one of those
approaches that is loosely based on the above mentioned principles. It is an approach that focuses
on cutting out waste and ensuring quality in all aspects of a business, from production to
distribution. This approach sets out to cut off aspects of production that do not add value to the

process production such as holding stock, repairing faulty products and unnecessarily moving the
workforce or the product around variou loaions that are relevant to operations. The principle is to
reduce wastage of resources as that will eventually increase production by decreasing cost.
Mass customisation is an aspect of marketing that takes into consideration the flexibility and
customisation of products that are custom made with units that are low cst and associated with
mass production. Mass customization is a concept of producing goods or services that are
customised or a majority of the consumer that a business deals with. It takes into consideration
the various requirements of the consumer that the company caters to and producing a product
that satisfies a majority of those needs. Another approach of operations management in an
organisational context refers to (Reid and Sanders, 2015) Agile manufacturing where an
organisation is equipped to handle multiple demands with multiple specifications adnb has the
processes, the tools and the training to handle needs of the customer in response to rapid market
changes while in control of costs and quality of the resulting products.
Six sigma is a statistically driven approach to operations management where the average
requirement of every consumer of a product is analysed and one particular mean outcome is
measured from six outcomes that define the majority of parametric requirements specified by the
consumer base of a particular product or service. This system is also loosely based on the taylor
principles of identifying the specific needs of the average customer and creating an equivalence
in the supply of a product. In an organisational context of managing operations it is important to
calculate an average requirement as multiple clients may display multiple demands but in order
to satisfy every particular demand it is necessary to come to average and produce products that
cater to all these basic needs.
LO2: Concept of Continuous Improvement in an Organisational Context
P2M2: Effectiveness of a Continuous Improvement Plan
A continuous improvement plan is a strategy that organisations undertake in order to streamline
their operations management strategies in accordance to simultaneous parameters that present
themselves at random during productions. While the production process is undergoing different
challenges or opportunities a present themselves and utilising of solving such situations is what
continuous improvement planning is all about. Policies such as specifically training thewrkfrce
to particular sections of the production and segmenting the production process may increase the
velocity of the production but they do not necessarily increase the angle of skill sets that an

employee might have to handle situations that do not present themselves in organisational
guidebook.
Most of the problems and inefficiencies that rise during the process of production are not
theoretically solvent and require innovative approaches in order to solve them. Continuous
stratification involves preparing the stakeholders of a company especially the internal ones for
situations that are unique and cannot be solved by tradition approaches. Lean princes are
especially relevant during this approach where continuous improvement is only possible when
aspects of production that are not particularly profitable to the organisation and be successfully
identified and ct off to maximise efficiency.. It is a an aspect of marketing that takes into
consideration the flexibility and customisation of products that are custom made with units that
are low cst and associated with mass production. Cross organisational activity as an independent
is the management of operations and other processes within an organisation which if done
successfully increases accountability and accuracy and delivers a much more efficient end result.
The different issues that encompass operations management are primarily related to quantitative,
social, ethical and technical context.
In an organisational context of managing operations it is important to calculate an average
requirement as multiple clients may display multiple demands but in order to satisfy every
particular demand it is necessary to come to average and produce products that cater to all these
basic needs. Enterprise resource planning systems (SCM) are revan to mangin employees as a
whole unit taking into consideration the collective skills and concentration on those to improve
production. New product development (NPD) is relevant to operations management when a
company wishes to introduce a new product in the market and has to structure their existing
production parameters in accordance the the requirements of he new product that will be
produced so as to produce it in the most effective way possible (Khanna, 2015). when all of these
factors are taken into consideration it ultimately comes down to one particular parameter that is
customer satisfaction. And various software system that help us in calculating the previous
circumstances can also help measure the Customer relationship management (CRM). Only by
analysing these parameters can we identify areas of improvement and apply the concept of
Kaizen and process re- engineering that revolves around identifying inefficiencies and
responding accordingly.

LO3
P3, M3 Applying the project life cycle
The project life cycle hints towards the four applied methodologies which are applied by
managers of the respective project so that the project that is being initiated can be in use for some
success which is the main aim of all the project managers who are associated with any kind of
project. This methodology of approaching towards a particular project has been cocooned to be
the ultimatum standard for establishing a given project. The team that works under the PLC will
have to be equipped enough by the project manager so that they can carry out their functions
quite efficiently towards the success.
The phases and activities of PLC
In this case the project that we would be banking upon is modelling stagecraft for musicians. For
this, it is quite necessary to record all the intrinsic activities that goes behind forming the model
of the stagecraft in the realms of project life cycle.
Initiation - in the case of this project the customary thing which needs to be looked after is that
it needs to understand all the determinants that make up for the initiation of this project which is
to verify the market demands of the tools and techniques that is required by the stage designs
(Kerzner, and Kerzner, 2017).
Planning - in the phase of planning when a project is about to get developed, in this case we
need to bank upon how the materials which would be required for the stage, the linear standard
of materials or tools that should be constant and the precautions against any sort of failures.
Execution - in the medium of execution the manager or the head of the project for stagecraft
should employ personnel who are efficient enough and meritorious enough for this job, the cost
should not be very overrated and there should also be kept in mind in the time of execution the
probability of taking risks.
Closure - the portion that we would deal with, reeks of the fact that, when the model is ready
and it has been finalised then a new project is taken into account (Lock, 2017). Just for an
instance in this phase the stagecraft design will be done and a brand new idea would strike the
mind of the manger or they would start working on another project even before they have
launched the design for the stage craft.
Theories and practice of project management

Agile methodologies - in the sphere of stage management it has to be predominant that there are
certain methods to achieve the perfections (Serrador, and Pinto, 2015). They can be treaties with
the customers who wants to buy the products, interactions with the stage personnel what is their
requirement and also thorough study about the whole affair.
Project management tools - in the study of stagecraft there are certain essential tools such as
Jamhub which enables green room for the individuals taking part in stage, faders, the sound
mixers, CAD files, etc. These ingredients are very important for this project.
Project leadership with PLC - the management head of the project is the person who would
channelise every nitty gritty aspect of the project starting from having connection with the stage
departments, customers and also employees. Understanding every minute thing intrinsically is
his go to for the project.
Project documentation
Project initiation document - in the scene of documentation as well as initiating the
documentation the company will have to look into the amount of investment they are opting for
and the quality of stage goods that they are investing into (Weninger, and Huemann, 2015)
Project plan - the plan that has been proposed through this particular project is to uphold the
scenarios and to better them for the musicians so that they don't suffer in discomfort for the
atmosphere which they should receive.
Cost benefit analysis - the aim of the stagecraft project manager should be that he/she should
invest into something which would suffice the need in short budget. Budgeting is very important
for these kind of projects so that they don't go overboard.
Work breakdown structure - work breakdown structure implies that the plans which are taken
for the establishment seem to be fragile on the first hand, when related to other models this looks
extremely irrelevant and unachievable (Robinson, Ryan, and Abbasi, 2018).
Directing projects
Large and small scale projects - the manager will have to be precise enough about the team and
the amount of members he)she is including in the stagecraft design. If the project is big it
requires heavy load of members and vice versa (Sjøberg, 2018). In large scale designs if the team
work banks upon the quality it will be more effective and in small scales the managers will have
to take the call in every decision.

Public, private and non - profit sectors - in short PPP would determine in this case the grants
from public, helps in the form of mutual understandings, giving informational about the situation
of the locality and also individual approach by every public and company employees (Boyer,
Van Slyke and Rogers, 2015).
LO4
P4, M4 The application of PLC used in a project
Holistic and focused critiques
The broader influence/ impact of a project - in the periphery of a project which has a wide
range of perspectives and that can be moulded under two basic theories (Lucas, Van Wee and
Maat, 2016). Speaking of both the theories which are egalitarianism and sufficientarianism
which encircles all the factors which would enhance and create an effect on the project has to be
taken under consideration for the betterment of the experience derived out of the project as well
as for the impact that it can create to the adjacent companies dealing with the same phenomena.
Egalitarianism - in this proposed theory whatever design or work is being done by the manager
will have to be evaluated by the amount of equality that he bestows upon his workers inspire of
caste, race, sex and religion. There should be no grounds of discrimination whatsoever and this
will make the stagecraft project filled with man power.
Sufficientarianism - in this context of the theory which deals with meeting the ideals in
whatever way the company would want to deploy members who are efficient enough over
members who does not consist of that amount of merit.
Performance measurement
To include milestones - to have milestones into the project means to have a different take and
approach towards the contents, work ethics, various minds and to set goals to achieve within a
time period (Desy, Reed and Wolanskyj, 2017).Thus it is very important in terms of searching
for the right proportion of milestone set by the stagecraft company.

To include targets - including targets is a general phenomena in which the company keeps into
mind the fact that they should set forth a goal to achieve and which would keep them motivated
(Kerzner, 2017).
Deliverable - this particular area also deals with stakeholders who would finally analyse and
meticulously check whether the project is at all worthy to a deliverable item. Meeting time is
also an aspect as a project to be deliverable (Eskerod and Jepsen, 2016).
Benchmarks (internal and external) - in this case the company of stagecraft will set higher
goals as benchmarks to achieve in the near future so that the internal ( workers, work ethics and
products) get polished and external (relation with customers, other companies) remain strong
enough.
Key performance indicator - the key indicators are the main factors for this project to have
materials (Parmenter, 2015). It would curtle down the complexities for the employees as well as
the manager of the stagecraft company.
The review and critique process
Project monitoring to inform an evaluation - the main aim of the project monitoring is to
make the general people aware of the whereabouts of the project that the stagecraft company is
working upon (Blomberg, Pollack, Montagna and Yoskowitz, 2018).
The importance of reliability and validity in evaluation - the basic need to have a proper
division of validity and reliability in an evaluation is that the products should be authentic
enough for the stage managements (Freeman, and Lewis, 2016) .There should exist sufficient
amount of rationality in the products that they are giving for the stages.
Program theory and logic models to support a review - the theories proposed into logic
models should be used so that everyone can vision the idea of the review to be chronological and
inside the garb of a considerable amount of system. This would ensure the success for the
stagecraft designs so that they get sufficient amount of feedbacks.
Conclusion
This particular project of how to overcome the problems that every musician faces during their
durations on stage and of stage determines the basic concept that given the right amount of
guidance and having the appropriate determination a project taken into account may be fruitful
not only to the company proposing it but as well as to the society which would encounter
something new and completely different over the same stereotypical project management

functioning that they see in front of them. This would surely make the growth of this endeavour
to be up to the mark and reach out towards its success.

References
Blomberg, B.N., Pollack, J.B., Montagna, P.A. and Yoskowitz, D.W., 2018. Evaluating the US
Estuary Restoration Act to inform restoration policy implementation: A case study focusing on
oyster reef projects. Marine Policy, 91, pp.161-166.
Boyer, E.J., Van Slyke, D.M. and Rogers, J.D., 2015. An empirical examination of public
involvement in public-private partnerships: Qualifying the benefits of public involvement in
PPPs. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26(1), pp.45-61.
Dégano, I.R., Subirana, I., Torre, M., Grau, M., Vila, J., Fusco, D., Kirchberger, I., Ferrières, J.,
Malmivaara, A., Azevedo, A. and Meisinger, C., 2015. A European benchmarking system to
evaluate in-hospital mortality rates in acute coronary syndrome: the EURHOBOP project.
International journal of cardiology, 182, pp.509-516.
Desy, J.R., Reed, D.A. and Wolanskyj, A.P., 2017, February. Milestones and millennials: A
perfect pairing—competency-based medical education and the learning preferences of
Generation Y. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 92, No. 2, pp. 243-250). Elsevier.
Eskerod, P. and Jepsen, A.L., 2016. Project stakeholder management. Routledge.
Freeman, R. and Lewis, R., 2016. Planning and implementing assessment. Routledge.
Heizer, J., Render, B., Munson, C. and Sachan, A., 2017. Operations management: sustainability
and supply chain management, 12/e. Pearson Education.
Hitt, M.A., Xu, K. and Carnes, C.M., 2016. Resource based theory in operations management
research. Journal of Operations Management, 41, pp.77-94.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and
monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Khanna, R.B., 2015. Production and operations management. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Kneale, D., Thomas, J. and Harris, K., 2015. Developing and optimising the use of logic models
in systematic reviews: exploring practice and good practice in the use of programme theory in
reviews. PloS one, 10(11), p.e0142187.
Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.