Operations and Project Management Report: Heathrow Baggage Project

This report provides a detailed analysis of operations and project management principles, focusing on their application within organizations. It begins with an overview of operations management principles as they relate to Unilever, examining aspects such as organizational structure, customer satisfaction, and the need for adaptability. The report then explores continuous improvement plans, emphasizing the importance of quality products, understanding customer needs, and adapting to cultural differences to maintain a competitive edge. It also examines the implementation of operational management in relation to Six Sigma and Lean principles. The report then shifts focus to project management, specifically the Heathrow Baggage project, analyzing the project life cycle phases, their effectiveness, and various project methodologies like Prince2 and PMBOK. The analysis includes how these methodologies were applied and their relative strengths and weaknesses. The report uses real-world examples to illustrate key concepts, providing a comprehensive understanding of operations and project management.

OPERATIONS AND
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Review of Operations management principle in the organisation .......................................3
P2.Continuous improvement plan for an Organisation ..............................................................3
M2.Effectiveness of Improvement Plan......................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
D1. Theories to justify Improvement plan..................................................................................4
M1. Implementation of operation management in relation with six sigma and lean principles. 5
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................5
P3.Apply Heathrow Baggage project in Project Life Cycle.......................................................5
P4.Effectiveness of PLC in Heathrow Baggage project.............................................................6
D2. Evaluation of the PLC on its effectiveness..........................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
M3. Project methodologies for Heathrow baggage project........................................................6
M4. Analysis of the theories used in project...............................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1. Review of Operations management principle in the organisation
Operations management is very important in the organisation to improve the overall performance
of the organisation as operation management looks at a issue like operation and management of
the proper system in an organisation. Principle of operation management which are used in
Unilever are as follow:
Reality: Operations management at Unilever looks at a overall issues faced by the company,
they do not believe in the technique as they believe that there is no technique which is
universally correct to improve the performance of the company (Nakamura and et.al., 2015).
Organization: In the manufacturing organisation like Unilever every operation interconnected
with each other, Operation management at Unilever make suers that every department is going in
the same direction.
Success: Success of the organisation depends totally upon the customers satisfaction, Unilever
always looks to satisfy the need of the customer by offering customer friendly product to them.
Accountability: In Unilever goals are always set by the management and frequently supervised
that goal should be achieved, as accountability is necessary for the firm.
Changes: It is important for the firm to adapt the changes if something happens in the
environment, Unilever management always look too find the change by proper assessment of
environment and adapt it (Kiehtreiber and et.al., 2018).
Competitor: It is very important for business to understand the competition in the market,
Unilever offers a variety of offers to the customer to gain a competitive advantage.
Quality Control: Quality of the product is very necessary for all the business to gain the
customer and pre vale them for long period. Unilever product are regarded as one of the best
quality product in the market (Principles of operation management, 2019).
P2.Continuous improvement plan for an Organisation
It is the very difficult task for the Unilever to keep a competitor edge in the global market as
Unilever receives the competition from many Global organisation such as Nestle and P&G.
Unilever can gain the competitor advantage by following ways:
Quality Product: Unilever has to keep a close eye on their products quality has quality of the
product plays a very vital role in gaining the attention of the customer. One of the competitor
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Nestle has faced some issue with their quality in the past which can also prove beneficial for
Unilever (Hitt, 2016).
Customer Need: Unilever need to continuously assess the need of the customer, as the taste and
preference of the customer changes on continues basis. Unilever need to offers product to the
customer which can satisfy the need of the customer, It can prove beneficial for the Unilever to
have competitor edge in the market.
Unilever is one of the most successful organisation in the local market but to regularly improve
in the global market Unilever require to make changes in the technique depending upon the
location as taste and preference is always different in different company. Unilever can adapt the
change by following ways:
Knowledge of culture: Unilever should have the proper knowledge of the culture of the country
in which company is operating as it will help Unilever to make the changes in their policy and
technology accordingly (Steenkamp, 2018).
Taste and Preference: Unilever should also require to have knowledge of the taste and preference
of the customer in that country as it will help company to make the changes in their product as
taste and preference of the peoples in different country always changes. For e.g. Domino's
changes its sauce depending upon the taste and preference of the country people.
Unilever requires to offer the product which has uniqueness of Unilever in it, so that no one can
copy that product. Product offer by Unilever currently is easily copied by other, which is
hampering the competitor edge of the Unilever For e.g. Formula of Pepsi is the main reason of
Pepsi growth as no one can copy it.
M2.Effectiveness of Improvement Plan
As above plan explains the different difficulties faced by the firm and the remedies to improve
that, if the organisation is able to implicant these plan than it can help firm to improve the
productivity as through these company will able to gain the customer in competitive market, on
the other hand it will also help business to grow globally as it will help business to adapt the new
market more conveniently and will also help in understanding customer needs (Lock, 2017).
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TASK 2
D1. Theories to justify Improvement plan
Customer Satisfaction Theory(CSAT): This theory explains that customer satisfaction is the
main reason of the business to grow in the market and the Improvement plan will able to satisfy
more customer by the firm.
Business environment analysis Theory: This theory explains that every business should regularly
analysis the environment and adapt the changes if require accordingly, improvement plan will
also help company to see the opportunity in the environment and helps in making changes if
require.
M1. Implementation of operation management in relation with six sigma and lean principles
Six Sigma: Six sigma methodology is good in operation management as these methodology is
customer driven and also these focusses on the entire process of the production rather than just
focus on the end result but at the same time it also consumes more time than other methodologies
(Kiehtreiber and et.al., 2018).
Lean Principles: Lean principles helps the business to minimize the waste of the resources but at
same time it also over depended on the equipment and labour, failure in any one of them cause a
heavy loss.
TASK 3
P3.Apply Heathrow Baggage project in Project Life Cycle
Initiation Phase
Initiation Phase is a initial phase when need for the project is ascertain by the organisation. Need
for the project is ascertain on the basis of the difficulties faced by the organisation in their
working. In the case of Heathrow Airport, they were facing the problem of handling the baggage
of the customer on terminal 3 and it was eventually affecting the goodwill of the business, So
new baggage system as solution was approved.
Planning Phase
Planning Phase is a phase in which approved solution is further discuss and developed the plan
of what will require to develop the project, what are the objective which need to be achieved by
the baggage and what work need to be done. In the case of Heathrow Airport, it was planned that
new system should be fast, though and reliable as terminal 3 itself handle around 10 billion bag
in a year (Steenkamp, 2018).
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Implementation Phase
Phase in which project is implicated in the organisation and continuously supervises it and makes
the changes as per the requirement in the project. Project manager is the one who works in these
period. In Heathrow Airport case, IT system of baggage handling was implemented.
Closing Phase
Phase in which project get ready to deliver or to use by the organisation. After that study made of
what went well and what didn't. In the case of Heathrow Airport, IT system was started to deliver
customer and prove to be one of the best system in the world (Hitt, 2016).
P4.Effectiveness of PLC in Heathrow Baggage project
Structured direction: PLC has provided a structured direction to everyone at Heathrow Airport
who are working on the project that where the project is progressing and where the project need
to go.
Optimum utilisation of resources: PLC has helped the Heathrow Airport to use the best resources
in the project making and also allows them to use their resources for optimum use as with the
help of PLC clarity of role was their and also their was free flowing communication.
Helps project manager: PLC has helped the project manager at Heathrow Airport, to interconnect
all the phase with each other properly which has helped manager to completely supervise all the
phase. phase include several type of plan and operation such as project management, risk
management and quality etc. (Kiehtreiber and et.al., 2018).
Room for correction: PLC different phase has allowed the Heathrow Airport to ascertain the
thing which requires greater attention and if require it also help in making changes in the project
which has helped the firm.
D2. Evaluation of the PLC on its effectiveness
PLC always help company to improve their effectiveness of the project as PLC provides
organisation a structured direction to move on, also provides the before hand understanding of
the project with the help of planning phase which help company to evaluate the project on
regular basis and also helps company to use their resources for the optimum use (Steenkamp,
2018).
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TASK 4
M3. Project methodologies for Heathrow baggage project
Prince 2: Prince 2 is the processed based method for effective project management. Prince 2 help
you to have better control over the resources which has helped the Heathrow to save the money
in the project. Prince 2 also helps in managing risk more effectively which has also helped the
organisation.
PMBOK: PMBOK is the body of knowledge which has proper collection of guidelines, process
and technology which are used as a standard of working in the project management. These
methodology has helped Heathrow Airport to build the project more efficiently and effectively
(Hitt, 2016).
M4. Analysis of the theories used in project
Prince 2: Prince 2 is the best methodology when organisation need a project with less cost and
within less time as it helps organisation to use its resources for optimum use but on the other
hand it sometimes proves difficult for the organisation to apply it has it requires a special
knowledge to apply.
PMBOK: PMBOK is said to be best methodology as it clearly describes the all the guidelines
and process which need to be follow in the project management but sometimes it becomes
difficult to apply on the small- scale project as it requires to many step to follow (Lock, 2017).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Nakamura, T. and et.al., 2015. Operation management apparatus, operation management
method, and operation management program. U.S. Patent 9,031,703.
Kiehtreiber, P and et.al., 2018. Centralized operation management. U.S. Patent Application
10/122,759.
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.
Steenkamp, J.R. and Bekker, M.C., 2018. Validating a project life-cycle review framework for
mining projects at Exxaro. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering. 29(1). pp.74-
85.
Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.
Online
Principles of operation management, 2019: https://www.planettogether.com/blog/what-are-the-
principles-of-operations-management
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