Operations and Project Management Report: Unit 16 Analysis and Plan

This report delves into the principles of operations and project management, examining their effectiveness and application within organizations. It begins by defining the core concepts of operations management and its impact on business success. The report then analyzes the concept of continuous improvement, highlighting its importance in enhancing processes and achieving goals. A significant portion is dedicated to creating and analyzing a continuous improvement plan for Toyota, focusing on strategies like flexible specialization and agile manufacturing, and evaluating their effectiveness. The report further explores a business case scenario involving a leisure center project, including the development of a project plan, work breakdown structure, and cost budget, emphasizing the critical aspects of project viability, risk assessment, and resource allocation. The analysis incorporates relevant theories, concepts, and models to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed plans and strategies.

ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION FORM
This sheet must be submitted with your assignment. Failure to complete, sign and submit this
form will result in a mark of ‘0’ for the assignment.
By submitting this form and signing below, I declare that:
 I am the author of this assignment and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully
disclosed and acknowledged in this assignment
 I also certify that this assignment was prepared by me specifically for this course
 I certify that I have taken all reasonable precautions to make sure that my work has not been
copied by other students
 I confirm that I have understood the College’s regulations on plagiarism
 I confirm that research resources are fully acknowledged
Signature: ……………… ……………………… Date: ………………………………
Table of Contents
Plagiarism is presenting somebody else’s work as your own. It includes: copying information directly
from the Web or books without referencing the material; submitting joint coursework as an individual
effort; copying another student’s coursework; stealing coursework from another student and
submitting it as your own work. Suspected plagiarism will be investigated and if found to have
occurred will be dealt with according to the procedures set down by the College. Please see your
student handbook for further details of what is / isn’t plagiarism.
Student Name
Student ID P1097661
Assessor Name
D KING
Qualification Pearson BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma Business (Management)
Unit Number & Unit Title Unit 16: Operations and Project Management
Assignment Title OPM
Date of Submission

Activity 1 [Case 1].......................................................................................................................................................3
Activity 2 [Case 1].......................................................................................................................................................3
Activity 3 [Case 2].......................................................................................................................................................8
APPENDIX...................................................................................................................................................................... 10
References.................................................................................................................................................................... 12

OPERATIONS & PROJECT MANAGEMENT GUIDANCE FOR SUBMISSION
Activity 1 [Case 1]
1.0 Effectiveness of Operation Management Principles
The effectivity of the principles of Operations Management is dependent on the planning, supervision and
organizing of the involvements required for the execution of the activities within an organization or a
project. The management of the procedures would ensure that the operation that would enhance the
business or project operation. The implementation of operations management includes all the changes and
modifications that involve the organization to reach their specific goals with the help of innovative
strategies (White and Sholtes 2016). The principles of operation management increase the effectivity of
the project but not by applying tools for every stages, but providing solutions to all the stages in the
business or project, providing a universal solution. It also helps in enhancing the effectivity of the entire
solution to make the consistent and predictable outcome so that the operations would save both time and
money for the production in the long run. The effectivity provides the theories to bring about changes by
finding out issues in the project or the business plan to identify the problems in them and then suggest
changes if required. It also found that the effectivity of the operation management principles also enables
the quality management of the processes.
Activity 2 [Case 1]
2.1 Introduction: briefly explain the concept of continuous improvement
Continuous improvement sometimes dubbed as Continual improvement its an
ongoing process always improving product services by incremental improvements or
breakthrough improvements that looks for incremental improvement over a period-
of- time or the breakthrough improvements all at once.
Continuous improvement is enabled with ongoing procedures that goes on within a
business operation or an ongoing project where the breakthrough improvement
strategies and efforts improvises the prospects of the project or the business
operation by improving the ongoing activities and providing better results (Harris

2017). For this, the people in responsibility of making the business or the project go
through the continuous business process needs to understand the opportunities of
improvement and the analysis of the root causes that would enhance the system for
continuous improvement of the processes. The actions taken against would enable
the correction of the root causes for the faults.
2.2 a] P2 Prepare a continuous improvement plan based on your review
and critique
of operations management principles within Toyota.
MY operation management principles plan of Continuous improvement within TOYOTA
needs performances, process, strategy and most of all commitment.
The performance part of it is measuring the management purposes performance
evaluation for continuous improvements that should be the most vital requirements to
be able to achieve international and competitive sustained growth, The Process part
requires a good flow of work using software, process maps that can show series of
events that produces a complete result and the process analysis is a technical process
of a change that takes place through a series of stages.
Toyota needs a strategy of a long-term plan of action that is designed to set goals
and objective also to strengthen the performance of the business this is where a
management’s plan is needed in order to conduct and achieve the desired goal.
Commitment within Toyota the employee needs enthusiasm towards his or her task
that has been assigned to them within the workplace this gives them a responsibility
towards a goal, mission and a vision of the organization.
Your PLAN should have 3 Objectives: each to be/state as below: Specific, measurable,
Resources Required, Timescale for review, Result of review/follow Up
You should use the following Template:
Specific & measurable Objective 1
Resources Required:
Timescale for review:
Result of review/follow Up:
Specific & measurable Objective 2
Resources Required:
Timescale for review:
Result of review/follow Up:
Specific & measurable Objective 3
Resources Required:
Timescale for review:
Result of review/follow Up:
Looking at my plan, I have used Flexible Specialization and Agile Manufacturing as I
have mentioned investing in Machinery that have multiple uses which can make life
easier for those working in the business and it also reduces time wasted on an
individual use on doing that task. Quality is also something that has been included as
it’s a big thing as in an organisation for example, staying updated with the latest
technology and security systems which can be thought of as making your business
more secure or the information within the business secure, so your ideas aren’t
stolen.

From my analysis I feel that targets have been achieved as the business is still alive
and no ideas have been stolen judging by other business with similar ideas have done
the same but have come up with it in a completely different approach. The plan has
been achieved, not to a powerful extent but there could be improvements to make
things better by getting ideas from the staff and not leaving them out of the loop
seeing as it makes them more involved and there’s more communication between
everyone.
Below is an example of a simple Plan objective based on Waste Reduction
[Lean Principles]
Specific & measurable Objective 1: Reduce annual energy consumption by 4%;
as measured by total Kwh;
Resources Required: [Any of] Smart meters for each location; more ceiling
insulation; more energy efficient bulbs.
Timescale for review: Every 6 months
Result of review/follow Up: On review it was found that significant
energy savings could be made by increasing ceiling insulation from 2cm to 4cm
Other approaches could use eg Six Sigma, and improvements could involve more
complex processes [eg Mass Customisation, Flexible specialization, agile
manufacturing]. For ideas >Panmore.com H/o on 10 decision areas in Operations
Management, link below
http://panmore.com/toyota-operations-management-10-decisions-areas-productivity
Below are 2 more example of Plan objectives; [the 1st based on Measuring
Customer Satisfaction -Lean, Quality, & 6 Sigma Principles]
Specific & measurable Objective eg 2: Conduct Quantitative customer
research using Questionnaires where results can be numerically recorded.
Resources Required: Experienced team of market researchers
Timescale for review: on a rolling 6 monthly basis
Result of review/follow Up: Results to be reviewed after each
questionnaire is conducted and appropriate action taken
Specific & measurable Objective Eg 3: Examine the viability of using Electric
Batteries for named Model of Car; with viability measured by a statement of
estimated Cost & benefit.
Resources Required: Experienced multi disciplinary team to
including physicists & production engineers
Timescale for review: on a rolling 6 monthly basis
Result of review/follow Up: Results to be reviewed after each
statement of estimated Cost & benefit is completed and appropriate action taken.
2.2 b] Analyse the effectiveness of your plan using appropriate theories,
concepts and/or models
M2
For 2.2B your answer must analyse the effectiveness of your plan [in the context of
the theories/ concepts/ models already mentioned].
So you could discuss which principles have been applied, [eg Lean; Six Sigma,
Quality, Mass Customisation, Flexible specialization, agile manufacturing] in your
Plan.

Your Analysis could consider the following:
Have targets been achieved ?
If the plan was significantly over or underachieved how could this be explained ?
How would the plan be changed for next period ?
Have there been any major changes in Production processes, Legislation, consumer
preferences ?
As the recommended theories for this process, Flexible Specialization and Agile Manufacturing are used as
the machine manufacturing services for this project so that it would be easier to implement the project for
manufacturing accordingly. The analysis of the effectivity of both these plans would be analyzed in this
section to understand the feasibility of the application of both these plans. Following would be the detailed
analysis of both these phases so that the appropriateness of these would be critically analyzed:
Flexible Specialization:
 Achievement of the targets: This planning helped the organization to halt the program that is
enough problematic in nature and at the same time it would be feasible to make different products
and manufacture them for bridging the gaps that the previous product has been causing the
business (Mathew 2017). The target to fulfill the product manufacturing without hampering the
budget and schedule that was prepared for the previous program but at the same time, saving the
time and money with generous return on investments.
 Overachieving plan or underachieving plan: The plan, at the time of implementation might seem to
be underachieving as the product manufacturing of the previous item has been haltered (Mittal et
al. 2017). However, in the long run, the investments made on the smart batches of the new
product, saving copious amounts of time and money would enable the project team to materialize
that the time and money has been meeting the goal for the organization in the time of dire
necessity for the organization.
 Change of plans for the next period: The business strategy would be keeping themselves busy for
the next quarter in meeting all the business goals that was required with the manufacturing of the
scheduled item or product as per the schedule and budget required (Papke-Shields and Boyer-
Wright 2017). This would also make the project budget and schedule include the expenses for any
flexible specialization plan so that as a part of the contingency plan, and for not making the ideal
budget and time suffer, the change of plans be ready for manufacturing other products. However,
ideally, the project would fulfill all the necessary requirements so that the initial manufacturing do
not face any kind of problematic situation to need the planning for flexible specialization.
Agile Manufacturing:
 Achievement of the targets: As the term Agile Manufacturing suggests, it is extremely important
that the understanding of the entire system for the manufacturing process is identified. When the
plan is implemented, it would be better to identify them and at the same time, it has been easier to
create the entire process to be extremely responsive. One of the primary shortcomings of the
previous systems was the lack of manufacturing problems and the way that the feedback from the
clients were taken into consideration at a much later stage (Gunasekaran et al. 2018). It is essential
to identify each of the stages where the changes to the manufacturing process needs to be
identified to bring about the necessary changes. With this plan, the identification of the needs for
changes in the process for manufacturing is identified with the controlling of the cost and quality
within the ongoing process has been achieved.

 Overachieving plan or underachieving plan: The analysis of the plan to be overachieving or
underachieving is not identified in this phase as it is a continuous improvement plan. It is neither
overachieving nor underachieving. Since Toyota is a manufacturing organization with all the
relevant changes implemented by the feedback generated in the products, the reaching of the goal
is primary for the organization. It can either make the changes be implemented and reach the goal
or make the evaluation of the overachieving or underachieving of the entire process of agile
manufacturing in the long term return on investment analysis (Fraz 2017).
 Change of plans for the next period: The change of plans for the next period would be easier with
this plan as the manufacturing is always ready to take in changes suggested by the customers at a
regular basis during the ongoing process (Gunasekaran et al. 2019). Manufacturing the car and the
car parts with the agile manufacturing process makes them ready at every manufacturing phase to
change the course of the manufacturing plan and how it could be providing better effects to the
overall changes made to the final product.
2.3 Following from your answer to 2.2; justify strategies for achieving
continuous improvement of improved efficiency at Toyota by applying
appropriate theories, concepts and/ or models.
I believe the best way for Toyota to increase profit maximization and retain customers
is to Stay relevant through innovation and also Respond to customers fast
doing these things will provide you with ideas to advance and know how customers
feel about what you currently produce and you also get to know what people want not
what you want them to have. Being more flexible is another way of gaining customers
and increasing market share doing this will need to involve timing which may steal
competitors best staff allowing you advantage over them.
D1
Following on from your Continuous Improvement Plan, you should independently
research more recent developments in Operations practice at Toyota in the context of
the Global Car Manufacturing Industry, so as to retain and increase market share in
the constantly changing & very competitive industry. Themes could include global
manufacturing overcapacity; much stricter legislation on CO & NOx emissions; moving
away from Diesel & Petrol engines; research & development and marketing of
alternative ways to power cars.
Activity 3 [Case 2]
3.1 Apply each stage of the PLC to the given project; and prepare the following
supporting documents for insertion in the Appendix: Doc 1] business case, Doc 2] project
plan, Doc 3] work breakdown structure, Doc 4] Gannt Chart with Critical Path. P3
PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

Application of each stage of PLC to case:
Stage 1 Project Initiation [including Project Definition]
Outline what happens during Stage 1 -Project Initiation; eg background, motivation, purpose and rationale
[to include preliminary statements of objectives, scope, and deliverables] as stated in the scenario. You
should assume they are ambitious with a Profit motive, and can develop the scenario. Obviously having
required funds is essential.
In this particular phase, the beginning of the entire project would commence, making the first stage of the project
management life cycle. This would begin the commencement of the real life implementation of all the planning that
so far had been initiated throughout the manufacturing for the organization of Toyota (Ingason 2015). The project
initiation phase would have the definition for all the aspects of the project by understanding the objectives behind
the project for the manufacturing, the scope of the manufacturing project, the purpose and the deliverables that the
project would require. The motive of the project is defined in this phase, where the identification of the risks would
help to make a project plan to be implemented in the real life scenario for Toyota. The involvement of the funds is
extremely essential in this case.
See Doc 1 Business Case. [in appendix] Create a Business Case around the Leisure Centre
Project.
Use the Project Plan template provided in Unit
Stage 2 Project Planning [including Detailed Planning]
Write a summary of the purpose and expected contents of a Project Plan. Refer to Doc 2 & Doc 3 you have
inserted in the Appendix
See Doc 2 Project Plan [in appendix]
Use the Project Plan template provided in Unit Docs to develop an overview plan.
See Doc 3 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) [in appendix]
Use WBS in the Brief as template, it is basis for Monitoring & tracking ongoing Project execution in
Stage 3
Stage 3 Project Execution [including Monitoring & Control]
Write a short outline of the expected events at Stage 4; & mention use of the Project Monitoring Tools of
Gannt Chart, & Network diagram. [Leave detailed analysis of critical path & float for T3.2 re Project
Methodologies -M3].
The project execution phase understands the initiation phase of the project where the understanding for
all the stages that the project has to go through is implemented for the execution of the final
manufactured product. The first phase that is to follow for this process begins with the site design for the
leisure centre and the planning for the application of all the project phases. It would then move onto the
purchasing of the site and all the legal documentations that would follow. The site purchasing opens up the
possibility for the digging of the foundation and manufacturing the walls, that would represent the total
initial phase of the entire design (Abbasi and Nikbakht 2018). The identification of the other phases at the

time of the project execution would have the inclusion of the erection of the roof, the plumbing and
pumping systems, the painting and electrical fitting required for the entire area. The entire phase would
then move on to the installation for the fitting and finishing. Then it would install the security systems
throughout the site and also implement the relevant IT systems. The final phase of the project would begin
with the final preparations required for the opening of the leisure centre. Other than the plumbing and
pumping system, all the other phases, at the time of the initiation of the project execution is identified as
critical paths, as none of these phases can begin when the other is not finished. Each of these phases are
dependent on one another.
[NOTE ON LAB CLASS: We will use Serena Openproject as Project Monitoring Software. In our Lab session
you will enter details from the WBS supplied in Brief [per Doc 3 above] onto Openproject. You will create &
appropriately size the Gannt chart. With the same WBS create & appropriately size a corresponding
Network Diagram. In Open Project Critical activities are red, while Non Critical activities are blue.
Copy & Paste a screen shot of this as demonstrated in class, & save as Doc 4 in appendix]
See Doc 4 Gannt Chart with Critical Path [in appendix]
Stage 4 Project Closure [including Project Review]
Write an outline of the expected events at Stage 4 of the plc [See W5 ppt]
3.2 Analyse the rationale for use of WBS, Gantt Chart & Critical Path, and leadership for
the Project
1) Methodology: The methodology applied would always be ready for any risk
associated with the system and would not allow any of the problematic situation to
occur during the manufacturing phase and would not have the initiation of project
fallouts (Gembalska-Kwiecien 2017).
2) The tools: The utilized tools, both in terms of the project planning and the project
implementation has their initial drawbacks, but in the long run, provides the
successful addition to the entire system.
3) Leadership: The leadership maintained in this project makes the entire team be
ready for any risks in the phase and also makes sure that the procedures applied at
every phase has the business ready for taking in customer’s feedback. The team is
motivated enough to handle random feedbacks and make changes accordingly.
3.3 Review and critique the effectiveness of the application of the PLC in the project
using appropriate models, concepts and theories.
Stage 1 Project Initiation
The key issues that the project was facing was due to the rigid plan that did not take up much
agility (Meredith, Mantel and Shafer 2017). The significance of the business case thus happens to
define the project plan such that there would no longer be any situation where the planning phase
for the project would be halted without any flexibility to the project.
Stage 2 Project Planning
The business case for the project is extremely important to find out the requirement and the
planning for the project such that the project executives will find out how the project would be
beneficial to the overall business organization.
Stage 3 Project Execution
The documentation procedure would identify all the stages that the project has achieved so far and record
all the project areas that would be required to handle the project in a feasible way. The success or failure
of the project would be easier to identify.
Stage 4 Project Closure

The sponsors would have the identified success and failure factors for the project through these phases
and it will also have the benefit of having a better feedback from the project contractors.
3.4 Critically analyse and critique how the use of appropriate theories, models and
concepts will be applied differently for large and small scale projects.
Analysis of the appropriate theories, models and concepts would be based on how the project is going to
be providing the organisations with benefits and how much time and budget would be involved in the
project. the ongoing procedure of the project and the capability of housing multiple projects at the time
would be figuring out the large and small scale project performance measures (Anholon and Sano 2016).
The analysis of the performance measurement would make sure which evaluation procedure would be
applied to the large or small scale projects.
3.5 Critically evaluate the practical and theoretical effectiveness of the PLC in
application to this project using appropriate theories, models and concepts’.
During the initial phases of the project, it was already established that flexible specialisation would be used
in the project to make sure that Toyota is always ready for all the situations where it might arise that the
project is in requirement of holding one project and manufacturing and new requirement by the customer.
With the initiation of this particular process, it would be easier to identify that if cost overrun has occurred
for a product is significantly delayed, even at that point of time the project life cycle would have the
provision for flexible specialisation, where the organisation would have a proper structure for providing
manufacturing services to another product as per the requirement of the customer (Misopoulos et al.
2018). This would have the inclusion of the budget and time of the previous project and at the same time it
would make return on investments to provide for the previous project in future.
APPENDIX
Doc 1] Business case
Business Case:
Document Information
Document ID 0002
Document Owner Christella Foster
Issue Date 08/11/19
Last Saved Date 21/12/19
Full Name Christella Foster
Document History
Version Date of Issue Changes
0.1 09/11/19 Changes in the terms of
project quality

Document Approvals
Role Name of the Personnel Review Status
Project Sponsors Paul and Perry Cost review has been done
according to the budget
Project Review Group Christella Foster Quality checking
conducted
Project Manager
Quality Manager
Procurement Manager
Communication Manager
Doc 2] Project plan
Project Plan
Project Scope
Scope of the project is to make sure that the project planning for manufacturing
procedure enables all the theories adopted in the real life project. This would make
the manufacturing project so flexible that Toyota would be ready in any case where
changes would be required for the project. it would have all the support from the
initial planning phase where the budget and schedule would also include any
changes added to the system and at the same time would have the probability of
manufacturing with flexible specialization and also having plans for agile
manufacturing.
Project Milestones
The project milestones would be the phases in the project that would be the
threshold of any project where the monitoring process would begin. This would be
the checkpoints of the project progression where the deliverables would be
analyzed to understand how the project progression is happening.
Milestones Description Delivery Date
Site Design meeting Design of the leisure site 21/11/19
Site Purchasing Day for the purchasing of
the desired site
12/12/19
Opening Day Project end phase where
the leisure center opens
12/03/2020
Doc 3] Work breakdown structure.
OPM CASE 2
Leisure Centre Project Work Breakdown Structure [WBS] & Cost Budget
Dependent BUDGET
Activity Days on Personnel Required £m
1 Leisure Centre & 10 Paul, Penny & Senior 0.10

Site Design Project Team
2
Planning
Application 15 1
Paul, Penny & Senior
Project Team 0.01
3 Site Purchase 15 1
Builders [Skilled &
Unskilled] 0.50
4
Dig foundation,
build walls 15 2;3
Builders [Skilled &
Unskilled] 0.20
5 Erect Roof 10 4
Builders [Skilled &
Unskilled] 0.25
6
Plumbing &
pumping 10 5
Builders [Skilled &
Unskilled] 0.20
7 Electricals 15 5
Builders [Skilled &
Unskilled] 0.20
8 Painting 10 6;7
Builders [Skilled &
Unskilled] 0.10
9
Internal fittings &
finishing 10 8
Professional
Consultants 0.10
10
Installation of
Security system 10 8
Professional
Consultants 0.20
11
Installation of IT
system 10 8
Professional
Consultants 0.04
12
Final Preparations
for opening 5 9;10;11 As needed 0.10
Total Budgeted Cost
£m: 2.00
Doc 4] Screenshot of Gantt Chart & Network Diagram