Operations and Project Management: BPC Electronics and HS2

This report provides a critical analysis of operations and project management principles, using BPC Electronics as a case study for the application of these principles in the context of developing a triple door fridge. It examines the implementation of operations management principles like flexible specialization, lean production, and various functions of OM. The report also explores a continuous improvement plan for BPC Electronics, implementing the PDCA model to reduce project time and ensure compliance. Furthermore, it analyzes the Product Life Cycle (PLC) with respect to the High Speed 2 (HS2) project in the UK, evaluating the effectiveness of PLC stages in managing large-scale infrastructure projects. The report covers both the positive and negative aspects of applying these principles and models, offering a comprehensive overview of operations and project management practices.

OPERATIONS AND
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Part-1................................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Critical Review of implementation of OM principles with relation to organisation. ....3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................6
P2. A Continuous improvement plan with relation to company............................................6
PART-2............................................................................................................................................9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P3. PLC with relation to High Speed 2 Project. ....................................................................9
P4. Review as well as Critic of effectiveness of PLC..........................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is the process of producing and designing a product with an aim
to gain positive results within stipulated time frame. This procedure help companies from initial
to end of the project efficiently. The project management refer to the activities which is related to
the project. It involves activities such as monitoring the activities, controlling of activities of the
overall project and many more. It is basically the applications of knowledge as well as skills t
attain project objectives. According to the scenario given The company which is chosen for
completing part 1 of the report is BPC Electronics. The company deals in developing &
designing of electronics in appropriate manner. The company head office in United Kingdom.
The managers of the decide to bring some innovation at market place. For this, they launch
Triple Door Fridge for customers in the market (Aubry and Lièvre, 2016). For the part 2, the
project which is considered is HS2 project. It is a project of high speed railway in UK. The plan
is in under construction and the phase 1 launch takes place in year 1928. This project of speed
railway links 21 major destinations of United Kingdom and it is the 2nd high speed line in the
country. The present report critically analyze the operation management principles. With this,
the stages of PLC is discuss in these project which helps company to effectively complete the
project.
Part-1
TASK 1
P1. Critical Review of implementation of OM principles with relation to organisation.
Overview of company
BPC Electronics is founded in 1993 and it is known as one of the leading firm who offer
services related to printed circuit board, manufacture electronic contract and assemble LED.
Respective company is specialized in producing premium quality PCB assemblies which
demanded high level of reliability as well as they also offer wide range of respective products.
Explanation of operation Vs operations management
Operations are considered as business activities at which a company get engaged in order
to convert raw materials into the finish goods or products or services according to customers
requirement and then it will sell to them for earning high profitability. On the other hand
operations management is defined as area according to which management is concerned about

designing as well as controlling procedure of manufacturing and redesigning company's
operations for producing products and services. In the present context of BPC Electronics, it has
been said that operations and operations management plays very essential role in order to convert
the material into finished goods in an effective manner.
Operations management principle Flexible Specialisation: According to this considered as principle according to which
company will conduct their work in that area in that they are specialized. In respect of
BPC Electronics they will to conduct their business operations and functions in
manufacturing premium quality PCB assemblies. In this they also need to conduct their
work in small batches in order to insure work quality.
 Lean production: This is defined as method or approach which a used by a company in
order to minimise their wastage as well as for ensuring quality of work. In respect of
respective company they can adopt this principle according to which they need to cut
their cost by making effective as well as responsive decision which are related to
minimising wastage and improving work quality.
The main functions of OM is planning, organise the activities, guiding , control and
checking of activities as well as staffing. Operation management plays vital role in companies as
it helps company to decline the level of waste and complete project effectively (Berbegal, Gil
and Alegre, 2017). By the assistance of functions of operation management , an organisation can
offer its services to customers on time. In addition to this, there are principles of Operation
management which attains organisation to manage business activities and deliver the project on
time,. The principles which organisation follows are mentioned below:
Reality: Herein, the organisation mainly emphasise on the problems which is related to
operation management. The technical problems is not taken into consideration. In context to
BPC Electronics, the manager of company first analyse the market and the requirements of
customers. The company mainly deals in Freezes, AC and so on items.
Organisation: The production activities of operations is interlinked. In order to gain
positive result this interrelation among the elements must be predictable a well as consistent. If
it is not consistent the organisations would not be able to gain effective outcome or the profit.
With reference to BPC Electronics , the company should follow this principle in order to remain

consistency between the elements of production. With this, it aid company to enhance
performance as well as productivity (Carvalho and Rabechini Junior, 2015).
Accountability: As per this principle, the higher authorities set rules and assigned it to
all the employees. They check whether this rules is followed on regular basis or not as it helps
organisation to met their goals on time. In relation to BPC Electronics, in order to gain success in
the project of developing triple door fridge the manager should assigns activities to employees
and checks it on regular basis.
Change: It is important for every organisation to adopt changes with the change in
technologies as well as trends. This changes brings stability in the organisation for longer period.
With reference to BPC Electronics, the company brings new feature in fridge as per customer
requirement and marketing trends.
Passion: The higher authorities of BPC Electronics emphasises in developing passion in
workforce towards project or towards company objective (Harrison and Lock, 2017). They
encourage employees by giving appreciation and incentives with an aim that it will increases
their performance and productivity. With the help of this, an organisation can earn high profits
and revenue.
Manufacturing: It is important for organisations to enhance productivity and it will only
achieve when company fulfil the requirements of its employees. The cost can be reduce if
company adopts waste reduction process in manufacturing of a product. With reference to BPC
Electronics, the company can use tools which reduces waste such as Lean, Agile and many more.
Value: The product which a company offers in market must fulfil needs of customer then
only it creates value in market. The product must be of high quality as it helps company to attract
large audiences which leads to increase in the value of company. The managers of BPC
Electronics give good quality of products to customers as it develops new product by considering
customer needs.
Flow: According to this principle, the organisation emphasise that there should be proper
flow of communication and activities of production. With this, they focus that each and every
employee have similar work. With this, they focus on reducing the burden of work of employees
as it increase productivity of employees (Lam and Lai, 2015).
Establish Pull: Herein, the companies manufacture or develop product as per customers
requirement, they do not force customers to purchase their product. In context to BPC

Electronics, the company targets those people who can afford heir range and product. It helps
company to achieve goals within time frame.
Pursue perfection: The product of an organisations can only be purchase by customers if
it leads according to customer perfection. In context to BPC Electronics, the managers monitors
each and every activity and operations as per set standard in order to provide perfection to
customers. This will help company to raise sales and level of profit also.
There are both positive and negative aspects of applying these principles that may faced
by BPC Electronics. Positive aspect are through these principles respective firm able to develop
more effective decision that help in conducting work properly by minimising wastage as well as
insuring work quality. On the other hand it have some limitations or negative impact such as it is
time taking procedure as well as for respective company management is not possible to adopt all
principles.
TASK 2
P2. A Continuous improvement plan with relation to company.
Continuous improvement plan is defined as an ongoing effort, which is made by company
in order to improve their products as well as services. It help company to offer quality goods to
customer that leads to satisfaction and retention of customer for longer time period. It also aid
company to enhance their productivity as well as profitability level.
Cycle of continuous improvement
Continuous improvement is also known as continual improvement process which is a
ongoing efforts of a company in order to improve their services, products and processes.
Through this an organisation able to minimise wastage, increase quality of products or services
and many more. The cycle of continuous improvement is based on major four stage i.e. plan, do,
check and act. With the help of executing Continuous improvement cycle within the organisation
in order to able to perform regular improvement which aid them in accomplishing their
objectives and goals.
Continuous improvement plan
It is considered as combination of activities which are designed in order to bring bit-by-
bit, ongoing improvement related to products, process, services and others in respect of
reviewing measurement and actions. Through this firm also able gain numbers of benefits such

as improve productivity, minimise or reduce cost, improve quality, decrease time of delivery,
reduce staff turnover rate and many more.
It is important for organisations to continuously make improvement in the products and
services in order to effectively remain in market. The organisations make changes in their
processes and adopt innovative technologies so that they can make changes in a defined manner.
By the assistance of this plan, the companies enhance their productivity & efficiency which leads
to increase in profitability (Lee, 2018). With reference to BPC Electronics, the management team
decides to bring new product in market that is Triple door Fridge. It is important for managers to
adopt continuous development plan so that they can gain positive outcome from the market.
With this, it is also essential for company to identify current market trends as it attains them to
develop plans and strategies effectively. It helps company to fulfil the needs of customer which
leads to raise in the number of loyal customers. In addition to this, this plan helps organisations
to effectively perform activities of a project appropriately.
Continuous Improvement Plan
In respect to develop continuous improvement plan an organisation need to adopt or
implement model i.e. PDCA (Plan, do, check and act), this is so because it will help in
developing more effective strategies as well as action plan. Implementation of PDCA model in
respect of BPC Electronics for reducing total consumption of project time and compliance with
all principles of company are stated as below:
 Plan: At this stage company need to identify issues, gather data, understand problem's
root cause and so on. In respect of BPC Electronics they want to introduce new triple
door fridge, so at this stage they will conduct market as well as workplace analysis as that
will help them in understanding their strengths, weakness, market opportunities and so
on. This planning will be performed in such a manner that will lead to consume minimal
time in executing project effectively.
 Do: At respective phase company need to develop as well as implement solution in order
to resolve issues or attaining desire goal within the predetermined time limit. In case of
BPC Electronics after conducting analysis and developing strategies management will try
to implement the strategies of manufacturing new fridge. At this stage they also take
feedback or suggestion for measuring result.

 Check: In this stage management of a firm will conduct comparison of before and after
situation. They will also analyse effectiveness of new products as well as analyse whether
hypothesis is properly supportive or not. In respect of BPC Electronics they will analyse
whether their new product i.e. triple door fridge is liked by target customers or not. Along
with this, they will also check that whether it is accomplished within provided time
period or not. Act: It is the last stage and according to this evaluate the final result and identify whether
any change required or not as well as if their will be issue then cycle will be repeated and
if not then firm work accordingly. In respect of BPC Electronics after getting feedback
they able to know customers perspective. If they get any suggestion or issue them
management will conduct modification accordingly. Also, required actions will going to
be taken by project manager in order to complete it in quicker manner.
List of specific action
There are several actions which can be taken by BPC Electronics in order to develop and
launch new triple door fridge, from that main ten actions are given below:-
 The higher authorities of BPC Electronics uses six sigma tool at workplace with an aim
to perform activities in a defined manner related to launching of triple door fridge. It also
helps company to complete project on time or within specified budget.
 BPC Electronics may use Lean manufacturing principle in their manufacturing process so
that waste can be minimize which automatically declines the cost of production and
raises profit. In addition to this, it attains company to get positive outcome.
 BPC Electronics, the company ensures that their employees must be safe at workplace. In
addition to this, they maintain a record of Inventory which is available to them.
 BPC Electronics should develop plans & strategies appropriately as that will help them in
reducing the level of risk as well as defects which leads to gain more profit.
 Moreover respective company management also need to plan training and development
session so that their employees work properly as well as it will also increase their
productivity.
 BPC Electronics also need to conduct market analysis in order to gather information
related to customer demand and requirement.

 Respective firm also need to conduct analysis after launching triple door fridge as that
help in knowing customer reviews.
 They may also hire experts or professional so that they can guide company in
development of products.
 Respective company can also set standard so that they can evaluate effectiveness of
manufacturing process. In order to launch triple door fridge at marketplace BPC Electronics can adopt effective
promotional channel such as digital and social media and so on.
The overall objective to create plan is to meet with the objectives that is to increase sales and
profit of the company. The objectives to develop plan are as follows:
 To enhance sales 10% within coming 6 months by creating awareness in the market
about good offered by company.
 To increases market share by 5% in coming 8 months by offering quality products in
market
 To provide unique products to customer in order to attain competitive advantage at
marketplace and to fight with rivals prevailing at marketplace.
All these objectives is achieve when higher authorities of company is continuously evaluate the
performance of employees as it help in making improvements that leads to increase in
productivity and performance of company. In addition to this, the targets can be set by managers
so that activities is implemented accordingly that directly leads to achievement of objectives
within stipulated time frame. Moreover, the managers of BPC electronics adopt different tools
and develop strategies which help in increasing operational efficiency that has a positive impact
on profitability as well as productivity of the organisation.
Activities required achieving these objectives
In order to achieve the above objectives, there are various activities need to be implement
by the mangers of BPC Electronics is given below: The company can conduct marketing or advertising campaign in order to aware more
number of people about the offerings. The marketing managers of BPC Electronics can
use social media applications such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, it will help
company to reach maximum number that has a positive impact on the sales and profit of
the organisation.

 Moreover, the company can make use of different operation tools such total quality
management, six sigma and so on. It assist company to decline the level of wastage that
raise the profit of company. In addition to this, the company is able to provide quality
products to customer that develop a positive mind set towards brand. It assist company to
attain competitive advantage and gain leading position in the industry. The managers of BPC electronics can make use of continuous improvement plan which
will help company to evaluate the activities that is being performed by employees. It
improve the productivity of staff members that leads to increase in profitability and
revenue of the organisation. By using the continuous improvement plan, BPC electronics
can offer quality products as well as service to customers that help in attaining
competitive advantage at marketplace which is one of the objective of company. Furthermore, It can conduct training session to staff members due to which skills and
knowledge of staff members increased that has positive influence on efficiency and
profitability of company.
Six Sigma
It is an improvement methodology to reduce defects within a process, service and product
as well. This tool was formulated by Bill Smith in year 1980. This technique helps company to
make improvements in activities and functions of a project (Lientz and Rea, 2016). With this, it
emphasise on making improvements in performance level or in the productivity level of an
organisation. It reduces errors from the processes and also reduces defects. This technique is
joined with DMAIC that helps in improving quality and reduces errors. In the present context of
BPC Electronics, it has been said that the management team of the company adopt Six Sigma
approach with the help of which productivity as well as performance will be increased. In the
present context, application of all the elements of DMAIC for BPC Electronics are going to be
discussed as follows:
Define: It is the first stage where higher authorities of BPC Electronics tries to identify
the problem and the reason behind the defects.
Measure: At this stage, the manager of BPC Electronics measure the performance of
employees with the set standards. With this, they also maintain a record of the performances in
appropriate manner.

Analyse: Herein, BPC Electronics evaluates problem and make changes in strategies or
in plans in order to solve issues effectively (Meredith and Shafer, 2019).
Improve: Herein, the management team of BPC Electronics impose changes in a positive
manner so that it ca be accepted by each and every staff members. The company develop
changes to improve their quality. This will lead to gain effective outcomes for the BPC
Electronics.
Control: This is the last stage, where higher authorities monitors and checks all
operations in a defined manner. After this, they will match it with set standards which is made by
BPC Electronics to reduce errors as well as wastage (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017).
After study the above principles it has been analysed that it is necessary for BPC
Electronics to evaluate the activities and the functions of a project. With this, it is also essential
for BPC Electronics to examine the issue which is arise at workplace. In order to produce
positive results, the respective firm implement continuous improvement plan at workplace. There
are various factors which allows BPC Electronics to effectively perform their tasks and project
such as Six Sigma, Lean manufacturing. The management team of BPC Electronics, the
company should use Lean manufacturing and six sigma techniques in order to produce better
quality goods and services. In addition to this, Continuous improvement plan helps company to
reduce errors or to decline input cost which leads to increase in the profit level of an
organisation.
PART-2
TASK 3
P3. PLC with relation to High Speed 2 Project.
Project life cycle
It is considered as sequences of stages which considered from starting to end as well as it
can be modified by a company according to need as well as requirement of a company or project.
Through the implementation of this an organisation able to forecast products or services
direction as well as it also help in conducting planning in timely manner. Moreover it will also
aid in formulating decision related to marketing mix.

It is the sequence of steps of a project from start to the end with relation to time. Project
life cycle helps in estimation of time of activities of a project related to the new product. By the
assistance of project life cycle, the managers examine the survival of product at marketplace. The
management team of HS2 project adopts the stages and phases of PLC so that their plan is
getting success. The stages of PLC are mentioned below with relation to High Speed 2 project:
 Organisational as well as team effectiveness: It has been said that an environment is
developed within the organisation in order to flourish by business modification,
organisation design and develop strong culture which will help in creating strong culture
which leads towards the development of the staff members.
 Managing for high performance: In addition to this, it is said that all the staff members
know about what is expected from them and get feedback on the regular basis. This as a
result help in increasing the performance of staff members.
 Sustaining the organisation: It has been identified that the management team of the
company develop sustainable and long term workplace with the hep of doing continuous
basis succession and talent planning. With the help of this, managers will be able to retain
their staff members for a long period of time.
Stage 1
Initial stage: This is the first and foremost stage of PLC where management team of HS2 project
analyse the requirement as well as preferences of passengers of United Kingdom. After this, the
projects activities is planned effectively (Perry, Hagen and McCarthy, 2018). It is a project
which gives high speed railway services to people and save the travelling time of people. They
analyse current situation of railways and then implement the idea of High speed railways.
Business case
 Executive summary: HS2 project is a high speed railway project which is going to
launch phase1 in year 2038. Before launching its phase , it is important for managers to
identify present market needs as well as passenger requirements. This project covers 21
destinations of Britain and after this they launch more phases. In order to attain objectives
the management tea need to develop effective strategies and can use different tools &
techniques. In addition to this, the higher authorities of HS2 project should maintain
information about all activities and performance of all the supporting members.