An Analysis of Operation and Project Management: IKEA and HS2 Project

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of operation and project management, focusing on two case studies: IKEA and the High Speed 2 (HS2) project. The first part of the report delves into IKEA's operations, exploring the application of operation management principles, continuous improvement plans, and lean production strategies. It examines IKEA's approach to cost control, product development, and customer satisfaction. The second part of the report shifts focus to the HS2 project, analyzing its project life cycle (PLC), business case, and the effectiveness of PLC implementation. The report also critiques the operational approaches employed by both organizations, evaluates the effectiveness of operation management principles, and offers recommendations for improvement. Overall, the report aims to provide insights into the practical application of operation and project management theories in real-world scenarios.

Operation & Project
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction to selected organisation......................................................................................3
Explanation of operations vs operation management.............................................................4
Review and Critique on implementation of operation management principles within selected
organisation............................................................................................................................4
Operations management of an organisation to meets overall requirements of selected firm.5
Continuous Improvement Plan as a philosophy and lean principles......................................6
Operations management principles within an organisation....................................................9
Recommendations..................................................................................................................9
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
PLC in context to High Speed 2 Project.................................................................................9
Business case........................................................................................................................13
Review and Critic of effectiveness of PLC..........................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Operation management always deals with different types of approaches everyday in order
to resolve entire issues of business in a systematic manner. Whereas, project management deals
with planning, organising, controlling and motivating overall resources for achievements of
particular goals and objectives. Operation and project management refers to the group activities
which helps people to analysing the design and control as well as change operations, logistics
and supply chain management and projects issues (Kidd, 2020). Moreover, this project is divided
into 2 parts herein, 1st part refers to the IKEA organisation, it is Swedish firm and dealing with
home appliances, accessories and furniture as well. This organisation has aim to reduce wastage
or maximise firm's productivity with lower price. On the other side 2nd part is based on HS2
project , it is high speed railway project within the United Kingdom. Additionally discussion is
based on effectiveness of operation management principles and continuous improvement plan.
At last, Project life cycle and applications used in PLC will get covered.
PART 1
Introduction to selected organisation.
IKEA is one of the best Swedish organisation which is dealing with several kind of
products like furniture, home appliances as well so many accessories. It is well known world's
largest furniture retailer organisation which always provide best quality of goods and services to
people to satisfy their needs from them. This organisation generally makes modern designs of
furniture as well as other accessories which attracts the large number of customers. IKEA also
known for its continuous product development, cost control and operational details by which
they can develop effective pricing strategies in any kind of situation. While global expansion has
been raised than this firm bring huge changes in their overall cost and sells its product with
affordable price (Ochieng and et.al., 2018). By having effective tools and strategy this company
always able to handle any difficult situation of firm and gain successful growth of their business.
In order to make several goods and services they generally use technical resources by which they
can manage its all over functions. Therefore, operation management plays a vital role within firm
as it helps them to manage and control all over the developing goods and services through

obtaining raw material from the better suppliers. So that they could successfully implements on
those strategies which are used to make effective plan towards firm.
Furthermore, IKEA generally takes feedback after delivering its goods and services to
customers. With the help of taking feedback they are able to think about their weaknesses so that
they can bring few changes and deliver its products to buyers. It is very helpful strategy to
influence customer's in a broad way towards goods and services which is provided by them. It
always generate appropriate profit for firm and maximise overall productivity and sells of an
organisation. In order to increase more profit of an organisation manager of IKEA develop more
helpful and better plan by which they can produce more designs within furniture and able to
achieve competitive advantages in an effective manner (Maylor and Turner, 2017).
Explanation of operations vs operation management.
Operations management refers to the area of management which is used to control and
design overall process of production as well as it is helpful for redesigning operations of business
towards manufacturing of goods and services. On the other hand Operation management follows
particular procedure by which firm is able to attain future goals. Therefore, it is used through
IKEA in order to make their unique goods and services.
Review and Critique on implementation of operation management principles within selected
organisation.
Operation management used to develop highest level of efficiency in a possible manner
within an organisation. There are different types of principles which all are essential for firm to
adopt new strategical tools to implements on them towards achievement of particular goals and
objectives in a perfect mode. In context of IKEA, day to day they are producing different types
goods and play an effective role of operations at marketplace. For maintaining this process, they
are needed to follow few principles of operation management, those are going to be discussed
below:
Principle of Change: Change is good for every firm. In regards with IKEA, manager of
this particular organisation usually implements new theories and solutions in order to maintain
overall operations of manufacturing system in a perfect way (Sirisomboonsuk and et.al., 2018).
Thus, it is necessary for firm to change their functions as per the particular time as well as
consumers demand. With the help of this, they can sustain for long period of time at
marketplace.

Principle of Organisation:It is most considerable principle of operation management
which provides large number of productions facilities to firms so that they run their business in a
perfect way. Herein, IKEA operating different types of functions those all are interconnected
with each other by using operation management principles. Without using operational principles
respective firm is not able to fulfil their requirements and not able to gain huge profit at
marketplace. Therefore, they should always follow this principle for betterment of future.
Principle of Reality: Operation management generally require to concentrates on
different types of issues as well as techniques. In regards with IKEA, they use this principle for
bringing effective solution of their few issues to grab huge customers attention and increase firm
productivity. Furthermore, this principle helps them to bring so many solutions on the reality
basis.
Principle of Accountability: Being an accountable considered as a key which is used by
operation management in firm towards manufacturing systems. In relation with IKEA, manager
always make appropriate rules and policies in order to check effective basis of delivering goods
and services to customers (Martens and Carvalho, 2017). With the help of this they can achieve
their goals and objectives as well. Therefore, accountability plays most significant role in firm.
From the above discussed principle, this can be said that if IKEA will properly use these
assorted principles than they are able to influence large number of customers by giving them
better goods and services and achieve their target in a perfect way. Therefore, it is necessary for
each firm to increase their productivity as well as profits of them.
Various approaches to operations management:
It has been identified that IKEA uses different types of operational approaches in order to
perform their functionality in an effective manner. Some essential operation Management
approaches are going to be discussed as follows:
Lean production: It is considered as one of the most crucial approach in which a
systematic as well as effective manufacturing procedure is created by the managers so that the all
the activities can be performed effectively and reduce any sort of wastage of material. Therefore,
managers need to utilize all the resources in an effective and appropriate manner. In the present
report, IKEA uses this approach in order to reduce their extra cost as well as to develop high
quality goods and services. On the other hand, it has also been said that by doing mass

production managers can utilise all the resources in an effective manner and reduce the overall
cost.
Six sigma: Apart from lean production, another essential approach which includes
different stages such as measuring, designing, improving, analysing as well as controlling. This
is an approach used by the management team of IKEA in order to improve the image its position
at global marketplace. For this, it is the responsibility of a superior to create an effective system
as well as examine the performance of organisation at the marketplace. This will aid them in
executing effective technologies at workplace which can control the errors and minimise the cost
of company.
Lean principles
Defining value- Value is mainly defines through requirements of consumers for
particular goods. It is important to find out latent requirements of the consumer. Often consumers
can not know what they want. In the field of new products or innovations, this is particularly
common. There are other methods like interviews, surveys, demographics and web research that
can help IKEA organisation to discern the interest of customers.
Mapping the value stream- Under this, main goal is to use value of customers as point of
references and also determine all activities which contribute to values. Waste shall be known as
activities which do not add value to the end user. Waste can be divided into two different
categories like added but not valued, but essential, and unnecessary.
Creating flow- After removing wastages from value streams, following action assure that
flow if some steps run without any delays. Some techniques to ensure a seamless flow of value
adding activities include breakdowns, workload balancing, and multi-trained and adaptive
training of employees.
Using a pull system- One of the greatest waste in any manufacturing system is inventory.
The purpose of a pull-based system is to restrict inventory and process items (WIPs) while
ensuring the appropriate materials and data are accessible for smooth workflows. Pull-based
system provides for just-in-time distribution and production where goods are manufactured in
just the required amounts at the time they are needed.
Pursuing perfection- As the gains continue to accumulate, it is important to bear in mind
that the lean system is not static and requires continuous effort and vigilance. During the

introduction of lean, all workers will be involved. Significant experts also say a method is not
really lean until it is mapped at least half a dozen times by value source.
Operations management of an organisation to meets overall requirements of selected firm.
Within the competitive scenario there are several firms who are using different types of
operational tools to run business goals in a particular mode. Herein, IKEA has large number of
tools by which they are able to give better performance in a smooth mode. For this, there are
several level of operation management which used to meets firms requirement, those are
mentioned below:
From the very first level organisation needs to reduce its entire cost of operations. In
relation with IKEA, as this firm has been adopted few principles of operation management so
that they can have better ideas towards manufacturing its goods and services process. But they
failed to apply those principles on their manufacturing system as well as not able to accomplish
consumer's demand.
In order to improve entire process of producing goods and services IKEA needs to
achieve effective and qualitative procedure by which they can given better performance towards
manufacturing goods. Herein, principles of management operation helps firm to keep interlinked
their data that improve manufacturing process of firm. For betterment of this extant firm could
bring robotics functions with the help of human resource in order to meet failed goals and
objectives. So that they can use principles in a perfect way and do always better.
Delivering final product to end consumers is next wish of IKEA. In order to fulfil this
demand they generally make such kind of strategy by which they could bring few innovative
ideas in order to overcome negative impact on firm and satisfy consumer's wants. As firm is
having different types of issues so that here principle of reality is not much perfect to achieve
organisational goals and objectives (Bari, 2018).
At last, safety considered as most effective demand by IKEA, according to this firm is
needed to have few innovative strategies in regards with principle of change. With the help of
this they can bring few changes in their manufacturing process towards the achievement of
targeted goals and objectives. Therefore, safety is most important part to keep all resources safe
like furniture, home appliances and so on. It is helpful for firm to develop good image at market
area. Thus, this principle is quite useful to meet organisational demand.

Continuous Improvement Plan as a philosophy and lean principles.
In order to achieve marketing goals, it is essential for firm to make regular improvement
plan towards particular goods and services (Silvius, 2017). For this, most of the firm are needed
to adopt such kind of techniques by which they can bring some changes into their operational
activities to maximise firms productivity. In context with IKEA, management team of this
organisation always use several tools from operation management in order to achieve better
results within competitive scenario. Further improvement, firm is needed to identify current
needs of marketing through implementation of new strategies and concepts. With the help of this
they can make better plan and accomplish consumer's needs.
Continuous Improvement Plan
Continuous improvement plan of IKEA is going to be discussed as follows:
Improvement Expected outcome Current performance
level
Development in
strategies
Quality IKEA is an
organisation which
deals in food and
beverages, home
appliance, apparels,
baby and children
products and many
more. It is very
necessary for the store
manager to provide
high quality goods and
services to their
customers. If the
quality is not
maintained by them
then it will affect the
overall image of the
company in a negative
It is a business entity
which offer high
quality goods and add
value to products by
adding new features to
their goods in order to
satisfy the needs and
wants of customers in
an effective manner.
Higher authority of
IKEA need to adopt
advanced technology
in order to examine the
needs of customers.
Along with this highly
advanced techniques
help in improving the
efficiency of staff
members.

manner.
Promotional events IKEA is an
organisation which is
well-known across the
whole world therefore
it is necessary for the
managers to adopt
online advertisement
with the help of which
company can create
awareness about their
offerings and expand
their business entity in
an effective way.
At present IKEA adopt
digital, social as well
as print media in order
to promote their
offerings at the
competitive
marketplace. These
marketing techniques
aid them in attracting
large number of
customers and
increasing their
customers base.
Higher authority of
IKEA need to improve
their marketing
strategy according to
the changing
environment also they
can grab attention of
large number of
customers their
organisation. With the
help of continuous
improvement,
managers of the
company can attract
large number of
customers at
international level.
After sales service IKEA is concentrating
on providing high
quality after sales
services to their
customers with the
help of which they can
retain them for a
longer period of time.
At the present
situation,
IKEAprovide different
sort of refund as well
as return policies to
the consumers in
addition to this, they
also provide guarantee
to their customers that
if the products do not
satisfy their
requirements they can
It is essential for the
top management team
of IKEA to enhance
the warranty period so
that it will be
convenient for the
international
customers. market.
This as a result assist
them in improving the
goodwill of the
company at the

return back to them. competitive
marketplace.
As per stated continuous improvement plan, it has been said that in order to improve the
overall quality as well as efficiency of goods and services produced by them, it is required to
adopt upgraded technologies. In addition to this, development can be implemented within the
workplace by collecting maximum data from both customers and staff members in order to
develop high quality and appropriate goods & services.
The continuous development plan is mainly implements through the management for
make improvement in the quality of products and services. Improvement in quality of products
and services is helpful in attracting the large number of consumers and enhance sales of business.
It makes improvement in products as well as process of an organization to satisfy the needs of
customers. The continuous improvement plan could be implements in 20 days according to
included activities in it.
Six Sigma
It is the combination of different types of tools and techniques which is used by firms to
bring few improvements within manufacturing process. This technique includes DMAIC which
is also known as important tool to improve quality of work and reduce errors from an
organisation. There are some key components of this approach, those are as follows:
Define: In this initial stage IKEA is able to identify its overall issues which could be raise
anytime at workplace (Iden and Bygstad, 2018).
Measure: After defining each problem, firm is able to evaluate working performance of
employees through applying fix standards on daily basis.
Analyse: According to this stage of DMAIC approach IKEA is able to analyse changes
by which they have solves their overall issues.
Improve: In this stage, IKEA is able to bring improvements through applying new
concepts with the help of employees. Along with they also able to do few modifications if
necessary.
Control: In this last stage, high authorities as well as superiors of IKEA able to control
and monitor every issue through improving standard of wastage material to achieve goals
(Miterev, Mancini and Turner, 2017).

Operations management principles within an organisation.
There are different types of principles which haven been described above. Thus,
operation management is the combination of different types of goods and services used by firms.
There are few elements in regards with operational management and followed by IKEA, those
are mentioned below:
Planning: It refers to the combination of several ideas and thoughts which is used by any
person for their business as well as firms. Herein, Manager of IKEA having large number of
ideas and thoughts in order to plan something better to achieve organisational goals and
objectives in a perfect way.
Do: After making particular plan there are so many thing to do. Thus, manager of IKEA
has responsibility to implements on different types of ideas to achieve firms growth and
productivity (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger, 2017).
Check: In this functions of operation management respective firm has liability to check
its overall working performance of their employees in regards with achieving desired goals and
objectives.
Act: Further improvement into the production process of IKEA, manager is needed to
make better strategies by which they can get consumer's feedback and able to deliver desirable
services accordingly.
Recommendations.
According to the above specified concepts it has been recommanded to IKEA that, they
should use effective organisational structure in order to bring improvements within their
manufacturing process. With the help of this they could increase firm's productivity and enhance
future profit (Azanha and et.al., 2017).
PART 2
PLC in context to High Speed 2 Project.
HS2 project is one of the best high speed railways in UK and it is partly under
construction with having clear work as well as line on stations. It is connected with large number
of stations within UK and designed by Northern Powerhouse Rail. Herein, Project Life Cycle is
the combination of several sorts of phase in which project goes by its first stage to closure stage.

On the basis of this, manager of HS2 is able to measure that ho much time project will take to
achieve target market. Project team of HS2 railway project, always able to determine different
types of elements by using several stages of PLC, those are mentioned below:
Project Initiation: According to this first phase, HS2 have purpose to make clear and
effective project in order to achieve customer's goals in a perfect manner. With the help of this
type of project they can make consumers happy and able to achieve desired goals. With the help
of this they could have clear objectives in their mind and also have different types of strategies to
satisfy people needs and wants (Zwikael and Meredith, 2018).
(Source: Project Management Life Cycle, 2020)
Project Planning: After initiation of plan manager of HS2 is able to apply several
strategical ideas in order to make better plan for this project. There are large number of engineers
and employees who all are working together and able to develop best way to reach effective
goals. By making effective plan they are able to look at different types of documents in order to
understand overall case of business. Thus, they can divided small task to many people.
Project Execution: Project life cycle is defined as the process which is analysed while
launching any new product within the market. According to this stage, manager of HS2 is able to
Illustration 1: Project Management Life Cycle