University of Bedfordshire: Operations and Project Management Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of project management within Aliz Islamic Bank, focusing on key operational decisions and their impact. It examines critical areas such as quality management, supply chain management, and strategic location, comparing Aliz Islamic Bank's performance with that of Bank Muscat. The report delves into various operational management decisions, including quality management, location strategies, and supply chain optimization, highlighting how these choices have contributed to the bank's success. It also explores ways to improve operational performance, emphasizing quality, speed, dependability, and flexibility. The conclusion stresses the importance of effective operational management, customer value, and the utilization of advanced techniques to ensure organizational success. The report references several academic sources to support its findings and recommendations.

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Addressing Issues dealing with Project Management
By (Name)
Name of the Course
Title of the Instructor
Institutional Affiliation
City and Date
The final date of Submission

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Introduction
Operation management techniques should always be given priority to enable better
performance of a given organisation. Aliz Islamic bank has been able to carry out some customer
service duties thus making it obtain an excellent reputation across large regions (Allen et al.
2016). It has been able to offer completion to most of the financial institutions within the
boundaries of Oman; the stiff competition has mainly been as a result of excellent management
skills that the top officials decided to bring on board to address various issues at an early stage.
Its capability to have one of the best customer service techniques has enabled the entire
management team to be able to attain all the customer needs in real time and at some point they
go as far as listening to the problems affecting their potential customers thus coming up with
appropriate strategies and recommendations on how they can be best solved.
Additionally, it is an organisation that correctly recognises the surrounding environment
together with the entire market (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). Due to this, they have been able to
formulate a good number of policies geared towards bringing the required change within the
stipulated period. Regardless of the strategic location of the bank, there still exist some
competitors within the market who have been able to provide stiff competition for quite some
times. It has one of the best operational management decisions that ensure everything is done
appropriately without causing any disturbance that might hinder bar the organisation form
attaining its goals.
Relevant Operation Management Decisions for Aliz Islamic Bank
Operation management decisions are among the best parameters that aim towards scaling
up the performance of any given organisation. Usually, appropriate and reliable management

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teams ought to develop a good number of adequate and relevant skills for them to be able to
adequately implement various aspects that are associated with operations management (Davies
and Brady 2016). They are decisions that work hand in hand with both the employers and
employees of the organisation; it is the duty of the two personalities to determine what kind of
relevant operation management decisions that need to be implemented within the organisation to
meet the needs of all their respective customers. As a result of this, any cases of disagreement
that is likely to emerge between the two personalities will reduce the chances of adequately
implementing appropriate operational management decisions. This can further lead to severe
issues in the coming future thereby making it difficult to attain a good number of the desired
goals. Aliz Islamic Bank is among those organisations that have been on the forefront to ensure
that there is an adequate implementation of various aspects attached to operational management
decisions; this has enabled the organisation to correctly address different issues in real time
thereby attaining their goals within the stipulated period. It, therefore, decided to come on board
with the aim of sending a good number of management issues to see the entire operations being
carried out more reasonably. Ability to offer quality management is among the first operational
management decision, Aliz Islamic bank believes that quality management is the core of
everything as far as issues dealing with management are concerned, due to this, the organization
decided to come up with a quality management team that was able to understand every activity
taking place within the boundaries of the organization (Mentzer et al. 2016). The quality
management has been able to analyse and offer appropriate recommendations to all the sectors
that are attached to the organisation to solve a given problem at an early stage before advancing
to the next step where it might appear to be much complicated than what was expected initially
(Patanakul and Shenhar 2012).

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Moreover, another reason as to why the organization decided to settle for quality
management is because of the need to address various issues associated with the employees, all
the issues are appropriately adressed to ensure that their performance is scaled to greater heights
every time they carry out their duties (Teece, Pisano and Shuen 2016).
On the other hand, location also acts as one of the critical operational decisions that
perfectly describe the strategic position where the organisation was placed to operate efficiently
and be able to reach out to various customers without them struggling to look for the services of
the organisation. The organisation decided to centralise all its functions at specific locations for it
to have an easy time in dealing with all their customers and at the same time be able to meet their
needs in real time without encountering any form of barrier. As far as operational management
decisions are concerned, the bank decided to set up all its branches in nearly all the major towns
for people to adequately gain access to their services and this indicates that there is no need to
walk for long distances looking for various services that the bank provides.
Implementation of appropriate and reliable supply chain management is another form of
relevant management decision that is associated with Alizz Islamic bank. The supply chain
management for the organisation is well advanced where all the goods and services are
adequately delivered in real time thereby minimising any forms of delay that are likely to emerge
(Drew, McCallum and Roggenhofer 2016). To come up with appropriate supply chain
management, the organization decided to hire relevant personnel who are well versed with every
operations within the boundaries of supply chain, this strategy, therefore, makes it easier for the
bank to point out some of the areas where problems are likely to emerge thus coming up with
appropriate recommendations that aim towards bringing a positive change (Cooper, Edgett, and
Kleinschmidt 2015). It is a result of the above mentioned operational decisions that the bank has

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been able to survive and offer stiff competition within the market platform. Moreover, the
management decisions have gone as far as creating a substantial, reliable reputation for the
organisation thus giving it a perfect opportunity to aim higher for better goals that are likely to
act as a game changer for the organisation.
Comparison of Alizz Islamic bank with Bank Muscast in relation to be 4vs
Appendix A shows that Alizz Islamic bank has been able to produce larger volumes of
goods and services that aim towards adequately solving their customer related problems. These
service volumes have been higher than the ones created by Muscat thus placing Alizz at a better
position. Moreover, Alizz has been able to provide a variety of services to various customers
than Bank Muscat; this is a strategy that has made the organization to emerge as one of the most
diverse institutions. According to Appendix A, Alizz has been able to experience a high
demand in variation thus making it more flexible compared to Bank Muscat with slightly lower
various in terms of application. Finally, as far as visibility is concerned, Aziz has been
experiencing high profile thus leading to the emergence of a low waiting tolerance compared to
Bank Muscat that has been experiencing time lag when it comes to the delivery of services.
Ways of improving operational performance within the organisation
It is appropriate to come up with relevant ways of improving performance within the
organisation since this is the first step towards taking a path that is set to bring various aspects of
development within the entire organisation (Mom, Van Den Bosch and Volberda 2016). Any
organisation that aims towards improving its performance is likely to meet most of its targeted
goals and even to able to adequately address various issues that might hinder its production at an
early stage. The organization, therefore, came with different ways that aim towards improving its

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organisation performance by making sure that everything is carried out correctly. Firstly, the
organisation has decided to focus on issues dealing with quality; this ensures that everything is
done right within the boundaries of the entire organisation (Icmeli et al. 2016).
Moreover, quality leads to the distribution of goods and services that are free from error.
On the other hand, it has focused on speed as another way of improving operational performance
to benefit various customers who need different services; this ensures that things are carried out
within a short period thereby increasing the availability (Bradley 2016). Also, there is
dependability as a way of improving the performance of the organisation thus ensuring that every
operation is carried out on time without any delays that might affect the customers in a negative
way (Van Echtelt et al. 2015). The top management officials of the bank have also decided to be
flexible with the aim of adequately changing various processes to meet customer needs. Finally,
the bank has been able to value all their customers' money without discriminating anyone
regardless of their age, background and even gender. Through this, the management team has
been able to come up with quality services thus making the customers feel like indeed they are
well catered for even during times of emergency. All the above ways of improving operational
performance are geared towards attaining specific goals and objectives thus motivating both the
employees and the customers at the same time. This will, therefore, help to seal some of the areas
where there are loopholes.
Conclusion
Every organisation should be appropriately handled as far as operations are concerned. The top
management officials must ensure that everything is in order and all the rules and regulations are
adhered to. These strategies will offer appropriate guidance on how multiple issues should

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always be handled thus making it easier to come up with appropriate recommendations.
Moreover, customer value is another crucial thing within any given organisation since it is one of
the major techniques that help to strengthen the bonds between the organisation and the
customers. Attending to all the customers equally without any discrimination makes them have
that feeling of being served well thus increasing their loyalty with the organisation. Additionally,
it is essential to scale up the operational performance of an organisation; this should be carried
out through appropriate utilisation of advanced techniques that can be easily understood by
everyone within the boundaries of the organisation.

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References
Allen, R., Jensen, M., Wright, J. and Burman, R. (2016). Operational estimates of reference
evapotranspiration. Agronomy journal. 5(2), pp.89-110.
Bradley, G. (2016). Benefit Realisation Management: A practical guide to achieving benefits
through change. 4th ed. New York: Ashton Martin.
Cooper, R., Edgett, S. and Kleinschmidt, E. (2015). Portfolio management for new product
development: results of an industry practices study. r&D Management. 5th ed. New York:
Bradley Williams.
Davies, A. and Brady, T. (2016). Explicating the dynamics of project capabilities. International
Journal of Project Management. 6th ed. New York: Albert James.
Drew, J., McCallum, B. and Roggenhofer, S. (2016). Journey to lean: making operational
change stick.7th ed. Beijing : Shing Jong.
Icmeli, O., Selcuk Erenguc, S. and Zappe, C. (2016). Project scheduling problems: a survey.
International Journal of Operations & Production Management. 5th ed. Beijing : James
Lens.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. 3rd ed. New York: John Davis.

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Mentzer, J., DeWitt, W., Keebler, J., Min, S., Nix, N., Smith, C. and Zacharia, Z. (2016).
Defining supply chain management. Journal of Business logistics. 2nd ed. New York:
Brandon William.
Mom, T., Van Den Bosch, F. and Volberda, H. (2016). Understanding variation in
managers' ambidexterity: Investigating direct and interaction effects of formal structural
and personal coordination mechanisms. Organization Science.4th ed. New York:
Basil James.
Patanakul, P. and Shenhar, A. (2012). What project strategy really is: The fundamental building
block in strategic project management. Project Management Journal. 2nd ed. New York:
Frank Williams.
Teece, D., Pisano, G. and Shuen, A. (2016). Dynamic capabilities and strategic management.
Strategic management journal. 6th ed. Beijing: John Mark.
Van Echtelt, F., Wynstra, F., Van Weele, A. and Duysters, G. (2015). Managing supplier
involvement in new product development: a multiple‐case study. Journal of Product
Innovation Management. 7th ed. New York: Peter Parker.

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APPENDICES
Appendix A:
Alizz Islamic Bank 4v’s Bank Muscat
Larger volumes
Customer satisfaction
Volume Lower volumes
Flexible
Matching the needs of
customers
Variety Regular
Needs not attained
High variation
Flexibility
Variation Low variation rates
Stable
Predictable
High visibility
A short period of waiting
Visibility Low profile
Time lag experience between
production and consumption
.