Sustainable Business Management: Sainsbury's Operations Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of sustainable business management, using Sainsbury's as a case study. It begins with an overview of business functions, including operations management, transformation processes, resourcing, and product delivery. The report examines key elements such as forecasting, supply, scheduling, and quality management. Part 1 concludes with an overview of managing capacity and quality within the context of Sainsbury's operations. Part 2 focuses on personal reflection using the Gibbs reflective cycle, exploring the author's learning experience, skills development, and areas for improvement, offering insights into employability skills and future professional growth. The report highlights practical applications of business management principles and tools.

Sustainable Business
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Overview of businesses...............................................................................................................3
Elements of operation Process....................................................................................................3
Transformation process...............................................................................................................4
Resourcing...................................................................................................................................4
Product or service delivery..........................................................................................................4
Managing capacity......................................................................................................................5
Managing quality........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
PERSONAL REFLECTION...........................................................................................................5
Gibbs reflective cycle..................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business management plays an important role in managing the activities of the business.
The functions of the management includes planning, organising, controlling and directing. These
functions must be worked together for creating, executing and realising the goals of the
organisation. The business functions involves different departments in the company which are
categorised according to its specialization like marketing, production, finance, operations, etc.
( Mojarabi-Kermani and et. al., 2019). The organisation chosen for this report is Sainsbury, a
leading multinational supermarket chain. It is headquartered at London with global expansion in
different countries. This report is split into 2 parts, where the first part shall deal with the
understanding of business functions and management tools with its use. Second part shall cover
the personal reflection on the learning experience from Part 1.
PART 1
Overview of businesses
Sainsbury is a leading multinational organisation which was founded in 1869 and became
the largest retailer in 1922 for groceries. The company has its operations split into three divisions
which includes Sainsbury bank, Sainsbury supermarkets and Sainsbury argos. The company has
its operations in 1428 locations and is headquartered in London. It includes hypermarket,
supermarket, superstore, convenience shops and forecourt shops. Due to excessive demand of
home delivery, the company has decided to enhance its operation and provide new service to the
customer of midnight delivery by robots in urgent cases between 11 pm to 5am.
Elements of operation Process
Operations management is the process which involves systematic control and direction of
the processes which a company uses top transform its inputs into outputs for the customers. It
involves everything which creates a value for the organisation (Wang, Huang and Ji, 2017). It is
a kind of business function which is responsible for the process of creating the goods or services
for the Sainsbury company.
Depending on the above case, the operation process has several elements which are
essential to undertake by the company which are discussed below-

 Forecasting- It is the first element of operation process which involves appropriate
anticipation of resources, cost and time so that the process can be commenced and
executed.
 Supply- It includes arrangement of the supplies which are associated with the arranging
the suppliers for the new equipments.
 Scheduling- In this element, a proper schedule is made taking into account the
development of new product and then testing and arranging the products for the supply.
 Material- Every new offering needs mechanical and technical material which shall
contribute to the design, structure and the overall body of a product.
 Quality- The last element is high quality which is related to performance, relevance and
durability of a product or service.
Transformation process
It helps in translating a business requirement into a logical model of business for a good
business performance. It is mainly a change process which helps in guiding the company towards
the high performance. Every new product needs a transformation in terms of the technique,
resource and human resource so that the overall process is accomplished effectively as per the
requirement of the company. There are 3 components under this which includes input,
transformation process and the output (Wang and et. al., 2017).
Resourcing
It is basically collecting the resources through which objectives of the company will be
achieved. The resources include human resource, physical, financial and information resource
which together build the offering which Sainsbury offers to its customers so that its
organisational goals are achieved. These resources will help in transforming the uinputs into the
finished goods so that customers can consume it.
Product or service delivery
There are many ways in which product can be delivered. Since the supply chains is
associated with a direct link of delivering the product from the outlet to the customers. In this
process, the company will apply just in time inventory system so that the product is delivered
effectively.

Managing capacity
The capacity of technical issues and the human resource can be managed effeectively by
taking into consideration many management practice like planning and organising can be used
as a management practice so that the workforce is motivated and their performance level is
enhanced in a prominent manner.
Managing quality
The most important approach which Sainsbury can adopt in managing the quality can be
total quality management (TQM). This approach is best as it regulate the quality of the products
so that customers satisfaction is taken. TQM is a process of continuous improvement which will
monitor and track the product manufacturing so that better results are gained (Markkanen and et.
al., 2020).
Conclusion
It is concluded from this part that it is very crucial to take into consideration several
operational elements so that the new service can be introduced smoothly. The managhement
tools like total quality management, planning and organising shall help the company in
introducing such service as per the anticipation of the customers and the company.
PART 2
PERSONAL REFLECTION
As per my experience, I gained a lot of knowledge regarding the operational management
as I practised and worked upon my skills which in my opinion are very important for the
professional effectiveness and growth. The skills which helped me includes communication,
problem solving, numeracy, ICT and working with others. Other frameworks which taught me a
lot involves Kolb's learning cycle which is an essential tool for analysing the personal
development from the experience. In order to reflect my experience on my activity, I would use
the Gibbs Reflective Cycle so that I can reflect my expreience and learning of the skills in an
effective manner.
Gibbs reflective cycle
This cycle involves following steps through which the experience shall be reflected
which are discussed below-

 Description- It involves description relating to whole activity (Liu and et. al., 2018). In
relation to this module, I was involved in working with a team which included few
individuals and we all were responsible for the working in this activity. Under this, we
were required to investigate a business case and develop a new service or product for the
company using the operations management. The overall experience was good and
required us to work and practice on the employability skills.
 Feelings- It includes the feelings of the person throughout the experience (Farag and et.
al., 2020). During this activity, I was initially very anxious to learn new concepts and
skills so that I can gain good knowledge and furnish my existing skills. I felt happy that
inculcating new skills from this module will help me in my professional career further.
 Evaluation- It includes evaluation of overall experience which includes positive and
negative aspects. In my overall experience, I experienced both positive and negative
things. In relation to my positive experience, I learnt how to implement team roles model
of Belbin in real scenarios which taught me a lot in my learning. I also learned the skill of
ICT where I used to operate Microsoft Office programs like word, excel etc. This also
helped me in my writing communication skill as I used to write and speak effectively
regarding the reports. Negative aspects includes I lacked in verbal communication where
I was unable to speak effectively to my teams. I have always experienced public speaking
as a war as it is my weak point.
 Analysis- It includes analysis of overall experience of an individual. According to me, I
realised that this subject of operation management is very important for a company as it
helps in accomplishing the projects. Moreover, I think that communication and team
work is very necessary so that good result can be delivered and flow of information can
be done effectively.
 Conclusion- It is concluded from my experience that I can better manage to do this
module in an effective way. I lacked in communication skill but was better in managing
my work with other team members. Further training can help me in enhancing my skill so
that I can increase my productivity.
 Action plan- In order to improve my communication and problem solving skills, I would
use books and journal to keep me updated with theoretical knowledge. Further, attending
conferences and seminar shall help me in working towards my lagging skills,

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that business management is an an improtant part
for the organisations and individuals to gain a better understanding a operations management.
The operations management and different tools of management shall help the company in
introducing a new product or service effectively with better utilising the resources, quality and
capacity. Further a personal reflection has helped me in enhancing the scope of improvement in
the employability skills so that future prosperity and growth is ensured.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Farag and et. al., 2020. Optimal operation management of distributed and centralized
electrolysis-based hydrogen generation and storage systems. Electric Power Systems
Research. 187. p.106476.
Liu and et. al., 2018. Distributed operation management of battery swapping-charging
systems. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. 10(5). pp.5320-5333.
Markkanen and et. al., 2020. A reflective cycle: Understanding challenging situations in a school
setting. Educational Research. 62(1). pp.46-62.
Mojarabi-Kermani and et. al., 2019. Stochastic Optimal Reservoir Operation Management,
Applying Group Conflict Resolution Model. Water Resources Management. 33(8).
pp.2847-2865.
Wang and et. al., 2017. Optimization of economic/environmental operation management for
microgrids by using hybrid fireworks algorithm. International Transactions on Electrical
Energy Systems. 27(12). p.e2429.
Wang, Y., Huang, S. and Ji, Z., 2017. Operation management of daily economic dispatch using
novel hybrid particle swarm optimization and gravitational search algorithm with hybrid
mutation strategy. Modern Physics Letters B. 31(19-21). p.1740099.