Review and Critique of Operations Management at Tesco (Unit 16)

This report provides a comprehensive review and critique of the implementation of operations management principles within Tesco, a leading international supermarket chain. The report begins with an introduction to Tesco, its history, market position, and core values, highlighting its commitment to providing high-quality goods and services while maintaining a competitive advantage. The main body delves into ten key principles of operations management, including reality, organization, fundamentals, variance, accountability, casualty, managed passion, humility, success, and change, illustrating how Tesco applies these principles in its operations. The analysis covers aspects such as customer service, supply chain management, employee training, and the use of lean management. The report also examines Tesco's responses to market changes and its strategies for maintaining customer satisfaction and market share. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and offers recommendations for further improvement. The report draws upon various sources, including Tesco's strategic reports, business case studies, and market statistics, to support its analysis.

11/19/2020
Title: Unit 16
Operations and Project Management
Aurora Oleinik
sgs407292

Contents
Title: Unit 16.........................................................................................................................................0
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Main Body.............................................................................................................................................2
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
References...........................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Tesco was set up in 1924 by Jack Cohen selling groceries from a handmade stall based in the
East end of Brixton, London. Now they are an internationally recognised company with over
450,000 employees in over 6,800 stored across the world, including Europe and China.
(Tesco Our history, 2020)
Tesco is an international supermarket which sells goods and services to meet the needs of
their customers. Tesco offers its customers a range of different goods and services which
includes food, clothing, electronics and financial services. To meet the changing demands of
customers they have also expanded their purchase options for their grocery products to
online delivery and click and collect. Tesco is a Public Limited Company (PLC) in the private
sector, this means that the business has limited liability, with the debits being limited to the
business, it is owned by private individuals called shareholders and Tesco’s shares are
traded on the stock exchange.
This states that their values, mission and visions are more orientated to shape their whole
company and to meet their key stakeholder needs. “We make what matters better,
together.” Their aims are providing a wide range of services and products by maintaining
their position as the market leader through their different departments within their stores
such as; Marketing, Finance, Human Resources and Operations. Also, by selling their
products at a low price so they can compete against their competitors such as Asda,
Morrisons, etc. Tesco earns profit by maintaining good quality products to attract
customers, by keeping their prices low this can help increase their sales revenue time by
time and have a vast number of loyal customers through their marketing skills. Tesco
currently has 26.9% of market share based by statistica. (Business Case Studies, 2020)
(Statista, 2020)
One of Tesco's main purposes is to maintain their competitive advantage, being the leading
UK supermarket, providing high quality goods and services at a low price, Tesco offer a price
match policy to keep their prices lower than their competitors and have recently launched
their new store “Jacks” to try and keep up with the growing demand for low costs
supermarkets, Aldi and Lidl. (Tesco Our history, 2020)
Main Body
Conduct a review and critique of the implementation of operations management
principles within an organisational context
Concept of an operation is design to structure and enable a business to become more
efficient within a delivery or a product or service. Operation documents are meant to
include statements and objectives. Strategies, tactics, activities, clear statement of
responsibilities and processes of initiating, developing, mentioning and retiring the system.
An operations plan has key processes and milestones.
There are ten principles within the operations management which are reality, organisation,
fundamentals, variance, accountability, casualty, managed passion, humility, success and

change. These types of principles provide aid to operations managers within the production
facilities.
Reality is where operations management is focused on the overall problems, instead of the
techniques they are using. Because there are no tools which provide universal solutions. For
example, Tesco focuses on solving customer complaints by making sure they meet their
demands as quickly and efficiently as possible. (Zhao 2014)
The operations at Tesco have people who have coordination, management and
empowerment, they have many service workers who interact with the customers in its
stores to ensure they provide the best quality service. These are regular and strict
recruitment activities because it helps Tesco to identify the most competent individuals
through their training procedures. If these procedures aren’t followed it can create a
negative effect on Tesco as customers will feel unsatisfied with the service if their needs
aren’t met.
Organisation are where processes within the manufacturing processes are interconnected.
All elements must be predictable and consistent in order to achieve an increase of revenue.
For example, Tesco uses the concept of ‘Fresh and Easy’ to format their food products as
easily accessible and fresh. All customers expect to get all their food from the Fresh and
Easy section where all types of foods are there, this is a predictable and consistent task for
Tesco to follow.(McNamara 2011)
The benefits for gaining the customers shopping experience trust reduces costs for the
company and faster ordering which can benefit Tesco’s firm and their customers. Leading
them to come back to purchase more for their products and services which creates an
increase on Tesco’s revenue. If Tesco didn’t provide fresh and easily accessible products as
their customer expect, this will lead to a decrease of customers coming in Tesco as they
don’t stay up to date with their food products in order to attract their newer or existing
customers. This will lead to a loss of revenue if they didn’t provide fresh product as their
customers would expect to purchase in their everyday grocery shopping
Fundamentals is where operation mangers must know how to comply with all the
fundamentals as it is key to a production success. This is important because they ensure the
accuracy of the inventory data and other general tasks in order to achieve their desired
results. For example, Tesco sources their products with care such as sourcing their products
through supply chains within the UK by prioritising the environmental and social risks with
their important products from coffee to beef. (Tesco Strategic Report 2018, n.d.- Page 20)
Collaborating with their suppliers is very important as it is vital for Tesco to make progress
by tracking their products and inventory in order to seek some results if they are meeting
some of their objectives. If Tesco didn’t have reliable suppliers, it would slow down Tesco’s
progress because of the lack of standards. If they didn’t have the right suppliers, they
wouldn’t be able to have certain products that their customers need which will lead the
business on not meeting their business objectives.
Accountability is where managers are expected to set rules and boundaries to determine if
the employees are following their responsibilities and regularly check on them in order to
see of, they have met the objectives. According to, Tesco’s employees serve their shoppers

every day. Tesco wants to provide their employees their best experience so that everyone
gets along and expand their ambitions. The employer such as the manager, invests training
on their colleagues so they support and develop their careers for their future. Tesco
regularly checks on their employees with great flexibility over their own work schedules to
ensure Tesco is building an inclusive culture within the workforce and ensuring that new
opportunities are offered to their employees so they meet the business objectives with the
skills they need in order to achieve them. Tesco’s target is to help their colleagues by
succeeding on providing them with flexibility, skills and rewards so they get on with the job
role easily. Leading the candidates to meet the business objectives faster and efficiently. If
these protocols aren’t met, this can lead to a demotivated workforce where employees
aren’t prepared to deal with customer demands and complaints if they didn’t receive the
proper training. “Our target To help our colleagues succeed by providing them with the
flexibility, skills and reward they need to get on.” (Tesco Strategic Report 2018, n.d.- Page
18)
Variance is the process where it must be encouraged when managed properly in order to
tell the differences which can be sourced from creativity. (Neely, 2002)
In relation to, Tesco has ensured the speed of operation by aiming to maximise customer
satisfaction as well as reducing any errors and customer complaints by having skilled staff
that reacts quickly when a customer needs any help when trying to find a product.
Checkouts are always available to reduce any queues so the speed of queues and services at
the Tesco stores are very quick in response. Tesco has good suppliers that cooperate with
the business in order for the customers to have any product they need and are looking for,
Tesco has been creative by adding Tesco Extra stores at local areas so people from the
outskirts don’t have to travel far in order to get the product they wish to have. To achieve
the objectives, Tesco Extra is open 24 hours to enhance their dependability in order to be
more flexible to meet their customer demands by introducing a range of products within the
stores so it can service a large demand of customers at the same time based on the change
of the market. (Tesco PLC, 2020)
If Tesco wasn’t making sure they are meeting customer demands, such as adding a Tesco
Extra on local areas, this issue will lead to Tesco on not meeting their business objectives
and customers will be unhappy with their service and might go to other competitive
supermarkets.
Casualty is where problems will arise when the best efforts have been made, managers
usually need to find the root of the problem so that they don’t get worse and a solution has
been made. According to, Tesco implements a level of demand because it can afford
stockpile. Filling up stock before a high in demand season will affect the inventory of the
business negatively by damaging the processing efficiencies of the company’s distribution
centres of Tesco. In order to avoid any over stock, managers best approach is to use the lean
management principles which seek to eliminate all the unnecessary goods to minimise any
waste. Since 1999, Tesco has been using this type of method as it is reliable to manage sales
data, this is based on real time information and covers all distribution centres within the
company. (Baim, n.d.)

It’s best for Tesco to follow the lean procedures in order to be a competitive business within
the market as being ethical.
Managed passion is where employee morale can be a major driver to the company’s
growth. Managers can inspire their employees to be passionate with their job role. For
example, in order to inspire employees to keep achieving the business objectives for the
company to grow the company does not discriminate their employees by their backgrounds
and beliefs or disabilities of any kind. They offer equal employment and opportunities to
comply with the legislations. Tesco extends their performance appraisals to comply with the
privacy legislations. When offering performance appraisals or compensations creates
motivation for their employees as it makes them more passionate about their job by getting
rewarded from meeting the business objectives. (Tesco, 2004)
If Tesco wasn’t following the rules, such as discriminating their workforce, this would lead to
their employees by leaving the business. in this case, Tesco must retain their employees by
respecting them and treating them as equal.
Humility is where no one wants to work within an aggressive workforce, this is important
because for operation managers they are in a position when they can also make mistake
and may not know everything. For example, Tesco is following the legislations where they
don’t tolerate discrimination within their stores and warehouses. This includes, religion,
mental or physical disability, age, sexual orientation and gender. Tesco offers employment
opportunities that comply and affirm with the action legislation in the countries where
Tesco is operating. (www.sec.gov, n.d.)
If Tesco was not following the legislations this would lead to the business having poor brand
image as the audience would not appreciate seeing the employees being discriminated.
Tesco would also be fined for not following the rules leading them to lose profit.
Success is where managers must be able to define what they consider successful, so that
everyone in the company will have the parameters to work within the process of achieving
targets. For example, Tesco is a service management company which has operations which
are different from other businesses that manufacture their own goods. Managers make sure
their employees use their training skills on customer service to retain that high level of
customer satisfaction throughout, in order to make sure they meet business objectives in
order to stay a successful business. (Bradley, 2012)
If managers weren’t making sure their employees are well trained and ready, this will lead
to poor management affecting the business objectives and customer demands wouldn’t be
met due to the lack of training and skills.
Change is where everyone within the company must learn to adapt to market changes in
order to follow the latest trends. This includes on understanding customers, target clients
and on what they want. This involves on the automated solutions so that the company is
always one step ahead. For example, Tesco has adapted to recent changes of improving
their technology and logistics management in order to have ‘smart zone’ routing within the
conveyor systems and zone picking solutions for chilled goods. (Issuu, n.d.- Page 16/17)
This will later align with the inventory level of the packaging to allow personal shoppers to
pick their groceries to then drop them on the conveyor systems for consolidating and

dispatch. If Tesco wasn’t up to date with the day-to-day technology, customers would go to
other competitive supermarkets such as Asda or Sainsburys as they have self-checkout tills
which creates less time-consuming queues. Which the aim for shoppers who don’t have
much time whilst doing the shopping.
This is important because it helps to plan, direct and encourage faster quality manufacturing
of goods and services. This can influence customer services, product and service quality for
proper functional methodologies, competitiveness in the marketing any technological
advances and profitability. (PlanetTogether, 2019)
If the business fails on following these company’s operations it will cause losses for the
business, such as profit and brand image. (BusinessTech, 2019)
Recommendations
Prepare a continuous improvement plan based on the review and critique of operations
management principles within an organisational context.
The following table will include the following recommendations for Tesco to continue
reviewing their improvement plan in order to use the operations management principles
correctly and efficiently. I am going to apply a continuous improvement plan, this is going to
help me to identify and asses the current processes, products and services Tesco offers. The
output is to minimise waste. This benefits the external and internal stakeholders from
employees to customers and suppliers. The overall aim is to improve the business to
develop their processes for a positive change.
Principles: What Tesco
currently does:
How they can
improve on:
Examples: Review
date:
Reality:
Reality is where
operations
management is
focused on the
overall problems,
instead of the
techniques they
are using.
Because there
are no tools
which provide
universal
solutions.
Tesco provides
activities to their
candidates such
as offering
training. For their
customers to be
satisfied, Tesco’s
employees must
be trained and
have certain
skills in order to
meet customer
demands.
Tesco can use
ideation and think
tanks where the
business can benefit
from ideation session
where it aims on
running think tanks
with an agenda
where they can track
the attendance of the
key personnel with
any valuable ideas
they can discuss or
have discussed.
During such sessions,
Tesco’s employers
can explain how
these processes are
being runned and to
analyse if any of the
processes can be
For example,
they can use the
new technology
to improve the
relations with
their
departments
between
marketing and
Human
Resources in
order to
maintain their
competitiveness;
Marketing
cannot function
on its own, it
needs to work
closely with
other
departments
July 21

improved or
changed. Since
technology has been
a massive part of the
market, Tesco can
use this as an
advantage for their
think tanks by
intertwining the
business processes,
discussing the
updates and use new
technology to create
solution to maximise
optimisation. This
will be a helpful
theory to apply to
meet customer
demands in a much
quicker way. in touch
with any other
department, they
wouldn’t be able to
meet their
customers’ needs
and expectations
which would lead
them into thinking
that Tesco isn’t a
great store to shop
as their employees
aren’t well trained
and skilled for the
job, this may also
result in their
customers choosing
an alternative
supermarket. Tesco
can review this type
of method every
month in order to
provide reliable
customer service.
(Solvexia, 2020)
such as Finance
and HR.
Marketing relies
on finance for
budgeting, and
them giving
them money to
work with
advertisements
and promotions
to carry on
selling their
products and
services and
maintaining
their
competitive
advantage. They
also rely on HR
to ensure they
have enough
staff to carry out
the required
roles, making
sure their staff
are motivated
and confident in
their work, in
doing so Tesco
are more likely
to meet their
aims of being
the UKs leading
supermarket. If
marketing
wasn’t.
(Biznas Business
Blog, 2020)
Organisation:
Organisation are
Tesco provides
fresh products to
It’s important to gain
valuable feedback
In relation to,
the Human
July 21

where processes
within the
manufacturing
processes are
interconnected.
All elements
must be
predictable and
consistent in
order to achieve
an increase of
revenue.
meet customer
demands. For
Tesco to meet
their customers’
needs they can
offer surveys and
polls for their
shoppers to take
part of so the
business are the
most well-versed
to know where
they can
improve.
from vendors and
customers as it is
important to reflect
on this feedback as it
is overlooked for
employee feedback
and see if there is
any improvements
for the employee to
imitate for better
customer service. By
polling the team,
they can find their
weaknesses and find
places for
improvements in
order to meet the
business objectives
and build on their
skills for better
service. For the
business leaders they
can spend planning
their time on the
bigger picture, so the
smaller details that
affect the business
outputs can go
unnoticed without
such consideration.
In this case, Tesco
must review the
practises for the
continuous
improvement plan to
work efficiently. They
also need to make
sure they execute the
method precisely by
training their
employees on each
step they need to
overtake.
(Solvexia, 2020)
Resource
department can
take this method
into account to
try retaining
their employees
by taking
responsibility for
areas such as
compensation
and benefits,
training and
learning, labour
and employee
relations,
organisation
development
and
redundancies. If
the HR don’t
follow such
procedures
redundancies
this could affect
the business on
losing skilled
employees,
demotivation of
other employees
and harming
their brand
image.
Fundamentals:
Fundamentals is
where operation
Tesco sources
their products
with care such as
Tesco can offer
monthly training
where each
According to, if
the employee
can be trained
July 21

mangers must
know how to
comply with all
the
fundamentals as
it is key to a
production
success. This is
important
because they
ensure the
accuracy of the
inventory data
and other
general tasks in
order to achieve
their desired
results.
sourcing their
products through
supply chains
within the UK by
prioritising the
environmental
and social risks
with their
products.
employee works
within a silo, a silo is
a division which
independently
operates avoiding
any information
being shared. Tesco
can make use of this
silo software or
application as the
information cannot
be shared because of
the systems
limitations. In this
case, Tesco can make
use of it as it is a
great way to save
money such as
training their
employees to be able
to suit different job
roles and raising their
skills. The
departments within
Tesco must be
informed about this
process as it will be
accessible to each
employee within the
departments, this
indicates that
communication
between
departments is
essential to prevent
expensive mistakes
from being made.
(SBIR.gov, 2020)
on multiple jobs,
Tesco can
benefit of this
skill because if
another
employee is
absent the
process will be
unharmed. The
business can
implement a
tool to reduce
any dependency
on key
personnel, the
tool is called
SolveXa’s, this
system is
designed to
store
information
within the
system and can
be runned
virtually with
anyone who has
access to it.
Tesco can
execute this tool
and review how
it works with the
employees who
have access to it.
Employees will
have to be
trained in order
to be able to use
this. SolveXa’s is
a type of
technology
which enables
cost and time
savings research
by eliminating
the need for
expensive
phases

separating the
method
development
through this
predictive
software.
(Solvexia, 2020)
Accountability:
Accountability is
where managers
are expected to
set rules and
boundaries to
determine if the
employees are
following their
responsibilities
and regularly
check on them in
order to see of,
they have met
the objectives.
Tesco’s
employers make
sure their
employees are
well trained in
order to meet
the business
objectives.
Tesco can use time
audits as it is a good
resource to minimise
any time from being
wasted. This will
have to be accurately
measured to assess
how much time a
process takes on
behalf of their
employees as it can
offer some insight
into where they can
optimise the process
within a time frame.
It’s a simple method
to use to analyse
how long the
processes will take
and find any ways to
eliminate any time
from being wasted.
Tesco can execute
this method by
training their
employees on
managing their time
and review if the
process has been
successful. This can
be a form of
automating any
approvals and
reducing
touchpoints, this will
lead the prevention
of potential blocks
and delays from
happening. If finance
do not provide
Referring to, if
these
procedures
aren’t runned
properly this can
lead the
business to lose
their money due
to the lack of
efficiency as the
goal is to meet
business
objectives faster
and causing less
time on
spending
money. The
finance
department will
need to be
contacted about
this method as
they are who
deal with the
profits coming in
and out the
business, such as
budgets. It’s
important for
the finance
department to
communicate
with all the
departments, for
example, the
operations
department,
require money
from the finance
department for
July 21

operations with a
large enough budget
then they will not be
able to carry out the
required
developments, this
could harm their
ability to maintain
their market share.
Business profits will
be lost if time isn’t
being managed
properly.
(Solvexia, 2020)
launches such as
the productions
for new goods or
services and the
development of
new stores.
Variance:
Variance is the
process where it
must be
encouraged
when managed
properly in order
to tell the
differences
which can be
sourced from
creativity.
Tesco has
ensured the
speed of
operation by
aiming to
maximise
customer
satisfaction as
well as reducing
any errors and
customer
complaints by
having skilled
staff that reacts
quickly when a
customer needs
any help when
trying to find a
product. Within a
business
processes are
not often started
and finished by
the same
individual.
Tesco can try train
their employees on
being responsible on
each activity they
start. If it requires
multiple people to
input their assistance
this will be a team
responsibility
process. Catchball is
a method where a
continuous
improvement plan
will require an
employee to initiate
the process to state
their purpose and
concern to others if
they are clearly
involved. In this way,
the employees can
throw their ideas in
to the group for
feedback and any
ideas for
improvement, the
main person is still
responsible for the
activity to be
completed. At the
end of the process
the team will review
the ideas and
HR can take
responsibility for
areas such as
compensation
and benefits,
training and
learning, labour
and employee
relations,
organisation
development
and
redundancies;
this is to make
sure their
employees have
been trained
properly in order
to enjoy their
job role to stay
within the
business.
July 21