Analyzing Woolworth's Operation Management: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Woolworth's operation management, focusing on key aspects such as supply chain effectiveness, facility layout, and inventory control. It identifies both the strengths and weaknesses within Woolworth's operational framework and suggests potential improvements. The report emphasizes the importance of facility layout for smooth operations and highlights the critical role of inventory control in maintaining efficient product flow. Furthermore, it examines supply chain management, forecasting techniques, and their impact on retail operations. The analysis also addresses contemporary issues in operation and quality management, including transportation challenges and the growing significance of green supply chain practices. The report concludes with a comprehensive reference list supporting the findings and recommendations.

Managing Operation

Introduction
• In this presentation a study has been done regarding the
operation management principle and technique and the
concepts have been applied on the actual operation of
Woolworth. The key effective and ineffective sides of the
supply chain of Woolworth have been identified and changes
have been suggested. The importance of factors like facility
layout has been done in this report. The importance of
inventory control has been done in this report. The importance
of supply chain has been described and the factors that play
the vital role in making decisions have been done in this
report. The concept of forecasting has also been analysed in
this report.

Efficiencies and ineffectiveness of Woolworth and possible changes
• The Woolworth supermarket is a retail store
chain in Australia. It started its operation in
the year 1924. This organisation has 80 per
cent share of the entire retail market in
Australia. The chief products that are sold by
the organisation are grocery products. It
operates in 995 locations across Australia and
has 111,000 employees (Woolworths 2018). It
also has operations in New Zealand.

Continued..
• Operation in terms of the business owner
• Operation in terms of store manager
• Operation in terms of sales associate

Importance of facility layout and inventory control
Facility layout
The facility layout is the way in which all the staffs are arranged
inside a facility to ensure that the operation process is smoothly
run. There are several factors that are to be considered in case
of facility layout first is the space that is available for the
organisation; secondly the product that is aimed to be
produced or sold in case of Woolworth, insurance of the safety
of the user of the facility and most important is the fast and
effective production. Every centre that is engaged in economic
activity operates in a certain space and thus it is of importance
that it is thus arranged that the economic activity can be
properly done.

Inventory control
• The inventory control is the method that is used to
ensure that there are no problems that are faced in
the flow of production or sales of product. The key
aspects of the inventory control are the purchasing
of raw material, shipping, receiving of the material,
tracking the product and warehousing or storing.
Recording turnover and reordering is also
important part of the inventory control.

Supply chain management

Importance of forecasting
• There are 4 key aspects that are dealt by the demand
forecasting of an organisation are the inventory
management, sales revenue, operation planning and
marketing activity. The demand forecasting is crucial in
the retail organisations because it impacts the inventory
costs, increasing the cash turnover and responding
quicker to market trends. There are scientific forecasting
techniques that are used for ensuring that the forecasts
that are made are done more accurately. The accuracy in
the demand forecast can impact both sides of the
distribution the top line as well as the bottom line.

Issues of contemporary operation and quality management practice
• Transportation problems: the transportation problems
that are faced by the operations and quality management
involve the aspect of transportation of goods that has less
shelf life in terms of quality. The second that has
remained in the regard is routing.
• Green supply chain and logistics: this is another hot
issue; there is increase in the level of awareness regarding
the environment. Thus there is a demand in terms of
transport and storage and other such functions that are
done in the most environment friendly manner (Shepherd
and Günter 2010).

Reference List
• Batt, P.J., 2009. Factors influencing the consumer’s choice of retail store. Curtin Business School, Curtin
University of Technology, Australia.
• Beneke, J., Hayworth, C., Hobson, R. and Mia, Z., 2012. Examining the effect of retail service quality
dimensions on customer satisfaction and loyalty: The case of the supermarket shopper. Acta
Commercii, 12(1), pp.27-43.
• Humayun, S.H., 2016. Merchandising operation of Woolworths Global Sourcing.
• Matthei, P., 2008. Fleet operation. Australasian Freight Logistics, (14), p.22.
• Matthei, P., 2008. Green Grocer. Diesel, 8(4), p.30.
• Rummler, G.A. and Brache, A.P., 2012. Improving performance: How to manage the white space on the
organization chart. John Wiley & Sons.
• Russell, R.S. and Taylor-Iii, B.W., 2008. Operations management along the supply chain. John Wiley & Sons.
• Shepherd, C. and Günter, H., 2010. Measuring supply chain performance: current research and future
directions. In Behavioral Operations in Planning and Scheduling (pp. 105-121). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
• Stevenson, W.J. and Hojati, M., 2007. Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
• Tompkins, J.A., White, J.A., Bozer, Y.A. and Tanchoco, J.M.A., 2010. Facilities planning. John Wiley & Sons.
• Woolworths (2018) {{metaController.metaData.title}}. [Online] Available at:
https://www.woolworths.com.au/ (accessed 10/ 05/ 18).