Description of the Assessment Operations strategy should reflect the needs and requirements of the business’s market. No operation that fails to serve its market is likely to survive in the long term. The individual coursework assignment relates directly to the learning outcomes of this module and should consist of two parts – A and B:
Part A: State-of-the-Art-Review (1000 words, 40% weighting) In Part A, provide a state-of-the-art review of any one of the operations management field listed below specifically discussing the trends, opportunities and challenges in this field using up-to-date academic journal articles and other articles. A state-of-the-art review should consider mainly the most current research in the given area or concerning the given topic. It often summarizes current and emerging educational trends, research priorities and standardisations in a particular field of interest. The review must aim to provide a critical survey of the extensive literature produced in the past decade, a synthesis of current thinking in the field. It may offer new perspectives on an issue or point out an area in need of further research.
* To conduct the analysis and review, search and use journal articles/papers published in the last ten years in some of the following academic journals (e.g.): ?
* Journal of Operations Management ?
* Production and Operations Management ?
* International Journal of Production Economics ?
* International Journal of Operations and Production Management ?
* Supply Chain Management: An International Journal ?
* Manufacturing and Service Operations Management ?
* International Journal of Production Research ?
* Production Planning and Control ?
* Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
?
Part B: Company Analysis (1500 words, 60% weighting)
In Part B, you are expected to critically analyse the operations and management processes of any one of the UK high street retailers, from an operations management perspective. You are required to assess how the retailer competes and survives in the highly competitive business environment by using the concepts, tools and techniques studied in this module.
Once you have selected the retailer you would like to examine, prepare a short report of 1500 words making sure you include the following operations management concepts in your analysis:
* A brief background of the chosen retailer and an overview of its operations. ?
* A critical analysis of the operations transformation process for the product / service of the retailer. If the retailer has more than one product / service, ?you may focus on one of them. ?
* A trade-off analysis among the operations performance objectives, namely: cost, quality, speed, dependability and flexibility. Can the operations ?manager of the retailer overcome any of these trade-offs? Give some recommendations. ?
* An evaluation of the company’s operations in terms of the specific operations management field selected in Part A. ?
* An application of appropriate tools and techniques to analyse the complex operational issues of the retailer and (where appropriate) development of ?viable courses of action. Part A and B Overall Requirements: ?
* References: A “References” section is required to be included at the end of the coursework. This section will include the details of all the references used for both Part A and B in the coursework (minimum five journal articles and other articles of your choice) .
* Appendix: Additionally, you may include an “Appendix” section after the “References” section. This section will not be considered for calculating the number of words. ?
* Total Word Count: The assignment should be completed in report format of no more than 2500 words in total not including references, title page and appendices.
