Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
Assignment 1
| Assignment title: | Strategic Operations Performance Objectives |
| Words limit | 2000 words |
| Weighting: | 40% |
| Deadline: | |
| Feedback and Grades due: | |
| Resit date: |
Purpose of the Assessment
This assignment is designed to enable you to show an understanding of key strategic performance objectives of organisations in general. It also enables you to apply theory into practice by discussing operations performance improvements in a specific real-life business scenario with basis on key strategic performance objectives of operations.
Assessment Task
You are required to write a report based on a specific organisation of your choice. You can choose an organisation of any type (manufacturing or service), sector (private or public, e.g. a government agency or department) and size (small, medium or large corporation).
The report should address key theoretical and practical aspects related to the subject “Strategic Operations Performance Objectives”. The theoretical part of your report should provide a complete characterisation of the 5 key strategic operations performance objectives of organisations in general, namely: Quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost. Discuss the internal and external perspectives of these performance aspects, i.e. what they represent for organisations in general and what they represent for customers.
The practical part of your report should be developed through a specific discussion of how these performance aspects apply to the organisation of your choice, i.e. what each performance aspect mean in the specific context of your organisation and what are their relative importance for the organisation (i.e. most critical and less critical performance objectives for the organisation).
Finally, you are expected to identify performance shortcomings in the organisation being discussed in the light of the performance objectives being considered and propose possible improvements. Discuss the challenges you think the organisation may face to implement the suggested improvements.
Assessment Breakdown
- (10% of word count)
Introduce the company you have chosen to focus your report on. Describe- Which organisation is it?
- What are the main products and/or services provided by the organisation?
- Who are the main competitors and target customers?
- (45% of word count)
Provide a literature review on the subject of Strategic Operations Performance focusing on quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects. You should draw from academic publications, books and business articles that are no older than 10 years. Address the question: Why are these performance objectives strategic for organisations in general? What are their internal and external perspectives?
- (45% word count)
Use the theoretical aspects characterised above as a basis to discuss practical aspects of your chosen organisation. Key issues/questions to be addressed in this part are:
- Characterise quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects of your chosen organisation. The key question to address in this part is: What are the key quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects of the company’s operations?
- Point out the relative importance of the performance aspects for your chosen organisation, i.e. from the 5 key operations performance objectives, which ones are most critically important for the organisation? And which ones are less critical?
- With basis on the performance aspects being discussed, point out organisation’s weaknesses, suggest improvements and discuss potential challenges to implement the improvements.
Assessment Submission
Your assignment must be word processed and presented in a report format with simple sub-headings. The word count should be 2000 words±10% (references and appendices are excluded from the count).
The Assignment report should have a Front Sheet showing your name, your student number, the module name, the module number, the assignment title, the module tutor’s name, the date and the word count.
All assignments will be submitted, graded and fed-back electronically via TURNITIN. Several submissions will be permitted before the hand-in date in order to enable you to refine the content in your report.
If you click on the “Submit Your Work” button on the Module NILE site you will find an explanation of the Submission and Grading Electronically process there.
Feedback on assignments in general will be provided to the whole group when marked assignments are returned. Feedback on assignments for each individual will be provided electronically via TURNITIN.
A student may obtain an individual appointment to discuss feedback with the tutor.
Assessment Guidance
The quality of your presentation and academic referencing is very important. Please, use the Harvard Referencing System.
Within your assignment your tutor will be looking for content that addresses the key elements of the assignment brief.
Try not to overcomplicate your answers by choosing a company that you know little about. Keep to simple processes that you know well.
Look at the Check list at the end of this brief. It shows the subheadings to use and offers a guide as to how the marks will be distributed.
Use the percentages as a guide to how to distribute your word count.
Academic Practice
This is an individual assignment. The University of Northampton policy will apply in all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage.
Support and guidance on assessments and academic integrity can be found from the following resources
SkillsHub: http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk
CfAP: http://tinyurl.com/UoNCfAP
STRM046 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
“Report Content Checklist”
STUDENT NAME AND REPORT FRONT SHEET
DESCRIPTION OF ORGANISATION (10%)
– Identify the company, products/services, main customers and competitors
LITERATURE REVIEW (45%)
– Research literature on the 5 strategic performance objectives of organisations. Why are they strategic? What do they represent for organisations? What do they represent for customers?
APPLICATION OF CONCEPTS (45%)
– What are the key quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects for the company of your choice? What are the most critical and the less critical ones for the type of your company business?
– Identify performance problems
– Propose solutions for the problems
– Discuss challenges to implement the proposed solutions
MAX WORD COUNT 2000 +/- 10%
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes being addressed through this assignment are:
| Knowledge and Understanding:
a) Investigate and critically evaluate the range of concepts and techniques available to operations managers so as to enable effective business decision making.
b) Desmonstrate conceptual and practical understanding of the opportunities and constraints that organisational characteristics place on operations managers and on operational decision making in the supply chain context.
c) Critically discuss and evaluate the theoretical and real life applications of topics in the indicative content, analysing and evaluating the benefits they offer to an organisation and the challenges to be overcome in implementing them.
Subject- Specific Skills
d) Critically evaluate the business relevance of the concept/topic studied, with a view to understanding the value of its adoption to an organisation.
e) Design evidence-based and contextually relevant solutions to a range of case study scenarios to illustrate the applicability of the Operations Concepts, Tools and Techniques studied.
f) Assess the capacity and capability of an organisation to deliver Quality and Value to Customers both internal and external to the organisation.
Key Skills:
g) Make discriminating use of a range of learning resources in order to solve problems within the domain of International Supply Chain and Operations Management.
h) Communicate the solutions arrived at, and the critical evaluation underlying them. |
Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
Assignment 1
| Assignment title: | Strategic Operations Performance Objectives |
| Words limit | 2000 words |
| Weighting: | 40% |
| Deadline: | |
| Feedback and Grades due: | |
| Resit date: |
Purpose of the Assessment
This assignment is designed to enable you to show an understanding of key strategic performance objectives of organisations in general. It also enables you to apply theory into practice by discussing operations performance improvements in a specific real-life business scenario with basis on key strategic performance objectives of operations.
Assessment Task
You are required to write a report based on a specific organisation of your choice. You can choose an organisation of any type (manufacturing or service), sector (private or public, e.g. a government agency or department) and size (small, medium or large corporation).
The report should address key theoretical and practical aspects related to the subject “Strategic Operations Performance Objectives”. The theoretical part of your report should provide a complete characterisation of the 5 key strategic operations performance objectives of organisations in general, namely: Quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost. Discuss the internal and external perspectives of these performance aspects, i.e. what they represent for organisations in general and what they represent for customers.
The practical part of your report should be developed through a specific discussion of how these performance aspects apply to the organisation of your choice, i.e. what each performance aspect mean in the specific context of your organisation and what are their relative importance for the organisation (i.e. most critical and less critical performance objectives for the organisation).
Finally, you are expected to identify performance shortcomings in the organisation being discussed in the light of the performance objectives being considered and propose possible improvements. Discuss the challenges you think the organisation may face to implement the suggested improvements.
Assessment Breakdown
- (10% of word count)
Introduce the company you have chosen to focus your report on. Describe- Which organisation is it?
- What are the main products and/or services provided by the organisation?
- Who are the main competitors and target customers?
- (45% of word count)
Provide a literature review on the subject of Strategic Operations Performance focusing on quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects. You should draw from academic publications, books and business articles that are no older than 10 years. Address the question: Why are these performance objectives strategic for organisations in general? What are their internal and external perspectives?
- (45% word count)
Use the theoretical aspects characterised above as a basis to discuss practical aspects of your chosen organisation. Key issues/questions to be addressed in this part are:
- Characterise quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects of your chosen organisation. The key question to address in this part is: What are the key quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects of the company’s operations?
- Point out the relative importance of the performance aspects for your chosen organisation, i.e. from the 5 key operations performance objectives, which ones are most critically important for the organisation? And which ones are less critical?
- With basis on the performance aspects being discussed, point out organisation’s weaknesses, suggest improvements and discuss potential challenges to implement the improvements.
Assessment Submission
Your assignment must be word processed and presented in a report format with simple sub-headings. The word count should be 2000 words±10% (references and appendices are excluded from the count).
The Assignment report should have a Front Sheet showing your name, your student number, the module name, the module number, the assignment title, the module tutor’s name, the date and the word count.
All assignments will be submitted, graded and fed-back electronically via TURNITIN. Several submissions will be permitted before the hand-in date in order to enable you to refine the content in your report.
If you click on the “Submit Your Work” button on the Module NILE site you will find an explanation of the Submission and Grading Electronically process there.
Feedback on assignments in general will be provided to the whole group when marked assignments are returned. Feedback on assignments for each individual will be provided electronically via TURNITIN.
A student may obtain an individual appointment to discuss feedback with the tutor.
Assessment Guidance
The quality of your presentation and academic referencing is very important. Please, use the Harvard Referencing System.
Within your assignment your tutor will be looking for content that addresses the key elements of the assignment brief.
Try not to overcomplicate your answers by choosing a company that you know little about. Keep to simple processes that you know well.
Look at the Check list at the end of this brief. It shows the subheadings to use and offers a guide as to how the marks will be distributed.
Use the percentages as a guide to how to distribute your word count.
Academic Practice
This is an individual assignment. The University of Northampton policy will apply in all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage.
Support and guidance on assessments and academic integrity can be found from the following resources
SkillsHub: http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk
CfAP: http://tinyurl.com/UoNCfAP
STRM046 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
“Report Content Checklist”
STUDENT NAME AND REPORT FRONT SHEET
DESCRIPTION OF ORGANISATION (10%)
– Identify the company, products/services, main customers and competitors
LITERATURE REVIEW (45%)
– Research literature on the 5 strategic performance objectives of organisations. Why are they strategic? What do they represent for organisations? What do they represent for customers?
APPLICATION OF CONCEPTS (45%)
– What are the key quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects for the company of your choice? What are the most critical and the less critical ones for the type of your company business?
– Identify performance problems
– Propose solutions for the problems
– Discuss challenges to implement the proposed solutions
MAX WORD COUNT 2000 +/- 10%
Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes being addressed through this assignment are:
| Knowledge and Understanding:
a) Investigate and critically evaluate the range of concepts and techniques available to operations managers so as to enable effective business decision making.
b) Desmonstrate conceptual and practical understanding of the opportunities and constraints that organisational characteristics place on operations managers and on operational decision making in the supply chain context.
c) Critically discuss and evaluate the theoretical and real life applications of topics in the indicative content, analysing and evaluating the benefits they offer to an organisation and the challenges to be overcome in implementing them.
Subject- Specific Skills
d) Critically evaluate the business relevance of the concept/topic studied, with a view to understanding the value of its adoption to an organisation.
e) Design evidence-based and contextually relevant solutions to a range of case study scenarios to illustrate the applicability of the Operations Concepts, Tools and Techniques studied.
f) Assess the capacity and capability of an organisation to deliver Quality and Value to Customers both internal and external to the organisation.
Key Skills:
g) Make discriminating use of a range of learning resources in order to solve problems within the domain of International Supply Chain and Operations Management.
h) Communicate the solutions arrived at, and the critical evaluation underlying them. |
