Operations and Information Management

Background

Operations Management (OM) is an important aspect of business (Slack et al, 2013; Greasley, 2013; Patton et al,2011). Both service and manufacturing organisations use OM to ensure they are competitive and to assist in providing and maintaining good levels of customer service (Johnson et al, 2012). Developing a system of an organisation's operation can be advantageous both for the customer and the organisation (Bamford and Forrester, 2010). Subsequently, once a system has been developed and understood, it should be possible to determine why the system works well, or not well, and to recommend possible production related improvements that will assist both parties concerned.

Task

In this assignment analyse a production system (service or manufacturing based) with which you are familiar; a shop, restaurant, transport system, doctor's surgery are all possible examples. Your tutor will give some guidance on your choice of organisation/case study if necessary. Your assignment should address the following questions:

1. Critically appraise how well the inventories and/or assets within the production system are currently managed.

2. Provide a detailed diagrammatic illustration of the key operations involved within your chosen production system presenting a logical operational flow.

3. From the illustration in point two, identify two points where the organisation's delivery system may fail to align its operational performance measures, clearly demonstrating your reasoning and understanding behind this.

4. Discuss how a lean approach could be utilised in the production system to potentially reduce the failings discussed in point three.

5. Identify three key findings, discussing the extent to which the lean approach chosen may assist the production system with aligning its operational performance measures.