Operations and Quality Management:

Case study: Implementing Operations Management Tools in UK SMEs

The intense competition in the current business environment has forced both the service and manufacturing industries to re-examine their methods of doing business. In recent years, even well - known names in manufacturing and service sectors have struggled with growing competition from emerging companies who use superior manufacturing practices and use of quality initiatives in the form of materials requirement planning (MRP), just-in-time(JIT)andtheory of constraints (TOC).

You have been appointed as a production manager in a U.K. based company specialised in manufacture of piston for internal combustion engine made from Aluminium (Al) and Magnesium (Mg) alloys. The company has a production capacity of 500 pistons per day, in a complete process from casting to assembly and quality control. Four different types of pistons are produced two of which have been launched within past two years.

The production process takes place in two separate areas of the factory. In one area, the Al and Mg alloys are cast while the casings are machined and finished in another area. A total of 50 people are at work in this plant. The main raw materials, Al and Mg alloys, are sourced directly from two different suppliers from within the U.K. located about 150 miles away. Other small parts required for the piston is sourced from a supplier from the US.

Parts are held in a large central store, however, difficulty is often found in obtaining components in a specified time. The company very often faces part shortages at assembly which leads to high "Work In Progress" (WIP).

The company is currently using the materials requirement planning (MRP) inventory management system. For the last couple of years the top management of the company has been considering to switch to just-in-time(JIT) inventory management system which is a complex decision, requiring careful examination of each system and its possible impact on a variety of factors. Your immediate task is to undertake a comparative analysis of these two popular inventory management practices and provide a report indicating a number of benefits and critical factors so that upper management can make a decision on whether or not to switch to JIT. Your report should include important factors such as:

1. Critical elements and criteria for judging level of success of the systems;

2. Critical factors for implementation;

3. Implementation stages and cost;

4. Limitations of the system

5. You are encouraged to discuss this work with other students or work colleagues, however your submission must be your own work and work that is deemed to be similar to that of other students, past or present will face plagiarism proceedings. The submission should be a single document in MS Word format. Work must be submitted by the stated deadline in order not to incur a penalty. In order to achieve the best marks, you will need to review a variety of literature sources, and not simply use a single website or textbook. Your report should not be more than 1,000 words.

All References should be correctly cited in Harvard format APA version 5 or 6.