BO5701 Operations Management
Retake assignment 2013/14
You must do this assignment if you have failed the individual assignment for
BO5701 Operations Management
An electronic version of your report must be submitted by 12 noon on Friday 22
August 2014 using the digital drop box on studyspace.
This is an individual assignment. You must choose an organisation or business 1 and produce a report
elaborating on the key strategic and operational issues faced by the operations manager(s) in this particular
organisation / business. As you are expected to collect primary data from managers, employees and
customers of the organisation, it makes sense to select a company where you work, have worked or know
people who work there.
The first part of the report, focusing on the more strategic issues of the business should identify the
customers and markets supplied by the operation and the products and services supplied to them. The
report should identify the ‘market order-winners’ and ‘market qualifiers’ and establish their relative importance
for alternative customer segments.
The second part of the report, focusing on the operational issues, should seek to identify and clarify how the
operation functions and supports the market that it serves. What service delivery system(s) or manufacturing
process(es) does it use? What infrastructure does it use to manage these delivery systems? And how,
together, do these support the market(s) that it serves? A detailed and relevant description should be made
of the various components and appropriate diagrams should be used to help explain this.
Based on your analysis, you are expected to make recommendations about how the business can improve
its performance.
Equal weighting in your report should be given to the first and second parts outlined above. The report will be
assessed according to the following criteria:
•
•
•
•
The description of the organisation and its business context
Understanding of the theoretical concepts and ability to use them to analyse the operation
The quality of the report2, including structure, readability, and presentation
Research methodology
(15%)
(45%)
(30%)
(10%)
1
For example: a restaurant, bank, nightclub, pub, retailer, service-provider or manufacturer
2 The report should be between 3,000-3,500 words long and should have the following structure:
An Executive Summary, no more than one page, which summarises the report, its main findings,
and its conclusions.
A List of Contents including page numbers for easy reference
A Research Methodology explaining how you researched the assignment. This should containing
details of meetings held showing how you collected and analysed the data for your report.
An Introduction which briefly describes the organisation or business and its context (i.e. market
share, customers, competitors)
The Analysis of the strategic and design issues as applied to the operation
Findings and Conclusions from the analysis
Recommendations for the organisation you have reviewed
References
Appendices
Note: The executive summary, references, tables, figures and appendices are not included in the
word count