Operations and Information Management

Operations and Information Management – Assignment One

The manufacturing/service process design is based on a considerable number of different variables and represents, in essence, a number of trade-offs. Depending on the nature of the business, the nature of the product, and the nature of the market place, the chosen process design will obviously be different.

A) By taking as an example a product or a service from an industry that you are familiar with, critically discuss the main factors that influence the manufacturing/service process design.
(70% of the mark)

B) By utilising your example above please analyse how implementation of Lean Principles may assist the Operations Manager/Manageress in optimising efficiencies while minimising cost and improving customer service levels.
(30% of the mark)

Read:

Stevenson, W., J., (2009), “Operations Management”, Tenth Edition,
McGraw-Hill Irwin. (Chapters 11 and 17)

or
Slack, N., Chambers, S., Johnson, R., (2007), “Operations Management”, Fifth
Edition, Prentice Hall. (Chapters 13, 15, 16)

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

This assignment represents 50% of your overall module mark. The word count is 3,000 words (+/- 10%). You will also need to take the following into account when completing your assignment:

• Quality of executive summary (does it give a brief complete summary of your paper for an executive to read?)
• Establishment of relevant theory (e.g. what do we mean by process design?)
• Allocation of credit and sources used (have I included references and citations to the material I have used?)
• Clarity of argument
• Overall report presentation including spelling and grammar
• Adherence to nominated word limit (+/- 10%)
• Word processed (letter size 12, times new roman, 1.0 space, fully referenced (Harvard Referencing System