Investigative report on an airline

You will be expected to include a critical review of the organisation’s supply chain; an evaluation of tools and techniques employed by the organisation, evaluation of the information systems used and quality standards in relation to performance. In your report you will provide conclusions and recommendations in light of your investigation.

This may include but is not limited to:

Concepts of Managing Operations

Tools and Techniques for Managing Operations

The Management of Quality Systems

Legislation/Health & Safety

Nature, Content & Process of operations strategy

Support Notes

Concepts of Managing Operations – Some of this will have been covered in your essay however you may wish to summarise briefly the first 2 bullet points

• The types and nature of operations: product, service and product-service mix

• How operations inter-link with and support strategic objectives

• The concept of the supply chain including: the nature of supply and demand; the constituent parts of the supply chain and its stakeholders (suppliers, core operations, distributors, customers/clients); circular flows within the supply chain

• The importance of continuity of movement of information, products and services into and out of the organisation

• Roles and responsibilities for managing the operations, products and services

• The impact of people management processes on the organisations operations

Tools and Techniques for Managing Operations – remember you cannot cover everything – it depends on the relevance to the organisation

• The use of tools and techniques such as flow process charts and network charts, to achieve operational objectives

• Loading – maximum resource availability less downtime

• Activity sequencing and workload scheduling to use resources to meet stated objectives

• The comparison of available and attainable resources

• The principles of managing capacity – stock control, warehousing

• The principles of procurement – purchasing, buying, Materials Requisition Planning (MRP)

• The management of information systems

• Use of ICT

The Management of Quality Systems

• The principles of quality and their application

• The importance and benefits of quality as a contribution to the organisation’s strategic objectives

• The concepts of managing continuous improvement

• The range of tools and techniques available to manage quality and continuous improvement

Legislation/Health & Safety

• The critical issues that affect the operations of the business

Nature of operations strategy

• The market and resource based views of operations strategy and their impact on operational decision making

Content of operations strategy

• Consideration of various ‘decision areas’ including capacity, location, supply network, process technology and organisational structure supporting operation decision making

Process of Operations Strategy

• The alignment of resource requirements, developing sustainable competitive advantage and assessing the impact of uncertainty on operations