DIET 1 – REPORT

ASSESSMENT: DIET 1 – REPORT

 

 

Aims of the Module/Assessment:

 

• the aim of this module is to develop an appreciation of the role that operations management can have in designing, planning, evaluating and improving the core processes of organisations.

 

The learning outcomes assessed in this assignment include the student’s ability to:

 

• to demonstrate an understanding of the importance and scope of operations management within organisations from a manufacturing and service perspective
• to identify different types of operations and their characteristics, and to appreciate the different types of value creation and ways of competing through operations.
• demonstrate an understanding of the importance of core operations management concepts in design, planning, control, evaluation, quality and risk
• demonstrate an understanding of the value of data to operations, and the ability to develop capacity, inventory and forecasting insights, that support operations management decision making
• understand the importance of a process and systems view to operations management, and in particular how operations fits with supply chain management.

 

 

 

Assessment Specification:

 

Word Limit:                                         2,500 words

Weighting:                                          100%

Assignment Instrument:                      Report

Anonymous Marking:                          Yes

Submission Date:                                Friday 11^thDecember 12pm

Word file – Report toGrademark

Word and Excel file – to gcampbell@qmu.ac.uk

 

Assignment Question:

 

Assignment Pack on the TEA DROPPER:

 

This assignment is based around the context of a small but growing company which has to this point had limited formal application of OM approaches.

 

The TEA DROPPER was founded in 2016 by four friends from Edinburgh, who create and sell crafted tea products.  They began trading in January 2017, selling only two products directly to hotels and restaurants. They have quickly built their business and now have 28 staff, and sell through a further three routes to market (on-line shop, retail and wholly owned tea shops).

 

The ‘TEA DROPPER’ has experienced significant growth in sales, believing that through its core strengths: Super Premium Quality products & Strong branding / Customer Brand awareness that it has real potential to further penetrate the market.  However, during this period of growth, the founders have become increasingly aware of internal mistakes, external complaints and a strong feeling of frustration from their staff about the level of planning and organisation in their wholly-owned operating plant.

 

The TEA DROPPER grew from a micro business that was characterised by informality which meant that any OM issues and needs were dealt with primarily as they emerged.  One of the founders has some limited OM experience and has so far been taking the lead on decision making. OM principles and practices have not been formally built into ‘what they do and how they do it’.

 

The owners now realise that this is a crucial point in the company’s development, and have decided to seek assistance in understanding how the design and planning of their operations can help in arresting the difficulties they have already experienced, and position themselves to be in a much better condition to grasp the market opportunities for growth, that they firmly believe exist for the company in the current and future market.

 

You have been employed as an OM consultant to the ‘TEA DROPPER’ and you are requested to:-

 

• analyse and evaluate the current operating practices, process controls, approach to quality & production planning, inventory management, capacity planning, risk management and customer fulfillment
• provide a set of practical recommendations that will help ‘tea dropper’ gain an appropriate and robust control of their operations.
• integrate insights drawn from current best practice and OM theory

 

To complete this study you will be provided with:

 

• a word file containing detailed background information on the company and its current situation.
• an excel file containing data on the tea droppers operations management and performance, including sales, production performance, inventory data, customer service levels and dashboard kpi’s that highlight performance levels and overall effectiveness.

 

It is important to note that for this assignment, OM principles that engage with both the Word and Excel files must be applied, in helping to answer the assignment question. (Data analysis must be part of your answer.)

 

Your assignment must be written in a business report format and should specifically contain the following four sections.

 

• Section 1: Introduction (15%)
• Section 2: Operations Design, Location, Flow and Performance (35%)
• Section 3: Demand, Capacity and Inventory (35%)
• Section 4: Conclusions (15%)

 

In this assignment marks for overall quality of presentation, communication and use of sources will be applied into the above categories

 

Indicative Answer, Advice and Structure

 

In this assignment marks, for overall quality of presentation, communication and use of sources will be applied in the above categories.

 

This business management report should be presented in an appropriate and professional style with a coherent structure, logic and connected line of analysis, evaluation and reasoning. The structure and indicative content of the report should be based upon the following main sections:

 

Executive Summary:	The subjectExecutive summary should provide an overview of key insights and recommendations, and be no more than 300 words.  The word count for the executive summary is not included in the full word count for this submission.
Title Page:	Matriculation number, title of report, date and word count.
Table of Contents	List of section headings, sub-headings and page numbers.
Section1Introduction	The introduction should outline the contexts, the direction of the study and provide a general overview of the report to come.
Section 2	This section should focus on the current design, location, layout and flow of TEA DROPPER’s operations and how it is managed and executed at present in comparison to best practice.This section should also evaluate operational performance through key performance indicators (KPI’s) assessing current performance and suggesting areas for improvement.
Section 3	Consider past / and calculate predicted future sales forecasts, and evaluate plant capacity capability against this, considering the impact and implications this has on the business. Students should calculate the best inventory position for all SKU’s within this considering customer service and priority use of capital and capacity.
Section 4 Conclusions	Consider how what you have found in the previous sections relate to the current situation, what conclusions would you make, highlighting priority issues /actions
Sources	A full listing of all academic citations and other sources of information, presented in the Harvard system of referencing.
Appendices	Any appendices that support the analysis.

 

Full reference details must be included in respect to the academic literature and all other sources of information used (reference to and use of material from such sites as ESSAY.com, Google, YouTube or Wikipedia is NOT acceptable).

 

 

NOTES WHICH APPLY TO DIETS 1 AND 2:

 

Plagiarism and the use of ‘Turnitin’

 

Plagiarism occurs when someone copies or reproduces another person’s words or ideas and presents them as their own with no proper acknowledgement via citation and referencing. In various universities students have been heavily penalised where plagiarism has been found. To ensure that you are not at risk of being accused of plagiarism you must always declare all the sources from which you have obtained material or ideas. Students should consult their student handbook for details of the manner in which plagiarism cases are dealt with at QMU. The appropriate section is to be found in the student handbook in Regulations, Section 24. http://www.qmu/quality/documents/Regulations-2010.pdf

Further information on referring to published material is available at:  http://www.qmu.ac.uk/lb/information/Guides/harvard_ref_guide.pdf

 

QMU provides ‘Turnitin’ as an academic resource to allow students to consider how they use secondary literature – this includes material from the internet, journals magazines, books and any other form of printed material. This enables you to check your own work to see if it is faulty.  Students are advised that it is their responsibility to engage with Turnitin.Students must make a final Turnitin report via that module’s WebCT site.  Reference will be made to this report if staff marking your work suspect there is plagiarism. In addition, students should be aware that where staff suspect plagiarism or the purchase of assignments, Turnitin and a wide variety of other resources will be used to check work.

 

 

Attendance Policy

 

Undergraduate students in the School of Business, Enterprise and Management must attend a minimum of 75% of interactive classes (i.e. all classes except lectures)

 

Extensions

 

Extensions are only granted for extenuating circumstances that are beyond a student’s control. In general, though not exclusively, extenuating circumstances will be of a medical or personal nature affecting the student for a period of time and/or during assessment. Examples include, but are not limited to, a serious illness, accident or bereavement. Independent documented evidence is required in advance of the exam/submission date. Students who consider they have suffered from circumstances beyond their control; who wish to apply for an extension on the grounds of extenuating circumstances should refer to the Extenuating Circumstances Guidelines available on the internet at www.qmu.ac.uk/quality, or from the School Office.

 

 

Word limits

 

The word limit for an assignment is part of the assessment criteria. There is a tolerance of 10% in excess of the word limit (e.g. 4000 word limit = + or – 400 words). Under QMU regulations, any excess over the word limit beyond the 10% will result in a maximum mark of 40%. You should state the number of words on the front of your assessment.

 

Late submission of assignment

 

If assignments are submitted after the due date but within one calendar week (i.e. up to 6days after the submission date) a maximum mark of 40% can be achieved. If submitted after one calendar week (i.e. 7 days or more) a mark of 0% will be awarded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASSESSMENT FEEDBACK PRO-FORMA

 

Student Matriculation No:   00000000

Module Title& Code:             Operations Management – B2083

 

Criteria		Comments/Feedback
Introduction (15%)   Executive summary provides concise overview Introduction, Clearly identifies the task, develops subject and question context.
Analysis and Discussion     Section 2: Operations Design, Location, Flow and Performance       Section 3: Demand, Capacity and Inventory.	/ 35%           / 35%
Conclusions (15%)   Develops clear advice, consistent with analysis and is supported with evidence.

 

Marker:                                                           Date:  

Moderator:                                                    Date:  

            Mark / Grade:           

           

Students are reminded that the grade indicated is PROVISIONAL only.  It must be confirmed by the External Examiner and ratified by the Board of Examiners.  Please contact the internal examiner if you wish to discuss your feedback.