a) Practical application of concepts in a local organisation.
Assignment objective: To briefly describe and analyse an operations process in a local organisation in your country or region, and to explore this process by applying at least one of the core concepts you have learned in this subject.
Assignment description: Find a process preferably in your own organisation or a local organisation in your country or region. Describe and analyse the key tasks of the process and evaluate how well the process operates now. This means finding out how well the process is performing particularly in terms of the five operations management performance objectives. Having analyzed the process, discuss the application of at least one of the concepts covered in this subject. Your report should be brief, well written and presented, and capable of being given to the manager of the business as a useful recommendation for change. Your report should include:
? A brief overview of the organisation and the process, including some information about what the process does, and its importance to the organisation.
? A rudimentary flow diagram of the process showing its basic input-transformation-output system and including the flows of information and communication. If you investigate a service then your diagram should also show elements of process visibility.
? A brief evaluation of the important operations performance factors of the process– quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost.
? Identify and analyse one specific problem or issue with the process based on the topics
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in the text. The problem might be any one of the following:
- A problem with one of the performance objectives - quality, speed, dependability, flexibility or cost
- A problem with the ability of the operations strategy of the process to contribute well to company strategy
- The design of the process – volume/variety characteristics, throughput rate or cycle time, work in process inventory, or process variability, etc
- A problem with the supply network (particularly if the process you have chosen is part of a supply network)
- The process layout and flow
- Process technology
- Job design or work organisation.
? A conclusion with brief practical recommendations for improvement based on your analysis. Bear in mind that your recommendations should be potentially cost effective i.e. any improvements you suggest should be feasible in practice.