Operations Management Applied Research Project
This is an individual assignment. The purpose of this assignment is to refine your research skills by you identifying your own operations management topic, finding supporting literature, analysing data, recommending the best approach to managing the issue and making suggestions regarding how it could be implemented and reporting the results. You should select an area in which you have some experience, knowledge and/or interest.
You also will have an opportunity to deepen your knowledge on certain aspect of operations management by choosing an operations management topic that suits your own interest and will help your own career prospects. This assignment comprises a mini literature review on the current issues on operations strategy and operations management of firms operating in a specific industry. All work and data submitted by you will be treated in the strictest confidence.
At least 8 separate research reference sources would be expected to obtain better than a pass mark. It is expected that this report will be of a high professional standard. To obtain a grade higher than a credit, you must have no layout, grammar, spelling or referencing errors. The work should be relevant, contain the latest research and contain a high level of original thought and input.
You are encouraged to work on a current operations management problem or issue within your existing industry. Alternatively, you can choose the specific company or industry which suits your interests, including (but not limited to) electronic, automotive, banking, building, food, hospitality, retail and distribution, finance, consulting, and health care.
Select an operations management issue with which you have had experience (or in which you are particularly interested) that fits into one of the following four categories:
- Measuring and improving supply chain management.
- Measuring and improving customer service quality and
- Measuring and improving “Offshoring and/or Outsourcing” decision making
- Measuring and improving “Waiting Time” processes
If you have a particular research topic that is not included in the above, but you feel it will benefit your career or improve knowledge in an industry, for example a topic that could be presented as a conference paper, I would be happy to discuss your plan.
Format your report, using references, as an academic business report – using the structure described in the report format section.Learning Outcome Details
This assessment is underpinned by the following Unit Learning Outcomes and Graduate Learning Outcomes:
| Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) | Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO) | |
| ULO1
|
Evaluate the nature and importance of operations within organisations. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge
and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO4: Critical thinking |
| ULO2 | Understand the key decision issues associated with operations management and how these link to overall organisational strategies and global supply/value chains. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge
and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO4: Critical thinking GLO8: Global citizenship |
| ULO3 | Apply operations management principles to different organisations in both manufacturing and service contexts. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge
and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem solving |
| ULO4 | Analyse operations within service and manufacturing firms and apply methods to improve them. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge
and capabilities GLO2: Communication GLO3: Digital literacy GLO4: Critical thinking GLO5: Problem solving |
| ULO5 | Work effectively as an individual researcher and in a task-focused virtual team. | GLO5: Problem solving
GLO6: Self-management |
Details of the linkages between the assessment, ULO, GLOs and the rubric are presented at the last section of this document.
Report Format
This assignment must be written in an academic business report format of a maximum of 4000 words. You should write between 3,000 and 4,000 words. The Executive Summary, TOC, Reference Pages and Appendices can be excluded from the word count.
- Executive summary and Table of Contents (200-400 words) – a concise and authoritative summary that includes clear statement about purpose of the research, main findings and recommendations (5% of marks)
- Introduction (200– 400 words) – focused introduction to the problem or situation (5% of marks)
- Problem analysis (800-1000 words) – comprehensive analysis of the problem, the strategy, process or topic using appropriate data and frameworks; evidence of engagement with appropriate literature (20% of marks)
- Current performance analysis (800-1000 words) – make use of appropriate comparative benchmarks and consider the forces affecting the issue you are examining to examine the impact of the problem (20% of marks)
- Recommended solution (1000-1500) – identify, select and justify your preferred solution with (a brief) consideration of how it could be implemented. You may wish to consider the major operations management techniques currently used by the company for the process, and how successful they are. Provide a comprehensive argument for your recommend solution and its implementation using appropriate data and support from appropriate literature (30% of marks)
- Summary and conclusion (200-400 words) – provide evidence of reflection on what a successful outcome would be, a concise summary of the main findings and a concise summary of your recommendations (10% of marks)
- References – make sure you made good use of the literature to support your arguments, considering the appropriateness of your literature sources (10% of marks)