MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SEPTEMBER
2018
SUBJECT:
OPERATION QUALITY MANAGEMENT
SUBJECT
CODE: MGT 6383
Summary of Assessment:
|
Form of
Assessment
|
Percentages
(%)
|
|
Assignment
(Part A & B)
|
60%
|
|
Final Examination
|
40%
|
Assessment
Details
This assignment consist of Part A and B.
Student is compulsory to answer all the questions for each of the part.
Part
A
Love it or hate it, IKEA is
the most successful furniture retailer ever. With 276 stores in 36 countries,
they have managed to develop their own special way of selling furniture. Their
stores’ layout means customers often spend two hours in the store – far longer
than in rival furniture retailers. IKEA’s philosophy goes back to the original
business, started in the 1950s in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad. He built a showroom
on the outskirts of Stockholm where land was cheap and simply displayed
suppliers’ furniture as it would be in a domestic setting. Increasing sales
soon allowed IKEA to start ordering its own self-designed products from local
manufacturers. But it was innovation in its operations that dramatically
reduced its selling costs. These included the idea of selling furniture as
self-assembly flat packs, which reduced production and transport costs, and its
‘showroom-warehouse’ concept, which required customers to pick the furniture up
them-selves from the warehouse (which reduced retailing costs). Both of these
operating principles are still the basis of IKEA’s retail operations process
today.
Stores are designed to
facilitate the smooth flow of customers, from parking, moving through the store
itself, to ordering and picking up goods. At the entrance to each store large
notice boards provide advice to shoppers. For young children, there is a
supervised children’s play area, a small cinema, and a parent and baby room so
parents can leave their children in the supervised play area for a time.
Parents are recalled via the loudspeaker system if the child has any problems.
IKEA ‘allow customers to make up their minds in their own time’ but
‘information points’ have staff who can help. All furniture carries a ticket
with a code number which indicates its location in the warehouse. (For larger
items customers go to the information desks for assistance.) There is also an area
where smaller items are displayed, and can be picked directly. Customers then
pass through the warehouse where they pick up the items viewed in the showroom.
Finally, customers pay at the checkouts, where a ramped conveyor belt moves
purchases up to the checkout staff. The exit area has service points, and a
loading area that allows customers to bring their cars from the car park and
load their purchases. Behind the public face of IKEA’s huge stores is a complex
worldwide network of suppliers, 1,300 direct suppliers, about 10,000
sub-suppliers, and wholesale and transport operations, including 26
distribution centres. This supply network is vitally important to IKEA. From
purchasing raw materials, right through to finished products arriving in its
customers’ homes, IKEA relies on close partnerships with its suppliers to
achieve both ongoing supply efficiency and new product development. However,
IKEA closely controls all supply and development activities from IKEA’s
hometown of Älmhult in Sweden.
But success brings its own
problems and some customers became increasingly frustrated with overcrowding
and long waiting times. In response IKEA launched a programme ‘designing out’
the bottlenecks. The changes included clearly marked in-store short cuts allowing
those customers who just want to visit one area to avoid having to go through
all the preceding areas; express checkout tills for customers with a
bag only rather than a trolley;extra ‘help staff ’ at key points to help
customers;redesign of the car parks, making them easier to navigatedropping the
ban on taking trolleys out to the car parks for loading (originally implemented
to stop vehicles being damaged);a new warehouse system to stop popular product
lines running out during the day;more children’s play areas.
IKEA spokeswoman Nicki
Craddock said: ‘We know people love our products but hate our shopping
experience. We are being told that by customers every day, so we can’t afford
not to make changes. We realized a lot of people took offence at being herded
like sheep on the long route around stores. Now if you know what you are
looking for and just want to get in, grab it and get out, you can.’ Operations
management is a vital part of IKEA’s success IKEA shows how important
operations management is for its own success and the success of any type of
organization.
Of course, IKEA understands
its market and its customers. But, just as important, it knows that the way it
manages the network of operations that design, produce and deliver its products
and services must be right for its market. No organization can survive in the
long term if it cannot supply its customers effectively. And this is
essentially what operations management is about – designing, producing and
delivering products and services that satisfy market requirements. For any
business, it is a vitally important activity. Consider just some of the
activities that IKEA’s operations managers are involved in:
·
Arranging
the store’s layout to give a smooth and effective flow of customers (called process
design).
·
Designing
stylish products that can be flat-packed efficiently (called product design).
·
Making
sure that all staff can contribute to the company’s success (called job
design).
·
Locating
stores of an appropriate size in the most effective place (called supply
network design).
·
Arranging
for the delivery of products to stores (called supply chain management).
·
Coping
with fluctuations in demand (called capacity management).
·
Maintaining
cleanliness and safety of storage areas (called failure prevention).
·
Avoiding
running out of products for sale (called inventory management).
·
Monitoring
and enhancing quality of service to customers (called quality management).
·
Continually
examining and improving operations practice (called operations improvement).
And these activities are only
a small part of IKEA’s total operations management effort. But they do give an
indication, first of how operations management should contribute to the
business’s success, and second, what would happen if IKEA’s operations managers
failed to be effective in carrying out any of its activities. Yet, although the
relative importance of these activities will vary between different
organizations, operations managers in all organizations will be making the same
type of decision (even if what they actually decide is different).
Questions:
1.
Apply
TWO (2) layout strategies of IKEA.
Justify your answer with the relevant fact from the case. (10
marks)
2.
How is the IKEA operations design different from
other furniture retail operations? Support your answer with the relevant fact
from the case. (10
marks)
3.
Evaluate
critically THREE (3) problems in running
IKEA operations design. (15 marks)
4.
In line with Question 2 above, propose THREE (3)
recommendations to IKEA in improving its operations design. Clarify your answer
with the relevant examples. (15 marks)
Part
B:
Project Assignment: Disney Water Theme Park
Construction
This is an assignment focuses on Water Theme Park project. This mega
project consists of severalimportant activities. These activities included
obtained expert advice, execute a site visit before the commence of the
project, a proposal which entails the process and procedures, assign to a
contractor, engineering works, obtained project approval, construct the project
(field work), finishing work, project is ready to hand over and defects.
Based on the activities listed in the table below. The Project began
with activities A and end with activity Q. After obtained expert opinions, a
site visit was take place as the feasibility of the project requirement.
Activities B is precedence for activities C, D, E. After sign contract &
pay deposit, structural works and architectural engineering works begins.
Application for approval only can be done soonest activities G accomplished.
Activity of concrete pour & curing process only applicable when activities
I and J completed. Activities N and O propose to execute at the same time. Activities
N and O activities only can proceed when activities L and M completed. Complete
of N and O activities, then only execute activity P. Inspection activity for
the project estimate to be held after completed all building accomplishments.
Table: Summary of activities with durations
|
Activities
|
Estimate time (days)
|
|
|
A
|
Conversation with master build with
industry experience for expert opinions
|
4
|
|
B
|
Site visit from an experience consultant
|
2
|
|
C
|
Theme layout design
|
5
|
|
D
|
Detailed proposal kit & design presentation
|
5
|
|
E
|
Fine tune theme park design
|
6
|
|
F
|
Sign contract & pay deposit
|
2
|
|
G
|
Structural works and architectural
engineering
|
21
|
|
H
|
Submit application to local council for
approval
|
13
|
|
I
|
Excavation & safety fencing for work
in progress
|
21
|
|
J
|
Formwork, steel fixing & plumping in
shell
|
18
|
|
K
|
Concrete pour & curing process
|
4
|
|
L
|
Electrical, equipment & fencing
permanents
|
7
|
|
M
|
Prepare surface & interior lining
|
6
|
|
N
|
Final clean and touch up
|
4
|
|
O
|
fill with water, balance with testing
|
2
|
|
P
|
Handover package to management &
ready to operate
|
2
|
|
Q
|
Defects with warranty & after sales
service
|
1
|
The construction of this project based on
several assumptions. The following entails the assumptions during the execution
of this construction project.
Assumptions:
·
Given the durations for each
activity
·
External factors such as
technology elements are funded sufficient for this project. Economic and
political factors assume to be neutralised.
·
Internal factors such as man
power, resources, materials and equipment are sufficient.
·
Construction process only
applicable for SIX (6) days in a
week included public holidays.
·
Project on going from the first
of September 2018.
·
Number of workers remain
unchanged for the whole process of construction.
Questions
1. Draw
AOA network. (6 marks)
2. Draw
AON network. Support your answer with relevant computation. (20 marks)
3.
Determine the duration for the project. Provide
a date and day for the completion of this project. (4 marks)
4. Compute:
a. Slack
time for each activity. Support your answer with computation. (3 marks)
b. Identify
the activity with most slack. Give reason for your answer. (2 marks)
5. Identify
the following:
a. Total
paths available for the project. (5
marks)
b. List
all the possible paths for the project. (5
marks)
c. Determine
the critical path. Give reason for your answer. (5 marks)
Ethics.
To
reiterate, it is a requirement that all research must be conducted in
accordance ethical guidelines. This encompasses all research including
qualitative interviews, questionnaires, surveys and physically invasive
procedures. For further clarification please consult your course leader
Assignment guidelines
·
You are to answer ALL questions.
·
The coursework must be done and must be
entirely the work of originality. Please make sure that you are aware of the
rules concerning plagiarism. If you are unclear about them, please consult your
program coordinator/lecturer.
·
This assignment carries a
weighting of 100% within the Module assessment
·
Students are to answer the
following questions in a modified essay format (Cover Page, Table of Contents,
numbered headings and sub headings, with Introduction, Body, Close and
reference list)
·
The
word count is indicative but students should not exceed the limit by more than
10%. Try to stay with allocated word count as far as possible. Marks are gained
for THE CONCISE EVALUATION OF ACADEMIC AND EMPIRICAL MATERIAL.
·
As a postgraduate student, there is no
excuse for poor spelling, bad grammar, or lack of formatting. Use one and half
spacing with 12- point font and pages must numbered. Use New Times Roman.
Table of contents and numbering
A comprehensive table of contents is
required, with section numbers, section headings, and page numbers. It will
include the List of references, a List of appendices, a List of figures, and a
List of tables, all with page numbers indicated. All sections and pages should
be fully numbered.
Introduction
An Introduction should be provided at
the beginning to summarize the structure of the following sections of the
report/assignment.
Body of assignment
This is an academic
assignment, so it is essential that your statements be justified by relevant
academic theory. A major failing of students is to simply ‘describe’ the
processes that have happened. At postgraduate level, you are expected to be
able to apply recognized theory to situations, and form opinions. You will
often find conflicting opinions from so-called ‘experts’. You should be
developing analytical communication skills. Students coming from other
universities, and especially overseas students, find this need for ‘analysis’
the most difficult transition to make.
You are expected to
use your judgment to analyze problems, make value judgments as to whether it is
good or bad (or both), use existing academic theory from a range of sources to
justify your position, and to argue whether something is valid or not. In the
study of management, there is no right or wrong answers, only lots of opinions,
many of which change over a period of time. Show that you can act asmanagers,
and communicate your opinions. Major sections should start on a new page. You
will be surprised just how much more readable it makes your assignment / report
Referencing
Referencing is NOT just inserting a
list of publications at the end of the report and this is not acceptable.
Referencing is NOT just inserting a citation at the end of each paragraph and
is not acceptable.
At postgraduate level, you are expected
to demonstrate the use of a wide
range of sources and the ability to engage and evaluate different academic and
empirical perspectives and practices . Single or very limited sourced
assignments are likely to fail of achieve low marks. References MUST be
cited using Harvard system (which is author/date). Please do not use footnotes,
etc. Read your Communication skills handbook for information on how to cite
reference materials. References must be listed alphabetically by author in a
single List of References at the end of each assignment. Do not put multiple
lists of references at the end of each section or part.
Late Submission
·
A 10% deduction per day of total
coursework marks (excluding weekends and public holidays).
·
Late submission between 5 to 10 days,
results in a 50% deduction of total coursework marks.
·
Late submission past 10 days results in
an automatic 0% for coursework and the student will be barred from the final
examination.
Additional Information
·
The coursework write up must be able to
demonstrate critical analysis and application of both theory and practical
issues to the company in the case study.
·
You should bind your coursework with
the coursework cover as the 1st page. Do not forget to include both
your student names and Identification numbers
·
A CD containing the softcopy version of
your coursework should be submitted as well.
Final
Examination (40%)
A written final examination will be held during the
examination time set by the university. The exam will be based on structure
questions. Further details of the examination format and duration will be
announced later in the course.