Operation management Operation management of any company can be defined as, The ongoing activities of designing, reviewing and

d using the operating system, to achieve service outputs as determined by the organization for customers. (Wright, 1999) So, the operation management comprises managing of all the operational procedures like collecting or purchasing raw materials, processing raw materials to finish goods and deliver the finish goods to the customer. The process may include manufacturing or nor manufacturing factors such as offices, factories, banking, tourism, transportation and education. The heart of an organizational system is the operational management as operation is the key factor of accomplishing organizational tasks. Operation can be termed as the process or method or series of tasks of a specific nature. The operational management is the procedure which illustratesthe activities like operation, manufacturing, designing, reviewing and thus gives a clear idea about the management responsibility. These activities include all human activities as well as all the functions of an organization. Operational management also relevant to the management of some major organizational activities like R & D, product life cycle and new product development. It provides information about customer and market demands and help the management of an organization in preparing strategy and future plan for continuing the development process of an organization. For any kind of business like M & S operational management plays a vital role to indicate the development and efficiency of an organization. M & S is considered an effective business organization due to its excellent customer service and all their efforts for customer satisfaction. This efficiency can be assessed by their productivity, capital, quality and staffs expertise and satisfaction.

19.1.b
As previously mentioned,M & S is very effective in their business strategy and it is now one of the leading retailers as well as a prominent brand in fashion world, so my choice definitely goes for this company in the respect of this case study. This company was founded by Michael Marks in 1884 in Leeds. Later in 1894, Thomas Spancer invested in Marks activities and they jointly opened their first store in Manchaster. They are termed as M & S who sold only British manufacturing product liek food and clothes up to 2002. After opening their first store, their stores were rapidly increasing and they first entered in international market by opening store in continental Europe in 1957. Their business developed day by day and they were continuing opening their stores in overseas like in Asia in 1960 and in Canada in 1973. Now they are the UKs leading retailers with the visiting of 21 million people each week in their store. Now they have more than 600 stores in UK with 2,000 suppliers globally. The company always concerned about its brand and business loyalty and its aim is

to retain its loyalty by providing best customer service and by serving best quality products to get customer satisfaction by meeting the customer demand after proper evaluating the customer and market demands and preparing strategies to achieve this. To gain maximum profit by maximizing sells. To raise business productivity. To develop economic inclusion. To improve regional communication and partnership. To become the best business organization in retail and fashion sector. In order to achieve the target, it specially uses marketing strategies like 4P (product, price, promotion and place or distribution).

19.1.c
Objectives: To improve conventional management To maintain productive and reproductive capacity of target resources To reduce uncertainty and risk. To improve the institutional set-up. To improve the decision making framework To improve statistics and inventories To improve research capacity To develop and manage a communications strategy. To apply the steps of decision making and problem solving in operations management. To improve the operational technique. To create a tracking database of the overall prospect. 19.2.a Resources: The resources of M & S are human resource, equipments, finance, transport, customers, suppliers and IT. As M & S business is major in retailing and clothing, it collects its products from the major suppliers of the international trade. Again they produce their own food as M & S also famous in their food retailing. They are supplied of this food product by different firms. Again they have huge capital and always have their retained profit and their share in stock market for their finance. It always recruits high skilled people for their accomplishing their business activities. M & S has its own transport system to provide delivery or for their business purpose. They use advance IT for their database management or shoring information. Again like all the business customers are the main feedbacks about the improvement rate of this company. System: Organizational system means the arrangement of many organizational factors such as organizational behaviour and organizational activities. M & S follows some specific systems in order to manage and develop their organizational performance:

The leadership system- The company has its own training programmed to develop leadership. The team system- All the staffs of this company works as a team. The planning system- The strategies of this company is taken by proper planning. The communication system- M & S has internet source and tele communication system to communicate with customers and others. The performance effectiveness management system- M & S has strong management for effective performance. The compensation and reward system- The company provides its employee excellent salary with bonus scheme, holiday payments, incentive, compensation scheme and promotion. The recruitment and hiring system- It has strong human resource department to recruit suitable staffs. The management information systemThe technological system- M & S believes in utilizing new technology for serving and it also provides technological service like it provides credit card to the customer from its banking system. The marketing system- The marketing department of M & S is very strong and it gives promotion, advertisement of its product to attract customers. The human resource development system- Always this company try to develop the skills of its staff by providing training and by motivation them. Tools: InventoriesM & S has many efficient suppliers from all over the world and it has correlated with many firms which deliver its goods or raw materials. Thus this company has a lot of stocks which helps them in executing daily selling activities. MachineriesThis company has lots of machineries for its regular operational functions like computer, EPOS systems, security alarms machine etc. Technology- The company always use advance technology in data processing, communication and sharing information. Again it use cooling system like refrigerator or warming system like heater or oven, air conditioner etc. Infrastructure- companies infrastructure of all departments helps them in their operational activities. Transport vehicles- Company has its own vehicle for delivering products to customer or for other activities for company purpose. Cleaning equipments- All the stores of M & S are very neat and clean and there is always proper supply of cleaning equipments like vacuum cleaner, disposal bin etc.

19.2.b
Quality auditThe system by which an organization can check if all the operations are going on in a standardwhich shows what things to do and how in a documented form in order to meet the target and objective is termed as quality audit of the organization which is done by the auditors of the company auditor team. Basically a quality audit prepares a list of items such as all the procedures, organizational set up, assessment etc which are checked by it and discuss all the areas

that affects on this item for an authentic audit. This audit is done by any individual or a group. By using this audit programme the auditors collect information by enquiring, reviewing documents, checking records and by assessment to assure their audit documentation and its implementation according to the documentation. Audit can be classified in three groups which are mentioned below: First party audits: This is the self auditing system what is done internally and where as a company staffs the auditors audit and other activities are also audited. People can be asked for auditing whether on their respective areas or the areas which are irrelevant to their activity according to the company demand. This audit system usually consists of four to five people. Second party audits: This is the auditing system of the direct customers of the company whether this individual is implicated to the company or not. It just emphasize on the individuals adherence to the standards. Third party audits: The third party audit include the audit where the individual is independent and not related to the company as an employee or a customer and is hired by the company in order to execute audit which help company in getting certain standard. Gap analysis and correction action system: As there must be imperfection in any deed and most of these can be fixed, so each company can improve their performance by fixing this problems. Gap analysis is the comparison of what actually goes on and what actually needed to go. It is termed as a comparison of the existing quality systems and its implementation on the external standard requirements at a high level. Again it is the comparison of companys actual practice with its internal quality system at important equal level. The objective of this analysis is to identify so many discrepancies as possible in order to put them in a corrective action plan. The gap analysis which related to the external quality system can be dealt by the special expert team who has the authority to do so. Generally, the companys quality system against the certified or certifiable conformance model and government regulatory system will be reviewed by this team. Then, any gap will be addressed by organizing process changing and thus revise the necessary documentation. A company quality system requires to include gap analysis mechanism for product or process conformance discrepancies. If an effective corrective action system is reduced, the malfunctions can be repeated for not preventing this. The gap analysis system should have a standard procedure in order to Highlight detected discrepancies Documentation of the analysis result Document the corrective actions and To proper disposition of the affected product.

19.2.c

Quality culture deals with the measurement of the improvement of business and individuals and also with the pledge of maintenance and improvement. It indicates the quality system of an organization which brings it a positive environment and customer satisfaction. It is the organizational value system which results in an environment which is related to the establishment and continual improvement of quality. The vision of quality culture is to improve the overall quality, to improve skills of the staffs and their communication, to change behaviour, to establish creativity, to manage commitment, to get customer satisfaction, to solve the problems. Critical success factors of quality culture: Customer satisfaction- if the overall quality improved then customer will be highly satisfied by the service an organization provides. Employees effective performance- The performance of employees should be developed in order to get better feedback from them. Development of product and service- organization must improve its products quality and must emphasize on new product development for competing the market. Effective management- If the managers are effective they can manage all the operations of an organization as well as the changes required Other success factors of quality culture areLow production cost Huge marketing resources Human resource development Strategy development

Key performance indicatorProcessorganizational Providing clear direction More efficient and effective operations Should be driven by measurable objective at all relevant functions. Minimize non-confommity cost. Human resource Establish of manual of work procedure by clear job responsibilities and authority and ways of doing things. Increase interaction and teamwork. CustomerFeel more confident and assured Improvement efforsRecognizing and acknowledging improvements.

Follow up The changing in behaviour is the main tool for involving the management into the quality culture. This starts by the manager who knows the systems and it implication. So, changing in behaviour is very important to quality culture which can be achieved by training and by self realization. To do so, all the problems should be identified

through gap analysis at first. The status of the organization in comparison with the market demand and the total achievement should also be considered. This help in finding the gaps overall. In case of M & S, it is in number four leading organization in retail in UK. To be the first retailer and first in fashion house as well as in food sector is the objective of this company. To identify the gaps there is a strong team in this company who has a regular inspection over all the stores. If anything found as a gap, this is developed by quality system of the organization without disrupting the other processes. Capability means achieving the skills to execute work successfully and efficiently Maturity terms to the stipulation of supporting the quality initiatives and the corporate understanding of the importance of quality. M & S always recruit suitable and efficient team in order to implement quality. To set skills and for maturity, capabilities are needed. If there is no maturity in skills, then the problems cannot be resolved. To understand quality, the quality group people should be highly matured and capable. This is the only way for them to set down the plan, to implement it and make others to pursue it. Organization should have vast training facilities in order to develop basic knowledge and understanding as well as the maturity among the member of the organization. The effectiveness of this training can be assessed by interviews, quiz etc. Thus the people can be develop themselves in the same margin regarding to the quality.. Motivation: Motivation is the way to inspire and encourage people in executing the deed required to attain the objectives. Without motivation, any change in organization is hard to find and the endeavour for this change will go in vain. So, motivation is very much required though few people of an organization may be self motivated. This motivation should be from upper level of an organization as well as from the quality groups where budget should be avoided in consideration as it has no impact on this. Again, a specific amount of information is also require in order to motivate the individuals and thus help them in pushing the changes to the system. Institutionalization: The way how the quality culture can be built is termed as institutionalization. Training, group discussion, sharing knowledge and idea, motivation and quality concern are needed in institutionalize the change. Success can be achieved by lower level of understanding the importance of the change. Though knowledge should have a vertical flow which incurred from up to down but in many cases it flows horizontally. The diagram mentioned below shows the flow of culture, awareness, knowledge and maturity in institutionalizing quality.

Focus groups: Focus group can be created by spreading knowledge of quality group. Some of the types of focus group can be as follows: Process review and improvement team. Technology improvement team. Knowledge transfer team. Quality assurance team. The responsibilities of those team should be assigned with similarity. There should be coordination between the focus group and quality groups. Automated tools: The load of implementation of quality processes and standards can be reduced by automated tools. This quality or development life cycle tools which are institutionalized by the organization help it in benefitting in delivering solution by the innovation and consistency. Communicate to peopleThe effective culture of an organization needs the effective communication skills of the staffs. They should be trained properly about how to communicate with people and how to approach in different situation. They should also trained about customer behaviour and how to manage it. Conclusion: By building capabilities and maturity an organization can grow further and can adopt the easy way of managing projects by standard tools. By this way a company can meet the continuous way of improvement.

19.3.a

Though M & S is a very reputed organization but it has some gaps in its service like many other giant retailers it has not the opportunity of self service which help in reducing the problem of long queue as well as saving time. If it is implemented, then the customers who are afraid or bored of long queue they can use the service and can be added as regular customer rather than the possibility of losing them. Thus the company can get more customers and can ease the customer service which brings customer satisfaction that leads them to maximize sells and gaining more profit as well as enhancing their reputation.

19.3.b
Changes is a vital issue in the present global market and any company needs changes every now and then to keep pace with the existing condition of business environment. To get over the rival, every company should do their best to develop their strategies as well as the business policies to manage the change effectively. It is mentioned before that M & S is a very prominent organization in retail and fashion world by providing the best quality products. All the stores of M & S are very tidy and sophisticated and its staffs are always well dressed up and provide very good customer service. Even though, still there are some changes is obligatory in order to maintain its best performance as well as to be higher than its competitors. 1) Self service should be provided to all M & S stores in order to avoid long queue same as other giant retailer like Tesco or Sainsburys. Even this can be applied in their big fashion house. 2) Suggestion box can be provided to get suggestion from customers and even from the employees. This would help in understanding about the changes needed for the organization for improving its performance. 3) This company should introduce loyalty card like Tesco club card, Sainsburys Nectar card in order to promote customer to buy more products.

19.3.c

The recommendation for M & S can play a vital role in changing and improving companies customer service system and thus can help this company in standing in very competitive position in comparison with its competitors and also help in improving their performance. In the case of providing self service facilities, the company should concentrate in reducing the distress of the customers. There should be an assistant to help customer in clearing check out by showing them the function and use of EPOS system. Again there should be all the same facilities as a customer get in the till. This will resolve the problem of standing in the long queue for a long time.

For the second suggestion, all the stores should be provided with suggestion box. It may be one for customer and the other for employees. There may be a suggestion slip on where the customers write there suggestion about any change needed for the improvement of the company and employees also do the same thing by their everyday experience. These slips will be collected by any manager later and all will be scrutinized properly and at last the important and efficient suggestion will be sent to the head office leaving the unnecessary others. In case of the last suggestion, like other retail giants this company should introduce loyalty card in market which helps in customer identification as well as promoting customers by giving them discount or other incentive offer. This card helps customers in their identification and in buying more products based on the information provided in the card where in most of the cases this information is based on point system. Thus a customer will be happy and inspired in buying more products and the sell will be increased.

19.3.d

In order to the proper implementation of all those changes it is necessary to draw a detailed plan. For all recommended changes two plans of each change should be needed in order to lessen the risk of plan failure because for this, if one plan is failed, another can be implemented or there may be the other reason of using this two plan that the best one can be chosen for best service. For the first recommendation, self service should be provided to every store of M & S. providing self service facilities does not take too much cost rather than increasing till and the process is very simple and interesting which is more easier by the presence of an assistant. This assistant will help customer in clearing check out by showing them the function and use of EPOS system. Again there should be all the same facilities as a customer get in the till. This will resolve the problem of standing in the long queue for a long time. Not only this, customers who are afraid or bored of long queue then can find their solution in shopping from M & S In second suggestion, all the stores should be provided with suggestion box. It may be one for customer and the other for employees. Providing this box will cost very few which is very trifling in comparison the major cost and it will also not take too much time. There may be a suggestion slip on where the customers write there suggestion about any change needed for the improvement of the company and employees also do the same thing by their everyday experience. These slips will be collected by any manager later and all will be scrutinized properly and at last the important and efficient suggestion will be sent to the head office leaving the unnecessary others. In the last suggestion, loyalty card should be introduced in this company in order to promote customers with getting customer satisfaction. This loyalty card will help the company in customer identification as well as in promoting customers by giving them discount or other incentive offer. This card will also help customers in their identification and in buying more products based on the information provided in the card where in most of the cases this information is based on point system. Introducing this card will not take too much time and it will not cost too much also. But if it is

introduced then a customer will be happy and inspired in buying more products and the sell will be increased.