Operations Management in Tesco and London Zoo - Case Study Example

OPERATIONSS MANAGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Introduction: 3 Part Operations Management in Tesco 3 Part 2: Operations Management in London Zoo 8 Part 3: Comparison and contrast the two operations in the aspects of their operations process 11 Conclusion: 12 Reference List 13 Appendix: 15 Introduction: According to De Beer and Rossouw (2005), operations management (OM) plays an important role in achieving performance objectives of an organization. In the contemporary business world, almost all types of organizations are trying to rely on modern technique of operations management strategy as a means to enhance productivity and profitability (Johnston and Butterworth, 2005). In the modern world, operations management act as the backbone of every organization, to deal with organizational planning, procedures, supervision of their products, services and supply chain management. Operations management process includes utilization of resources in proper way so that it can fetch goods and services according to the customer’s needs. This report is divided into three parts. The first two parts deals with detail procedures of the operations process in terms of these two industries, and the third part deals with the brief analysis of the operations process with retail giant Tesco and public Entertainment Corporation of London Zoo. Part 1: Operations Management in Tesco Operations process of Tesco: According to House and Ellis (1987), operations process refers to some serious steps that are use to transform material and resources into final products and services. The basic aim to implement an effective operations process is to achieve expected value, in design of their product strategy, and as a result gain customer satisfaction. As opined by Moosa (2007), a variety of facilities are available in the business operations of Tesco Metro. More specially, the store size of Tesco is about 10,000 square fit, and is segregated into two levels. 14 different checkouts are available in their stores. A large number of freezers and shelves are available in Tesco, to present their products. Apart from that, CC TVs are available in their stores to protect their products from theft. Facilities, processes, layout and flow: Operations process within an organization concerned with physical location for transforming its resources and thus, it is one of the most important characteristics of operations management. The design of process depends on the choice of product strategy (Von Solms, 2005). Tesco comes under service process type as they are generally involved in assisting customer service or customer transaction. Apart from that, Tesco also offers beer and wine related product to enhance their product reach to a larger consumer segments. The next step is to analyze the layout type of Tesco. The company equally has focused on both product and process layout. Tesco generally provides service with high volume, little customized and product oriented service. Further, in Tesco, all customers get same opportunities while they are making their product bill (transforming service into money), which is an evidence of the presence of process layout. Advantages of having this kind of layout is, it allows to alter the resources directly into the transforming resources and thus, customers can achieve their products directly from their stores. Major characteristics of the operations in terms of input, output and 4 Vs: The transformational process in Tesco is based on input and output resources. In Tesco, inputs in the production process include raw food and material for preparing of cooked food packet, drinks and customer service (Power and Bahri, 2005). These inputs are converted into finished products and output via conducting a material processing. Tesco collects raw food material from different places and convert them into final product to meet customer’s requirement. These are mainly used by the organization to process its information, namely, transforming the informational properties and change the location of information. Tesco basically uses Just in Time (JIT) technique to manage its overall material flow and reduce the stock of inventory. The Transformational Process Transformational Resources Transforming Resources Materials Customer Raw Food Service Facilities Staffs Table 2: Input-Output Process of Tesco (Source: Mynameissantosh55. 2014) The nature of operations process (4Vs) in Tesco has been described in below: Volume (High) – The volume of Tesco’s business is very high. The working process in Tesco has been divided into different member of staffs (Kell et al. 2006). Further, the process of producing a product is divided into some small segments and each member of their staffs is responsible to handle different parts. In this way, they reduce overall cost of their production process and produce a high volume of product at low cost. Variety (High) – Tesco offers high varieties of products and services to its customers and thereby, provides a high degree of customer satisfaction. However, the cost of delivering goods and services is likely to be higher in Tesco. It is quite unintended for the company, as organizations those offer wide varieties of products or services, keep their price low. Variation (High) – Variation in demand is also an important factor that affects cost of production (Tesco2014). The variation in demand for Tesco’s product is very high. In winter season, Tesco offer a high volume of ready to eat meal, which is preferred and needed by the customers. Visibility (High) – Visibilities within an organization are another factor that implies how the organizational operations are exposed to the customers. As illustrated by Badmin (2003), the visibility of Tesco’s product is very high as they clearly analyze needs of their customer. They ensure visibility of their product by continuously introducing new products and services, and also communicate this with their customers in a good manner. The operations performance objectives within the organization, measure on the basis of its quality, speed and cost. In Tesco, quality is important to gain customer satisfaction. The speed objective is a vital factor to increase value for their customer. Cost is the main issue within the organization and needs to be solved to increase profitability. Quality means for the operations and explanation of the operations characteristics that may affect the quality performance of Tesco Tesco has created a culture of operations excellence within every phase of its business process. It always aims to produce products and service that can meet needs and expectations of their customers. Satisfied customer tends to engage in repeated purchases and hence, it increases the number of repeat footfalls in the store. As mentioned in above, the strategy of total quality management in Tesco includes speed, quality, and cost. First, Tesco is reputed for selling high quality products to its customers. It has maintained quality in its products and services in very neat way (Birdi et al. 2008). They believe that, if products and services fall within the customer’s expectation, it will help the company to generate more profit. Tesco has incorporated this objective by ensuring good quality foodstuffs. However, trying to adapt to the changing consumer demands can also result in erroneous decision-making and lead Tesco ashtray from its core competencies. This sometime causes decrease in their product quality. Secondly, Tesco has identified speed as one of the major performance objectives in its operations. It has incorporated this objective in its operations by ensuring that, sales are recorded as soon as possible. The home delivery speed in Tesco is comparatively higher in comparison to the other companies, and a long-term transaction often creates pending work in the stores. Thus, the rate at which goods are available is also high. Further, the incident of horse meat scandal also damaged their product quality. It has decreased consumer’s trust of Tesco’s product. It has violated one of their corporate responsibilities with the incident. Part 2: Operations Management in London Zoo Operations process of London Zoo: London Zoo is a famous and attractive place for the people in the UK, as well as the global tourists and travellers. The zoo includes more than 750 different species of animals (365Tickets, 2014). One of the crucial characteristics of the operations process within the zoo is the level of its volume and its customization strategy. Originated in the year 1830, now it has become a reputed leisure place. Although, total number of temporary staff in London Zoo is 160, it has to employs temporary staffs also when needed. However, it has been found that the number of staff within the zoo is not appropriate to maintain well-behaved contact with its customer, especially in peak time. Apart from that, the Zoological Society of London uses next generation camera traps or CCTV to protect their animals in better way (365Tickets, 2014). Facilities, processes, layout and flow: London Zoo offers a wide range of hot and cold healthy food to its visitors. They also offer microwaves for warming foods and milk. As deduced from official website of London Zoo, there are different rules and process that they follow to allocate their animals (365Tickets, 2014). For instance, butterflies are kept into butterfly paradise while animals live in rainforest areas (Bharadwaj, 2010). In London Zoo, animals are one of the major transforming resources. The zoo has been spread over a large area providing sufficient space for the animals to roam around. This has also enhanced the opportunity for the viewers to observe the animals in the open. It reflects that, transforming of its resource process involves process layout. Major characteristics of the operations of London Zoo in terms of input, output and 4 Vs: The concept of transformational process in London Zoo has been focused on same area as in case of Tesco. It is a process through which London Zoo transformed its resources into final outcome or services. In its operations process, the transformed resources are visitor and information whereas, transforming resources are animals, amenities, staffs and service (Grinsven, 2009). However, to have high level of operations efficiency, the management team of London Zoo uses kaizen technique where they continually seeks to implement continuous improvement that involves everyone, from top management to supervisor and workers. The Transformational Process Transformed Resources Transforming Resources Information Visitors Animals Amenities Staffs Service Figure 2: Input-Output Process of London Zoo (Source: 365Tickets, 2014) Output of London Zoo is generally intangible in nature and thus, it is very hard to measure. Thus, the zoo organizer has adopted customer feedback mechanism to analyse effectiveness of their product quality. The nature of operations process in London Zoo has been described in below: Volume (Low) – Although, large number of visitors arrive every day in London Zoo, the number of staffs is not enough to handle the customers. Temporary staffs are employed, but they might not be capable enough to provide just-in-time service to its customers. Varieties (Low) – In London Zoo, events such as animal encounter, Christmas parties, birthday parties, wedding and private events are held from time to time. All these events attract visitors from different segments worldwide. However, main purpose of the visitors is to visit the zoo and gain some knowledge about the animals. Thus, varieties of customers are low in spite of having an array of the events. Variation (High) – The number of visitors fluctuates from time to time and thus, it can be said that seasonal variation are apparent in London Zoo. Summer holiday and weekends are busiest time when number of visitors fluctuates between 4000 and 6000. On the Easter and Bank holidays, the number of visitor was 10000, while only 48 people have visited the zoo during Christmas Eve. So, the variation is too high (365Tickets 2014). Visibility (Low) – The staffs in London Zoo provide just-in-time service to the visitors, for instance they answer question of the visitors and introduce the animals to them. However, there are some processes like, how the staffs feed the animals, are not visible. Thus, visibility is too high. Quality means for the operations and explanation of the operations characteristics that may affect the quality performance of London Zoo Due to large amount of visitor, especially in peak times, numbers of staffs are inefficient to handle the crowd. So, the management team of London Zoo needs to hire more employees and provide sufficient training on how to handle the visitors. Secondly, the map and guiding instruction are not enough for the visitors to find their roots consequently. Thirdly, the cleanliness and tidiness of the zoo is another aspect where changes are needed immediately. Furthermore, the visibility within the organizational process needs to be ensured to improve the process of customer engagement. As people becoming are more concerned about the wild animals, the uncomfortable position of the animals in the zoo seems to make visitors worried about them. Thus, it needs to improve its operations process (Slack et al. 2007). Lastly, the financial situation of the zoo is not so fine, and thus the zoo operator is not able to provide enough High quality service, new attraction and other facilities to its visitors. As a consequence, the numbers of visitors are decreasing day by day. Part 3: Comparison and contrast the two operations in the aspects of their operations process In terms of volume, both Tesco and London Zoo are very high. The numbers of staffs in Tesco are adequate to satisfy demand for their customers immediately. In case of London Zoo, the number of staffs is sufficient in ordinary days, but they had to increase it during the busiest time. Both of them use CC TV; however, purpose of their use is different. Tesco uses CC TV to protect their product from getting robbed, whereas, London Zoo uses to protect their animals in a better way. As per the seasonal changes, variation in both the place is very high. However, the fluctuation is more dramatic in case of London Zoo, especially during the Christmas Eve. Thus, Tesco and London Zoo, both of them need to improve their operations process to increase the number of customers or visitors. In terms of quality, a number of potential problems exists in both the place and thereby, needs to pay more attention. In spite of having varieties of products, the cost of Tesco’s product is high compare to its rivals. This may divert focus of the customers from Tesco’s product. However, quality problem in London Zoo is much more than Tesco. The service quality in London Zoo gets hampered due to several factors, such as insufficient staffs, issues regarding tidiness, financial condition and so on. As Tesco is a product oriented business, it is characterized by both process and product layout (Von Solms, 2005). On the other hand, process layout is the layout type of London Zoo. Proper guidance for the visitors is not available due to its current layout structure. Also, the direction charts are often not maintained which creates confusion for the visitors Conclusion: The essay focused on analyzing various aspects of operations management in terms of London Zoo and Tesco. Tesco is one of the largest supermarket chains in the global market whereas; London Zoo is world’s largest scientific zoo. In the current essay, the researcher has outlined the operations management process of Tesco and London Zoo respectively and tried to provide an argumentum comparison based on their operations facilities. The report shows detail characteristic of operations management process, for instance, layout and flow, 4Vs and operations performance objectives that might create problems or influence operations of both, Tesco and London Zoo. Reference List 365Tickets 2014. London Zoo, Available at: http://www.365tickets.co.uk/london-zoo/london-zoo-fast-track-ticket, [Accessed: 30 October 2014]. Badmin, P. 2003. Leisure operations management. Harlow: Longman in association with Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management. Bharadwaj, N. 2010. BPEL PM and OSB operations management with Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control. Birmingham, U.K.: Packt Pub. Birdi, K., Clegg, C., Patterson, M., Robinson, A., Stride, C., Wall, T. and Wood, S. 2008. The impact of human resource and operations management practices on company productivity: A longitudinal study. Personnel Psychology, 61(3), pp.467--501. De Beer, A. and Rossouw, D. 2005. Focus on operations management. Cape Town: Juta Academic. Grinsven, J. 2009. Improving operations risk management. Amsterdam: IOS Press. House, M. and Ellis, J. (1987. The development of water quality indices for operations management.Water Science \& Technology, 19(9), pp.145--154. Johnston, S. and Butterworth, D. 2005. Evolution of operations management procedures for the South African West Coast rock lobster (Jasus lalandii) fishery. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 39(3), pp.687--702. Kell, L., De Oliveira, J., Punt, A., McAllister, M. and Kuikka, S. 2006. Operations management procedures: an introduction to the use of evaluation frameworks. Developments in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science, 36, pp.379--407. Moosa, I. 2007. Operations risk management. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Mynameissantosh55. 2014. Operating Management Manager, Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/mynameissantosh55/operating-management-manager, [Accessed: 8 October 2014] Power, Y. and Bahri, P. 2005. Integration techniques in intelligent operations management: a review.Knowledge-Based Systems, 18(2), pp.89--97. Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R., 2007, Operations management, 5th Edition, FT/Prentice Hall. Tesco Layout 2014. TescoLayout, Available at: http://www.keywordpicture.com/keyword/tesco%20layout/, [Accessed: 30 October 2014]. Tesco2014. Customer sitemap, Available at: http://www.tesco.com/help/site-map/, [Accessed: 30 October 2014]. Von Solms, S. 2005. Information security governance--compliance management vs operations management. Computers \& Security, 24(6), pp.443--447. Appendix: Operations flow and layout of Tesco: (Source: Tesco Layout, 2014) Operations flow and layout of London Zoo: (Source: 365Tickets, 2014) Read More