Context
Major changes have happened in the business environment in the last decade, including, but not limited to: the digital revolution, especially artificial intelligence; the worldwide pandemic; climate change and geo-political instability. In some cases, these have required organisations to implement the degree of change that might have taken several years, in a period of months. This challenging period has provided us with a set of live case studies in Operations Strategy and we can now look again at enterprises, assess the changes in operations, evaluate their success and their long-term significance.
Task
The end product of this assessment will be a business report.
Your initial task is to choose a leading company, in one of the following sectors: food production and retailing, fashion clothing, sports goods, construction, consumer electronics, household cleaning and hygiene products. You must choose a company that operates at least at national level in a major economy. This choice will be subject to tutor approval.
You will briefly introduce the firm and set out how this firm has responded to the challenges to change their operations. To do this, you will need to use the key content in the module lectures and illustrate the concepts with materials you retrieve and interpret during your research. Your introduction to the company should take no more than 400 words and
2
should focus on their principal activity and on their operations not on marketing activity or financial performance.
Your main body of content should cover matters such as:
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Sector – main product areas
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Manufacturing and processing
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Structure – key aspects such as vertical integration
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Supply chain
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Distribution systems
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Principal customers – intermediate and final
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Performance monitoring and quality systems
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Innovation in products, production and distribution
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Digital technologies employed in operations
Please note that it is not expected to cover all of these in detail, but to focus on significant changes.
Your primary source of information/evidence will be the digital, broadcast and printed media, specialist publications and your support in terms of theory and practice should derive from academic and business journals.
As stated above, you need to agree with the tutor which organisation you are to focus on by week four.
Examine and explain the processes and systems used to improve the quality of operations, manage risk and plan effectively for long run effectiveness.
• Describe and explain the process of innovation in the context of operations.
• Evaluate techniques and processes used in the planning and control of operations.
