Assessment task details and instructions
PART A – OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Companies need to make strategic decisions on selecting an appropriate process and facility layout to manage the way production of goods or services will be organized. Based on the above, you are asked to take as an example a product or a service from an industry that you are familiar with (e.g., food, technology, healthcare, retail, services, automotive), and critically:
Examine the process design and facility layout and present a flow chart to justify the above.
PART B – INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
The recent Covid lock down period has been a difficult time for all SMEs and particularly those in the music and events industry. However, many in this industry are still committed to the progress of their businesses. Therefore, they need appropriate ideas and specific information regarding the potential of technology to support, develop, and future-proof their livelihoods.
Charles and Christina are both classical musicians and music teachers who play at local events and parties. They want to get more private work both as teachers and musicians. They would like to publicise their talents via a website and deal with booking arrangements via the internet for both teaching and playing. At the moment arrangements are made by telephone. Their present clients pay by cash on the day of the lesson or event. They want to appear as professional as possible by providing information, bookings, and payment options online.
They need a business strategy where they take responsibility for their own; social media marketing, online business accounts, an up-to-date calendar of events, and keeping track of the communications between themselves and the clients.
They realise that technology will play an important part in the future business. They have read about Customer Relationship Management software and Enterprise Resource Management software, but just don’t know what kind of information technology support they really need as a small business partnership. They require professional digital business advice before they can make any final decisions about investing funds in business software. Also, they have heard that they may be able to save money by using Open Source Software, but don’t understand if there are any implications, so they need advice about this too.
Charles and Christina have no technical experience and therefore require information that can be easily understood. You are the IM consultant who is responsible for researching this business and providing relevant information.
Your Task
You are a consultant who has been employed to advise on the effective implementation of strategic changes. You are required to produce the following for the case study:
Part B1: BPMs and Strategy Analysis
In this section you should develop
A series of at least two Business Process Models (BPM), which capture the existing and the proposed business processes. The models should follow the BPM notation shown in the lecture slides. You can utilise Microsoft Visio, Word, PowerPoint or any appropriate alternatives to create the models.
Strategic analysis: You should use at least one recognised analysis technique such as SWOT, PESTLE etc
Discussion on an overview of the current situation of the business (based on existing BPM and SWOT/PESTLE) and outlining what may be the benefits/challenges of proposed changes to the business (based on proposed BPM).
Part B2: Software Comparison and Recommendation
In this section, you should conduct research into a suitable software solution. You should develop:
An evaluation table: you should decide on the set of characteristics which you will use to evaluate the software and your research should consider 2 commercial/off the shelf software and 2 Open Source Software alternatives.
Recommendation of software based on the table, with suggestions and a roadmap outlining how the proposed software can be deployed in the business.
Please follow a report format. Therefore, you should have a title page, contents page, sections and sub sections, page numbers, appendix section etc. Please note if you are uncertain on how to present and structure a report then visit the university library and ask for assistance. Please do use diagrams, illustrations, tables, graphics etc. wherever these are helpful, and remember that these do not count towards your word limit. If you do use these, please do not put them in the appendices if they are part of your discussion. Appendices are the appropriate places to put supporting material, however, remember if the reader is satisfied with the main points of your discussion; the supporting information within the appendices may not even be reviewed.
Please try to use theory explicitly at all stages, but do not spend too much time describing a theory. While you must be explicit about the theories, models, techniques etc. that you use, you can assume that the reader is familiar with them. What the reader requires is evidence of your ability to understand and apply the theory and learn from it in order to support the development of your findings and/or ideas.
You must cite all sources on which you have relied, for example textbooks, journal articles, web pages etc. using the Harvard Bibliographic referencing system. If you do not cite all sources, then you may be accused of plagiarism, and that may endanger your success in passing the module. If you are in any doubt about how to reference your work, please obtain guidance from the library and/or your academic librarian(s) for this module.
You will also need to take the following into account when completing your assignment:
• Quality of executive summary (does it give a brief and complete summary of your paper for an executive to read?) The executive summary should address both parts.
• Establishment of relevant theory
• Allocation of credit and sources used (have you included references and citations to the material you have used?)
• Clarity of argument
• Overall report presentation including spelling and grammar
• Adherence to nominated word limit (+/- 10%)
• Word processed (letter size 12, times new roman, 1.5 space), fully referenced (Harvard Referencing System)
Assessed intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:
1. Critically analyse the theory, concepts and models of operations and information management.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of operations and information management in international operations.
3. Analyse and critically evaluate the ways in which operations and information management are adapted in view of specific market culture and customer requirements.
4. Analyse and critically evaluate the role and importance of operational excellence in various aspects of competitive advantage.
5. Evaluate critically the fundamental principles of quality and environmental management systems.
Transferable Skills and other Attributes
1. Identify and utilise appropriate methods for collecting and analysing data related to operations and information management issues.
2. Locate, summarise and synthesise a range of information from published literature and electronic sources on operations and information management.
3. Use and evaluate a variety of tools for improving organisational performance.
4. Improve research skills, and data analysis and presentation. Manage time to meet deadlines in both group discussions and in preparation of in-class activities.
