Operation Performance and Management (Book Report Sample)

Operation Performance and Management Name: Instructors name: Course Title: Date: Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.0Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc436637062 \h 32.0Literature Review on Operation Performance PAGEREF _Toc436637063 \h 32.1Introduction PAGEREF _Toc436637064 \h 32.2Current trends, challenges and opportunities PAGEREF _Toc436637065 \h 32.3Research Gaps PAGEREF _Toc436637066 \h 63.0Part B: Company Analysis; Tesco PAGEREF _Toc436637067 \h 83.1A brief background of Tesco PAGEREF _Toc436637068 \h 83.2A critical analysis of the operations PAGEREF _Toc436637069 \h 93.2.1Tesco Performance Management PAGEREF _Toc436637070 \h 9A.Quality PAGEREF _Toc436637071 \h 9B.Cost PAGEREF _Toc436637072 \h 11C.Speed of Service PAGEREF _Toc436637073 \h 11D.Dependability PAGEREF _Toc436637074 \h 12E.Flexibility PAGEREF _Toc436637075 \h 123.2.2Layout and Flow PAGEREF _Toc436637076 \h 144.0Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc436637077 \h 155.0References PAGEREF _Toc436637078 \h 16 TOC \h \z \c "Figure" Figure 1: Influence of competitive factors on performance objectives adopted from (Glazer, 2011) PAGEREF _Toc436637159 \h 5Figure 2: The effect of order-winners and order qualifiers adopted from (Bourne et al., 2013) PAGEREF _Toc436637160 \h 6Figure 3 : Tesco Market share in 2014 adapted from (Tesco, 2014) PAGEREF _Toc436637161 \h 8Figure 4: Polar Diagram on operation performance of Tesco PAGEREF _Toc436637162 \h 13Figure 5: Evaluating Performance against Competitors of Tesco PAGEREF _Toc436637163 \h 13Figure 6: Tesco market orders and qualifiers PAGEREF _Toc436637164 \h 14Figure 7: Tesco Supermarkets physical space constraints PAGEREF _Toc436637165 \h 15 * Executive Summary Operation management is a wide area of study and includes many fields such as operation performance. In the first section of the report, a comprehensive analysis of the literature review will be carried out looking at the current trends, challenges and opportunities in respect to operational performance. The second of the report will investigate operational performance at Tesco. Operation performance metrics such as quality, speed and cost, capacity constraints and process technologies have also been identified. * Literature Review on Operation Performance * Introduction Operations performance is a major area of focus in today's business environment that companies can use to differentiate from competitors' and create a point of competitive edge. Operations performance entails all the measurable aspects that affect business performances in terms of customer satisfaction. According to Wijngaard and Nauta (2006), operation performance is guided by 5 core objectives that include; cost, dependability, quality, flexibility and speed. Business can focus their energies on any of the above/ all of them to make sure they meet customer needs and requirements as well as increasing their profitability. * Current trends, challenges and opportunities The growing realization of the importance of operation performance has transformed operational performance into different phases. The traditional operational performance strategies stand a little chance to come up with the current market pressures and other competing factors. In the beginning, the focus of most studies was on measuring operational performance.Measuring performance in operations has surfaced in the current studies on operational performance. Performance measures are geared towards delivering the stated brand promise in the wake of evolving market trends and capacity constraints.Johnston and Pongatichat (2008) assert that most of the Operation Management Managers are using performance measurements in addressing the aforementioned challenges. Performance measures should be geared towards the common goal of creating greater responsiveness on how it can be improved. Additionally, there has been research on the relationship between operational performance and customer loyalty. Studies carried out by Voss and Blackmon (2007) show a positive correlation between these two factors. Organizations have the capacity to improve their strategies based on the performance objectives in order to attract and maintain loyal customers. For example, in terms of flexibility as operational performance objective, organizations should aim to augment customer values and preferences by including innovative features that communicate customer benefits. According to Bourne et al (2013), by integrating competitive benefits in performance objectives, companies are able to attract loyal customers. Additionally, loyal customers are integral to any business as they are supportive of the business in cases when companies are faced with periods of uncertainty or drastic market changes. Since early 1990's there has been a shift from the traditional operations performance priorities with customers being the focal focus of the whole process. Currently, customers have a direct bearing on which performance objectives an organization is going to adopt. Bititci et al. (2005) point out that, for instance, if customers value low-priced products/ services, then the Operational managers will have to adopt cost performance. In the case, clients underscore on fast delivery of products or services, and then the management will lay emphasis on speed of delivery. Therefore, the customers are taking over the market by determining their tastes and preferences, hence operational managers should streamline and customize their performance objectives in reference to customers' requirements.Glazer (2011) asserts that those elements that define customer preferences are known as competitive factors. The competitive factors do not have a limit and they can grow endless since the customer is the prime arbiter. Glazer is also supported by Prasad and Babbar (2007), who claim that an organizations success is pegged on how well it outshines performance objectives that are swayed by competitive factors. lefttopFigure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Influence of competitive factors on performance objectives adopted from (Glazer, 2011) In real sense, retail stores or any other business should first determine which competitive factors do customers value. Such necessitated for the formulation of order qualifiers and order winning objectives. Such was necessary since the managers viewed all competitive factors having great importance to customers. This is not applicable in all cases since some competitive factors are of high significance than others. The relative importance of the aforementioned can be distinguished by examining order winning and order qualifiers. To shed more light on these developments, Petersen and Heiser (2011)demystify that order winners are those elements/attributes that determine the purchasing decisions or reasons which immensely contribute to winning business while order qualifiers are those factors that do not necessarily determine the competitiveness of the business but clients view them as basic for the business. Order winners are indispensable and if organizations improve their competitive frame then they will stay ahead of the competition. In determining the performance objectives to adopt, Glazer (2011) suggests that the decisions should be made on the grounds of; specific customer needscompetitors' activities or strategies and the current stage of the product life cycle. Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2: The effect of order-winners and order qualifiers adopted from (Bourne et al., 2013) There exist opportunities in the implementation of operation performance strategies to increase loyal customers. According to Johnston (2005), operation performance has a direct influence on customer loyalty. Most of the retail operations should be able to come up with strategies that can increase operation performance of their business to augment customer experiences.Operations performance can also be used to lower costs, boost profits and a source of core competencies. * Research Gaps In the analysis of the above literature, much of the research on operational performance has centered on measuring performance in operations and the influence of operation performance on customer loyalty. The literature lacks information on important aspects of operation performance on the alignment of creating value and building operational performance strategies for sustainable futures.These are important aspects that have been largely neglected and more research should focus on bridging the gap between creating operational performance strategies and creating value to build sustainable business models.Aligning operation performance strategies with value creation and sustainable futures remains a considerable gap in the operation performance literature. The already conducted studies are just a prescribe of making operational performance a source of competitive advantage and increase the value chain of the operational performance processes. * Part B: Company Analysis; Tesco * A brief background of Tesco In retail operations, operations management process enables the retailers to match supply-demand so as to ensure there is process flow in quality, queuing and inventory management. This report will investigate Tesco operations management strategies, operations performance and layout and flow. Additionally, it will also look at quality management and inventory planning and control aspects. Tescois one of the largest retailers in UK commanding a market share of 29% in 2014. Tesco offers a variety of products from groceries, dairies, clothing's, homewares and other consumable products among other goods. Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 3 : Tesco Market share in 2014 adapted from (Tesco, 2014) A detailed analysis of the store will be carried out to evaluate its operations performance and strategy an...