Posted: June 20th, 2019

What are the four broad categories in Operations Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage ment? Give example in the context of your experience

GUIDELINES FOR ASSIGNMENT

1. FOR the first part of the assignment which is Question & Answer based then.

· Introduction is needed for each question.

· Question has to be answered based on the mark allotted for each question with references if any idea or information is taken from other source.

2. If assignment is case based then,

· Executive summary

· Table of content

· Body of assignment (questions related to case need to be answered)

· Conclusion / Recommendation if any

· References (in-text + citation) to be used.

Attempt all questions. Answer comprehensively as you can.
1. What are the four broad categories in Operations Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage ment? Give example in the context of your experience.

2. What are the skills and competencies and Operations Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage r required? Kindly give live examples for the same with your experience.

3. Porters Competitive Strategy for the Mobile Industry… which strategy is good and why?

4. Define TQM and Lean, please provide the important characteristics between TQM and Lean with some examples.

5. What is Theory of Constraints? What are the steps followed to improve the output?

6. What is queueing theory? Give some examples where the theory is practically used in Business environment?

Case Study – I

McDonald’s

McDonald’s is the global fast-food service retailer. The company have more than 32,000 restaurants and serve more than 60 million people in more than 100 countries every day. More than 80% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are franchised and operated by local people.

When Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant they developed the idea of an ‘assembly line’ where a reduced menu could be cooked cheaper and quicker, which would lead to a higher turnover of customers.

The main objective of company in the operational area is that the production process was as effective as possible. In other words, when using the same assets the company produce the maximum amount of high quality product which satisfies customers.

To achieve these objectives McDonald’s create a balance between customer’s needs and minimizing waste. Demand is forecasted and stock is controlled so that products do not have to be thrown repeatedly.

McDonald’s is a global company, but they operate locally. Currently, McDonald’s wants to be perceived as a modern company that cares about customers and ecology. They offer fast-serve meals, such as: breakfast, salads, vegetables and dairy products.

With your experience and research please do submit your response to the following questions.

Q1. What are the key fundamental Operational Strategy of McDonald’s? What are tools used by McDonald’s to achieve its Operational Strategy?

Q2. What are the Key Decision areas which the McDonald’s focuses?

Q3. In you view what makes McDonald’s a truly Transnational Organization?

Q4. In recent years what kind of challenges McDonalds have faced with respect to PEST (Political, Economical, Social and Technological),please give some examples.

Case Study – II

Amazon : Amazon’s ‘Cyber Monday’

Founded as an online bookseller by Jeff Bezos, Amazon, now the world’s biggest online retailer, started business in Europe in 1998. Since then the Seattle-based firm has experienced remarkable growth, employing around 40,000 people around the world and dominating a fiercely competitive consumer market, where its success is unquestionably based partly on its keen pricing. But low prices are not the only thing supporting Amazon’s success. Without fast, accurate and efficient delivery it could not have secured its ‘top e-retailer’ position.

This is why Amazon devotes so much investment and effort into its fulfilment centres, customer service centres and software development centres across Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. These organize the shipment of millions of individual items, from bird tables to baby clothes. (Amazon says that the exact number of different items it sells is difficult to define, especially if you take into account the articles that are offered via the ‘marketplace’, and changes every day.) Typical of Amazon’s shipment operations is its 46,000-square-metre Milton Keynes warehouse in the UK, one of eight in Britain. In the warehouse products are stocked within its extensive shelving arrangement, with the position of every item referenced using a portable satellite navigation system. Amazon says that it saves time when their staff retrieve items.‘ The computer shows the shortest pick-path’, said Arthur Valdez, the vice-president of Amazon’s British operations. The item is then scanned and picked, after which it moves along a conveyor belt to be packed or gift-wrapped and then labelled. At this point an email is automatically sent to the customer informing them that their product is on its way.

Mr Valdez manages a network of fast-moving operations that must always maintain a tight control of its activities, but no time is more than the run-up to Christmas. The gift-buying habits of Western consumers mean that up to 40 per cent of annual sales value can come in the final three months of the year, with half of the multi-billion online Christmas sales taking place over the end of November and the first two weeks of December. The average number of articles being sold each day soars from 300,000 to, at its peak, 3.6 million being sold in one day. In the UK, this day – which it calls ‘Cyber Monday’­– is at the beginning of December; or, to be more precise, 9 pm on that day, when shoppers, having normally been paid for the month and having spent the weekend browsing the high street, return from work to begin their Christmas shopping in earnest. It makes for a hectic time. ‘ A full truck is dispatched every 3 minutes and 24 seconds on our busiest trading day ’, says Mr Valdez. But careful forecasting can at least stop the Christmas peak being a surprise. And careful monitoring of customer behaviour has revealed a further trend – after ‘Cyber Monday’, now comes ‘Boomerang Thursday’, when customers start to return their unwanted items. ‘As the online retail sector continues to grow, so too has consumer demand and confidence to return items, often before Christmas’, says Mark Lewis, chief executive of CollectPlus, which allows customers to return items to a local convenience store. ‘ This suits retailers. They want to get [items] back as soon as possible, so they can sell them on.’ Mark Lewis says that half of his customers return items at off-peak times. ‘It peaks at 7 pm. It reflects how we live our lives these days.’

However, some retail analysts believe that the advance of technology in the form of mobile phone transactions and broadband has also meant the significance of ‘Cyber Monday’ and ‘Boomerang Thursday’ will diminish because such technology makes it easier to stagger transactions. But for Mr Valdez, it is continual vigilance that allows Amazon to keep up with demand trends. ‘ Every year it feels like [Christmas starts on] 1­January. We are all year long focused on understanding the lessons learnt from the previous Christmas’, he says.

Q1. Based on the above case study please share your thoughts about Amazon building the critical competency to deal with the demands?

Q2. What kind of tools, techniques and technology is being adopted by Amazon to be one of the successful E-Retailers on the planet?

Q.3 What is Central to Amazon and what keeps them moving towards the unprecedented growth across the geographies?

Q.4 What is the key learning from Amazon business model?