Master of Business Administration: Managing Operations Assignment

Assignment Task

Choose an Operations Management problem relating to an organisation with

which you are familiar and undertake a critical review. This should include

(indicative marks provided):

1. an introduction to the problem and its relationship to operations

practice in the organisation; (10 Marks)

2. an explanation of the process(es) under consideration (ideally

incorporating some form of process map) (20 Marks)

3. a discussion of relevant Operations theory (this should address the

underlying processes on which quality depends - do not rely on

quality theory only); (15 Marks*)

4. a comparison of the theory with the practice; (20 Marks*)

5. consideration of how potential changes would improve quality

and/or customer focus; (5 Marks)

6. recommendations, based on the comparison above, as to how the

process(es) could be improved, accompanied by a revised process

map clearly showing the improvements (20 Marks)

7. Referencing both in text and in the Bibliography, using the Harvard

system (10 marks)

*No more than 10 marks will be awarded if you only consider general (‘soft’)

quality theory (such as TQM, SERVQUAL and Six Sigma)