Assignment Brief

Unit Code, Number and A/618/5078 - Unit 26: Principles of Operations

Title Management
Semester and Academic Year Semester 2 | Academic year 2023 - 2024
Unit Assessor(s) Arthur Gogatz | Tran Manh Linh

Assignment Title POM A1.1: Operations Management

Issue Date March 8th, 2024

Submission Date 10.00 AM April 4th, 2024

Student name
NEU Student ID
Student declaration I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own
work and I fully understand the consequences of
plagiarism. I understand that making a false declaration is
a form of malpractice.

Date
Student name / Signature
:

Submission Format

● This is an individual assignment.

● The submission format is in the form of an E-report. Please refer to the “Turnitin
Submission Rules” that was posted on Moodle.

● The file on Turnitin must be in Word format and include the first page of this cover
sheet. The first page of the cover sheet should be in the picture format in order to
ensure the accepted similarity of Turnitin.

● The similarity allowed is up to 25% after excluding references.

● Name of the file includes Student ID_Unit name_Assessment no. (E.g.
“1010001_POM_A1.1”)

● Ensure that authenticity declaration has been signed electronically.

● Plagiarism is unacceptable. Students must cite all sources and input the information by
paraphrasing, summarising or using direct quotes. A Referral Grade is given when
Plagiarism is identified in your work. There are no exceptions.

● Your evidence/findings must be cited using Harvard Referencing Style. Please refer to
the Reference guide posted on Moodle. The Reference page is compulsory to upload on
Turnitin.

● This assignment should be written in a concise, formal business style using Arial 11 or
Times New Roman 13 font size and 1.5 spacing.

● The word limit is 3,500 words (+/- 10%).

● You MUST complete and submit a softcopy of your work on the due dates stated on the
Assignment brief. All late work is not allowed to submit. This rule is not waived under
any circumstances.
Read ALL Instructions on this Page and review the Pass, Merit and Distinction criteria
carefully. To pass the assignment, you must achieve ALL the Pass Criteria outlined in the
marking sheet. To achieve a Merit, you must achieve ALL the Merit criteria (and therefore
the Pass criteria). To achieve a Distinction, you must achieve ALL the Distinction criteria
(and therefore the Pass and Merit criteria).

Unit Learning Outcomes

LO1: Analyse the effectiveness of operations management in contributing to

organisational objectives across a wide range of organisations and sectors
LO2: Apply a range of techniques and analysis frameworks used by operations
managers to support decision-making and address problems

Transferable skills and competencies developed

Students will understand the key concepts of operations management in an organisational

and environmental context, and how this links to supply chain management, products and
processes, organisational efficiency and effectiveness, and the achievement of tactical and
strategic objectives. A variety of operations management techniques and frameworks will
be explored, including continuous improvement, total quality management, benchmarking
and risk analysis and crisis prevention and management
Skills and competences required:

● soft skills, e.g. logical approach, quality conformance, communication skills and ethical
awareness.

● technical skills, e.g. collaborative planning and forecasting, assessing and prioritizing
risks, business continuity planning and mitigation, integrating and improving systems
technologies.

Vocational scenario

Assignment activity and guidance

Operations Management extends to many areas in a firm including, management, human

resources, marketing, production, research and design and supply chain, and also involves
different skills associated with management, among them decision-making, strategic
planning, complex problem solving, strategic analysis, holistic thinking, critical thinking, and
prioritization

Operations Management comes into focus when a problem or crisis occurs that involves
products (or services) that did or could cause injury (physical or financial) to customers.
Product recalls were often issued. Often these instances involve not only the firm itself but
also their suppliers or contractors and also the sub-suppliers of these outside firms

Choose a firm which had in the past a product problem which resulted in a crisis and
analyze their operations management effectiveness. It can be any firm. A sample list of firms
will follow, but it’s only a sample list. The list of actual firms is extensive

Part 1: Executive Summary of your report. Should be maximum one page

Part 2: Introduce the organization that you choose

Give an overview of the industry in which they operate. Who are the main competitors?
Part 3: Analyze the role and effectiveness of operations management in the firm you choose.
 Describe the problem and the ensuing crisis. What areas in the firm were
affected? Responsibility, actions taken? Analyze the firms Operations
Management in terms of risk assessment & readiness. Did they use digital
technologies to enhance their performance, and if so, were they effective?
 Analyze the role of the firm in creating and handling the problem. What did
they do well, and what didn’t they do well? Why? What was the effect on the
 firm’s supply chain operation?
 Was there a cover up? If so, analyze it happened? What was the fallout?
 Analyze the decision-making process and organization, was it siloed and
centralized or decentralized? How did their decision-making cause, prolong or
help the situation. Did their decision-making process change afterward? How
so? If not, why didn’t it?
 Give your recommendations as to what changes the firm needed to make
based on the experience
 How did the problem and aftermath change the industry in which the firm
operates?
 Your conclusions. Support your conclusions citing references

Please note that the firms listed are examples for you to use as a starting point or guide. You
may use any firm, in Vietnam or worldwide. You are not limited to the following list. You may
choose any firm.

Toyota 2020: (https://vinamr.com.vn/recalling-fortuner-units-from-toyota-vietnam/)

Johnson and Johnson (Tylenol) 1982

Toyota 2010

Pfizer 2005

Samsung (Galaxy) 2016

Volkswagen 2015

Mattel 2007

Toys R Us 2003

General Motors 2014

Tesla 2023

Takata 1995

Stew Leonard Stores 2024

Facebook 2018

Equifax 2017

Wells Fargo 2016

Boeing 2024
Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

Pass Merit Distinction

LO1: Analyse the effectiveness of operations D1 Justify the impact of effective

management in contributing to organisational operations management and the
objectives across a wide range of organisations use of operational techniques on
and sectors achieving objectives in complex and
dynamic trading environments,
P1 Analyse the role and M1 Critically analyse the making valid recommendations
effectiveness of relationship between and solutions.
operations management effective operations
across a range of sectors management and the
to meet different achievement of tactical
organisational objectives. and strategic business
objectives.
P2 Discuss the
contribution of effective
supply chains to the
organisation.

LO2: Apply a range of techniques and analysis D2 Critically evaluate, giving

frameworks used by operations managers to evidence-based recommendations,
support decision-making and address problems different techniques and
frameworks used by operations
P3 Devise solutions to M2 Evaluate different managers to solve complex
given operations techniques and analysis
problems and drive organisational
management problems frameworks used by
performance.
using a range of operations managers to
techniques and analysis solve problems and
frameworks. achieve high operational
performance.
P4 Appraise the use of
digital technologies for
effective operational
performance.