Individual Assignment (75%)

Important Notes:

• Your assignment must be word processed in a professional report format and should be
around 3000 words in length.
• Marks will be allocated on content, evidence of data, an analytical approach and critical
insight (see full rubric).
• Please ensure you read extensively for your assignment, in support of your observations
of the process. You will be expected to read beyond the textbook in order to develop
more insight.
• Make sure that all sources are fully referenced using the Harvard system (surname,
date, page number if appropriate in the main body, alphabetical listing of references at
the end).
• Legibility: use minimum 12pt font, and at least 1.2 line spacing.
Assignment Title: Final Individual Assignment

Word Length: 3,000 (+/- 10% word count and Excluding Appendices)
Weighting: 75%

The final individual assignment gives you the opportunity to apply Operations Management
tools / techniques and theory to a real organization.

You are required to identify an organisation – either your own – or another and have the
company approved by the Module Leader, either before or during the ‘Individual
Assignment Workshop’.

Every student must choose a different company / operation / process as the focus of their
analysis. We can provide some help if you are struggling and suggest companies which may
be good for you to learn more about, based upon your interests / possible focus of analysis.
Points to consider before you start:

The final individual assignment counts for 75% of the total module mark, so it should be
detailed and contain data, facts and figures.

It should be critical and analytical and not merely constrained to the

descriptive level. The assignment should be treated as a serious piece of
practical & academic research work.

You are strongly advised to start work early on selecting the organization you will be analysing
AND the topic for collecting any relevant information from. If you are choosing a company
where you DO NOT have access to information (I.e. Google, Samsung, Apple, UBER etc.),
please make sure that you are able to find relevant secondary sources of information online.
This can include academic articles, newspaper articles, academic cases studies, company
white papers, company webpages, publications, forums etc…

Please remember that this is an academic piece of work, so make sure that you reference all
your sources accurately. More information will be provided on Canvas and during the course
about referencing.
Guidance for when you start:

Select an organization with which you are familiar. This could be one from your past or
current place of work or one you have experienced as a customer / client. If you wish to do
primary research you will need to be able to have access to supply chains, operations and /
or processes (and the people running them) to collect data (through observations,
interviews etc.) as well as finding secondary data to support your own analysis (this can
include internal reports, memos and any information that may not be in the public
domain).

Please make sure that you are aware of the ethical implications of your work. This is
particularly important if you are going to collect primary data to support your analysis.
More information about ethical approval can be found on Canvas.

Your aspirations should be to complete at least some elements of primary research. This
will make your research more interesting and unique. It will also be more fun for you to
complete and you will learn more!

However, you DO NOT HAVE TO DO PRIMARY RESEARCH. It is still possible to achieve a top
mark for a very well researched and critical analysis based on just secondary sources on
information.
Guidance for when you start (cont…):

Start thinking about an interesting research question(s) (RQs) i.e. research idea =
Challenger banks and small businesses; research question: ”How has the emergence of
challenger banks impacted upon small businesses’ financing and why?”, (Saunders,
Lewis & Thornhill, 2016, p.45). (This is an example of Harvard style referencing).

BUT remember this is an OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT course, so your RQs should be

related to solving a supply chain, operations or process problem!

If you are unable to collect primary data, don’t worry; your analysis can be based
upon reviewing ONLY secondary sources of information to help answer your research
question(s).
Defining the Research Question(s) and establishing the Scope of the Project:

1. Identify a core Research Question(s) that you are interested in finding out the
answer(s). i.e.: “In what way does Sainsbury’s adapt their supply chain practices to
accommodate their corporate social responsibility policy?”.

2. For your chosen organization. Describe and analyse the operation, outlining the main
processes and discuss the inputs, outputs, and constraints. i.e.: For Sainsbury’s, start
by analysing the procurement process using input-transformation-output model,
etc…

3. The focus of the analysis (Book, fig 1.7, p 13.) can be at a network, operation or
process level, depending upon your interests / the information you can get access to
(either primary or secondary). i.e.: For Sainsbury’s, this could be at a process,
operation or network level.

4. In addition, look at one specific topic (i.e. process improvement, capacity

management, inventory management, supply chain management, supply chain risk
etc.) and go into depth OR choose a number of topics, ( recommend no more than
three) but your analysis will not be as detailed. i.e.: For Sainsbury’s, this could be
process improvement, supply chain management, supply chain risk, etc… or a
combination of these.
What is our level of analysis?
Detailed critical Analysis:

Identify at least one aspect of the operation that you think is either suboptimal or
could be improved. If you can’t find anything to improve, you are either not looking
deep enough or they are an exemplar organisation for your chosen RQ(s) and / or
topic. If this is the case either dig deeper, refocus your RQ(s) and topic(s) OR choose
another company.

Drawing upon Operations Management tools / techniques and theory discussed /

covered during the class (or from your own knowledge of the subject or wider
operations management literature) critically analyse why the chosen company (supply
chain, operation or process) is suboptimal / in need of improvement.

Please use operations management tools (i.e. 4 vs, polar diagrams etc.), diagrams,
process maps etc… to help frame your critical analysis and clearly present your findings.

Present recommendations, which have been derived from the analysis, making sure
that you consider the system wide implications.
 Structured Research Proposal:
The proposal should be of no more than 4 slides (PowerPoint) and
should identify:

1) the case organization / process and a problem(s) statement,

2) a brief overview of the process you will be observing / focus of

study

3) how you will complete analysis (data collection- Primary and /

secondary), and:

4) the theory and tools you will use to analyse your chosen
operation.
Initial Deadline: Monday 7th November
 Structured Research Proposal:
Initial Deadline: Monday 7th November

You can / should continue to refine this through weeks 7-10 of

the module as you see the other content.

In the last session together, week 11, you can share and
challenge each others proposals in an assignment workshop.