Interrelation Between Project Management And Operation Management

PART 1

1) Introduction of the organisation

Unilever is UK based consumer good company headquartered in London and are operating in around 190 countries. It offers various products such as food, beverages, personal care products, cleaning agents etc. Unilever is considered to be one of the oldest company operating in various countries and it is seventh most valuable organisation of Europe. The company own more than 400 brands such as Dove, Sunsilk, Knorr, Lux etc.

2) Operation vs Operation Management

Operation are associated with performing any practical task with the application of various concepts, processes and the principles. While operation management is related with administering the activities of the organisation related with converting the raw material into finished goods in such a manner that the profitability of the organisation can be improved (Shayeghi and Shahryari, 2017).

3) Implementation of principles of operation management

The principles of operation management are the fundamental principles with the help of which the operations can be improved as they help the managers in planning, designing and organising various processes. The principles that are adopted by Unilever are:

• Principle of Reality: This principle suggest that the focus must be on the problems which is being faced by the company rather than on the tools and techniques used by them. This will facilitate Unilever in developing an understanding of the issues as with this they can effectively resolve them by adopting appropriate tool as per the requirement (McMahon, 2016).
• Principles of Accountability: Managers formulate various rules for the employees and defines their responsibilities as per their role. With this the managers in Unilever can keep a check upon the performances of the employees. Also this will make the employees to put efforts for achieving the targets as per the metrics so provided by the managers.
• Principles of Change: The theories and concepts related to management keeps on changing due to which the organisations need to consider them as they can have impact on their operations. The managers at Unilever consider the impact of such change in the technology, techniques, processes etc. by adopting them so that the stability can be ensured in long term.

4) Critical evaluation of the implementation of the principles of operation management

With the implementation of such principles the organisation can ensure the efficiency in the performance as they can understand the problems related to the businesses, can analyse the impact of changes that are taking place by establishing various rules and metrics for the employees. This helps the managers in Unilever in ensuring the quality of the products and the services. But this increases the cost for the company as it requires consistent monitoring of the activities.

5) Analysis of the extend to which the operation management meet requirement of the organisation

The operation management helps the organisation in achieving their objectives by way of adopting various principles of operation management. Such principles helps the organisation in ensuring the quality and safety of the products by adopting various techniques. Also with this the cost of production and time can be managed effectively as it ensures the delivery of the products on the right time at minimum cost. This ensures that the requirement of the organisation can be met.

6) Continuous improvement plan and lean principles

CPI is ongoing program which helps organisations in improving their products, services, processes. This helps in identifying and eliminating the defects in the processes. The Unilever is offering consumer goods so it is important for them to make improvement as per the changes in taste and preferences of the consumers. These improvement can be made with the help of various tools and techniques such as Six sigma, TQM, Lean principles etc.

Lean principles helps the company in making the manufacturing effective as with this the cost of production can be reduced, quality can be improved etc. Such principles of lean facilitates the businesses to produce goods which are as per the needs and wants of the customers (Rumane, 2017). The five lean principles that can help the Unilever in achieving their objectives are:

• Identify Value: With the help of this the values are identified that are to be provided to the customers by way of products and services. This helps Unilever in designing the product as per the needs and wants of the customers for which they can either add some features or remove some from products which may not be necessary.
• Map the value stream: In this principle, the value stream is mapped which is associated with the entire life cycle of the product that includes various steps such as designing of the product, it's use by the consumers and their disposal. This will facilitate Unilever in identifying the steps which do not add value to the customers (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017).
• Create Flow: This principle helps in ensuring the flow of the products from production to the shipping without any interruption. For this the managers in Unilever need to consider each and every factor which play role in the flow such as the availability of the material, equipments, labour etc.
• Establish Pull: This principle suggest to consider the pull-based production system which facilitate the organisation to hold large inventories and work-in-progress. It enable Unilever to pull order from the customers by the shipping department and then manufacture the goods as per the demand of the customer (Meredith, Mantel Jr and Shafer, 2017).
• Seek Perfection: The final lean principles facilitates the organisation in achieving perfection by continuously improving the processes and the products so offered by the company. Due to this their is shift in the culture of the workplace as with this the employees can be motivated to perform effectively.

It will make the Unilever capable of improving their processes as they can adapt new technology and techniques with which they can eliminate various steps that does not add value to the customers.

7) Prepare a continuous improvement plan

A continuous improvement plan need to be prepared by the Unilever as it will help them in improving the overall performance of organisation by enhancing its profitability. The continuous improvement plan will enable Unilever in improving the quality of the products which are offered by them. For this they need to execute the plan in every quarter so that they can determine the requirement of changes in the existing methodologies. With this they can easily identify the activities that they have to undertake such as increase in number of suppliers so that the availability of the inventory can be ensured. Following are the ways in which company can implement continuous improvements in its various aspects:

8) Recommendations to the organisation

On the basis of the above analysis it is analysed that the organisation need to adopt various methodologies, tools, techniques that can help them to improve their processes, products and services. The recommendation are:

• the technique of six sigma can be used by the applied by the Unilever so that they can identify and eliminate the activities which are not crucial,
• further, the techniques of total quality management can be incorporated so that the quality of the products and services can be improved.

PART 2

1) Overview of the Project

HS2 is a railway project which will become the backbone of the entire transport network of Britain. This project will make the entire economy balanced by connecting all the major cities with each other. In addition to this it will provide various job opportunities to the people and ill make the life of the people easier. The HS2 is the organisation that is held responsible for undertaking and promoting this project. With this project all the major centres will be connected so that the mobility can be improved (Martens and Carvalho, 2016).

2) Business case

The HS2 project aims to help the businesses and people to achieve their full potential for now and in future. The technology which has been used by them are environment friendly which looks forwards to protect the environment and support communities. HS2 ensures the value for the money so invested, they collaborate with the employees by ensuring care for them. The vision of the project is to act as a catalyst that can improve the growth of the entire Britain as it will increase trade, help in regenerating towns and cities etc. The project targets all the people in the economy as it will reduce the overcrowding because of strong connectivity. The cost benefit analysis can be studied from:

3) Project Plan

Project planning need to be formulated by the managers of the HS2 as with the help of this they can identify the activities that they have to undertake (Kikuchi and et al.). The planning of the project can be done by way of four stages of the project life cycle:

• Project initiation: In this stage the project managers of HS2 will define the objectives of undertaking the project. A project charter will be prepared by the project managers of HS2 in which the vision, mission, purpose, measurable objectives, description of the project, conditions etc. will be included (Jaeger and Adair, 2016). The risk of starting this project is analysed at this stage, objectives are formulated, stakeholder consent is taken so that no difficulties are faced while initiating HS2 project which is a large scale project.
• Project planning: In this phase of the project life cycle, planning will be done by the managers in which they will identify various activities that are to be undertaken with the help of WBS and Gantt chart. The strategic and implementation planning will be done in which overall approach to the project and techniques will identified. Also the critical path will be identified and the project will be divided into small manageable sections. In HS2 project planning is made regarding investment required, work that needs to be delegated among team members, distribution of tasks on time etc. so that the project can get completed on time.
• Project execution: In this execution phase of the project, the decisions and activities which are identified in planning phase will be implemented by the project managers of HS2. They will monitor the activities and the performances of the team members so that they can be keep on track and the project can be completed on time (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). It is also important that lean principles and six sigma are followed during the project so that it gets completed on time. Various tools and techniques are applied by team members so that infrastructure can be built which is string and can help in achieving its objectives.
• Project closure: The project closure stage includes the delivery of the outcomes to the clients. The project managers of HS2 will handover all the documents to the government and the other responsible persons on completion of the project. Also the mistakes done during the project are analysed so that they are not repeated in future projects. At completion of project it is analysed if the project is able to achieve its objectives.

4) Use of methodologies, tools and leadership

For making the project successful the project managers considers various tools, methodologies and leadership styles. This facilitate them in efficiently completing the project. The methodologies, tools and styles used by the managers of HS2 are given below:

Review and critique of effectiveness of PLC

a) Effectiveness of PLC using theories, models and concepts

PLC helps in effectively undertaking the project with the help of various theories, concepts and models such as various management theories. They helps the project managers in allocating the tasks and the responsibility to the team mates as per their capabilities. Also it helps in planning various activities of the project (Brewer and Dittman, 2018). Project life cycle facilitate in undertaking the project effectively as with various techniques, tools the activities can be undertaken easily. In this project with the help of project charter the objectives, purpose was identified and on the basis of which various techniques such as WBS, PERT-CPM etc. were determined that can be used for the executing and monitoring the project tasks. But due to implementation of various techniques and methodologies the responsibility of the project managers increases which has impact on the cost and the time in which the project need to be completed.

b) Analyse use of appropriate theories, concepts and models in the PLC

Projects are undertaken by both the small and large organisation and both of them uses various methodologies, tools and style but it varies as the scale of their operations are different. The large scale projects uses tools such as PERT-CPM which helps them to identify the path that can be used by them to complete the task on time but it increases the cost of the project. While the small scale project uses techniques such as work breakdown structure which helps them to divide the entire project into small manageable sections. Such technique are used by the large scale projects as well (Tennant, 2017). Along with this the leaders in large scale projects adopts various styles of leadership that can motivate their people and team to perform as per the guidance provided to them. This make them capable enough of completion of the project on time and effectively. For small scale projects the project managers uses specific tools and style of leadership such as democratic style which enables them to take suggestion from their team members so that they can get over the issues faced by them while undertaking the project.

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c) Techniques for ensuring quality, scope, tenure of implementation of project

With the help of various tools such as Gantt charts, WBS etc. the project can be completed on time as it divides the time among different activities. Also the sequence of the activities can be determined so that the chances of the redundancy can be reduced. Various principles of operation management can be used that helps them to apply various techniques such as six sigma, total quality management etc. This ensures the quality of the deliverables of the project. Apart from these techniques, the use of rapid application development methodology enabled the project managers of the HS2 in dealing with the proper execution of the plan and strategies so formulated by them.

d) Effectiveness of project plan

With the help of project plan a project managers can effectively identify the activities which they have to undertake and the resources that are required by them. It facilitates the supervisor to analyse and track the performances and the results so that task can be achieved. For undertaking this project the project managers of HS2 also planned various activities and allocated them with various resources and time limit within which they must be completed by the team. The planning of the project enable them to identify the risk associated with the project and accordingly they can identify the ways of mitigating such risks.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded from the above report that the it is important for the managers to consider the importance of various principles of operation management as they helps them to ensure the quality of the product and services. They have to adopt various tools and techniques such as six sigma, lean principles for achieving the objectives related to minimising cost, improving quality , delivery etc. With the help of project life cycle the projects can efficiently be managed and undertaken by the project managers.

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