Operations and Project Management

TASK 1

P1. Review and critique of implementation of operations management principles

Operations Management: It can be defined as the direction of various business practises in order to create the highest level of efficiency possible in an organisation. Bosch is introducing a new product in the market and for that purpose, the following theories are discussed for the evaluation of the new product. These concepts and theories are explained as under:

Six Sigma

In simple words, it can be defined as the process by which the quality of process, product or service is improved by identifying and removing the errors in the process. This concept uses five steps to control the defects in product which are Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, and Control. These five steps will give proper information to Bosch about the ongoing process of the production and the deviations in process which will be rectified.

Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process which focuses upon delivering and developing new and perfect product and services to their customers. Bosch is producing a new product so during the production process, the defects and quality can be easily checked in the production process and be rectified. It will avoid the process waste and reduce the cost of production of the company and hence it can provide high quality goods at lower prices to the products. So this measurement and solution of defects will be resolved in the production process itself, and hence this tool is useful for Bosch (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).

Lean Principles:

The Five Lean Principles provides a framework for creating effective organisation and delivering better value to their customers. The implementation of Lean Principles takes place in five steps, the discussion of each is discussed as under:

• Identify Value: In this very first step, it is defined that Bosch must find that what is the value that it is delivering to their customers. Value is what for which the customer is paying and deriving from the use of that product. It will provide knowledge about the needs of customers, and the price that they can afford for that product (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
• Map the Value Stream: After the plan has been set, than in the next step the process is defined which Bosch will carry out from the product creation to till it reaches to the end customer for consumption. It also includes removing those activities which does not provide any value to the product and customer as both. The removing of wastes and eliminating the unwanted processes will lead to reduction in costs and also shortens the production process.
• Create Flow: In this step, when all the wastes are removed than this step ensures that all the remaining actions are taken in a smooth manner without any interruption and delay in the production process. For avoiding the delays in production process of Bosch, it can provide training to employees and make proper distribution of work.
• Establish Pull: This step ensures that the stock is maintained properly. The stock level is neither so high nor so low. It must be in accordance with the demand of customers as the goods can be delivered while there comes a demand.
• Pursue Perfection: This step ensures that the production process is not going only in the traditional way in which it is going. It must be improved continuously so that the best value can be delivered to customers.

In the evaluation of this concept for Bosch, it is found that this concept is also important for the company as while launching new product, the company must know about the what the product is going to give to the customers, what can be improvements in the product so as to satisfy the needs of customers. In addition to this, this approach will also help providing better value to the customers, decrease in the cost of doing business, and increase in the profitability level of the Bosch (Swink and et. al., 2017). Overall it can be said that this approach will be useful for the company. It can be harmful for Bosch as both customers and suppliers will notice about the improvements in process and may also adopt the same for their own improvements.

Total Quality Management:

As from name its clear that this concept is closely related to the quality of the products and services that it is providing to their customers through their products. This approach says that the quality of product must be maintained and achieved by the segregation of all quality related functions in the company(Maylor, Turner and Murray-Webster, R., 2015).

In case of, Bosch, this concept will also prove helpful because it will make an increase in the efficiency, revenue and the customer satisfaction level of the company. It has both advantage and disadvantage for Bosch because as on the one hand it improves the quality than also on the other hand its complexity is its big disadvantage. It is not much easy for companies to implement this approach in their process, any mistake will lead to inaccurate results.

Principles of Operations Management:

There are various principles of operations management which are quire effective and necessary to be implemented for generating maximum output from the operations by an organisation. For Bosch and its new product, there are various principles of operations management which are described below:

Reality: This principle focuses on the issue, instead of the techniques. According to this principle, no tool or technique could serve as a solution itself. This requires manager of Bosch to emphasise on the issues related to production of Large-screen Televisions.

Organisation: This establishes interconnection between each manufacturing processes. Managers at Bosch must predict all outcomes and must organise activities in ways which helps to achieve those results. Predictable and consistent tasks and processes would allow the firm to acquire predictable and effective profit through their televisions.

Fundamentals: According to this, a firm in order to survive must adhere to the fundamentals. To effectively achieve this, it is required by the manager to maintain effective, reliable and accurate inventory records. This would help Bosch to achieve almost 80% success in their production of large-screen televisions. For further 20% the company must adopt new and innovative techniques (Turkulainen and et. al., 2015).

Accountability: Another principle of operations management which could enhance the effectiveness of operations is accountability. It requires the managers to effectively carry out their role of setting the duties and the rules for the employees. They are also required to effectively handle out duties to their subordinates and monitor as to if the goals are still unmet.

Variance: As per this principle, variance in a project is very crucial. It could be implemented for reduction in costs or increasing variety in operations and processes(Todorović and et. al., 2015). In Bosch, this must be encouraged as its effective management would be an effective source of creativity.

Causality: For an organisation working on a product development, problems faced by managers are treated a symptoms. It requires managers at Bosch to appropriately solve these underlying causes or else these problems would be recurring.

Managed Passion: As per this principle, the passion which employees have for the company could be effectively treated as a driver for success of product development and growth of the company. Managers at Bosch must try the to instil this passion in the employees effectively.

Humility: According to this principle, managers at Bosch, instead of adopting a costly trial and error procedure, must admit their limitations while product development and must effectively get help to secure the firm and its interests.

Success: It instates that it depends on the company's perspective as to what it considers as success, but it must always consider customers' interest. It is required that the company revise their principles as per protecting their interests.

Change: The last principle of operations management believes that change is inevitable and there will always be new solutions and theories to operate and to perform various functions. Thus, Bosch's managers must embrace it and effectively manage to keep the operations stable in the long run.

TASK 2

P2. Preparation of a continuous improvement plan

It is quite essential for an organisation to continuously analyse the production and new product development to ensure maximum possible outcome and effectiveness. It is an essential step that must be followed by the company for development of its large screen televisions(Kundu and et. al., 2015). Continuous Improvement Plan is a strategy through which Bosch effectively could manage the processes for their product development. Below is the Continuous Improvement Plan for large-screen televisions by Bosch:

Effectiveness of Continuous Improvement Plan

It is imperative that Bosch could measure the effectiveness of continuous improvement plan as to enhance the product development and effective procedure required for the same. As per the plan, TQM would allow the company to measure the overall quality of it product(Gilbert and et. al., International Business Machines Corp, 2015). It is quite effective as this approach would allow the firm to adopt methods and techniques that could cater to ensure highest quality of their televisions. At each stage, this would allow the firm to ensure that the product is being made as per the quality required in the market.

Variance could allow the company to measure and manage its cost. By applying this approach, the company would be able to analyse each process and could either alter or modify the elements which are unnecessarily adding to the cost.

Six Sigma would enable Bosch to measure the delivery of the product. At each stage of development of television screens, this approach would allow the company to implement technologies, methods and resources which would aid to a perfect delivery of their product as per the preset standards.

To ensure the safety however, Lean principle would be the most effective approach as it would enable the company in achieving all the high safety standards that would increase the safety standards of their processes as well as their product.

TASK 3

P3. Evaluation of Product Life Cycle for Large-screen Televisions

Product Life Cycle refers to all those stages which a product has to go through throughout its life-cycle. This undertakes all the changes that are associated with the marketing situation surrounding the products. Bosch is planning to enter the market with a new product with a product range of Large-screen Television with minimum size television being 58-inches and also this segment would include screens for parks and stadiums. The product life cycle for this new product by Bosch is explained below:

Introduction Stage:

This is the first stage where the product is introduced in the market. At this stage, Bosch would unravel its product range and make it available for public use. The competition at this level would be high in context with the existing players already having similar products in the market. However, the demand would steadily increase at this stage as new customers will be aware about the product. To enhance the effectiveness of this stage, Bosch must focus developing its marketing strategy by emphasising on features of the televisions and positioning them in ways which would enhance the awareness of product. Internally, the firm could also effectively hire new human resources that could effectively help the firm in achieving desired outcomes.

Growth Stage:

At this stage, the product would sell at a quite higher rate as more customers would be familiar with the product specifications as well as benefits large-screen televisions would provide. Recognition about the televisions would increased and Bosch's customer base would expand in an impressive rate and so will the profits. However, there are various risks associated with this stage if the company wishes to enhance their sales. These risks might be associated with capacity and acceptance of quality shortfalls. In case Bosch actually want to establish effective market and beat competition, the organisation must adopt effective communication strategies to reach out to the customers and build up a strong perception about the brand through extensive media use.

Maturity Stage:

At this stage, the product is at the peak of its product life cycle. The production levels as well as the sales are the highest at this point and so are customer awareness and the popularity of the the television. However, there are major concerns that arise for the company. Profit generation capabilities and efficiency are two aspects which must be effectively analysed by Bosch as televisions enter the maturity stage. This is because competition at this level increases which would allow only competent firms to survive. The company could provide incentives to its human resources as well as provide production strategy must emphasise on efficiency and must focus on better communication methods and production strategy to survive and ensure consistency (Ghaffari and Emsley, 2015).

Decline Stage:

The final stage of product life cycle marks the decline in the product value. The products starts to get less preferred by customers and reach high prices. Bosch in this stage must adopt various strategies to ensure that all the profits are acquired before the product actually starts to incur loss. Some of these strategies require the company to reduce its advertising expenditure and focus more on giving offers to customers to get the most out of its large-screen televisions.

Business Case:

Project Plan:

Gantt Chart:

TASK 4

P4. Review and critique the effectiveness of PLC

It is essential that effectiveness be measured of the product life-cycle to enhance the opportunities related to this product. For this, Waterfall model could be used to effectively determine the effectiveness of PLC. In this model, it is necessary to accomplish activities in sequential order in order to move on in the further stages. The stages of this model is mentioned below:

• Requirement:

The very first stage of this model needs the company to analyse requirements which is needed to accomplish the project. In this, company would determine the product design, its functioning, its purpose and scope. The input as well as the output would be effectively analysed(Perry and et. al., 2018).

• Product Design:

In this stage, the overall product design will be taken into consideration. It requires the company to consider the specifications of its televisions. The shape, size, material used for screens, technology supported by the company will be effectively analysed at this stage.

• Implementation:

After determination of needs, the product development would require the firm to effectively implement all the strategies and employ all the necessary resources required to accomplish the task effectively. Units will be set covering different aspects.

• Integration and Testing:

This step is related to performance of different units. All the specific units integrate effectively and produce the product in the pre set quantities. The output of all the above stages would be working as inputs. Further, these products will be tested to determine as to whether they are performing at par levels with the desired standards.

• Deployment of System:

After determination of performance of all the functioning units and modifying the required changes, the product will be released in the market to measure its effectiveness with the outside world.

• Maintenance:

The final stage of the product this model requires the firm to effectively maintain the quality standards of their product even though it is being bought. Gap analysis would be performed in this stage and further, necessary changes will be implemented to maintain the set quality of the products(Glukhov, Ilin and Levina, 2015).

Conclusion

Thus, it is concluded that operations and project management is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of new products by companies in the market. Operations management must be evaluated and implemented to ensure the effectiveness of the project. Continuous improvement plan must be implemented which would enhance the performance of the product development. Product Life Cycle would help companies in determining effective strategies which would help a company and their products sustain longer in the market. Lastly, Waterfall model could effectively be used to analyse and evaluate PLC which would enhance the scope and capability of the new products.

References

• Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.
• Ghaffari, M. and Emsley, M.W., 2015. Current status and future potential of the research on Critical Chain Project Management. Surveys in Operations Research and Management Science. 20(2). pp.43-54.
• Gilbert, Y.S., and et. al., International Business Machines Corp, 2015. Case management system and method for collaborative project teaming. U.S. Patent 9,189,756.
• Glukhov, V.V., Ilin, I.V. and Levina, A.I., 2015, August. Project management team structure for internet providing companies. In Conference on Smart Spaces (pp. 543-553). Springer, Cham.
• Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
• Jurić, M., and et. al., 2015. The LSST data management system. arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.07914.
• Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
• Kundu, A., and et. al., 2015. A journey from normative to behavioral operations in supply chain management: A review using Latent Semantic Analysis. Expert Systems with Applications. 42(2). pp.796-809.

UPTO51%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit