THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMPTON

NORTHAMPTON BUSINESS SCHOOL

MODULE: Managing Operations and the Supply Chain 2015-2016

Module Code
STRM046

Level
7

Credit Value
20

Module Tutor

Assignment 1 Brief
Assignment title:

Strategic Operations Performance Objectives

Weighting:

50%

Submission
Deadline:
Feedback and
Grades due:
Resit date:

Purpose of the Assessment

This assignment is designed to enable you to show an understanding of key strategic
performance objectives of organisations in general. It also enables you to apply
theory into practice by discussing operations performance improvements in a specific
real-life business scenario with basis on key strategic performance objectives of
operations.
Assessment Task
You are required to write a report based on a specific organisation of your choice. You
can choose an organisation of any type (manufacturing or service), sector (private or
public, e.g. a government agency or department) and size (small, medium or large
corporation).
The report should address key theoretical and practical aspects related to the subject.
The theoretical part of your report should provide a complete characterisation of the 5
key strategic operations performance objectives of organisations in general, namely:
Quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost. Discuss the internal and external
perspectives of these performance aspects, i.e. what they represent for organisations
what they represent for customers.
The practical part of your report should be developed through a specific discussion of
how these performance aspects apply to the organisation of your choice, i.e. what
each performance aspect mean in the specific business context of the organisation.
Finally, you are expected to identify performance shortcomings in the organisation
being discussed in the light of the performance objectives being considered and
propose possible improvements. Discuss the challenges you think the organisation
may face to implement the suggested improvements.

Assessment Breakdown
1. (10% of word count)
Introduce the company you have chosen to focus your report on.
Describe
a)
Which organisation is it?
b)
What are the main products and/or services provided by the
organisation?
c)
Who are the main target customers and competitors?
2. (45% of word count)
Provide a literature review on the subject of Operations Performance focusing on
quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects. You should draw from
academic publications, books and business articles that are no older than 10
years. Address the question: Why are these performance objectives strategic for
organisations in general? What are their internal and external perspectives?
3. (45% word count)
Use the theoretical aspects characterised above as a basis to discuss practical
aspects of your chosen organisation. Key issues/questions to be addressed in
this part are:
a.
Characterise quality, flexibility, speed, dependability
and cost aspects of your chosen organisation. The key
question to address in this part is: What are the key
quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and cost aspects of
the company's operations?

b.
Point out the relative importance of the performance
aspects for your chosen organisation, i.e. from the 5 key
operations performance objectives, which ones are most
critically important for the organisation?
c.
With basis on the performance aspects being
discussed, point out organisation's weaknesses, suggest
improvements and discuss potential challenges to
implement the improvements.

Assessment Submission
Your assignment must be word processed and presented in a report format with
simple sub-headings. The word count should be 2500 words10% (tables, diagrams
and appendices are excluded from the count).
The Assignment report should have a Front Sheet showing your name, your student
number, the module name, the module number, the assignment title, the module
tutor's name, the date and the word count.
All assignments will be submitted, graded and fed-back electronically via TURNITIN.
Several submissions will be permitted before the hand-in date in order to enable you
to refine the content in your report.
If you click on the Submit Your Work button on the Module NILE site you will find an
explanation of the Submission and Grading Electronically process there.
Feedback on assignments in general will be provided to the whole group when
marked assignments are returned. Feedback on assignments for each individual
will be provided electronically via TURNITIN.
A student may obtain an individual appointment to discuss feedback with the tutor.

Assessment Guidance
The quality of your presentation and academic referencing is very important. Please,
use the Harvard Referencing System.
Within your assignment your tutor will be looking for content that addresses the key
elements of the assignment brief.
Try not to overcomplicate your answers by choosing a company that you know little
about. Keep to simple processes that you know well.
Look at the Check list at the end of this brief. It shows the subheadings to use and
offers a guide as to how the marks will be distributed.
Use the percentages as a guide to how to distribute your word count.

Academic Practice
This is an individual assignment. The University of Northampton policy will apply in
all cases of copying, plagiarism or any other methods by which students have
obtained (or attempted to obtain) an unfair advantage.

Support and guidance on assessments and academic integrity can be found from the
following resources
SkillsHub: http://skillshub.northampton.ac.uk
CfAP: http://tinyurl.com/UoNCfAP

STRM046 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Report Content Checklist
STUDENT NAME AND REPORT FRONT SHEET
DESCRIPTION OF ORGANISATION (10%)
Identify the company, products/services, main customers and
competitors
LITERATURE REVIEW (45%)
Research literature on the 5 strategic performance objectives
of organisations. Why are they strategic? What do they
represent for organisations? What do they represent for
customers?
APPLICATION OF CONCEPTS (45%)
What are the key quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and
cost aspects for the company of your choice? What are the
most critical ones for the type of your company business?
Identify performance problems
Propose solutions for the problems
Discuss challenges to implement the proposed solutions
MAX WORD COUNT 2500 +/- 10%

Learning outcomes
The learning outcomes being addressed through this assignment are:
Knowledge and Understanding:
a)
Investigate and critically evaluate the range of concepts and techniques
available to operations managers so as to enable effective business decision making.
b)
Desmonstrate conceptual and practical understanding of the opportunities and
constraints that organisational characteristics place on operations managers and on
operational decision making in the supply chain context.
c)
Critically discuss and evaluate the theoretical and real life applications of topics
in the indicative content, analysing and evaluating the benefits they offer to an
organisation and the challenges to be overcome in implementing them.
Subject- Specific Skills
d)
Critically evaluate the business relevance of the concept/topic studied, with a
view to understanding the value of its adoption to an organisation.
e)
Design evidence-based and contextually relevant solutions to a range of case
study scenarios to illustrate the applicability of the Operations Concepts, Tools and
Techniques studied.
f)
Assess the capacity and capability of an organisation to deliver Quality and
Value to Customers both internal and external to the organisation.
Key Skills:
g)
Make discriminating use of a range of learning resources in order to solve
problems within the domain of International Supply Chain and Operations
Management.
h)
Communicate the solutions arrived at, and the critical evaluation underlying
them.