COLLEGE

OPERATIONS
MANAGEMENT
A CASE OF WESFARMERS AND QANTAS
STUDENT ID

[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short
summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document
here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the
document.]
Executive Summary-
The operational strategies of a company hold a key towards providing customer benefits. In
this report the operational management of Wesfarmers limited has been carried out and also
key success area of the company has been discussed in the report. Wesfarmers private limited
has been selected as the product oriented company and six key challenges faced by the
operation manager has been discussed in the report as well. The company is quite product
oriented and deals in supermarkets, home improvement, liquor, department stores etc and
therefore demands a smooth operation management team and also ready for the challenges
upfront. This report will deal with key challenges and way to success for an operation
manager.
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................ 2
INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... 4
PART 1.................................................................................................................... 5
Changing Technologies....................................................................................... 5
CONTINUED GLOBALISATION TREND..................................................................5
CHANGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS...............................................................5
CHANGING JOB DESIGNS.................................................................................... 6
CHANGING MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS.............................................................6
GLOBAL MANUFACTURING IN BUSINESS.............................................................7
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT..................................................................................8
CAPACITY MANAGEMENT.................................................................................... 9
QUALITY MANAGEMENT.................................................................................... 10
RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................................... 10
Recommendations for Qantas Airlines...........................................................10
Recommendations for Wesfarmer ltd............................................................11
CONCLUSIONS..................................................................................................... 11
REFERENCES........................................................................................................ 11
INTRODUCTION
In any business irrespective of domain either the company produces services or products.
Therefore success of a business enterprise depends on different operational processes such as
supply chain management, warehouse development, assembly and packaging, logistics etc
(Zurich, 2016). While addressing different aspects of operations management, it is necessary
to what challenges a business is going to face in operation management area. The current
report will take into account different challenging areas of operation management such as
changing technologies, continued globalisation of markets including 1st and 2nd entrants,
changing job designs, changing customer expectations, global manufacturing, and quality
management. Every company whether it is a service based or product based has to face these
challenges in future. Apart from six challenging areas of operations management this paper
will also discuss the three important areas of operations management such as resource
management, quality management and capacity management. Thus, the main purpose of this
assignment is to find out how the six challenges of operations management area will affect
the business of Wesfarmer ltd. in future and how the three chosen quality management areas
performs in current scenario.

Operational management is one of the major entities in any business world. In some or the
other ways, companies faces unique challenges in their production The major aim of this
report is to highlight the major challenges faced by the Wesfarmers limited in Australia in
terms of their operational challenges and how they have acclimatized themselves to act
according to the changing world and scenarios (Bajracharya and Hasting, 2015). Since their
origin in the year 1914, Wesfarmers i.e. western Australia Farmers cooperative has been
developed to be one of the largest listed companies with diversity in their business. Due to
their large segment in business, the company faces several challenges in their operational
management which has been discussed in the report (Chang et al, 2015).

Providing a brief account of both companies Wesfarmer ltd is a conglomerate of many

companies that has headquarter at Perth having interests in retail, fertilisers, chemicals, safety
products and coal mining. In 2016, it surpassed BHP Billiton and Woolworth ltd in terms of
revenue by having revenue of $65.98 billion (Wesfarmer, 2015).

PART 1
Changing Technologies
Similarly, Wesfarmer retail mart i.e. Kmart can study consumer behaviour that will help in
improvement in business as well as customer relationship .

CONTINUED GLOBALISATION TREND

With regard to the Wesfarmer retail mart Kmart the globalisation is a must. The very best
example can given is Wal-Mart and Amazon. Both are expanding globally in new market
despite controversies and the current update shows Amazon has gone well beyond the recent
technologies. Currently Amazon retail store has upgraded their technology to cashless.
Therefore such technologies have better future as compared to other retail markets (Soltes
and Gavurova, 2015).

There are several challenges faced by the companys operational management. Out of which
six major operational management challenges are Changing Technologies, Continued
Globalization of markets including 1st and 2nd world entrants, Changing customer
expectations, Changing job designs, Quality management, Global manufacturing. Each of
these challenges has been discussed below in details (Deshmukh and Mohan, 2014)-

In todays world, globalization of markets always been a major challenge for every company.
Being the Australian champion of private company, Wesfarmers also faces significant threat
by its close rivals and competitors like Kmart etc. The biggest advantage of Wesfarmers lies
within its strategy of marketing. They claim to be environmentally friendly and also deal in a
wide range of products and services which is not done by other companies (Chang et al,
2015). The company has a good hold in the national market and has a good impact in value
creation on the communities they serve in Australia. They provide employment to large mass
which itself catches attention of the customer and also they were able to reduce the green
house emission by about 30 percent which gives a positive impression in the global market
(Bajracharya and Hasting, 2015).

CHANGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

With advent of new technologies desire for an easy life and daily routine has lead to fierce
competition among the companies. The biggest change in customer expectation that has been
reported is their expectations for timeliness. Whether it is a product or service based industry,
the expectation for timely delivery of the product, availability of product and customer
services is very important. Wesfarmer retail mart must address these changes in customer
expectations where customer expectation plays a very crucial role for their success (Bridges
and Bridges, 2015).

Today, customer demands everything at their door to make their life easier. Let suppose, a
customer is looking for a product X online in Wesfarmers app and he didnt find any
information there, he/she will simply dump the cart and move to other retailer. So things
needs to be more personalized. Wesfarmers has appointed customer executives who will
provide each and every detail both online and offline. Secondly, Wesfarmers is providing a
huge number of options both in quality and quantity (Chang et al, 2015). Wesfarmers
maintain a healthy customer relationship by keep sending them latest news on products range,
offers and discount etc. The time of response towards a customer is exceptional as
Wesfarmers has more than 200,000 employees across the country to meet and reach out
customers. This aspect has to be looked upon by the operational manager as if demands and
the expectation of the customer doesnt meet, then they might lose their market reputation
(Cole, 2011).
CHANGING JOB DESIGNS
Similarly development in each industry changes the requirement of the industry as well as job
structure. For an example the current retail market expects visual merchandiser talent who
can link with marketing people and web promotions to design the window, counters and how
to place the products. Each salesman is expected to drive the business with innovative idea
rather than only looking at business point of view. Therefore in future Wesfarmer retail has to
hire people who can keep themselves update in market research as well as bring business to
the company. Therefore the changing job structure is going to influence both Wasefarmer
and Qantas airline in near future (Cummings and Worley, 2014).

The Wesfarmers Pvt. limited in the year 2014 has taken an initiative to improve and
reorganize the corporate structure of the entire business to maintain the business and
employment in a streamline manner. They keep on changing the job profile of the person in
rotation so that each employee can have a short exposure of the kind of job they are doing
(Hubbard and Galvin, 2014). In this way, each employee will get a chance to show up their
talent that will be beneficial for the company. The way an employee is handling a particular
division of work will be deciding the final fate or the permanent employment of that
employee in that particular division or else he/she will again go back in rotation. The rotation
in job will also improve the team work among the individuals and also there will be
improvement in the quality of work. The job experiences and also the experienced staff will
enhance the productivity of the company which will give an edge over Wesfarmers
competitors in the market. Maintaining the job rotation is always a challenge for the
companys operational manager and this cant be overlooked if company demands sustainable
growth (Cole, 2011).

CHANGING MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS

There are very few industries that undergo rapid changes such as retail industry. Change in
management implies change in the process of managing different departments in a structured
way that will help in achievement of the targets and objectives. But with changing landscape
it is expected senior level sponsorship and stewardship but the current retail environment at
Wesfarmer needs a change keeping in mind this change. Although, change in retail sector is
always warranted and this has been understood by retail managers but in reality the effect is
very late. While the trend of on time on budget still holds good for retail industry, but in
situation of complexities and transformational initiatives that has been adopted by
competitors Wesfarmer ltd need to address the management process in order to find out the
right pace for increasing the business and reduce the wasteful process. If any initiatives need
to give intended results then the changes must be brought continuously till the time it is
inducted into the company culture (Mahadevan, 2015).

Quality Management always plays a key role in the success of any company and also in
attracting the customers. The company like Wesfarmers in Australian market has set a
trademark of providing a good quality and variety of products at each part of the country.
There are big rival companies that will look for the opportunity if something goes wrong in
quality management of Wesfarmers. Indeed these has been always a challenge in terms of
maintaining the reputation of being a green favoring company as if anything goes wrong, the
brand value of the company will be lost (Cole, 2011).

GLOBAL MANUFACTURING IN BUSINESS

With every year the number of retail closures or shutdowns is on increase. One of the biggest
causes is availability of products online and establishment of manufacturing units globally.
Wesfarmer ltd has to look forward in this sector. Although it is still limited to Australia but in
long run it has to change its base from retail store to online and keeping coordination with
global manufacturing unit. In future they have to maintain both retail and online store to keep
pace with global manufacturing unit.

The company is nationally operating company and carries a good reputation in the Australian
market. Although the company hold a good customer values in the national market and
therefore they would not be much bothered about entering into global manufacturing where
there are big giants are already having a hold in the world market. Anyhow if at all
Wesfarmers wish to enter the global manufacturing, the operational management team will be
experiencing a bigger difficult challenge as the company has less experience in dealing at
global scenario (Chang et al, 2015).
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
The resource management efficiently and effectively deploys the resources of the
organization as per the requirements. The resources include financial resources, human skills,
Information technology and production resources. Proper planning, allocation and scheduling
the resources such as manpower, machines, material and money to any particular task or
section comprise resource management (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016).

The resource management for Wesfarmer is primarily based upon the advancement of
technology since it is a retail company. The Information technology hence is the key player in
the success of the company in future. The popularity of on-line shopping is one of the biggest
setbacks for the retail sector. Small start-ups through with the use of information technology
are now able to sell the products across the globe. However some of the major chains still
struggle to integrate the on-line and bricks-and mortar outlets. Nowadays the shoppers are at
more advantage as the access to internet is quite easy hence they get a chance to see wide
range of products, compare and buy those. With this option the shoppers are now more
demanding in terms of price and anytime access setting high bar for the retailers. With this
the role of the physical stores are now changing. Some of the segments are now polarising
between the local outlets and major destination outlets emphasizing more on the
entertainment aspect of shopping. With this there is no surprise that Wesfarmer retail CEO
and consumer goods CEO now focus on the impact of this shift upon the spending and
buying behaviour of the consumers. But with the increasing level of uncertainty regarding
business and economy globally, the retail and consumer goods CEO of Wesfarmer has
developed the comparatively brighter outlook. The fact that there are ample of opportunities
it accounts for least optimism. The retail and goods CEO of Wesfarmer are very confident
that the revenue of the company is going to grow over next one year period by more than
40% as compared to 30% overall as previously. However there is equally present threat to the
growth of the company compared to what was there few years ago (Christopher, 2016).

Recently, the company has taken an initiative for maintaining a proper natural resource
management by showing utter responsibility for the natural resources being used in the
operation of Wesfarmers. They have taken forest as the critical section for reduction of GHG
emission and the divisions are highly focused on making sure regarding the use of forest
products with legal procedure and also managing the forest in a proper manner. Further the
operational management also ensured to use less water and reduce the amount of waste
produced. The company also took an initiative to make an offline and online forum where
customers can also give feedbacks regarding the conservation of natural resources
(Bajracharya and Hasting, 2015; Fernie and Sparks, 2014).

The two main pillars of the quality management of any company are creativity and trust.
Wesfarmers has always maintained a healthy quality in terms of both product and services
which they provide. In terms of providing all the retail items, they have promoted organically
produced vegetables, pulses etc. and claimed themselves as the greenest favoring company in
entire country. Wesfarmers have collaborated with several farmers and also with major
stakeholders to bring on a green initiative in the country and also claims that the company is
fighting against the issue of global warming (Deshmukh and Mohan, 2014). According to
their objective statement, they motive is to provide a satisfactory return to the shareholders.
That is the reason why they have so many business in operation which maintains its quality as
per the objective and vision statement of the company (Cole, 2011).

CAPACITY MANAGEMENT
Wesfarmers ensures that adequate quantity of the product is available to meet the
requirement of the current business and also in a cost effective manner (Kenny, 2011). For
this purpose, they have made a separate team of inventory and warehouse manager who
keeps a check on the capacity of product that can be handled easily and make it available at
the store. Hence it will help in ensuring that the company is not going in loss and also
meeting the demand of customers at the same time (Deshmukh and Mohan, 2014; Varkey,
2014).

QUALITY MANAGEMENT
There is huge difference between retail business and other businesses in terms of
specialization, selling a good that is already produced instead of manufacturing new from raw
materials. The retail sector boasts varieties, sales and service providers. The small business
retailers depend upon the quality of the goods and services in order to sustain in the
competition with other small and large competitors in the market. It is possible that an
efficient and effective manager might not be aware of the exact specifications of quality
standards required for the stores. Hence defining the expectations for the quality control will
eliminate the risks and would provide room for improvement. For example if a company
purchase or installs a software that will help its employee to keep track of all the sales then
less mistakes are expected from the employee regarding transaction of money with the
customers. The software will prompt the employee and will give suggestions regarding
appropriate behaviour with customers as well as will thank the customers after every
purchase and reminding them of the return policies also. This will help enhancing the selling
experience of the employees as well as buying experience of the customers (Gitell et al,
2015).

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the above operational management challenge areas and analysis the following
recommendations are made for Wesfarmer ltd

Recommendations for Wesfarmer ltd

Wesfarmer ltd or Kmart the retail wing of Wesfarmer conglomerate first strategy should be
going online and going global. Based on what customers are expecting from retail stores in
21st century and in future, online business is going to take the centre stage. Similarly, the
management need to adapt a culture of change in order to attract new customers and if
possible must seek opportunity to venture out to new countries. Global manufacturing in
business is another concept that demands Kmart to have its own product which will bring
more business to them.

CONCLUSIONS
To conclude operational management must be followed with other strategic management
steps and with proper leadership. Wesfarmer ltd have to follow certain innovative guidelines
to maintain their position in the market.

Wesfarmers Pvt. Ltd is one of the leading private companies in Australia. Wesfarmers limited
in Australia in terms of their operational challenges and how they have acclimatized
themselves to act according to the changing world and scenarios. The company has a good
reputation nationally and therefore they can use their experience at operational stage to get
their platform set at global level. Most of the customers are supporting Wesfarmers because
of their initiative against global warming; therefore they can take it as competitive advantage
and enter the world market.
REFERENCES

Bajracharya, B., & Hastings, P. (2015). Public-private partnership in emergency and disaster
management: Examples from the Queensland floods 2010-2011. Australian Journal of
Emergency Management, 30(4), 30.

Chang, D. S., Yeh, L. T., & Liu, W. (2015). Incorporating the carbon footprint to measure
industry context and energy consumption effect on environmental performance of business
operations. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 17(2), 359-371.

Cole, M. L. (2011). The Integration of Mine Operations and Mine Maintenance Groups
within Teck Coal.

da Silva, M. (2012). A broad business challenge-Sustainable Company of the Year. Ethical

Investor, (98), 14.

Deshmukh, A. K., & Mohan, A. (2014, December). AN INTERPRETIVE STRUCTURAL

MODELING APPROACH TO DEMAND CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN
RETAILING. In PAST CONFERENCES.

Hubbard, G., Rice, J., & Galvin, P. (2014). Strategic management. Pearson Australia.

Kenny, G. (2011). Diversification: best practices of the leading companies. Journal of

Business Strategy, 33(1), 12-20.

Meckenstock, J., BarbosaPvoa, A. P., & Carvalho, A. (2015). The wicked character of
sustainable supply chain management: Evidence from sustainability reports. Business
Strategy and the Environment.

Bridges, W., & Bridges, S. (2017). Managing transitions: Making the most of change. Da
Capo Press.
Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage
learning.

Gittell, J. H., von Nordenflycht, A., Kochan, T. A., Bamber, G. J., & McKersie, R. B. (2015).
Labor Relations and Human Resource Management in the Airline Industry. The global airline
industry, 21(2), 287.

Griffin, R. W. (2013). Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning.

Fernie, J., & Sparks, L. (2014). Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new
challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers.

Qantas. (2015). Qantas Annual Report 2015. Retrieved

from http://qantas2015.reportonline.com.au/system/files_force/downloads/full_qantas_annual
_report_2015-1.pdf?download=2

Mahadevan, B. (2015). Operations management: Theory and practice. Pearson Education

India.

Sarina, T., & Wright, C. F. (2015). Mutual gains or mutual losses? Organisational
fragmentation and employment relations outcomes at Qantas Group. Journal of Industrial
Relations, 57(5), 686-706.

Sparrow, P., Brewster, C., & Chung, C. (2016). Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.

Soltes, V., & Gavurova, B. (2015). Modification of performance measurement system in the
intentions of globalization trends. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 11.

Varley, R. (2014). Retail product management: buying and merchandising. Routledge.

Wesfarmer. (2015). Wesfarmer Annual Report, 2015. Rerieved from "2015 Annual Report".

Zurich, L. B. (2016). Service Operations and Management.