TMA 01: Operations management

Submission deadline: 1 December 2011 Please make sure that you read all parts of the TMA and the guidance notes carefully before attempting this TMA. About TMA 01 TMA 01 assesses your learning in Block 2 of B203. Your main challenge here is to use what you have learned through the activities undertaken in this block and provide a coherent answer to the questions asked below. Learning outcomes of TMA 01 In completing this assessment you will demonstrate your:

understanding of concepts covered in Block 2 ability to understand and analyse critically key ideas and theories within the subject of operations management ability to apply concepts from Block 2 to answer the questions asked here ability to apply theoretical ideas in practical settings ability to present your analysis in a clear, coherent and concise form and draw relevant conclusions.
Word limit: 2,000 words overall.

Part 1 (90 marks)

This part of TMA 01 requires you to compare the management of operations in two of the following video case organisations featured in the DVD that accompanies Block 2 Operations Management:

Vue Fullers Brewery Elm Surgery.

Question 1 Choose two of the organisations featured in the DVD (Vue, Fullers Brewery or Elm Surgery). What are the similarities and differences in the management of operations in these two organisations? Your answer to Part 1 of TMA 01 should be approximately 1,700 words.

Question 1 Write a short report (between 250300 words) in which you reflect on what you have learned about how the functional theories that you have read about in this block can be applied to the Nortel case. How has your participation in this activity deepened your understanding? Question 2

Your tutor will assess your TGF contributions to the activities related to this block and award you up to five marks for your participation. You do not need to provide any further information with your TMA to gain these marks.

Guidance for Part 1

In order to complete Question 1 of this TMA you will need to be familiar with three of the organisations featured in the Block 2 section of DVD 1. Therefore, before undertaking Question 1, you should review the videos for Block 2 on the DVD and re-read the introductions to the case organisations given in Session 8. You will also find it helpful to review your answers to the video exercises given at the end of Sections AE of B203 Block 2. Once you have selected which two of the three specified case organisations (Vue, Fullers Brewery or Elm Surgery) to compare you will want to pay particular attention to the information provided on the DVD. Although there should be sufficient information on the DVD for you to answer Question 1, you may want to supplement this by obtaining additional information from the organisations website or other published sources. However, as we do not want to overburden these organisations, we would ask that you do not contact any of the organisations directly. During Block 2, you will have been introduced to the following aspects of operations management:

operations strategy design planning and control supply chain management quality and performance.

Although you may want to consider each of these in your answer, you should highlight those aspects of operations management that you consider to be most important to the organisations that you have chosen to write about.

Guidance for Part 2

Part 2 of TMA 01 is worth ten of the 100 total marks available. These ten marks are split into two equal parts. The first five marks are awarded for a piece of reflective writing based on your participation in the Nortel case activity. Your answer ought to be in the form of a short report, included as part of the file that you submit for Part 1 of TMA 01. In this report, you are asked to reflect upon your initial functional proposal in the Nortel case and indicate what you have learned from other students proposals and the discussions related to this thread in your . In the preparation of your answer, you may find it helpful to use a reflection model. Two useful models were introduced in Block 1 (Session 2), or you may choose to use another. To gain full marks here it is not necessary to detail every stage in your answer, though you may wish to highlight the aspect(s) of particular importance to your learning. Your answer should not exceed 300 words. Remember, this report must be included in the file that you submit through the online TMA system.

The second five of these marks are based on your tutors monitoring of your contributions to all the TGF discussions associated with B203 Block 2. Links to discussion activities and materials on the module website are made available at the start of each block, as indicated on your study planner. You can gain full marks though active participation in all TGF discussions for Block 2. Your tutor cannot award you marks for these group discussion activities if you do not participate in at least two of the activities posted.