Operations Management

Order Description
Assessment 1 – Research Operations Report

Each student is to choose a topic from the syllabus. Weekly topics or parts of a topic are suitable examples. Each student must prepare an explanation of the topic, working independently. This explanation communicates the topic to a manager, makes clear important areas of theory and states why the topic would be important to the operations management of particular types of businesses. The report should be written in your own words (don’t copy/quote from journal articles) using key references in the body of the text to back up your statements or arguments. It should be written in good essay style with all relevant references at the end (provide at least 10 good journal references) formatted in Harvard style (Refer VU Library link for the referencing style).
This Research Operations Assignment (ROA) requires students to find out the state of knowledge in a concept area and apply it to a business situation. The aims of the assignments are:
A. To review what is known about the topic, using latest knowledge from international journal papers.
B. To summarise the most important knowledge about the topic.
C. To apply that knowledge to a chosen company in Australia or overseas.
For example, if the topic was planning and managing capacity, this could be applied to a white goods manufacturer or to a restaurant.

Specific Requirements

Topics must be researched to post-graduate level covering such things as international journal papers, state-of-the-art in Australia and a critical approach to the material.

All references must appear in the body of the text to back up your statements.

A brief Executive Summary should be provided.

LENGTH: 2,500 words maximum plus diagrams, tables and references.

Assessment Criteria
The main assessment criterion is the achievement of three aims given above. Students will be marked on the following:

Rationale behind the topic selected and its importance.

Correct up-to-date knowledge of relevant research and critical thinking.

Application of knowledge of topic to real business situation.

Good writing and presentation including executive summary.

Good references.
1. Executive Summary
Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. Literature review
(Rationale behind choosing the topic and its importance)
– What is managing quality
– Why is managing quality important to an organisation
Quality Philosophies: the work of W.edwards Deming, Joseph M.Juran, Philip B.Crospy
– What are the steps to effectively managing quality
– Tools and techniques to managing quality:
1. Checklist
2. Pareto Analysis
3. Scatter Diagram
4. Cause and effect diagram
5. Gap analysis
6. Statistical process control

3. Application – Toyota – this part is about application of knowledge to real business situation/how Toyota manages quality?
3.1 Tools and techniques in practice
– Managing the supply chain
3.2 approaches to managing quality
– total quality management philosophy
4. conclusion
5. references