SOLUTION: OPERATIONS AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT | My Assignment Tutor

Consultancy opportunities at Riverside Shopping Mall OPERATIONS AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT DETAILS All the information based upon these organisations is purely fictitious and has been prepared for the assignment case study. Any resemblance of actual locations, entities, companies or persons is purely coincidental. Guidance for students You are advised to read all the information through VERY CAREFULLY, makes plenty of notes and raise any questions you may have with the lecturer as soon as possible. When in doubt, do not make assumptions and ask for clarification. In this scenario, you DO NOT work for the shopping mall but have recently been hired as a graduate trainee by a firm of management consultants who specialise in improving the projects and operations of their clients. Riverside Shopping Mall is a shopping and leisure complex with an extensive range of retail outlets from both national chains / brands and local boutique offerings. Complementing the retail units are a range of food and beverage companies offering both ‘fast’ and table service dining experiences. The mall is about to embark on a ‘rolling’ refurbishment programme and it is expected that a number of vendors will take the opportunity to modernise their own premises and service offers. The mall management also hopes that it will find new tenants to occupy some of the vacant units, attracted by the planned refurbishment. Your consultancy’s sales director recently attended a ‘Meet the Buyer’ event at which the Mall management, current tenants and new prospective occupiers were present and from which a number of potential sales leads for consultancy projects emerged. These have been followed up, directly with each potential client and the specific needs of each prospect outlined in the following pages as “tasks”. The sales director has provided you with all this information in this document. You are required to analyse the information and make a series of recommendations as to how operations or project management performance could be improved in each department/area, and in doing so generate increased profitability for the client. You are required to prepare a separate response to each task for your senior management to review and present to each client with a view to receiving an instruction to provide them with consultancy services. Therefore, the accuracy and clarity of your arguments and calculations are essential. You are to submit your work in the form of a high quality consultancy report that would impress a potential client. In total, ten consultancy topics with different companies/managers were identified and approached by the Sales Director: Project management tasks (4): Assignment Task One – Planning and Critical Path Analysis Riverside Multi-Storey Car Park Assignment Task Two – Planning, Budgets and Optimisation Riverside NHS Practice and Walk-in Centre Assignment Task Three – Resource management and smoothing Security and Surveillance Environments CCTV Assignment Task Four – Project progress analysis and reporting The Personal Shopper Lounge FOR THE INTERIM ASSIGNMENT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO TACKLE ANY THREE OUT OF THE FOUR TASKS. Operations management tasks (6): Assignment Task Five – Product sourcing and inventory management Caffeine coffee supplies Assignment Task Six – Floor layout and process flow analysis Freshpress Juices Assignment Task Seven – Staff resource planning Riverside Customer Call Centre Assignment Task Eight – Process analysis, capacity and profit Delta Tagging Merchandise Protection System Assignment Task Nine – Procurement and supplier selection Road Sweeper Procurement Assignment Task Ten – Quality management and cost analysis Frank’s New York Steakhouse FOR THE FINAL ASSIGNMENT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO TACKLE ANY FIVE OUT OF THE SIX TASKS. Each task is worth 10 marks. The overall structure and presentation quality of the report will also be worth 10 marks. This will be assessed on the Interim Assignment. You should create a suitable corporate profile (name) for your management consultancy company and use it prominently on the report. Assignment Task One – Planning and Critical Path Analysis Riverside Multi-Storey Car Park Photo: Car Park by Eric Mclean on Unsplash Demand from car users for additional on-site parking has increased in recent years, despite efforts by the Local Authority and bus and rail companies to incentivise use of public transport. To respond to this demand, it has been decided to construct a new multi-storey car park on what was part of the current ground level car park, with a new covered link into the centre. Early feasibility work on this element of the project produced the following sequence of tasks from a project consultant: TaskDescription:Duration (wks)Predecessors:Link / Lag1Site clearance and set-up2––2Remove existing car park surfacing31Finish to start3Excavate for foundations, drainage etc.52Finish to start4Bore and cast foundation piles and pads42Finish to start + 2 wk lag5Ground floor structure34Finish to start6First floor structure35Finish to start7Second floor (roof structure)36Finish to start8Cladding84Finish to start + 2 wk lag9Pave roads and parking areas47Finish to start10Install electrical services37Finish to start11Signage210Finish to start12Road markings29Finish to start13Landscaping49Finish to start14Test and commission111Finish to start15Completion014Finish to start The schedule was based on working five days per week, 8 hours per day. Early budget data estimated project costs as: Capital cost: £ 675,000 Project management team: £ 5,750 per week during the project Piling and concrete rig hire: £ 75,000 per week on Task 4 Road paving machine hire: £ 15,000 per week on Task 9 Piling rig crew: £ 900 per 8 hour shift on Task 4 Road paving crew £ 500 per 8 hour shift on Task 9 Consultancy guidance Prepare a network diagram based on the information provided. This should be to a professional standard. Identify the Critical Path and the planned duration of the project Prepare a Gantt chart for the project. Compile an initial project budget including 5% contingency. Assignment Task Two – Planning, Budgets and Optimisation Riverside NHS Practice and Walk-in Centre The Riverside NHS Practice are currently based in a very old building in the nearby town. The building is no longer fit for purpose and the practice are keen to move into one of the larger units in Riverside Mall. In addition to regular GP services, this will also enable the practice to offer a ‘walk-in’ service to local people and visitors. The practice manager, Meredith Foley, also wants to install a new Patient Record System (PRS) at the same time. This will require an IT project to analyse, design and implement a new system. A budget of no more than £100,000 was approved by the partners. After discussions with Roxy Stall, Head of IT at the practice, Meredith agreed that a customised off-the-shelf package solution would be the best approach. In other words, buy a sophisticated, well proven software package and customise it to meet their specific needs. Roxy drew up a high level project plan as set out in Table 1. IDTaskDuration (weeks)Predecessor/s1Requirements definition1w–2Systems analysis2w13Application configuration6w24User workshops2w35Unit testing2w26Hardware upgrades3w57Data migration1w58Integration work2w4,6,79System testing/handover1w810Documentation4w111Project completion0d9,10 Table 1 – network logic for the PRS project (note: only weekdays would be worked not weekends) Rather than invite local IT firms to submit bids for the project on an inclusive, fixed price basis Meredith and Roxy decided to purchase all the new hardware themselves from reputable suppliers and undertake any development work themselves using a small team of IT developers supplied by a local recruitment agency. After a survey of system suppliers, it was determined that the fixed cost of buying the PRS package would be £34,500. The total variable cost of IT manpower would be £5,000 per week for every week that the project was in progress (regardless of the tasks being worked on at any time). In addition, the project would require the hardware upgrade of some older desktop computers. A fixed price of £6,000 was agreed for this work with a reputable IT supplier. In general, the partners were satisfied with the initial planning and costing work, but one voiced some tentative concerns. Firstly, there was some worry as to whether final project expenditure would exceed the £100,000 budget, and secondly time was slipping away. At a board meeting in mid May, it was pointed out that the system really must be complete by the end of August in order to avoid incurring extra maintenance costs on the existing system. In other words, a project duration of no more than twelve weeks was needed. In response to these concerns, Meredith asked Roxy to revisit the project plan and determine whether there were any options for saving time, money or preferably both. This exercise was duly completed and the options set out in Table 2 were submitted. OptionDetailsAThe project could choose to create a simpler user guide and system reference manual. There would be no cost saving but Task 10 could be done in half the time.BA specialist consultant could be hired to help with the configuration work. This would cost the project an extra fixed sum of £5,500 but result in a saving of 3 weeks on Task 3.CThe system could be constructed as a standalone system without the benefit of an internet connection. This would prevent the PRS system supplier from conducting remote monitoring and prevent any off-site use by NHS staff. It would save £3,800.DSome of the work associated with (Task 8) could be performed out of normal working hours. This would cost an extra fixed sum of £2,500 but save one week on Task 8.ESecond hand desktop computers from a local school could be used instead of the hardware upgrades specified by the PRS supplier. This would save £5,000 and a week on Task 6. Table 2 – options for project cost and time savings Consultancy guidance Based on the initial project plan as set out in Table 1 and the cost elements set out in the case (ignoring Table 2), create a network diagram or Gantt chart, determine the planned duration of the entire project and calculate the total cost forecast for the project. Secondly, consider the options outlined in Table 2 and determine which one(s) will enable the project to be completed within the stated time and cost constraints. Present all your workings and explanations very clearly. Assignment Task Three – Resource management and smoothing Security and Surveillance Environments CCTV A replacement (upgraded) CCTV surveillance and security system is planned as part of the Centre’s refurbishment. This sub-project will be undertaken by Security and Surveillance Environments (SSE), a company who have been selected for the work following a tender process. The SSE team will be led by an experience project manager, Glenn Parham, supported by a technical engineer, Adam Partington. Partington, as part of the tender submission, prepared the following Gantt chart to illustrate the planned delivery: Note that the Communication module cannot start before all the other modules have been completed, System Testing will follow after Communication module and that Go-Live is a milestone which follows System Testing. Adam Partington believed that he would need to deploy 3 engineers for the system control module (task 1); 2 engineers for each of the external tracking (task 2), internal surveillance (task 3) and passive detection (task 4) modules; 4 engineers for the communication alert module (task 5) and 3 engineers for testing (task 6) to meet the program proposed by Parham. As SSE were preparing to mobilise to start work in January, two engineers were injured whilst on holiday skiing and were not expected to return to work before the planned project completion date. This meant that a maximum of five engineers would be available for the Riverside project. Consultancy guidance Analyse the planned resource requirement by means of a resource histogramRe-schedule the CCTV project to utilise only the five engineers now availableDetermine the revised dates for system testing and “Go-live” so that the centre’s security manager can be informed Assignment Task Four – Project progress analysis and reporting The Personal Shopper Lounge A new occupier in the Riverside Centre, proposes to fit-out the unit they are intending to lease as a Personal Shopper Lounge. The lounge will offer high spending customers an opportunity to relax, enjoy food and refreshments whilst specialist styling, make-up, colour, fashion and other consultants provide guidance and advice on suitable products and purchases for their clients, sourcing their recommendations from vendors throughout the centre. The lounge will also be a venue for premium brands to hold product launches and similar promotional events. The fit-out involved the following client-oriented elements: Meet and Greet Client Lounge Changing / Fitting Rooms Presentation Theatre Tailor’s Work Room Finishing Kitchen Plus: Services installation, lighting, signs, furniture. With the delivery team working to the following planned programme: Work started at the beginning of January and, at a progress meeting held on 31 March, the fit-out contractor provided the following progress information: New services installation – 100% completePartitions and decoration – 90% completeCeilings and lighting – 10% completeAll other activity – not started but carpet delivery would be delayed by 2 weeks Consultancy guidance Analyse the progress achieved at 31 March – planned vs actual – and assign a “traffic light” colour to each activity using the following criteria: Red Task falling more than 5% behind plan Amber Task approximately on plan or not yet due to start Green Task completed or 5% or more ahead of plan Explain your reasoning Using your analysis, determine an approximate completion (opening) date for the Lounge taking into account the progress information, clearly explaining your reasoning. Assignment Task Five – Product sourcing and inventory management Caffeine coffee supplies Caffeine is a well patronised speciality coffee bar within the Riverside Mall. It offers the expected range of beverages, soft drinks, cakes and pastries and is popular with patrons from all age groups. Caffeine currently purchases its coffee beans from the Weald Tea and Coffee Company, who roast and blend coffee beans to Caffeine’s specific requirements. The coffee bar market is very competitive, especially for a niche player who has to compete with national and international brands. Profit margins are very tight. Caffeine trades whenever the Mall is open and during 2020 consumed on average 76 vacuum packed containers of coffee every 14 days. Each container costs £15.75, with an annual holding cost per container of £9.00 and an order processing/delivery cost of £38 per order. Orders are placed on an “as required” basis and the coffee bar occasionally runs out of supplies. In 2020 Caffeine’s Finance Director says that they spent a total of £36,645 on coffee supplies inclusive of delivery and holding costs. Caffeine’s Food and Beverage Manager, Simba Oluwatudimu, wants to open a second outlet within the Centre, which is expected to double the volume of coffee required, and recognises that there is a need for a more structured way of purchasing coffee and also an opportunity to seek volume discounts from Weald Tea and Coffee with higher purchase volumes. Initial negotiations with the coffee supplier has resulted in an offer to supply the Caffeine blend at £14.00 per container for 2021, subject to a minimum order value of 200 units. Consultancy guidance Estimate the total cost of coffee for the current coffee bar in 2020 based on the data given adopting an ‘Economic Order Quantity’ approach. This should include the purchase (unit) cost, order costs and holdings costs. Determine what the revised ‘Economic Order Quantity’ for coffee orders would be if two coffee bars were trading in the Riverside Mall throughout 2021. Estimate the total annual cost of coffee to the business including the purchase (unit) cost, order costs and holdings costs. Determine if the suggested discount from the coffee supplier is worthwhile (if two shops are open) and make a recommendation as to how Caffeine should proceed Assignment Task Six – Floor layout and process flow analysis Freshpress Juices Freshpress are an emergent business offering freshly juiced vegetable and fruit beverages in several locations across the south-east of England. They plan to open a new outlet at Riverside. Freshpress plan to promote an assistant manager, Sadie Allen from one of their other outlets to manage the Riverside juice bar. Whilst Sadie has several years experience with the company, she has limited experience in operations management and is worried about getting the new unit ready to open. A floor plan diagram is provided in Appendix A, together with furniture templates in Appendix B. Initial market research of the Riverside locality and customer demographic indicates that likely customer footfall each day will be: Period:Average Customers per Hour:07:30 – 09:005009:00 – 10:007010:00 – 11:0010011:00 – 14:0015014:00 – 16:0010016:00 – 18:006018:00 – 21:0040 Consultancy Guidance Design a retail floor layout that you would recommend showing clear details of how the queuing, ordering, delivery and payment processes would workShow all furniture and equipment in the main store (you do not need to use the provided templates, you are free to find alternatives)Define the necessary job roles with a summary person specification and advise if any roles need to change from shift to shift Appendix A – Freshpress Floor Layout Appendix B – Freshpress Furniture Templates Assignment Task Seven – Staff resource planning Riverside Customer Call Centre Riverside Centre has a small call centre to support customers, leisure visitors and retail occupiers access details about the mall, opening times, product lines, special events and other matters. The call centre also provides a link between individual vendors and centre users concerning inventory, product queries and the like. The call centre operates eight hours a day (0900-1700) five days a week and is closed on weekends. Call volumes and demand fluctuate, but there is one noticeable peak period between mid October and January inclusive (15 weeks). Records show that the average call numbers during the off-peak period is 250 calls per day, whilst on peak days call numbers average 608 calls per day. The call centre is staffed by a team of 3 permanent staff members. Full time staff can handle up to a maximum of 12 calls per hour each and it has been shown that the full time staff can cope with all the calls during off-peak periods. Temporary staff are engaged for the peak period and, generally, can answer 8 calls per hour. Temporary staff, sourced from a local recruitment agency cost £76.75 per 8 hour day shift inclusive of all agency fees. A specialist IT company has proposed installing an enhanced call handling system which, it is claimed, will increase productivity enabling permanent staff to handle 18 calls per hour and temporary staff 12 calls per hour. The system would require a one-off capital cost of £34,000. On-going revenue and maintenance costs would be the same as the current system. Consultancy guidance Determine how many temporary staff, will need to be recruited to the call centre to cope with demand in the peak period. Calculate the required budget for temporary staff during the peak period. Determine if there are any potential cost savings with the enhanced call handling system and, if so, calculate the payback period, advising the company if it should proceed with the system or not. Assignment Task Eight – Process analysis, capacity and profit Delta Tagging Merchandise Protection System During the refurbishment, a number of retailers are installing upgraded RF merchandise tagging systems to help reduce shrinkage from shop lifting. The Centre’s preferred supplier is Delta Tagging, but the company is having difficulties deploying enough resource to meet demand, partly due to bottlenecks in their project processes. Each shop’s system is designed specifically to meet their needs, albeit from an inventory of standardised modular components. Delta manage each job in accordance with the following process: Average time:Average time:Average time to fabricate:Average time to install:1 Visit = 5 hours1 Survey = 16 hours1 System = 20 hours1 System = 22 hours2 Staff available3 Staff available5 Teams available6 Teams available The sales staff, surveyors, fabrication and installation teams work independently of each other. All staff work a typical 8 hour day, 5 days per week Delta trade for 50 weeks per year. The price of each installed systems paid by retailers is, on average, £45,000 and the fabrication and installation costs (including materials, components and staff costs) are £28,000 per system. Overhead costs are £85,000 per week. Staff resources can be augmented from local employment agencies at the following inclusive rates: Salesman £300 per day Surveyor £400 per day Fabrication technician £1,000 per week (for a 3-person team) Installation technician £1,250 per week (for a 4-person team) Delta’s annual demand from customers is for 8 – 10 systems per week, but next year this demand is expected to rise by 25%. Consultancy guidance Determine Delta’s production capacity each week. Calculate the gross annual profit generated by Delta for the current year. With the expected increase in demand for next year, decide what staff should be recruited and, should the company decide to use the employment agency, what the extra annual profit is projected to be. Explain your analysis and working. Assignment Task Nine – Procurement and supplier selection Road Sweeper Procurement T he Riverside Centre’s Facilities Director has decided that he needs to procure a new compact vacuum road sweeper to maintain the roads and parking areas, since there will be a larger ‘swept area’ with the new multi-storey car park and the existing equipment is near the end of its practical service life. To meet the business’s corporate governance standards, it is necessary for the procurement to be undertaken in a structured way, providing an audit trail that clearly shows how the chosen machine was selected. Following research, three candidate suppliers were short-listed: Clean Sweep; Rothclean and EBG. A review team involving Riverside staff from operations, finance and health and safety departments, augmented by a specialist consultant visited all three suppliers to inspect and test each vehicle. Prior to these visits the Riverside team agreed the following selection criteria and weighted them on a scale of 1 to 10 as follows: Criterion:Weighting(1 – 10):Appearance4Ease of maintenance6Sweeping performance7Size of debris ‘tank’7Durability and build quality8Customer references5 Following the visits, the review team assessed each vehicle and scored them as follows: Criterion:CleanSweepRothcleanEBGAppearance358Ease of maintenance667Sweeping performance787Size of debris ‘tank’888Durability and build quality567Customer references456 Each potential vendor has offered the following contractual prices: Supplier:Purchase Price (£):Annual Service Charge (£):Clean Sweep87,000No charge *Rothclean69,0003,750EBG66,0004,050 * Clean Sweep offered free servicing for the first three years All vehicles were offered with a three year parts and labour warranty. The vehicles were expected to have a service life of four years, at the end of which the machines were expected to have a resale value of 18% of the purchase price. Clean Sweep also offered a four year leasing option at an annual cost of £ 16,870 including all servicing. Consultancy guidance Analyse all the information and, using a weighted scoring system, provide a coherent recommendation as to which vehicle, Riverside should select. Advise Riverside if the alternate lease proposal from Clean Sweep would be beneficial. Assignment Task Ten – Quality management and cost analysis Frank’s New York Steakhouse Franks is one of the table-service restaurants in Riverside Mall. It is a high end restaurant specialising in American style steaks and similar dishes. Tony Franks is the owner-manager and leads the front of house operation, dealing directly with the customers. In a typical week they generally serve 600 meals. Franks is open for 50 weeks a year. Two months ago, two of the most experienced chefs left to start their own restaurant. They were both replaced but since then Tony has been disappointed with the consistency of the meals being produced. He keeps records of all issues and has noticed quality problems are now occurring in 4% of all meals. Tony’s policy is that if a mistake is made by the restaurant and the customer is dissatisfied with the food served to them, then the full cost of the main course will be refunded to the customer – this is an average cost of £30. However, quite often mistakes are spotted BEFORE they leave the kitchen. In this case the meal is quietly thrown away and a new meal prepared. The customer never knows about the problem. This costs the business an average of £8. Tony’s records indicate that 40% of the problems are spotted before they leave the kitchen. The senior waitress suggests that they hire a full-time “Quality Control Supervisor” who would inspect every single meal before it ever leaves the kitchen – so that a problem meal would always be found in the kitchen and never reach a customer. This calibre of person would cost the restaurant £24,000 p.a. Tony’s wife reminded him that the rate of problems occurring with the previous chefs never exceeded 1%. She suggested that Tony should be tough, fire the new chefs and recruit much better chefs that could also keep the rate of meal problems at 1% or less. Consultancy guidance Calculate how many problem meals are occurring at Franks each week – and split them between how many are external quality problems (noticed by the customers) and how many are internal quality problems (noticed by the kitchen staff before leaving the kitchen). Use your response to 1. to calculate the total cost of quality problems at Franks over the course of a year (internal and external quality costs) Analyse whether the suggestion from the senior waitress would be rational in terms of the costs and benefits. Analyse whether the suggestion from Tony’s wife would be a good idea in terms of the costs and benefits.