T883 tutorial 1

Welcome to the T883
Business Operations: Delivering Value
Online Tutorial 1
By Katharine Jewitt
Email: kjewitt@skillkick.com

Agenda
• Introductions and Audio Checks 10:00 – 10:10
• Value for Stakeholders 10:10 – 10:25
• Products = goods + services 10:25 – 10:40
• The transformation model 10:40 – 10:55
• Product-Process Interaction 10:55 – 11:10
• Towards TMA01 11:10 – 11:25
• Review, Questions, Feedback 11:25 – 11:30

Housekeeping
• To review progress so far and answer queries
• Build your understanding of block 1
• Help you get to grips with some of the course fundamentals
• Provides an excellent opportunity for networking with your fellow
students and work together
• Offer practical advice for TMA01
• Timekeeping
• Mobile Phones
• Questions / Interruptions
Learning Objectives

Introduction: Ice Breaker
• Name
• Town where you live
• If you are working, who do you work for and what is your
role?
• Why are you studying this course?
• How are you finding things so far?
• How far into the course are you?
• Hobbies, Leisure, Interesting fact

T883 Components
• T883 course website and forums
• Study Calendar
• Assignment Booklet
• T883 Study Guide – Read this first!
• Blocks 1, 2 and 3
• DVD
• Operations Management text book
• Operations Management A strategic Approach A Reader
• Cases
• Four Resource Packs – Making the Case, People in Organisations,
Systems Thinking and Business Operations
• Direct links to Library and other business resources
• Sample Examination Paper
• Your Tutor, Your Mentor, Your fellow students, Your Colleagues, You!

2.1 Business operations: function or
process
2.2 Business operations: a
transformation process
2.3 Managing across interfaces
2.4 The role of technology
2.5 Summary
3.1 Delivering business
strategy
3.2 Implementing strategy and
delivering business excellence
3.3 Driving business strategy
3.4 Summary
4.1 Stakeholder analysis
4.2 What is value?
4.3 Value to the organisation
4.4 Value to the customer
4.5 Value to employees
4.6 Value to society
4.7 Creating stakeholder value
4.8 Performance objectives
4.9 Summary
5.1 The nature of the product
5.2 The service economy
5.3 The importance of product
innovation
5.4 Product-process interactions
5.5 Summary
6.1 How to be lean and agile
6.2 Matching supply and demand
6.3 Disintermediation
6.4 Summary
OPERATIONS,
TECHNOLOGY &
STAKEHOLDER
VALUE
OPERATIONS,
TECHNOLOGY &
STAKEHOLDER
VALUE
2 The process view of business
operations
4 Stakeholder value
6 Value from processes
3 Operations and
business strategy
5 Value from products
8 Conclusion
7 Process technology
7.1 What is technology?
7.2 Types of technology
7.3 How technology adds
value
7.4 Managing technology
for competitive
advantage
7.5 Technology and
organisations
7.6 Summary
1 Introduction
Block 1 Overview

Activity 1: Value for Stakeholders10:10 – 10:25
We are going to take the example of Tesco for this activity. You may want to try
this on your own with your own organisation or one you know well, such as a
school or hospital.
•As a group identify a broad range of stakeholders
See Section 4.1 of Block 1 page 62
•What does each stakeholder group expect or want from the organisation?
Value is very subjective and all stakeholders will have a different perspective on
what they place value on. What are the various elements of ‘value’ that the
organisation should be concerned with delivering?
See Section 4.2 of Block 2
•Are their objectives conflicting?
How might these conflicts be managed
in practice?

Block 1 Section 4 Stakeholder Value

1. Government demands compliance with regulation which tends to increase
operating costs
2. Customers demand individualised service which also increases costs
3. Managers seek to reduce costs to maximise profits or to ensure survival
• Stakeholder mapping can be a useful exercise see Block 1 section 4.1
pages 62-64 and the power matrix on p.67. The significance of
stakeholder power emerges.
• Conflicts are potentially ‘resolvable’ by, for example:
1. Giving most weight to the most powerful stakeholders
2. Innovating through technology to eliminate trade offs (eg. ATMs enhance
some aspects of customer service whilst simultaneously reducing costs)
3. Improving all aspects of performance so that the trade offs become
insignificant
4. Designing processes that integrate all the various objectives (eg product
design that incorporates design for minimum environmental impact as well
as for ease of manufacture
Managing Stakeholder Conflict Summary

Activity 2: Products = goods + services
10:25-10:40
• T883 defines ‘product; as
a combination of goods
and services. It is hard to
think of any product that is
totally devoid of service
content, and services are
forming an increasingly
significant proportion of
economic activity. Even
traditionally good based
industries are becoming
more service-orientated
(see exercise 10, block 1,
section 5 p.116
• In this activity, work in a group to Identify the tangible goods
and intangible service elements of a Big Mac meal (Even
the most basic goods items will have service aspects
associated with distribution). (You can also try thinking of a
product from your own organisation)
• What proportion of the value perceived by customers is
provided by the tangible goods element & what proportion
by the intangible service element? This is difficult if not
impossible to assess objectively! See p.111 Block 1 Section
5 Figure 31
• How important is the service element of the product in
determining the producer’s competitive position? (e.g. in the
case of commodity type goods, then service might be the
differentiating factor causing customers to choose one
supplier over another).
• How do producers and customers assess the quality of the
goods element versus the service element of the product?
• You’ll look more at this in Block 2 – objective technical
performance measurement is often used in the case of
goods and subjective assessments in the case of services.

Block 1 Section 5 Summary
See Chapter 5 of the Reader

Developing Effective Performance
at Work
The Basic Transformation Model

Activity 3: The Transformation Model
1. As a group construct a transformation model (input-output diagram) to
represent as fully as possible a sandwich shop business. See Block 1
Section 2.2 page 15.
2. Identify the various input and output types (primary, secondary, tertiary –
see page 15 for descriptions), the interfaces internal and external to the
business and relevant feedback loops.
3. Suggest a specific set of performance objectives for the system.
The ‘process’ approach is crucial to our understanding of task
management in modern organisations. One of the simplest ways of
explaining the process approach is through the diagram known as the
transformation model (or the input/output diagram). Any job or task can
be analysed (or broken down into smaller parts) using the process
approach, by first identifying its inputs and its final outputs, and then by
examining the activities that cause the transformation from one to the
other. These activities are known as sub-processes. Analysis in this
way helps us to understand how we might improve the performance of
the task in some way. Using the process approach we can analyse the
job as having the inputs, sub-processes and outputs

General Thoughts on Activity 3
Even having analysed a task to this degree of detail, there may be more to it than meets the eye. If you are the consumer of the
sandwich, it is very likely that you will only make (and eat) one or two before your hunger is satisfied. If you are catering for a large
group or running a lunchtime sandwich making business, you have to produce a large number of sandwiches, often in quite a short
timescale. You may well employ your staff or volunteers in specialist roles: one person will butter the bread, another will grate the
cheese, another will prepare the salad and another (if you have that many) will assemble the final sandwich, not forgetting to
package and store them appropriately so they stay fresh until eaten. This specialisation of job roles to deal with sub-processes,
known as task specialisation , should save you some time or at least make sure the required volume is delivered at the appropriate
time. In other words, it should improve the efficiency of the process so that higher volumes of inputs can be transformed into higher
levels of outputs in a relatively short time. However, there still remains a potential difficulty. What if no one wants to eat a cheese
salad sandwich on brown bread? It is a common source of irritation, I suspect, to those of us who make lunchtime sandwiches for
other members of our families to find them uneaten at the end of the day. For a sandwich making business, however, unsold
sandwiches are an expensive waste of their inputs. They have been efficient enough to produce the required number of sandwiches,
in the time given, to satisfy their consumers’ hunger. Unfortunately, the consumers themselves do not feel satisfied with what is
being offered. In other words, while they have been efficient, they have not necessarily been effective in satisfying their consumer.
Hence, for many businesses and organisations nowadays, it is important they gain an understanding of their customers’ or users’
needs when planning the production of their outputs. And even for employees, the needs of their managers and colleagues must be
borne in mind as the internal customers of their work output. Their effectiveness can then be judged in terms of the satisfied needs
of the customer or user, not just the end product. Did you, for example, use any tools or equipment in your task? Or did you mix or
assemble any components or ingredients, as we did in our sandwich example? These are known as physical resource inputs. This
leaves us with the question of who pays for the physical and human resources and how. It may be your employing organisation who
pays, the business you run, or from your own pocket. Whoever it is, the money must be found, and this represents the financial
resource input. As for outputs, we have already identified the end product or service as one key output. We have also recognised
that effective processes lead to the ‘output’ of a satisfied customer. There are often other unintended outputs which should not be
forgotten. In our sandwich example, as in all work activity, there are: waste products e.g. bits of limp salad, discarded packaging,
etc. which need to be cleared up; other tasks generated e.g. washing up the equipment used and the selling of the sandwich; and
potentially useful by-products e.g. the breadcrumbs could be used in other recipes.

Activity 4: Product-Process Interaction 10:55 – 11:10
• The aim here is to show how processes and products interact eg. How the design and
management of processes impacts on products as perceived by customers and on other
aspects of stakeholder value. The notions of operations strategy and design are also
introduced.
• As a group take the example of apples from a supermarket and identify the
processes that need to be in place in order for the customer to benefit from the
product (top level eg. Grow apples, supermarket display, checkout) Decide on 5
top levels.
• For each of the 5 processes, how does its design and day-to-day management
impact on the value that the customer perceives in the product?
• How does each process impact on other aspects
of stakeholder value?
Eg. Compliance with regulations (government)
Giving employee job satisfaction (employees)
Profit generation (owners, senior managers)
• Of the various aspects of process management that
have been identified as important to deliver customer & other stakeholder value,
which are ‘strategic’ issues and which are ‘operational’?

Looking Ahead following Activity 4
• The importance of the appropriate design of operations systems
is a key point that receives particular emphasis in Block 2
• An extension of Activity 4 is the role that technology plays
(covered in Block 1 Section 7 and explored further in Block 2 –
how does its use in the various processes affect the customer’s
perception of the product and how does it impact on other
aspects of stakeholder value? You might want to think about the
important of managing aspects of the system beyond the
technology hardware / software in order to reap the maximum
operational and strategic rewards from technology
implementation – see the discussion of the IT productivity
paradox in Block 1 section 7.5 box 23 (page 141), as an
example.

For completeness Block 1 Section 3 Summary

Preparation for the TMA01
• See Table 1 in the Assignment Booklet page 6
• Which of the assessment criteria listed in Table 1 of the assignment
booklet does TMA01 give you the opportunity to demonstrate
• For each of these criteria, how will you go about ensuring that your
work demonstrates them to a high standard?
• Question 1 of each TMA is designed to reflect the importance in this
field of developing capability of practical application of ‘theoretical’
concepts. You are asked to apply what you have learnt to a real-life
context.
• Question 2 of each TMA is a typical exam question. This tests
knowledge and understanding of block specific topics.
TMA01 Due 16th
December
12 Noon UK local time

TMA01 Preparation
• Explicit application of relevant models, concepts and
techniques taught in block 1 to analyse the organisation and
its situation
• Accurate and appropriate referencing
• Writing style and presentation
• Use the ‘language’ of the course in expressing your points.
• Remember your tutor is marking you on your knowledge of
T883

TMA01 Question 1
• For Question 1, provide a concise description of the organisation’s
business and its strategy to achieve its organisational goals. Review
your activities from this tutorial and the various elements of value and
performance levels. Look back to activity 3 from this tutorial and
include a transformation diagram. Remember Question 1 is worth 10
marks and must be concise – 200 words excluding the diagram.
• Refer back to this tutorial’s activity 1 for Question 2. Remember to
take a systematic approach
• For Question 3 refer to Block 1 Section 3 and demonstrate your
analysis. Remember to talk in terms of the course and the block. See
also Block 1 Section 7 on technology for this question
• For Question 4 see activity 14 on page 147 of Block 1. Don’t get
bogged down in a huge search. Click on ‘ejournals’ from the right
hand side of the library home page. Type in a keyword eg.
“operations” in the search box and select ‘contains’ and click “go” and
then have a browse through the results.

TMA01 Question 2
• This draws upon Block 1 Section 4.6
• Explain what CSR entails and the sort of objectives it might
have
• Explain how Operations Management might deliver some of
these objectives
• Explain the associated constraints and pitfalls

Goodbye and see you in the forum
soon!

T883 tutorial 1

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