1. Discuss how ‘Operations Management’ (OM) has developed as a discipline over the past century through reference to some of the key OM concepts of this period. Also, comment on some influencing factors from the current business environment on OM.

[12.5 marks]

2. With the aid of a diagram, discuss the differences between manufacturing and service organisations in relation to the key dimensions of tangibility and customer contact.

Discuss the implications of these differences on operational processes and the ability to match supply with customer demand.

Question 2

Consider the following statement: “All four dimensions of the ‘four V’s framework’, have different implications for the cost of creating products or services.”

1. Discuss the above statement in relation to the day-to-day operations of two contrasting examples of organisations, from within the same business sector (e.g. hotel industry, restaurant sector etc.). With regard to your chosen organisations, analyse their operations in all of the four dimensions and plot your results on a diagram.

[12.5 marks]

2. Discuss the philosophy of ‘Lean’ production with reference to its central tenets. Illustrate your answer with appropriate examples.

Comment too, on the vulnerabilities of a Lean approach to ‘Supply Chain Management’, in light of recent supply issues for manufacturers as a result of the ‘Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)’ outbreak; provide specific examples.

[12.5 marks]

1. Designing a process requires consideration of the production strategy to be employed, for example ‘Make-to-Stock’.

Explain and provide examples of all three common production strategies.

[9 marks]

2. The Bay Yacht Repair Centre has six yachts waiting to be processed. All yachts are currently on site and awaiting the repair schedule. The job information is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Information pertaining to jobs

Determine the sequence the Bay Yacht Repair Centre should follow if it uses the following two priority rules - EDD (Earliest Due Date) and LPT (Longest Processing Time).

[2 marks]

Based on the sequence developed for LPT, calculate the following performance measures

(NOTE: Please round your calculations to two decimal places).

[14 marks]

• Makespan

• Mean job flowtime

• Average number of jobs in the system

• Mean job lateness

• Mean job tardiness

Turn Over

1. Compare and contrast the ‘Level’ and ‘Chase’ approaches to reconciling capacity/production,  with  patterns  of  variable  customer  demand. Discuss the implications of both approaches in your answer. [10 marks]

2. An alternative strategy to absorbing demand is to try and change demand itself. Using two examples, discuss the ‘Demand Management’ approach.

[5 marks]

3. Explain how capacity can be typically measured using the concepts of ‘design’ and ‘effective’ capacity (these should be clearly defined). Discuss too, the notion of lost time in the production process - ‘planned loss’ and ‘unplanned (or avoidable) loss’.

The use of utilisation and efficiency formulae, along with a generic example, may be used to aid your discussion. [10 marks]

KS Electricals Ltd. has recorded the sales figures of washing machines for the purpose of making a forecast of future demand.

Table 2 lists the unit sales figures for months January through to May.

Table 2: Unit sales figures

1. Make a forecast for June using a three-period moving average and a four-period moving average. (Clearly show all formulas and calculations and round to one decimal place). [5 marks]

2. Using the data presented in Table 2, what will be the forecast for July (using both the three-period moving average and four-period moving average) if the actual unit sales figure for June turns out to be 20? (Clearly show all formulas and calculations and round to one decimal place). [5 marks]

3. Using the data presented in Table 2, what will be the forecasts for June and July using the exponential smoothing method? Compile two different forecasts for both months (four forecasts in all) using alpha values of 0.1 and 0.6 and with a forecast value for May of 23; actual sales for June would be 20. (Clearly show all formulas and calculations and round to one decimal place).

[9 marks]

4. Discuss the common, key principles of forecasting and also, why under or over- forecasting can prove problematic for an organisation. [6 marks]

Turn Over

1. Define Supply Chain Management, explaining in detail the various components which constitute a typical chain (provide an illustrative example). [10 marks]

2. Discuss ‘The Bullwhip Effect’ and why it proves problematic in attempts to manage supply chains efficiently. Consider too, causes of the phenomena along with counteractive measures. [15 marks]