Operational Management Plan for The Barclays Partnership

Introduction:

Operation management is the process of planning, executing, organising, monitoring and supervising overall organisational operations. Operation management is the important area of management that allows an organisation to make effective medication in its operation in terms of meeting strategic goals and assuring high profitability. This report is going to demonstrate the operation management plan of UK based management consultancy firm, The Barclays Partnership. Here the report will make critical analysis as well as review of effectiveness of the operation management principles in this selected company with discussing Six Sigma method and Lean Principles. In addition to this, the report will discuss the project life cycles by providing comprehensive discussion of a project plan and critically discuss the overall effectiveness of the project. The report will also represent the concept of continuous plan in context of reviewing overall operation management process in The Barclay Partnership. Finally, the report will make conclusion, in which the main underlying aspects of overall discussion will be highlighted.

Company overview:

The Barclay Partnership is British management consultancy firm having headquarter in London. It is small consultancy firm that had been founded in London during 1990. Its clients include, different multinational companies, government as well as private organisations and huge number of FTSE 100 companies. The Barclay Partnership provides ranges of services such as business advice, strategic development, operation optimisation, technical advancement, project management and risk advisory services. In additional to this, the company is also involved in assisting its clients with conducting proper market research in terms of providing useful market advise on current market trend, customer behaviour, business principles and financial models.

Critique and review of implementation operation management principles:

Operation management Plan and review of its effectiveness:

Operation management is the process through which an organisation can make effective modification in its overall operation as well as production to achieve the strategic business goals. The Barclay Partnership needs to evaluate the effectiveness overall operation management process in terms of understanding that whether the overall operation and production process is relevant to the organisations needs as well as the overall organisations gaols. As mentioned by Choi et al. (2018.) Through analysing the effectiveness of operation management plan, a company can monitor the how much the overall operation management process is useful to monitor, execute and supervise different activities of organisation such as cost management, resources allocation, project management, human resources, business planning and marketing management. As The Barclay Partnership is small consultancy firm, the overall operation management of this company needs to be highly relevant as well as appropriate with the business needs and market type with which the organisation deals. The overall operation management process conducted by The Barclay Partnership needs to be highly effective in terms of assisting the company to grab continuous improvement in production and overall organisational operation. On the contrary Reid. And Sanders (2019) argued that, the effectiveness of operation management process cannot be assessed by only improvement of business operation and production rather the other aspects also need to be considered by the operation manager such as quality of customer service, competitive advantages of the company, financial condition of the company and the way organisation deals with its customers or clients. In this context it can be stated that, although the overall operation management conducted by The Barclay Partnership is highly effective in improving proper balance in different organisation operation, the company is unable to make proper implementation of operation management in modifying its overall service delivery process. This is reason why there are many small management consultancy firms in the UK who pose strong competition to The Barclay Partnership in terms of grabbing huge number of customers. In this context the review of effectiveness of overall operation management of The Barclay Partnership need to also consider that whether the operation management process is able to improve the overall management consultancy service provided to the client. Here the operation manager of The Barclay Partnership is going to use Six sigma Model, lean principles and the agile methodology in terms of making proper review offer proper operational management framework, which will assist the entire company to determine whether the implementation of operation management plan is successful in meeting desired outcomes.

Six Sigma methodology:

Six Sigma is highly preferred methodology in current business era, which assist marketers to enhance the effectiveness of operation management process. The Barclays Partnership can use Six Sigma methods to eliminate the defects or error in operational management, reduce the overall operational cost and save efforts as well as time. As mentioned by Fettermann et al. (2018), Six Sigma allows organisation to improve overall quality of operational management thereby assisting et company to achieve the strategies organisational goals.

Using Six Sigma methodology into the organisational framework will not only assists The Barclays Partnership to determine the flaws and error in overall operational management process, but also allows the company to make useful changes as well as modification in operational management to achieve the desired outcomes. On the contrary Choi et al. (2018) argued that, although Six Sigma is highly preferred method in today’s business world, it is so expensive to be maintained and managed in proper manner that can enhance the overall expenditure of entre company. On supporting the view, many evidences have suggested that, due to high cost of using Six Sigma method, this method is generally recommended for large corporates and multinational company but not for small consultancy firm. In this context, if The Barclays Partnership use Six Sigma model, it can enhance the overall expenditure of the company which can pose adverse impact on financial condition of company. On the contrary Fettermann et al. (2018) argued that although Six Sigma method is expensive, but if properly planned and implemented in organisational framework, it can assist company to earn huge profit by meeting all strategic goals. Therefore, it can be stated that, the management team of The Barclays Partnership needs to have strong understanding as well as knowledge on using and implementing Six Sigma method in terms of determining the overall flaws and errors in the operational management process. Additionally, The Barclays Partnership also needs to focus on understanding principles of using Six Sigma model, which will assist operational manger to implement the methodology so effectively that will allow the company to make useful changes in entire operation management process in terms of meeting strategic goals.

The Barclays Partnership will go through five core processes while using Six Sigma method, such as define, measure, analyse, improve and control. In this context Reid. And Sanders (2019) mentioned that the operational manager needs to have proper knowledge on using each stage of Six Sigma method while analysing usefulness of operation management process. In first stage, the operation manager of The Barclays Partnership will define the overall requirements that are associated with improving organisational operations. In the second stage, operation manager will be able to measure as well as determine the limitations as well as errors of operation management process. On the contrary Agrawal et al. (2019) argued that, Six Sigma model, if not implemented in proper manner cannot be useful in making in-depth analysis or review of operation management framework. In tic context, the management team of The Barclays Partnership needs to be highly skilled as well as professional in implementing Six sigma model in terms of determining and measuring limitations and flaws of operation management process. In third stage, the operation manager will analyse the root cause of limitation and errors in operation management process. In this context Heizer (2016) argued that, although by using Six Sigma process it is useful to determine root cause of problem, for eliminating the overall root cause, the organisation needs to proper risk assessment and management framework, otherwise it would be impossible for the company to solve the issues despite implementing Six sigma model in proper manner. The Barclays Partnership has strong risk assessment framework, that will assist the manager team to go through the next stage, improve, in which operational manger will make proper modification as well as improvement in overall operational management process and assure that the issues will not happen again. In the next stage, the operation manager of The Barclays Partnership will have proper control over optimised operational management framework that assists the company to archive desired goals. From overall discussion it can be stated that Six Sigma is going to be highly effective method for The Barclays Partnership to evaluate its operational management process. Through using the method, this company is going to determine successfully the errors in current operation management framework and make effective changes as well as modification that are needed to archive the expected outcomes that are associated this operational management process.

Lean principles:

Lean methodology assists an organisation to provide high quality customer service to grab strong customer satisfaction (Agrawal et al. 2019). Evidence-based reports have suggested that Lean method is highly useful for small firms in which the company can use this process to improve entire operation management process by using limited resources. Therefore, for The Barclays Partnership, using Lean method would be highly relevant that will assist the company to determine errors in operation management process and improve organisational operations through using minimum resources that can eliminate the chances of additional expenditure. On the contrary Machado et al. (2017) argued that, although lean method is highly cost-saving in case of small firm in terms of analysing overall flaws in operational management process and make needed modification in process to grab desired outcomes, there are many limitation of lean operational management such as it is irrelevant to determine root cause of major error or flaunts in operation management. Additionally, there are many evidences that have suggested that, although operation management organisational to analyse usefulness of operation management process it can only make temporary solution for eliminating the issues but cannot make any permanent solution to the issues in operational management process. In this context, The Barclays Partnership can use both the Six sigma and Lean method in determining effectiveness of the operational management in which operation manager will have proper understanding of what method would be relevant to make proper modification as well as changes in operational management process.

Agile method:

Agile method is high preferred method that assists firms to make continuous improvement in their operation to meet desired goals. For The Barclays Partnership, agile method is highly effective and relevant which assists the company to improve the operation management by reducing inventory and waste. As mentioned by Agrawal et al. (2019), agile method although is generally used in improving overall operation of software program, in modern business era, almost all kind of business industry use this method to optimise their operation. Here through using the method, The Barclays Partnership can improve its entire operation and maximise the output with using low cost raw materials. On the country Heizer et al. (2016) argued that, although agile method is highly preferred technique in today’s business era, while it comes to use the method in improving operation management process, the operation manager needs to set proper strategic planning to implement the method in effective manner. Another advantages of this method for The Barclays Partnership is that, the operational manger can make changes in operational management process at any stage. Therefore, it can be estate that The Barclays Partnership can use the agile method in determining effectiveness of operational management and making proper improvement as well as modification in overall organisational operations.

Continuous improvement Plan in operation context:

From above-mentioned review and of effectiveness of the operation management process, u can be stated that The Barclays Partnership can make necessary modification in organisation operations through conducting a continuous improvement plan. As mentioned by Slack (2018), continuous improvement plan is highly appreciable process in today’s business world, which allows companies to make perfect plan for improving overall business operation by using innovative methodologies and tools. Following is the improvement management plan that is going to be implemented by the operation mangers of The Barclays Partnership to enhance the overall quality of operation management.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR):

This is highly effective for both small and large business firm, which allow companies to take innovative business decision and new marketing ideas to deal with new market trends (Choi et al. 2018). In case of The Barclays Partnership, BPR is going to be radical approach that will assist this company to use innovative operational strategies to make positive transformation as well as effective changes in, operation management process to grab continuous improvement in organisational operations.

Lean and Agile methodology:

The Barclays Partnership is going to use both the agile and lean method in operation management that will be highly relevant to company needs to make effective changes in operation management stages with reducing overall cost, resources and effort.

Reconfigurable manufacturing System (RMS):

The Barclays Partnership is going to use the method to have continuous improvement in customer service, by improving the overall service delivery process. RMS method will be highly relevant to the current operation management condition of The Barclays Partnership, which will assist this organisation to make quick response to changing market trend by making effective modifications in overall organisational operations.

Employee involvement:

Through involving employee in analysing eth organisational gaols and working towards achieving goals, The Barclays Partnership is going to focus on making permanent as well as consistent improvement in overall organisational operations.

Sustainability:

Through developing continuous improvement plan, The Barclays Partnership focuses on maintaining sustainability in organisation operation management process that will assist the company to have such strategies that will enhance its competitive advantages inn te competitive market.

Review of the continuous improvement plan:

While it comes to review the overall continuous improvement plan, it is not sufficient to analyse the effectiveness of the plan in operation context, rather the plan needs to be reviewed in context of overall quality of customer service and increase in organisational profitability (Heizer et al. 2016). The use of Agile and lean methodology by The Barclays Partnership in terms of improving the operation management process can be confusing for the management staffs as they can face issues in understanding exactly which method, they need to select in particular operation management process. Based on the Ten principles Theory of Randall Schaeffer, it can be stated that, the overall improvement of operation management needs to focus on the issues, rather than focusing on techniques and tools that are used in operation management process (Slack, 2018). In this context, Six Sigma method although is useful in improving the operation management process by analysing the problem and eliminate them accordingly, it sometimes is unbale to determine root cause of operation issues, especially when there are many issues in different stages of operation management process. In addition to this, based on the theory, accountability and integrity of operation managers are also important for assuring continuous improvement of operation management process (Reid and Sanders, 2019). In that case, The Barclay Partnership needs to focus not only on using effective continuous improvement tool for making proper changes in operation management but also the company needs to focus on proper training and skill development of the managers and staffs to enhance the overall quality of the operation management process.

Discussion on project life cycle:

The above-mentioned project management process is expected to be highly effective for The Barclay Partnership not inly in terms of improving the overall customer service and ehnace teh organisational productivity, but also to make continuous improvement in operation management process. As mentioned by Heizer (2016), project management is important process that assist a company to execute, monitor and supervise the overall operational and work process. Through setting proper project pan, the project mage of The Barclay Partnership can also consider the operational needs in an organisation. In addition to this, through stakeholder’s analysis, the project manager can assist the operation manager to determine the issues in operation management, that is important for the company to carry out successful changes in operational management process. On the contrary Fettermann et al.

(2018) argued that, through stakeholder analysis it is not possible for operational managers to determine flaws and limitations in different organisational operation that is carrying out in company. In the context, the risk assessment framework, that the project manager of The Barclay Partnership is going to implement would be highly supportive to the operation management process, that will assist the operation manager to determine possible operation risks in organisation and eliminate them accordingly by using proper strategies. In this context Choi et al. (2018) argued that, only using risk assessment framework and stakeholder’s analysis are not sufficient to make continuous improvement in operational management process, rather the company needs to focus on using proper resources and fund management to carry out successful operation management. In this context, the above-mentioned project lifecycle would be highly supportive for the company that will make proper resources management and budget estimation to assist operation manager to carry out continuous improvement in organisational operation.

Conclusion:

From the above-mentioned discussion it can concluded that operational management process is important for any organisation to execute, monitor and supervise the overall organisational operation in terms of assuring high quality customers service. The operation manager needs to assure that proper methodologies would be used in operational management process such as agile and lean method, to make continuous improvement in organisational operations. The overall project life cycle, is also supportive in assisting a company to make proper improvement in overall organisational operation.

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Reference list:

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