Sainsbury’s Operational Management Strategies

Introduction

Operational management is the practice of restructuring the logistics operations, inbound and outbound logistics and improving the operational efficiency of the firms to run their business successfully in the global market (Maylor, and Turner, 2017). Through choosing the best operation management tactics, the organisations try to transform the raw materials into final output, which are in good quality so that the businesses can satisfy the customers and retain them for long run to secure future sustainable development. The study focuses on analysing the operation management and activities chosen the business Sainsbury have to fulfil its objectives. Through this pare, it is possible to review the continuous improvement tactics as well as the lean principles, through which the business can run their operations in the market. The project life cycle management is another topic in this paper, which would be discussed in the second part, where the organisational project can be developed well. The project life cycle model and its application in Sainsbury’s will be evaluated to fulfil the strategic objectives of the firm in long run.

Organisational background

Sainsbury’s is the second largest super market chain in the UK and the brand is efficient to run their business through more than 1450 shops across the UK. Total numbers of employees in the organisation are approximately 117400 and the company is efficient to serve the customers with high quality products including clothing and accessories. Groceries, health and beauty, gifts and electrical products, home ware appliances and furniture and other necessities of the customers on daily life. The purpose of the brand is to help the customers live well for less and the mission of the company is To be the consumer's first choice for food, by ensuring delivering the products of outstanding quality and great service at a competitive price through working 'faster, simpler and together. This is the major mission of the company through which the organisation Sainsbury’s aims at gaining high market share and securing future sustainable development (Sainsbury’s, 2020a).

The values that the firm focuses on are Living healthier lives, Respect for our environment, making a positive difference to our community, sourcing with integrity and creating great place to work. The company focuses on the operation management in order to manage the operational activities across the UK and serve the customers efficiently (Sainsbury’s, 2020b).

LO1 Reviewing and critique the effectiveness of operations management principles

The operation management provides a scope to the organisations to serve the customers in better way, where the firms try to deliver high quality and sustainable product to the customers to maximise their satisfaction. Six sigma strategy is one of the effective ways to reduce waste and improve the production process of the organisation where the firms are able to manufacture the products by managing waste. Sainsbury’s also focuses on six sigma lean management principle in order to produce high quality products by reducing its waste. It further helps he brand to create values or the customers as well as improve branding by managing their operational excellence (CHEN, and XU, 2017). In this regard, lean management principle is also beneficial for the organisations to manage their operations smoothly by creating new strategy and implementing latest innovative technology. In the recent years, the retail firms focuses on managing the flow of raw material and consider the quality raw material in order to maintain the quality of the products. Additionally, the organisation like Sainsbury’s also manages the people in the workplace to motivate them for performing better in the operation department so that the brand would be able to serve the customers innovatively. Total quality management and employee involvement are the major strategy of Sainsbury to manage their operations and secure future sustainable development (Sainsbury’s, 2020c).

The organisation Sainsbury’s many focuses on managing the inventory and warehouse to maintain the stock of the products. The organisation implements Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for better management of the warehouse and inventory. The automated process at the warehouse further helps the company Sainsbury’s to manage their product category and serve the buyer efficiently. Sainsbury’s has more than 25 distribution centre through which they try to distribute the final outputs of the company. Sainsbury’s ERP system is strong and it is successful to develop the automated machine generated process for successful inventory control, warehouse and physical store management as well as order fulfilment activities. Through the ERP system, the organisation is able to manage the customers by Customer relationship management (CRM) tools, to handle them and serve them efficiently with high quality products and services (Waring, 2016). Big data analytics in this regard also plays a crucial role in Sainsbury’s where the leader and the managers focus on analysing the data related to the organisational financial activities, product and services, customer’s information and other stakeholder’s information which are also effective to handle the whole operational activities of the brand (Sainsbury’s, 2020d).

Sainsbury’s focuses on third party logistics providers and manage them efficiently to handle their operations. Through third party sourcing, the logistics operations are handled smoothly. In addition to this, the company mainly focuses on transportation, order entry and processing system and packaging. The freight management system further boosts transportation where Sainsbury’s manages their inbound and outbound logistics efficiently where the providers CEVA logistics for home delivery and Allport for non-food delivery are playing crucial role to maintain the logistics operations of Sainsbury’s. For order entry, processing and fulfilment, the organisation selects GPS system to track the orders and develop software application, where the customers also track their orders and identify the date of delivery. The organisation is successful to handle the automated process of order fulfilment and arrange the quality products for the customers within effective time. Hence, the operational process including lean management and the automated process of Sainsbury’s through implementing the ERP system are effective for the firm to secure future sustainable development by maximising its operational excellence (Sainsbury’s, 2020e).

LO2 Applying the concept of continuous improvement in an operational context

The organisations try to develop further strategic planning for continuous improvement in order to improve operational excellence and fulfil the organisational aims and objectives. Sainsbury’s also focuses on maximising operational excellence in order to run their business successfully across the UK and in this regard continuous improvement is effective for the business to secure future sustainable development through improve their operations (Panigrahi et al., 2018). In this regard, the organisation Sainsbury’s focuses on employee involvement, where the organisational leader arranges training and developmental program or the staff to improve their knowledge and expertise and the leader also provides a scope to the employees to be empowered and share their pinion to run the operations successfully. Leadership engagement and involvement with the staff are the major success factors for continuous improvement, where the leader of Sainsbury’s is able to engage with the staff and involve the employees in the operation department to handle the activities.

For managing the commitment to the quality, the firm focuses on utilising the quality and fresh raw material to product healthy and quality goods which are beneficial for the customers. The company is also able to create innovative products by using the organic raw materials as in the recent years; the customers prefer quality and healthy products and utilising the organic raw materials would be a great opportunity for Sainsbury’s to represent the business innovatively in the retail industry of the UK. Moreover, process excellence is another strategy for continuous improvement. Sainsbury’s is already efficient to manage their process and operations through latest technology, six sigma lean principle to serve the customers innovatively, but it needs continuous improvement through updating the organisational application, software updates and sharing the information with the customers such as tracking option for the products so that the customers can feel to be engaged with the organisation every time (Jawabri, Rehman, and Alarmouti, 2019). This further improves the customer’s expectation in long run, where Sainsbury’s is able to retain more long run and loyal consumers in the retail market of the UK. Through continuous improvement, the organisation would be able to think innovatively and strategise the business creatively to represent the brand uniquely in the retail industry. In this regard, for continuous implement, the firm invests a lump sum amount on research and development in order to identify the ways to create green environmental footprint and in this regard Sainsbury’s aims at utilising renewable resources, manage the latest technique to manage inventory and warehouse as well as invest in electric cars for developing green supply chain management. Through continuous improvement, the brand is able to create this innovative way to manage their operations smoothly and serve the customers in a unique way (Sainsbury’s, 2020e).

LO3 Applying the Project Life Cycle to a given context

In order to manage the project and create a good project planning, the project life cycle stages are effective for the organisation, where the project management team can work collaboratively and develop suitable planning for fulfilling the business values.

Project planning

The organisation Sainsbury’s is one of the efficient firm to work sustainably in the market and the organisation recently focuses on sustainable practice in the market so that it would be possible for them to satisfy the customers and retain them for long run (Sainsbury’s, 2020c). The organisation focuses on developing sustainable solutions by developing suitable corporate culture, investing in electric cars for transferring the goods and final products, utilising the latest technology for customer’s management as well as utilising renewable resources so that the organisation can develop the project efficiently and fulfil the business objectives in long run.

Project objectives

The objectives of the project are such as,

To maximise organisational excellence

To create positive environmental footprint

To develop green supply chain management

To strengthen customers base

To create values for the social communities

Project scope

The scopes of the project are,

Securing future sustainable development

Sainsbury’s can expand their business sustainably

Sainsbury’s can create values for the social communities by giving safer environment

The organisation can improve stakeholders engagement and maximise their satisfaction

The organisation can provide green environmental footprint through taking active steps for managing their operations efficiently

Enhancing employee’s creativity and technological innovation for excellent operations at Sainsbury’s

Financial planning

As per the financial planning, it has been seen that, the organisation needs approximately £69000 in order to conduct the project and run the business sustainably where the breakdown of the cost structure are there through the above tabular formation, where the company needs to invest efficiently for successful completion of the project.

Work break down structure for this project

As per the above work break down structure, there is proper distributing of work where the activities such as project initiation, planning, execute; control and closure are conducted efficiently by the project team members. The operation managers are efficient to implement the technology and run the sustainable practice efficiently through initiating the project with proper budgetary planning and access feasibility of the project. Moreover, the status updates, compare the planning and working activities as well as improving the process are there which are also beneficial for Sainsbury’s to complete it successfully. At the end project close out meeting, product delivery and project report will be developed in order to analyse the success of the project so that Sainsbury’s can secure future sustainable development.

Communication plan

Project closure

Project closure includes proper review of the project outcomes the organisational excellence to handle and finish the project as well as fulfilling its aims. Through the project, it is possible for the organisation to secure future sustainable development where the staff members and project manager implements the latest technique to handle the customers as well as utilise renewable resources and reduce green house gas emission by developing green supply chain and lean management.

LO4 Review and critique the application of the Project Life Cycle used in a given project

As per the above project life cycle management, the stages are implemented in the organisation Sainsbury’s to develop the project efficiently. As per the project life cycle, there are major phases which are conception and initiation of the project, planning, project execution, performance and control and the project closure, where the project manager tries to fulfil the project objective and close the project efficiently by utilising the organisational resources and capabilities (Fares, Lebbar and Sbihi, 2018). The company Sainsbury’s aims at securing future sustainable development by developing a good and efficient project where the major investment as per the financial planning are paper packaging system, arrangement of the quality and organic raw materials, implementing in latest technology such as ICT, ERP and CRM as well as implementing solar panel and utilising electric cars. These are the major initiatives taken by Sainsbury’s to run their operations sustainably and create values for all the stakeholders, engaged with the business form the employees, managers suppliers to the government, customers and the social communities as a whole. The project planning also includes the communication plan where the organisational workplace can be developed with high communication and collaborative practice (Sainsbury’s, 2020e). The project manager is able to improve internal cooperation where each team member is encourages to share their pinion and interact with others for working in this project efficiently. Thus, the project management planning through the application of project life cycle model would be beneficial for Sainsbury’s to sustain in the retail industry of the UK and expand the business sustainably. The project deliverables need to be developed to understand the performance of the brand Sainsbury’s though this project Life cycle stages and in this regard, the project deliverables are,

Good decision making skill of the leader of Sainsbury’s to secure future sustainable development

Contributing in the green environmental footprint

High collaborative work place and enhancing communication among the staff for better operational activities and management

Improving expertise to promote sustainable environment through implementing solar panel, utilising renewable resources and using the electric cars which are effective for Sainsbury’s to sustain in the competition and run the business ethically.

In addition to this, the performance indicators of Sainsbury’s are such as,

Attending each customers with efficient services

Enhancing customers retention

Strong support team and service excellence

Organisational profitability maximisation

The PLC is hereby effective at Sainsbury’s to develop the project ad identify the key strategies to control the whole project and finfish it efficiently by proper resource utilisation. Controlling the project and monitoring the progress are mandatory for the organisation as per PLC, where it is possible to invest properly in the project activities and conduct the tasks efficiently (Ying et al., 2020). The employee’s performance is monitored on a regular basis which further enhances internal communication where the team members are supported and directed by the organisational leader at Sainsbury’s. In addition to this, balance scope board is another way to monitor the project progress and in this regard the scoreboard includes the quality management, implementing latest technology, human resource management by providing them technical training and support to perform better as well as organisational investment in latest technique to handle the operations in long run (Sainsbury’s, 2020d). The model of PLC is hereby applied in Sainsbury’s for developing successful project and monitoring it through daily communication and internal collaboration among the team managers and employees.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the operation management through lean management principles are good for Sainsbury’s where the organisation focuses on instant delivery to the customers for creating vales of them. The organisation also focuses on managing the products through the automated system in order to manage inventory and warehouse and fulfil the order by order processing system. Hereby, the operational activities of Sainsbury’s are effective to create vales for the stakeholders mainly customers and strengthen their consumer base in long run. In addition to this, the project life cycle is also effective for the organisation Sainsbury’s where it is possible to develop project planning to manage sustainability of the business. In this regard, the organisation aims at develop sustainable operation management by utilising the quality and organic raw materials for producing quality final goods, implementing latest technology in the workplace for delivering efficient services to the customers, implementing solar panel at the roof top of the factory to utilising renewable resources as well as investing in the electric cars for supplying the raw material and distributing the final gods to the customers through the electric cars which further helps Sainsbury’s to reduce the greenhouse gas emission and additionally the paper packaging system are the major strategic planning of the project to increase operational efficiency of the brand.

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