MAN515 Operations Management Assignment Sample
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Company overview
Retail industry has chosen for the given project report which is rapidly growing in the Australia. Firms operating in this industry are generating higher returns as they get higher exposure while competing with variety of corporations in the similar market. There are wide number of opportunities available for an individual who intends to establish in their business in this particular industry which is full of uncertainties (Heizer, 2016). Wide market share of this industry facilitates all its users in terms of good income per year along with additional returns earned by the business by applying their skills and knowledge in attracting customers towards their firm. Return trend of this industry is increasing with the passage of time as aesthetic beauty of the Australia attracts diverse range of consumers and arrivals that come to Australia for various purposes. Focus of all the entities lies on meeting needs of their customers as providing perks and benefits to the consumers is the primary aim of the sellers in the retail sector of the Australia.
Research study reveals that compounded annual growth rate of retail sector in the Australia is 2% in the period of 213-18 as this sector grows with 2% that increases gradually with the technologically advancements in the external environment, Adaptive attitude is required to be adopt by an individual to continue their survival in this particular sector which is fully surrounded with rival members that affects the share of the business.
Two organizations are selected by an individual in the retail sector in the Australia is Wal-Mart and Primark (Bromiley and Rau, 2016). These two organizations located in the similar industry with different elements as Primark deals in products and Wal-Mart provides services along with wide range of products to facilitate variety of users in the Australia.
Wal-Mart offers services to its clients by opening supermarkets in varied locations of the Australia such as Melbourne and Sydney in meeting tastes and preferences of the customers as different kinds of products available in the stores of this firm includes grocery items, clothing wear, utensils, utilities and lot more. On the contrary, Primark offers only clothing wears products only for women who are narrow in target audience for their products. Primark is branded store that presents all kinds of ladies wear fashionable clothes that meet their needs. Primark gives competition to Wal-Mart in terms of clothing segment.
Describe, compare and contrast primary customer benefit package of each firm
Wal-Mart is one of the biggest retailer supermarket store located in Melbourne in Australia. The stores of Wal-mart are considered as most efficiently run business that caters all the needs and expectations of its customers throughout the year. In comparison with the primark which is luxury clothing retail store both the stores have some of common factors in terms of goods or services provided by them to the external party.
Price is the significant comparison factor of booth the retail stores which is rational factor in ascertaining the entire returns generated by the firm by selling their products. In terms of price, Wal-mart beat its competitor as they provide all the services and products in the affordable costs which are giving toughest competition to Primark who offer all its clothing wear in expensive amount as they are branded one (Hariharan, Colaco, Colah, Ghosh and Nadkarni, 2016). Different products and services segments of is offered on a discounted price that attract all kinds of income group people ranging from lower to high level as they extend their target audience by reducing the prices of their products. The additional feature of this entity creates competition for luxury retailer who sells their products on higher amount as compare to Wal-Mart. The prices of Wal-Mart products differentiate among the customers of both the firms as nowadays customers become price sensitive who demands high quality product in less prices. In Primark product’s quality is high but also in higher prices that are not affordable by most of the people of the Australia.
The Reason behind affordable product prices offer by Wal-Mart in comparison to the luxury clothier Primark who charges higher prices for all kinds of products. Wal-Mart is globally recognised firm as they establish different stores in all across the world to facilitate its different users in availing the entire perks offer by the firm. Wal-Mart has their in-house brand George to provide reasonable price range products and services to its customers. On the other hand, luxury clothing firm approach various brand owner in providing various branded jeans, tops, shirts and skirts in meeting needs of the women (Shan and Wang, 2016). Luxury clothier try to stay ahead in the race with the Wal-Mart as the rival company sells their products in affordable price that creates complexity for Primark in managing the business costs along with earning desired target of their venture.
Additional services offer by Wal-Mart along with the affordable products is to suggest customers about variety of products according to the budget level of an individual. Catering services to the customers is the motive of Wal-Mart. It acts like a hospitality firm in which quality oriented services provided to all the consumers of the Australia. Online website of Wal-Mart facilitates all individuals in purchasing different products from anywhere and anytime with the help of online shopping websites. Fresh fruits, vegetables, poultry items, dairy products can be purchased by buyers through the online website of the firm.
Home delivery offer by an entity to its consumer’s forms part of after sale services of the firm as these characteristics of the concern attracts large number of buyers towards the business (Mahajan, Chaudhari and Ingale, 2017). It is that place where an individual can purchase all the items under the one roof which saves their time in roaming around the streets in purchasing various things. Online purchasing of items gives virtual view of shopping as a consumer can try different clothes using the mobile app of the company. Refund policy is also offer by the firm that is another factor that shows the benefits offer by the venture to retain their customers. On the other hand, Primark also provides discounts to their customers to grab the customers of Wal-Mart but the affordable prices and wide range of products can’t accomplish all the targets of the luxury clothing business
Compare and contrast two organisation’s value chain design and structure from customer and management’s point of view
Value chain analysis of Wal-Mart
Infrastructure
- Wal-Mart have in total 2485 stores all across the world with 682 supercentres, 457 Sams club, 5 neighbourhood markets and 1007 unit’s international markets.
- National headquarter of this multinational firm takes orders and supply all the raw materials to all their stores in the entire world.
Human resource management
- 60% of the managers of Wal-Mart working as hourly associates of the firm as it offers unique opportunity to its entire worker in enhancing their career by working with this business. In this business they will learn communication skills, thinking out of the box, taking higher risks in a business.
- Wal-Mart has various policies for satisfying their employees such as offering two work opportunities in form of full time as well as part time wages. Additional perks associated with the normal salary and wages includes share in a profit, medical allowances, holiday leaves, scholarship for education of the employees, vacation tours arranged by the firms.
Technology developments
- Stores of Wal-Mart are fully tech as products are scanned by the employees to get every information about the product sells to customers. Central server system is used by this company as data in the warehouse will be replenished automatically by sending mail alert by the owner to all the managers of various store owners all across the world.
- Product listed on the online website of the company daily to facilitate buyers with the updated products launched by the firm.
Operations
- Old and obsolete products are recycled by the firm as in this way they fulfil the corporate social responsibility of safeguarding the environment (Walmart Value chain analysis, 2013). Recycling programs offer by the company includes cardboard, plastics, cars, batteries of car and paper products as these products are injurious for the environment.
- Solar plan used by the firm to generate electricity that utilizes in all the stores to save power.
Logistics
- Wal-Mart uses LIFO that is last in first out method for managing all their inventories
- It establishes around 84% discount stores in the whole world
- This firm export to various countries such as Asia, Mexican, Latin America, Argentina, Brazil China and Canada.
Marketing and sales
Most of the products of this company are domestically advertised as company is selling affordable and reasonable products according to the currency of the Australian states.
Services
Timings of all the stores of this firm is 7.00 am to 11 p. m for six days a week and special timings for Sunday is 10.00 a. m to 8.00 p.m.
Primark value chain analysis
Infrastructure
- Large stores of Primark help inn displaying all their products properly to notice by majority of visitors
Procurement
- It offers quality oriented products with diverse range of brands
Human Resource management
- An employee of Primark is highly qualified in convincing visitor to become regular buyers of the firm (Primark Value chain analysis, 2014).
- Developing special code of conduct to be follow by all he suppliers of the business
Technology
- New products launch by the firm are posted on the website of the firm to attract net savvy people
Primary activities
Inbound logistics
- Transportation link of Primark towards various countries such as UK, Ireland and Europe
Service
- It offers limited variety of services offer to customers as compare to the Wal-Mart
- Less number of sales executives in the stores of Primark which results in lower returns and earnings of the business
Outbound logistics
- Primark interact with customers face to face with the help all of their 250 stores
- After sales services is also offer by an entity to its buyers
Marketing and sales
- It targets fashion sense people who know about various brands
- It uses displaying product in their store rather than advertising their stuff
Operations
- It sells their products on a small scale level all across the 250 stores
Comparison of Primark and Wal-Mart in terms of value chain analysis
Basis Wal-Mart Primark Customer point of view Management point of view Customer point of view Management point of view Operations Wide stores of Wal-Mart facilitate large number of customers Higher stores can generate higher target but also carry lots of costs Less number of stores lose customers Less number of store carry lesser costs but higher return as the margin per product is higher. Marketing sales Aware customers about the products through advertising Incur higher cost of marketing with no assurance of generating them in sales. No marketing will not attract consumers Small scale business can’t afford marketing costs Analyse two organisation’s strategic vision, strategy and competitive priorities
Basis Primark Wal-Mart Vision The vision of this retail store is to offer quality oriented products in affordable fashion clothing store in whole world Vision of this company is to become the best retail store in the hearts and mind of its users and employees. Strategy It uses product leadership in which quality oriented products offer by Primark creates competition for all other firms in the similar industry. It uses cost leadership strategy in which prices for all the products is set as low to attract wide number of consumers. Competitive practices It provides various brands to customers in meeting their needs. Wal-Mart expands their current business by taking additional investment opportunity to grow more. Descriptive operation management of two organisations that contributes in success of the organization
Operation management of both Wal-Mart and Primark is good as the stores count of Wal-Mart is higher as compared to the Primark which is creating competition in the external market. Role of the business gets increases with the passage of time as Wal-Mart leas he Primark.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Hitt, M. A., Carnes, C.M. and Xu, K., 2016. A current view of resource based theory in operations management: A response to Bromiley and Rau. Journal of Operations Management. 41(10). pp.107-109.
Bromiley, P. and Rau, D., 2016. Operations management and the resource based view: Another view. Journal of Operations Management, 41, pp.95-106.
Amorim, M., Ferreira, C., Junior, M.V. and Prado, C. eds., 2016. Engineering Systems and Networks: The Way Ahead for Industrial Engineering and Operations Management. Springer.
Ding, M., Eliashberg, J. and Stremersch, S., 2016. INNOVATION AND MARKETING IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY. SPRINGER-VERLAG NEW YORK.
Golinska-Dawson, P. and Kolinski, A. eds., 2017. Efficiency in Sustainable Supply Chain. Springer International Publishing.
Jaber, M. Y. ed., 2016. Learning curves: Theory, models, and applications. CRC Press.
Olsen, R. K., and et.al., 2016. Riboflavin-responsive and-non-responsive mutations in FAD synthase cause multiple Acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and combined respiratory-chain deficiency. The American Journal of Human Genetics. 98(6). pp.1130-1145.
Hariharan, P., Colaco, S., Colah, R., Ghosh, K. and Nadkarni, A., 2016. Delta globin gene variations leading to reduction in HbA2 levels. International journal of laboratory hematology. 38(6).pp.610-615.
Mahajan, D., Chaudhari, V. D. and Ingale, H. T., 2017. Android App based Courier vehicle Tracking and Alcohol Detection. International Journal of Advanced Electronics and Communication Systems. 6(2).
Shan, M. and Wang, X., 2016. Distribution and Risk Assessment of Soil Heavy Metals in the Main Grain Producing Area of China. International Journal of Simulation–Systems, Science & Technology. 17(37).
Online
Value chain analysis, 2013. Available through: < https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/value-chain-analysis.html> [Accessed on 11th August 2017].
Walmart’s vision, 2017. Available through: < http://panmore.com/walmart-vision-mission-statement-intensive-generic-strategies> [Accessed on 11th August 2017].
Walmart Value chain analysis, 2013. Available through: < https://www.slideshare.net/arpanghosh3760/walmart-value-chain-analysis> [Accessed on 11th August 2017].
Primark Value chain analysis, 2014. Available through: < https://www.slideshare.net/fahusli/primark-a-porters-case-study> [Accessed on 11th August 2017].
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