N1582 Portfolio Assignment instructions
The assignment is to observe and record details of an operation in the local area, preferably on campus. You should apply appropriate Operations Management tools and techniques to describe and then analyse the operations. The subject to be analysed is up to you, but the recommendation is to study an operation on campus as this will make repeated visits easy. Examples are: Dine Central, Eat Central, Dhaba Café, Arts Café, the street food market, the Co-op supermarket, or the Library. Some students may wish to do the assignment on somewhere they work, such as a bar, café, cinema, etc.
Structure and word count: The Portfolio Assignment consists of Six Sections. The total word count for all six sections should add up to around 2500 words. However, this does not include the use of diagrams, graphs or tables. These are important as they can condense a lot of valuable and insightful information without impacting word count. The 400 or 500 words of text per section give an opportunity to provide critical evaluation and offer explanation not just description.
The written parts should include references to theory and whether or not you think the theory is valid, etc. (this is what critical evaluation is about). Each of the first five sections covers a particular aspect of the course. The sixth section is to provide a basic business case for recommendations based on your analysis and reflect on the observation and use of the concepts in a critical manner (see marking guidelines).
The sections are:
1: Describe relevant processes in your observed location using ITO and 4V.
2: Describe how the operations are designed to best meet one or more of the five key performance objectives.
3: Provide a process map and layout plan and use these to provide an explanation of why the layout and process map is the way it is, what problems may occur and how they may be overcome.
4: Provide an analysis of capacity management for the location. Describe the current situation, when problems may occur and what can be done to address these (using the three main approaches to capacity management)
5: Provide an analysis of the different types of waste that may be present in the processes, and what improvements could be made by eliminating these forms of waste using lean principles.
6: Provide a reflective and critical overview of the previous five sections that includes, firstly, a business case for suggested changes (in other words, estimate of costs and possible benefits of proposed changes to the operations). Second, provide a critical account of the theoretical concepts used in the five sections. Were the theoretical concepts used helpful? Were there any shortcomings or problems with them?
Tables and Figures must be labelled with a caption, “Figure 1: Diagram of….” Etc. with the text referring to the Figure, or table, as Figure 1, etc. Photographs can also be included.
References to academic papers or pages of the core text that describe a concept should be included, especially in Section 6 on the critical review and conclusions. Reference citations should be included in the body of your text whenever specific ideas, arguments, models, and/or information are used.
Any quotations from such sources should be properly referenced including page numbers, with full details included in the References section. For a guide to correct referencing, please see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/s3/?id=37 You should also make sure that you are fully aware of the School’s policy on plagiarism. You should be aware that you cannot later claim that you did not know the rules and regulations.
Copying material from similar work that can be found on essay websites is not acceptable and can lead to disciplinary action. See http://www.sussex.ac.uk/s3/?id=35 for full information.
Various websites claim that they help students by showing them what is expected on a typical assignment such as in Operations Management. These tacitly encourage plagiarism and copying, which does not demonstrate true understanding. It is more important to develop your own voice and your own abilities in writing and research, and to show that you can see how operations function in any real-world setting. All assignments are scanned via plagiarism detection software.
Submission ● Each student must submit their completed portfolio assignment electronically via Canvas.
