Sainsbur Supply Chain
Table of Content
1.0 INTRODUCTION 3
2.0 SAINSBURY SUPERMARKET AN OVERVIEW 3
3.0 OPERATIONS OF SAINSBURY 3
3.1 FACILITIES 3
3.2 PROCESS 4
3.3 LAYOUT AND FLOW 4
3.4 INPUT 5
3.5 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS 5
3.6 OUTPUT 5
4.0 SAINSBURY’S VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS 5
5.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE TO THE OPERATION 6
5.1 COST 6
5.2 DEPENDABILITY 6
5.3 FLEXIBILITY 6
5.4 QUALITY 6
5.5 SPEED 7
6.0 WHAT QUALITY MEANS TO SAINSBURY 7
7.0 THE EFFECT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE 7
8.0 OPERATIONS COMPARED: SAINSBURY V.S LONDON ZOO 8
8.1 THE OPERATION OF LONDON ZOO (FACILITIES, PROCESSES, LAYOUT AND FLOW) 8
9.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON ZOO’S OPERATION 8
9.1 INPUT 8
9.2 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS 8
9.3 OUTPUT 9
10.0 VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND …show more content…
VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS 9
11.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES TO THE OPERATION 9
11.1 COST 9
11.2 DEPENDABILITY 9
11.3 FLEXIBILITY 9
11.4 QUALITY 10
11.4 SPEED 10
12.0 THE IMPACT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE 10
13.0 CONCLUSION 10
REFERENCES 11
APPENDIX 1- Diagrammatic representation of the transformation process 12
APPENDIX 2- Sainsbury and London zoo’s 4 v’s profile 13
APPENDIX 3- Flow Process diagram of Sainsbury’s operations. 14
APPENDIX 4- Polar representation of the relative importance of performance objectives for Sainsbury Supermarket and London Zoo 15
APPENDIX 5- Diagram showing London zoo’s layout 16
APPENDIX 6- Diagram showing Sainsbury operations layout 17
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In every organization, there must be an operation function since they create some type of service/product. Operation function relates to the arrangement of resources that are allocated to the production and delivery of products and services (slack et al., 2013).
The company I have chosen to base my work on is Sainsbury supermarket located on Ashby Road, Loughborough. In this report I shall be examining its operations management by discussing the facilities they have, processes involved, layout, and flow. Also I shall look at the characteristics of its operations with respect to its input and output process and the 4vs.
Furthermore, the importance of its performance objectives in carrying out its functions will be examined as well as how the characteristics of the operation might affect quality performance.
Finally I shall make comparisons of my findings to that of London zoo.
2.0 SAINSBURY SUPERMARKET AN OVERVIEW
Sainsbury 's is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom with a share of the UK supermarket sector of 16.8% as at 2014. It places an emphasis on a higher quality grocery offering and services. Sainsbury offers a wide variety of product and service ranging from food counters, wine and spirits stores, florists, clothing, pharmacy, books, CDs&DVDs, gifts, cookware, home textiles and electrical goods to name a few.
3.0 OPERATIONS OF SAINSBURY
3.1 FACILITIES
Based on physical observation, a number of facilities have been identified from the Sainsbury’s operations. More specifically, the store size of Sainsbury is about 20,000 SQ FT and it has just one level. There are 12 checkouts available in store, and 10 self-checkout machines installed in a separate area near to the exit. Tobacco products and the pharmacy are located independently at different counter. CCTVs are installed in the store to prevent the occurrence of theft and a public address system. There exists a large number of shelves and freezers to preserve and display the products. A warehouse is found at the back of the building which is only accessible to staff. There exists about 340 parking space available for customers and a petrol station. Apart from that, three ATMs are located outside the store where customers can withdraw cash free of charge. Sainsbury has also made toilets, disabled toilets and baby change facilities and a small restaurant available.
3.2 PROCESS
The process of the Sainsbury operations is similar to the mass service process type. The mass service process is due to the fact that it entails a high volume of customer transactions, limited contact time and minute customization.
3.3 LAYOUT AND FLOW
Sainsbury adopts a cell layout for its facilities where products are grouped into categories at the product level, while at the broad level, it adopts a functional layout where similar resources for the identical functions are located together. This is because consumers passing through this operation will take different route depending on their needs. It operates in a routine that is designed to move the customer around the store till they end up at the payment point. The customer first sees the customer service in case of any enquiries. Fresh food are aligned along the first aisle, while the middle isle showcases the dry goods. The section for frozen food is located close to the check out as seen in appendix 6.
The process flows of cell layout types tend to be continuous since the regular flow of transformed resources are critical to ensure the efficiency of operation. On the contrary, the process flows of functional layout types tend to be irregular compared with the cell layout types since the variety and volume of required inputs are very high for the functional layout types. Sainsbury’s flow process involves various stages between stocking and the product delivery to satisfaction of customers need as seen in appendix 3. Initially the inventory stores the goods and materials that are held available in stock for the business. Sainsbury has implemented a solution to efficient restocking called “we supply”. It controls the supply at the shelves, and helps delivery system link with the inventory replenishment. The manager controls and changes the item price according to the forces of demand and supply. The customer has access to view the price rates, schemes and offers. Once the product has being chosen the payment process takes place at the cashier, after which the packaging stage where the customer is handed over the product.
3.4 INPUT
The inputs of Sainsbury operation include the facilities mentioned earlier, raw-materials, the staff, supplies, facilities, time, capital, the products, and logistics, etc.
3.5 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
Every operation creates and delivers products and services by converting inputs into outputs by making use of an “input-transformation-output” process. In the same vain Sainsbury converts its input and produces output of services and products to satisfy consumer’s needs. This process involves storage, quality control. Appendix 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of the operation process
3.6 OUTPUT
The main output of Sainsbury’s operation is served and satisfied customers, range of products and availability of the products.
4.0 SAINSBURY’S VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS
In terms of the variety dimension, it is observed that the output of Sainsbury’s operations and processes are low in variationhave little level of . variation. Asides the shopping experience they have a petrol station and a restaurant. However in terms of products available there exist some degree of variety.
In terms of the variation dimension, it is observed that Sainsbury has a high level demand variation and is more likely to be of changing capacity over time .They have to be aware of changing customer preferences so they can make adequate replenishments where necessary. On the other hand, Sainsbury would introduce a series of products in response to the demand in certain occasions and seasons, as seen during the Halloween festival.
With regard to the visibility of the processes to customers, it is believed that Sainsbury’s operation is high in visibility to customers. For example, customers can see how efficient the staff in checkouts would be, how fast the replenishment is, and how reliable the staff in providing required information, etc. The high visibility in operations implies that good customer contact skills and efficient checkout speed are needed to maximize customer satisfaction.
In the area of volume dimension, it is observed that Sainsbury has a high volume in terms of its operations. This is due to the fact that a large number of customers visit the facility.
5.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE TO THE OPERATION
In operations management, there exists five competitive performance objectives. They are cost, dependability, flexibility, quality and speed. The achievement of each performance objective can bring both internal and external benefits.
5.1 COST OBJECTIVE
The supermarket is bound to incur cost in its operations. It has to be aware of staff cost and inventory control cost. However by minimizing the costs of its operations through efficient and effective methods, it can in turn reduce the price of its products. This will in turn contribute to Sainsbury’s’ competitive advantage and increase its profit margin.
5.2 DEPENDABILITY OBJECTIVE
Customers are more satisfied knowing that they can depend on Sainsbury in areas such as supermarket timings , providing product related information, schemes, availability of parking slots, special slots reserved for the disabled ,parent and child’ parking at all times and its petrol station.
This makes shopping at Sainsbury a hassle free experience.
5.3 FLEXIBILITY OBJECTIVE
By achieving the objective of flexibility, a wide range of product or services can be provided to customers according to the changing demands in the market. Customers desire product, volume, mixed and delivery flexibility. The availability of these forms of variety means a lot to the customers.
5.4 QUALITY OBJECTIVE
In a bid to achieve the objective of quality, customers at Sainsbury attribute credit to the company’s passion for health, hygiene, safety, fresh food, good products, and provision of a satisfying shopping experience with their ever friendly staff. Sainsbury strives to maintain this quality it stands by. If quality is achieved, it means the customer is satisfied and would return to Sainsbury again as it prevents errors in operational processes.
5.5 SPEED
OBJECTIVE
Sainsbury’s tries best to match supply with demand. It tries to minimize the time lapse between when consumers request products and when they receive them. It also tries to ensure that products are easily labelled for ease of identification by the customers. A proper layout and flow system would aid in this objective.
6.0 WHAT QUALITY MEANS TO SAINSBURY
Sainsbury has many views on quality in terms of its operations. However its topmost view is that quality is when customers’ expectations are met and they are left satisfied. There is always the need to meet customer’s specification. Sainsbury prides itself in ensuring that its products conform to certain specifications consistently. They take the customer into account in providing the service. It also means healthy and safe environment with a friendly and helpful staff. Quality to Sainsbury not only leads to external customer satisfaction but internally it makes things easier for the operation in terms of reduced cost.
7.0 THE EFFECT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE
Operations characteristics can affect quality performance in various ways.
Variety has an influence on quality performance. The standardized or low nature of variety dimension in Sainsbury reduces the cost of operation. Funds can therefore be put towards improving or keeping up the standards of the goods and services they provide.
The extent to which variation of demand occurs can have an impact on quality performance. The degree of Sainsbury’s consideration in the changing customer preferences can have a positive influence on quality performance. If the operation isn’t flexible enough it can in some cases cause inconvenience to the customers and lead to dissatisfied customers.
The visibility of the operation process to customers would also have an impact on quality performance. Based on a trip to Sainsbury, it was discovered that the number of cashiers available do no match the number of checkouts. They only get more cashiers when the queue is getting long and the customers complain. This can affect quality performance
The volume of output can have an effect on quality performance. Since Sainsbury has a high volume of operations, it would mean there has to be steady and consistent stock replenishment. If Sainsbury do not take the right steps to tackle this it can impair quality performance in its operations.
Also the effective functioning of the various facilities at the operation can have an effect on quality performance.
8.0 OPERATIONS COMPARED: SAINSBURY V.S LONDON ZOO
8.1 THE OPERATION OF LONDON ZOO (FACILITIES, PROCESSES, LAYOUT AND FLOW)
London zoo is the world’s oldest scientific zoo. It occupies about 36 acres. Its facilities include baby changing facilities, parking areas, oasis café, aquarium, lion house, gift shop, reptile house, aquarium, penguin pool, toilet facilities, and catering facilities. Similar to Sainsbury’s operations, London zoo’s adopts the mass service process type. At the specific level, London zoo adopts a cell layout for its facilities where animals are grouped into categories which is similar to that of Sainsbury. At the broad level, it adopts the product layout by arranging resources in a sequence defined by the needs of the product, while Sainsbury adopts the functional layout. The process flows of London zoo’s operation tends to be continuous.
9.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON ZOO’S OPERATION
9.1 INPUT
The major inputs include staff at the zoo, animals, facilities at the park The inputs of London Zoo’s operation differs from the Sainsbury operation in the sense that the staff play a more crucial role in ensuring customers get the best experience at London zoo than at Sainsbury.
9.2 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
They processes customers, by transforming their psychological state and the provision of education and entertainment.
9.3 OUTPUT
The output for London zoo is similar to that of Sainsbury in terms of satisfied customers. However in London Zoo the output is intangible unlike that of Sainsbury.
10.0 VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS
The variety of output of London Zoo’s operation is high in terms of the services provided, unlike that of Sainsbury.
The variation of demand for output in Sainsbury is much smaller than that of London. This is due to the fact that customers visit London zoo for a variety of purposes, such as touring animals, developing knowledge of animals, or simply spending some time with family, while customers visit Sainsbury strictly for the Shopping experience.
The visibility of the processes to customers in London zoo’s operation is mixed in the sense that some activities are seen and others are not.
In terms of the volume of output, London zoo can boost of a higher volume than Sainsbury, however this occurs only during festive periods or summer breaks. On other periods it is relatively low. However Sainsbury has a high volume than London zoo.
See Appendix 4 for more details.
11.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES TO THE OPERATION
11.1 COST OBJECTIVE
Infrastructure cost and cost of running the zoo are basically high. Hence the zoo can minimize cost
11.2 DEPENDABILITY OBJECTIVE
They should be true to opening hours, availability of animals, queue time and availability of parking space.
11.3 FLEXIBILITY OBJECTIVE
The zoo provides a wide variety of animals, new animals can be added to the zoo, and they provide extra services for customers. However they are not of changing capacity.
11.4 QUALITY OBJECTIVE
The zoo’s environment isn’t too neat, insufficient car-parks during festive period. This affects performance.
11.4 SPEED OBJECTIVE The processing time for visitors can be efficiently utilized to increase number of customers per day, instead of time wasting.
See Appendix 6 for a diagrammatic representation
12.0 THE IMPACT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE
In terms of variety, since London zoo’s level of variety is low, with time visits to the operation would seem monotonous to customers.
The variation of demand would influence London zoo’s quality performance. This is because customers might prefer having a tour guide, while others would dislike it and it might undermine the customer’s experience.
In terms of visibility it is higher in London Zoo than at Sainsbury. Staff in the zoo provide just-in-time services for their customers, answer questions, and have demonstrations to improve customers’ experience.
In addition, the volume of output has also hindered London zoo’s quality performance. For example, it is found that the educational experience decreases as visitor number increases (Johnston et al, 2003).
The inputs of London zoo’s operation has had a negative effect on quality performance. For example, according to the questionnaire, the parking facilities of London zoo are far from enough during the peak time (Johnston et al, 2003).
13.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this report has explained the operations at Sainsbury as well as London zoo’s operation in terms of their facilities, process, layout, and flow. Also, the characteristics of the two operations in terms of input, output, and 4Vs have been compared and contrasted. The impacts of characteristics of the two operations on quality performance have been examined.
REFERENCES
Slack,N.,Brandson,A. and Johnston, R.(2013). Operations Management. 7th ed. London: Pearson.
Karlsson, C (2008). Researching Operations Management. ed.London: Routledge.
Lowson, R.H (2002). Strategic Operations Management: The New Competitive Advantage. ed.London: Routledge. zsl. london zoo. Available from: http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/visitor-information.
[Accessed: 06/11/2014].
Sainsbury 's. Available from http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/storelocator/storelocator_results_list_view.jsp?bmForm=stores_main_search&search_string_field=LOUGHBOROUGH. [Accessed: 06/11/2014]. london zoo map. Available from: http://toplowridersites.com/london-zoo-map/.[Accessed: 08/11/2014]
APPENDIX 1- Diagrammatic representation of the transformation process
REQUIREMENTS
APPENDIX 2- Sainsbury and London zoo’s 4 v’s profile
Sainsburys London Zoo
Low High
High High
High Mixed
High Low
APPENDIX 3- Flow Process diagram of Sainsbury’s operations.
APPENDIX 4- Polar representation of the relative importance of performance objectives for Sainsbury Supermarket and London Zoo
APPENDIX 5- Diagram showing London zoo’s layout
APPENDIX 6- Diagram showing Sainsbury operations layout
1.0 INTRODUCTION 3
2.0 SAINSBURY SUPERMARKET AN OVERVIEW 3
3.0 OPERATIONS OF SAINSBURY 3
3.1 FACILITIES 3
3.2 PROCESS 4
3.3 LAYOUT AND FLOW 4
3.4 INPUT 5
3.5 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS 5
3.6 OUTPUT 5
4.0 SAINSBURY’S VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS 5
5.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE TO THE OPERATION 6
5.1 COST 6
5.2 DEPENDABILITY 6
5.3 FLEXIBILITY 6
5.4 QUALITY 6
5.5 SPEED 7
6.0 WHAT QUALITY MEANS TO SAINSBURY 7
7.0 THE EFFECT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE 7
8.0 OPERATIONS COMPARED: SAINSBURY V.S LONDON ZOO 8
8.1 THE OPERATION OF LONDON ZOO (FACILITIES, PROCESSES, LAYOUT AND FLOW) 8
9.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON ZOO’S OPERATION 8
9.1 INPUT 8
9.2 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS 8
9.3 OUTPUT 9
10.0 VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND …show more content…
VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS 9
11.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES TO THE OPERATION 9
11.1 COST 9
11.2 DEPENDABILITY 9
11.3 FLEXIBILITY 9
11.4 QUALITY 10
11.4 SPEED 10
12.0 THE IMPACT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE 10
13.0 CONCLUSION 10
REFERENCES 11
APPENDIX 1- Diagrammatic representation of the transformation process 12
APPENDIX 2- Sainsbury and London zoo’s 4 v’s profile 13
APPENDIX 3- Flow Process diagram of Sainsbury’s operations. 14
APPENDIX 4- Polar representation of the relative importance of performance objectives for Sainsbury Supermarket and London Zoo 15
APPENDIX 5- Diagram showing London zoo’s layout 16
APPENDIX 6- Diagram showing Sainsbury operations layout 17
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In every organization, there must be an operation function since they create some type of service/product. Operation function relates to the arrangement of resources that are allocated to the production and delivery of products and services (slack et al., 2013).
The company I have chosen to base my work on is Sainsbury supermarket located on Ashby Road, Loughborough. In this report I shall be examining its operations management by discussing the facilities they have, processes involved, layout, and flow. Also I shall look at the characteristics of its operations with respect to its input and output process and the 4vs.
Furthermore, the importance of its performance objectives in carrying out its functions will be examined as well as how the characteristics of the operation might affect quality performance.
Finally I shall make comparisons of my findings to that of London zoo.
2.0 SAINSBURY SUPERMARKET AN OVERVIEW
Sainsbury 's is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom with a share of the UK supermarket sector of 16.8% as at 2014. It places an emphasis on a higher quality grocery offering and services. Sainsbury offers a wide variety of product and service ranging from food counters, wine and spirits stores, florists, clothing, pharmacy, books, CDs&DVDs, gifts, cookware, home textiles and electrical goods to name a few.
3.0 OPERATIONS OF SAINSBURY
3.1 FACILITIES
Based on physical observation, a number of facilities have been identified from the Sainsbury’s operations. More specifically, the store size of Sainsbury is about 20,000 SQ FT and it has just one level. There are 12 checkouts available in store, and 10 self-checkout machines installed in a separate area near to the exit. Tobacco products and the pharmacy are located independently at different counter. CCTVs are installed in the store to prevent the occurrence of theft and a public address system. There exists a large number of shelves and freezers to preserve and display the products. A warehouse is found at the back of the building which is only accessible to staff. There exists about 340 parking space available for customers and a petrol station. Apart from that, three ATMs are located outside the store where customers can withdraw cash free of charge. Sainsbury has also made toilets, disabled toilets and baby change facilities and a small restaurant available.
3.2 PROCESS
The process of the Sainsbury operations is similar to the mass service process type. The mass service process is due to the fact that it entails a high volume of customer transactions, limited contact time and minute customization.
3.3 LAYOUT AND FLOW
Sainsbury adopts a cell layout for its facilities where products are grouped into categories at the product level, while at the broad level, it adopts a functional layout where similar resources for the identical functions are located together. This is because consumers passing through this operation will take different route depending on their needs. It operates in a routine that is designed to move the customer around the store till they end up at the payment point. The customer first sees the customer service in case of any enquiries. Fresh food are aligned along the first aisle, while the middle isle showcases the dry goods. The section for frozen food is located close to the check out as seen in appendix 6.
The process flows of cell layout types tend to be continuous since the regular flow of transformed resources are critical to ensure the efficiency of operation. On the contrary, the process flows of functional layout types tend to be irregular compared with the cell layout types since the variety and volume of required inputs are very high for the functional layout types. Sainsbury’s flow process involves various stages between stocking and the product delivery to satisfaction of customers need as seen in appendix 3. Initially the inventory stores the goods and materials that are held available in stock for the business. Sainsbury has implemented a solution to efficient restocking called “we supply”. It controls the supply at the shelves, and helps delivery system link with the inventory replenishment. The manager controls and changes the item price according to the forces of demand and supply. The customer has access to view the price rates, schemes and offers. Once the product has being chosen the payment process takes place at the cashier, after which the packaging stage where the customer is handed over the product.
3.4 INPUT
The inputs of Sainsbury operation include the facilities mentioned earlier, raw-materials, the staff, supplies, facilities, time, capital, the products, and logistics, etc.
3.5 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
Every operation creates and delivers products and services by converting inputs into outputs by making use of an “input-transformation-output” process. In the same vain Sainsbury converts its input and produces output of services and products to satisfy consumer’s needs. This process involves storage, quality control. Appendix 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of the operation process
3.6 OUTPUT
The main output of Sainsbury’s operation is served and satisfied customers, range of products and availability of the products.
4.0 SAINSBURY’S VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS
In terms of the variety dimension, it is observed that the output of Sainsbury’s operations and processes are low in variationhave little level of . variation. Asides the shopping experience they have a petrol station and a restaurant. However in terms of products available there exist some degree of variety.
In terms of the variation dimension, it is observed that Sainsbury has a high level demand variation and is more likely to be of changing capacity over time .They have to be aware of changing customer preferences so they can make adequate replenishments where necessary. On the other hand, Sainsbury would introduce a series of products in response to the demand in certain occasions and seasons, as seen during the Halloween festival.
With regard to the visibility of the processes to customers, it is believed that Sainsbury’s operation is high in visibility to customers. For example, customers can see how efficient the staff in checkouts would be, how fast the replenishment is, and how reliable the staff in providing required information, etc. The high visibility in operations implies that good customer contact skills and efficient checkout speed are needed to maximize customer satisfaction.
In the area of volume dimension, it is observed that Sainsbury has a high volume in terms of its operations. This is due to the fact that a large number of customers visit the facility.
5.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE TO THE OPERATION
In operations management, there exists five competitive performance objectives. They are cost, dependability, flexibility, quality and speed. The achievement of each performance objective can bring both internal and external benefits.
5.1 COST OBJECTIVE
The supermarket is bound to incur cost in its operations. It has to be aware of staff cost and inventory control cost. However by minimizing the costs of its operations through efficient and effective methods, it can in turn reduce the price of its products. This will in turn contribute to Sainsbury’s’ competitive advantage and increase its profit margin.
5.2 DEPENDABILITY OBJECTIVE
Customers are more satisfied knowing that they can depend on Sainsbury in areas such as supermarket timings , providing product related information, schemes, availability of parking slots, special slots reserved for the disabled ,parent and child’ parking at all times and its petrol station.
This makes shopping at Sainsbury a hassle free experience.
5.3 FLEXIBILITY OBJECTIVE
By achieving the objective of flexibility, a wide range of product or services can be provided to customers according to the changing demands in the market. Customers desire product, volume, mixed and delivery flexibility. The availability of these forms of variety means a lot to the customers.
5.4 QUALITY OBJECTIVE
In a bid to achieve the objective of quality, customers at Sainsbury attribute credit to the company’s passion for health, hygiene, safety, fresh food, good products, and provision of a satisfying shopping experience with their ever friendly staff. Sainsbury strives to maintain this quality it stands by. If quality is achieved, it means the customer is satisfied and would return to Sainsbury again as it prevents errors in operational processes.
5.5 SPEED
OBJECTIVE
Sainsbury’s tries best to match supply with demand. It tries to minimize the time lapse between when consumers request products and when they receive them. It also tries to ensure that products are easily labelled for ease of identification by the customers. A proper layout and flow system would aid in this objective.
6.0 WHAT QUALITY MEANS TO SAINSBURY
Sainsbury has many views on quality in terms of its operations. However its topmost view is that quality is when customers’ expectations are met and they are left satisfied. There is always the need to meet customer’s specification. Sainsbury prides itself in ensuring that its products conform to certain specifications consistently. They take the customer into account in providing the service. It also means healthy and safe environment with a friendly and helpful staff. Quality to Sainsbury not only leads to external customer satisfaction but internally it makes things easier for the operation in terms of reduced cost.
7.0 THE EFFECT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE
Operations characteristics can affect quality performance in various ways.
Variety has an influence on quality performance. The standardized or low nature of variety dimension in Sainsbury reduces the cost of operation. Funds can therefore be put towards improving or keeping up the standards of the goods and services they provide.
The extent to which variation of demand occurs can have an impact on quality performance. The degree of Sainsbury’s consideration in the changing customer preferences can have a positive influence on quality performance. If the operation isn’t flexible enough it can in some cases cause inconvenience to the customers and lead to dissatisfied customers.
The visibility of the operation process to customers would also have an impact on quality performance. Based on a trip to Sainsbury, it was discovered that the number of cashiers available do no match the number of checkouts. They only get more cashiers when the queue is getting long and the customers complain. This can affect quality performance
The volume of output can have an effect on quality performance. Since Sainsbury has a high volume of operations, it would mean there has to be steady and consistent stock replenishment. If Sainsbury do not take the right steps to tackle this it can impair quality performance in its operations.
Also the effective functioning of the various facilities at the operation can have an effect on quality performance.
8.0 OPERATIONS COMPARED: SAINSBURY V.S LONDON ZOO
8.1 THE OPERATION OF LONDON ZOO (FACILITIES, PROCESSES, LAYOUT AND FLOW)
London zoo is the world’s oldest scientific zoo. It occupies about 36 acres. Its facilities include baby changing facilities, parking areas, oasis café, aquarium, lion house, gift shop, reptile house, aquarium, penguin pool, toilet facilities, and catering facilities. Similar to Sainsbury’s operations, London zoo’s adopts the mass service process type. At the specific level, London zoo adopts a cell layout for its facilities where animals are grouped into categories which is similar to that of Sainsbury. At the broad level, it adopts the product layout by arranging resources in a sequence defined by the needs of the product, while Sainsbury adopts the functional layout. The process flows of London zoo’s operation tends to be continuous.
9.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF LONDON ZOO’S OPERATION
9.1 INPUT
The major inputs include staff at the zoo, animals, facilities at the park The inputs of London Zoo’s operation differs from the Sainsbury operation in the sense that the staff play a more crucial role in ensuring customers get the best experience at London zoo than at Sainsbury.
9.2 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS
They processes customers, by transforming their psychological state and the provision of education and entertainment.
9.3 OUTPUT
The output for London zoo is similar to that of Sainsbury in terms of satisfied customers. However in London Zoo the output is intangible unlike that of Sainsbury.
10.0 VARIETY, VARIATION, VISIBILITY, AND VOLUME CHARACTERISTICS
The variety of output of London Zoo’s operation is high in terms of the services provided, unlike that of Sainsbury.
The variation of demand for output in Sainsbury is much smaller than that of London. This is due to the fact that customers visit London zoo for a variety of purposes, such as touring animals, developing knowledge of animals, or simply spending some time with family, while customers visit Sainsbury strictly for the Shopping experience.
The visibility of the processes to customers in London zoo’s operation is mixed in the sense that some activities are seen and others are not.
In terms of the volume of output, London zoo can boost of a higher volume than Sainsbury, however this occurs only during festive periods or summer breaks. On other periods it is relatively low. However Sainsbury has a high volume than London zoo.
See Appendix 4 for more details.
11.0 BENEFIT OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES TO THE OPERATION
11.1 COST OBJECTIVE
Infrastructure cost and cost of running the zoo are basically high. Hence the zoo can minimize cost
11.2 DEPENDABILITY OBJECTIVE
They should be true to opening hours, availability of animals, queue time and availability of parking space.
11.3 FLEXIBILITY OBJECTIVE
The zoo provides a wide variety of animals, new animals can be added to the zoo, and they provide extra services for customers. However they are not of changing capacity.
11.4 QUALITY OBJECTIVE
The zoo’s environment isn’t too neat, insufficient car-parks during festive period. This affects performance.
11.4 SPEED OBJECTIVE The processing time for visitors can be efficiently utilized to increase number of customers per day, instead of time wasting.
See Appendix 6 for a diagrammatic representation
12.0 THE IMPACT OF OPERATIONS CHARACTERISTICS ON QUALITY PERFORMANCE
In terms of variety, since London zoo’s level of variety is low, with time visits to the operation would seem monotonous to customers.
The variation of demand would influence London zoo’s quality performance. This is because customers might prefer having a tour guide, while others would dislike it and it might undermine the customer’s experience.
In terms of visibility it is higher in London Zoo than at Sainsbury. Staff in the zoo provide just-in-time services for their customers, answer questions, and have demonstrations to improve customers’ experience.
In addition, the volume of output has also hindered London zoo’s quality performance. For example, it is found that the educational experience decreases as visitor number increases (Johnston et al, 2003).
The inputs of London zoo’s operation has had a negative effect on quality performance. For example, according to the questionnaire, the parking facilities of London zoo are far from enough during the peak time (Johnston et al, 2003).
13.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this report has explained the operations at Sainsbury as well as London zoo’s operation in terms of their facilities, process, layout, and flow. Also, the characteristics of the two operations in terms of input, output, and 4Vs have been compared and contrasted. The impacts of characteristics of the two operations on quality performance have been examined.
REFERENCES
Slack,N.,Brandson,A. and Johnston, R.(2013). Operations Management. 7th ed. London: Pearson.
Karlsson, C (2008). Researching Operations Management. ed.London: Routledge.
Lowson, R.H (2002). Strategic Operations Management: The New Competitive Advantage. ed.London: Routledge. zsl. london zoo. Available from: http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/visitor-information.
[Accessed: 06/11/2014].
Sainsbury 's. Available from http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/storelocator/storelocator_results_list_view.jsp?bmForm=stores_main_search&search_string_field=LOUGHBOROUGH. [Accessed: 06/11/2014]. london zoo map. Available from: http://toplowridersites.com/london-zoo-map/.[Accessed: 08/11/2014]
APPENDIX 1- Diagrammatic representation of the transformation process
REQUIREMENTS
APPENDIX 2- Sainsbury and London zoo’s 4 v’s profile
Sainsburys London Zoo
Low High
High High
High Mixed
High Low
APPENDIX 3- Flow Process diagram of Sainsbury’s operations.
APPENDIX 4- Polar representation of the relative importance of performance objectives for Sainsbury Supermarket and London Zoo
APPENDIX 5- Diagram showing London zoo’s layout
APPENDIX 6- Diagram showing Sainsbury operations layout