Summative Assessment - Strategic Operations Management and Operational Research- Al-Thnaibat Felesteen PDF

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University of South WalesPS4SStrategic Operations Management and OperationalResearch.Module Summative AssignmentTutor: Ahmad QammarStudent Name: Felesteen Mubarak Al–ThnaibatStudent ID: 7410440016 September 2019AbstractThis paper aims to answer the module assessment for the strategic operations mana...

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University of South Wales PS4S26 Strategic Operations Management and Operational Research. Module Summative Assignment

Tutor: Ahmad Qammar

Student Name: Felesteen Mubarak Al–Thnaibat Student ID: 74104400

16 September 2019

Abstract This paper aims to answer the module assessment for the strategic operations management and operational research. It consists of two important sections which are reflective learning and critical analysis for an operations manager role. In part A of this paper I attempt to critically reflect on my learning, exploring how the module helped me to enhance the concept of operations management knowledge and specially to focus on a skill of my own choice, Time management skill. It is obvious that my skills have improved significantly through this module, which permitted me to assess and refine the process performance both in my organization and in the field of operations generally. Furthermore, the part B of this work I attempt to utilize the module’s gained knowledge to analyze an amazon’s operations manager job description picked and is attached on this paper. Focusing on a number of challenges also analyzed and solutions suggested in order to reduce these it.

Key words: Time Management (TM), Operations Management (OM)

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Table of Contents PART A:.....................................................................................................................3 Reflective Analysis on My Learning Experience....................................................3 1.

Introduction...............................................................................................................3

2.

My personnel experience:......................................................................................4 2.1.

At work experience : Increased Productivity...........................................7

3.

Conclusion................................................................................................................9

4.

References A:..........................................................................................................11

PART B:...................................................................................................................12 JOB DESCRIPTION CRITICAL ANALYSIS FOR AN OPERATION MANAGER AT AMAZON COMPANY...............................................................................................12 1.

Introduction.............................................................................................................12

2.

Challenges of An Operations Manager.............................................................14 2.1.

Operational Challenges Analysais Relevant To The Amazon’ Job.....18

2.2.

How would I resolve the main issues ?....................................................19

3.

Conclusion and Recommendations..................................................................21

4.

References B...........................................................................................................22

5.

Appendixes..............................................................................................................24

Table of Figure Figure 1: Operation Management..........................................................................11 Figure 2: Challenge of an Operations Manager....................................................13

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PART A: Reflective Analysis on My Learning Experience 1. Introduction Time is the most valuable yet most restricted resource for human-beings. (Blaskowski, 2011) Das (2018) defined that time is a unique quantity that we cannot buy, rent, or even store, it is totally irreplaceable and it really perishable. Everything requires it and it passes at the same rate for everyone, no matter what we do, 24 hours is today’s ration of time, and yesterday’s time is actually history. “Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing” (Miles Davis quote cited in Kemp, 2018). One of the most repeatedly stated problems of businessmen is coated in the phrase, “If I only had more time…” This anxiety is a mutual issue among all busy people. It sounds that no one has enough time. Knowing all that was one of the reasons why when we were asked in the beginning of this module to pick a personal skill to develop, the choice for me was obvious: time management. ” This is the key to time management-to see the value of every moment.” - Menachem Mendel Schneerson). The other reason why I chose this particular skill is that: I worked as a website engineer for Jordan Construction Contractors Association (JCCA), my job was really hard ,I started a new module with my MBA program, I am a mother of 3 children, also I help my husband in some tasks related to his job because he had new responsibilities too , so I was really confused and I couldn’t reconcile all these tiring tasks , the end result of this is that in several cases, I just gave up going to work and stayed at home just to accomplish household works ,or even stay in my bed the whole day doing nothing due great fatigue or because of stress, I was stressed all the time and at some point I even had to start taking anti-stress pills. Unnecessary to say, this had somewhat harmfully

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affected my career that’s why without a doubt I chose to improve my time management skills.

2. My personnel experience: During the module time, I have done some research on, and earned some insight into time management. The first thing I did was try to define the term. I found several definitions, but to me, the aptest is that time management “is the process of planning and controlling how much time to spend on specific activities” (Juneja, 2019). Good time management enables a person to accomplish more tasks in a shorter period, lowers pressure, and leads to career success. This paper thus, seeks to explore my path of changing my habits and becoming a better person, besides the methods I used to develop this skill and how effective my efforts were. Certainly, I did not stop at definitions ,I was consistently searching for answers and ways to

put this skill into practice and start managing my time ,I was looking for

strategies used by successful people ,I learnt that, regardless to your objectives there are some conditions and instruction to follow in order to manage your time in a good and efficient way : -

The first habit I tried to develop is waking up early:” one key to success is to have lunch at the time of the day most people have breakfast” (Robert Brault).

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Second instruction is Effective Planning: I understood from project management materials through the first weeks of this module how important is to plan and design everything well even ‘details in my day’ in advance to get best result. Prepare a ‘To-Do List’. Write down the essential activities that need to be made in a single day in front of the time that should be designated for each activity. High priority task should come on top followed by these which do not need much of my importance at the moment. And I should settle pending tasks one by one. And never start a new task unless I have finished my prior task. So, I started by

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creating a” To do list”, first day I didn’t even remember that I had to check it, second day I did one task, it was really hard but the most important was that I am making progress. -

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The third procedure is to set goals and objectives: and for me, that is the

most important one and I was really shocked how all these years I was without a specific and clear goal, working without goals and targets would be similar to a situation where you are driving a car without any place to go. Yes, you would be lost because you do not know where to go and that’s what was exactly happening to me, I was really confused. People with goals succeed because they know where they are going, they have a clear path to follow and because of that most of the time, they spend less time working and get better result than others ,therefore I started setting targets and goals no matter how small they seemed to me and I made sure they are real ones and can be achieved. -

Fourth is putting deadlines for tasks: which you must set deadlines for yourself and strive hard to complete tasks ahead of the deadlines.

Learn to take

ownership of the work. I realized that one person who can best set the deadlines for you is yourself. I estimate how much time to be dedicated to a particular task and for how many days. -

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The fifth one is prioritizing activities: Huber (2018) states that it is important

to prioritize the jobs as per their value and importance. Understand the distinction between necessary and critical work. determine which activities should be done within a day, which all should be completed within a month and so on. Activities and tasks which are most crucial should be done earlier. This one was easy for me because I always knew which tasks to do and when to do it, what I was missing is how to organize my time. -

The sixth is the right time on the right activity: enhance the attitude of making the proper thing at the proper time. Work achieved at the wrong time is not of significant use. Don’t spend a full day on something which can be made in an hour or so. Henry David Thoreau said:” It is not enough to be busy ... the question is: what are we busy with? “(Henry David Thoreau). And that was the

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hardest to do because I was a procrastinator and I knew it, I would spend days doing one easy task that requires 3 hours maximum, why? because I am scrolling down Facebook, chatting with my friends ,and when I used to do work I only work for like 1 hour and take a break ,and with practice I managed to get rid of these fatal habit and overcome distractions and time waste. If we aren’t cautious, they can keep us from achieving what we need to. When you know how to manage your time well, you are able to overcome distractions better and complete what’s really significant. I will be honest in admitting that, the first month of trying these new and different habits or tasks was really tough, it was really hard to get understand the module materials in such an easy way, I spend a lot of time repeating each slide and reading the given articles because the whole operations, process design, project management… etc, were new to me and to get filter information about time management, and to figure out which is the really good habits that will allow me to take control of my life and boost my productivity to the limits, I collected information from many websites and literature reviews and tried to find the common ideas and connect them with module materials, and I assumed these ideas are the right ones to follow and work with, after some good and long researches I began to try practising those habits and skills, it was extremely hard changing my daily habits. Therefore, I had to research and learn how to adopt new habits and most importantly how to stick to those habits. Ferebee (2018) said that Adopting new habits is tough for one of two reasons: 1. You don’t figure out how habits are structured and how to influence its structure to your advantage. 2. You are trying to do a lot of tasks on short time and setting yourself up for failure. Although I didn’t search in that field for a long time I was able to learn the essentials and main ideas: first, in order to successfully adopt a habit and stick to it, you need to avoid multitasking which means u mustn’t start practising more than one habit at the same time because one learning one habit is hard enough and take a lot of efforts so I decided to try to adapt my habits one by one, for example : the first habit I started working on “waking up early”, second the key to create a habit is to progress slowly and |Page

I applied that too, for instance, the first week I was only able to wake up early for 1 day …, the second week It became 2 days, I was progressing slowly but surely until I mastered the habit, and then I jump to the next one and so on. I was always trying to stay motivated and look for role models, successful people and I would search about their habits and follow their instructions, what motivated me is knowing that if it worked for them, it’s going to work for me if I try hard enough, and I was willing to do that. Time management is a very vital skill and its necessary in many fields: time management is life management.

2.1.

At work experience : Increased Productivity

Paul J.Meyer says that “productivity is never an accident ,it is always the result of commitment, intelligent planning and management ,and a lot of focused effort (Paul J.Meyer cited in Bachraoui, 2017). Managing my time permitted me to always have enough time to complete the most important things, through a conscious effort and I was focused more on my job because when you have enough time you don’t stress too much, and over time I became satisfied with my work and so was my directors; getting more projects done, and helping the organization I work for to grow gave me a great confidence and satisfaction, in addition, managing my time improved my relation with my coworkers although time spent with them decreased in fact, because I was less stressed, and I had less time pressure and anxiety being punctual with my work did not only increase my effectiveness but also helped me earn a good reputation at work doing jobs in an efficient, effective ways in timely manners, and I was appreciated considering quality when finishing the tasks . Efficient time management skills don’t just help your career life but can also improve your life outside of the office. If you maintain things under control on your professional life, you get more time to emphasis on your social and personal life. Doing our tasks and activities perfectly as scheduled will bring a sense of calmness in our social and |Page

personal life. As you feel quieter and less stressed out, your profession and personal quality of life optimizes spontaneously. With my family : finally I could make some time for me as parent and as a part of a couple because I was able to talk to my children and here their stories from school and their adventures, and I could sit and communicate and have conversations with my husband which Is crucial in our relationship . When you do what’s most effective and learn to manage, delegate, or delete the less important tasks (waste tasks), you find for yourself more free time to do other important things. Part of effective time management is to take care of yourself. Furthermore, when you are less stressed and less exhausted, your health is better. Strain usually causes bad eating choices, less sleep, ...etc. Time management can help fix that. (Harris, 2018) Having some free time allowed me to start thinking about my physique and body shape, I started going to the gym regularly, and start slowly changing my eating habits to healthier ones, one reason I was managed to start working out is that; by managing my time and organizing my tasks and ideas ,I made a much smaller effort to accomplish my daily tasks, and I was always ready mentally and physically ready to go to the gym and get my workout done . Being able to manage my time had a huge positive impact on my life in general: In my work; I recently got promoted from a “website engineer” to the position of “Director of Technologies”, while having the time and effort to take care of my family, keep my relations with my friends and meet them from time to time, now I am able to practice sports and take care of myself and my body, my efforts to develop that skill have not been in vain.

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3. Conclusion To sum up, the writing of this reflective work has, for the first time, allowed me to view Time management as something extremely important and crucial in my life, I did not know what is the problem with me, why am I always so stressed and under pressure ,always busy but not getting things done ,I was barely living with my family and my friends . Over the duration of this module, I have had both an excellent choice by selecting Time management skills to improve and I am satasfied that I get the right learning experience. While I have not enabled to put into practice all of the knowledge and skills I have gained, I completely intend to do so. Most importantly, I understood how operations management strategies inside any company make all of its organizational projects and processes interact to improve the whole association and gained the operational competitive advantages based on the five quality categories: cost, quality, dependability, speed (TIME) and flexibility. (Slack and Lewis as cited in William, 2015) I believe that effective time management is the most precious fortune and will help me to successfully assist and improve my organization (JCCA) to achieve its strategic goals. After all, Time management is very important in any business types, because the cost of production is greatly reduced due to the reduction of manufacturing cycle time, reduction of wastes & elimination of non-value-added operations. Time Management is activity management that involves defining specifications and continuous improvement through value additions (Pattanayak, 2010). Time management is really life management, managing your time in a good way allows you to lead your life almost

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from all aspects, based on my experience, each advantage of time management develops another aspect of your life, it isn’t about maximizing the number of items you can check off in a day or a life. It’s about living fully, productively, joyfully by your definitions of these terms.

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4. References A: AppointmentPlus. (2015). Why Time Management Is Important | AppointmentPlus. [online] Available at: https://www.appointmentplus.com/blog/why-time-management-isimportant/(Accessed 12 Aug. 2019). Bachraoui, Y. (2017). Productivity is never an accident! So learn how to implement it. Steel Available. [online] Steel Available. Available at: https://www.steelavailable.com/en/productivity-is-never-an-accident-so-learn-how-toimplement-it/ (Accessed 13 Aug. 2019). Blaskowski, L. (2011). Time is your important resource | Business Truths. [online] Businesstruths.com. Available at: http://www.businesstruths.com/articles/your-mostimportant-resource-is-your-time/ (Accessed 12 Aug. 2019). Das, N. (2018). What is Means of Time Management? - ilearnlot. [online] ilearnlot. Available at: https://www.ilearnlot.com/time-management/ (Accessed 12 Aug. 2019). Ferebee, A. (2018). Here’s Why None of Your New Habits Stick. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@KnowledgeForMen/heres-why-none-of-your-newhabits-stick-1e13fc4d80c3 [Accessed 12 Aug. 2019]. Harris, T. (2018). Book Summary: Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern - The Exceptional Skills. [online] The Exceptional Skills. Available at: https://www.theexceptionalskills.com/time-management-from-the-inside-out-summary/ (Accessed 13 Aug. 2019). Huber, L. (2018). How to Master your Priorities with the Urgent-Important Matrix. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-master-your-priorities-with-theurgent-important-matrix-a7904de55266 (Accessed 12 Aug. 2019). Juneja, P. (2019). Time Management-Meaning and its Importance. [online] Managementstudyguide.com. Available at: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/time-management.htm (Accessed 12 Aug. 2019). Pattanayak, S. (2010). Just In Time Management. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/SRIBATSA01/just-in-time-management (Accessed 14 Aug. 2019). Walsh, R. (1998). TimemanagemenTSecond EditionProven Techniques for Making Every Minute...