Assessment Information/Brief 2022/23
Module title
Operations and Information
Management
Level
7
Assessment title
Assessment Portfolio
This is a draft which is worth 0% of the overall module
Weighting within module
mark. Formative feedback will be provided below.
Assessment task details and instructions
OmegaCo is a medium-sized company that produces high-quality handmade fruit juice for
customers in their own country. Most of these customers are small retailers and cafes that have
used OmegaCo for a number of years, normally placing orders by telephone and paying by cash
on delivery. There is little visibility of future orders, which means that the lead time for delivery
can be over two weeks, and this means that some orders are cancelled at short notice due to
changes in customer demand. In addition, OmegaCo has seen the market for their products
reduced by nearly 20% over the last year, as consumers react to the increasing rate of inflation
and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, OmegaCo relies on a small number
of local suppliers for the materials (various fruits, sugar, glass bottles etc) they require and
struggles to maintain effective relationships due to their difficulty in managing the supply and
demand of their own products.
As OmegaCo has a strong brand image, the company has recently been bought by ZetaCo,
which is a large organisation as they can see future opportunities in competing in global, more
price-sensitive markets. This will require a change in strategy to one that focuses on the
efficiency of production and the development of stronger and more professional customer and
supplier relationships. A new focus will be needed to improve OmegaCo’s manufacturing,
marketing, and supply chain capabilities and capacity. ZetaCo is prepared to invest significantly
in making these changes, particularly through digital transformation, as their initial market
research shows that there is a sizeable market for quality products, but costs need to be
managed effectively and efficiently.
Your task
You are a technical consultant and have been sent by ZetaCo to review OmegaCo’s operations
and information management processes and ways of working. This review takes the form of a
report that includes the different tasks shown below with mark weightings against each one.
Assessment Information/Brief
1
Feedback
Task 1: Develop a SWOT analysis of the current situation at OmegaCo (10 marks).
Some relevant points are highlighted within your SWOT, however there is some scope to
expand this.
You can then discuss any key points/highlights from the analysis following the table (suggest
discussing 2-3 of these points in further detail).
For the external elements in particular (opportunities and threats) there is scope to support
this analysis with relevant sources, e.g., I would say inflation is an external threat and one
that could be supported with relevant data/citation.
Task 2: Based on your SWOT analysis, discuss how a more effective and efficient management
of capacity, quality and both suppliers and customers could help ZetaCo meet its new
performance objectives (40 marks).
In this task you’re expected to discuss all four elements listed, i.e., capacity, quality,
suppliers, and customers – not just a selection.
The BPMs shouldn’t be placed in this section, they come in the next task (task 3).
You could be more specific here in general and refer to specific
concepts/theories/approaches/models, e.g., TQM, lean, SPC, six-sigma, etc., to improve
quality.
You should use a good array of sources/literature to support and inform your discussion in
this part of the assignment.
As suggested in the webinar, you could include a polar chart/diagram in this section showing
the performance objectives – quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost.
Task 3: Select one of the process areas from part 2 (e.g. capacity, quality, supplier or customer
management) and, using Business Process Model (BPM) techniques, develop and present two
BPM models that show how these could be improved by capturing the existing and
the proposed business processes (20 marks).
Unable to comment on the BPMs as they have not yet been attempted.
Please revisit the reading/resources in unit 4, specifically ‘introduction to BPMN’.
Here you will find guidance/examples, such as the use of pools, different flow objects, etc.
Some brief discussion should then follow the improved BPM to highlight the key
changes/improvements.
Task 4: Conduct research into a suitable Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solution
and develop an evaluation table, which shows a set of evaluation characteristics and the
analysis of two commercial/off-the-shelf products and two Open Source Software alternatives
(20 marks).
• The layout of the table looks good/fine.
• Relevant criteria are considered.
• Good to see that you plan to use scoring mechanism to make the decision easier and
more transparent.
• Ensure that you’re as specific as possible with the data/information included within
the table.
• Please include the citations/sources of information for this table/analysis – at the
moment only one is present (appreciate this is incomplete).
Task 5: Select one Industry 4.0 technology and discuss the benefits of implementing this into
Assessment Information/Brief
2
OmegaCo (10 marks).
Unable to comment as this element hasn’t been attempted – the proposed approach
appears fine.
Ensure this is supported by relevant sources and discussed in the context of the focal
organisation.
Presentation
Presentation is generally fine.
Please ensure that figures/tables are labelled. E.g., figure 1…
Referencing
• A much greater array of references should be utilized in the final to support and enrich your
discussion.
• Please see the following for guidance - https://www.salford.ac.uk/skills/referencing/apa-7th-
edition
Assessment Information/Brief
