Improving Operational Efficiencies In Jumbo Score: Best Approaches And Practices

Introduction to the Key Operations of the Organisation and Theories of Operations

Part a. Introduction:

Jumbo Score is a hypermarket based in The Port, Reunion, France which is an overseas department under Paris. The multinational retail chain is present in three international locations namely, Mauritius, Madagascar and Mayotte.

The key operations of Jumbo Score consists of selling of high-end products usually confectionaries and beauty products. The beauty products which the company offers target the middle and upper class customers. The operations of the French retail chain include offering customers superior high quality products in order to ensure their satisfaction. The business operations of Jumbo Score also expand into social media websites on which the firm communicates with the customers on regular basis to ensure repeat business from them, Thus, it can be pointed out that the key functional areas of Jumbo Score consist of selling high-end products to consumers, generating revenue from the customers and acquire as well as management of talents to ensure achieve the first two functional operations (Jumbo-score.com. 2018). The theory of operations management as mentioned by Smith, Maull and CL (2014), refers to the management and controlling of the process of business operations including manufacturing operations to achieve optimum utilization of the resources so to generate higher profits as well as reduction of wastage. Fernie and Sparks (2014) shed further light on operations management and point out that manufacturing functions do not apply to retail chains. The retail chains acquire finished goods from manufacturing companies which they sell to end customers. However, the definition of operations management by the pervious authors apply to retail chains as well. This is because just like manufacturing companies, the retail chains have to lock current assets mostly cash in order to hold stock of finished goods. Forslund (2015) strengthens this explanation by mentioning that selling of finished goods to customers release the financial locked in holding the finished goods, thus enabling the retail chains reinvest the financial resources towards business operations. It can also be pointed from an analysis of the article that holding excess stock of finished goods result in reduction of liquidity. Again, holding of insufficient stock of finished goods prevents the firms from serving customers satisfactorily. Yawar and Seuring (2017) point out that since fashion trends are dynamic, holding large stock of finished goods not only  affects the  liquidity because may also result in financial losses. This is because the new fashion trends render the pervious trends redundant and hence, the capital invested to obtain the stock of finished goods cannot be recycled back. Thus, holding excess stock of finished goods result in heavy losses in financial losses and reduction of financial liquidity. Thus, it can be pointed out from the discussion that the aim of operations management is efficient control of each area of business operations to ensure maximization of profit, reduction of wastage and maintenance of liquidity.

Part b. Key operations functions at Jumbo Score:

The key operations of Jumbo Score are trade and distribution, central purchasing and the legal department. The following are roles and responsibilities of the managers in these three ley operational functions:

Details of Each of the Key Operational Functions within the Organisation

Jumbo Score has four trade and distribution centers namely, Reunion, Madagascar, Mauritius and Mayotte also referred to as devices. The retail firm in each of these locations own a number of super markets as well as hyper markets. The properties of Jumbo Score also include wholesalers, outdoor area. The managers posted in these trade and distribution areas play several important roles (Ramanathan, Subramanian and Parrott 2017). Collier (2015) mentions in retail distribution centers take decision regarding product strategy before acquiring stock of finished goods. The managers acquire information about market consumers like changing fashion trends and customer tastes. They then take decisions regarding acquisition of stock of finished goods based on the customer preferences. Hult et al. (2017) point out to the second role of managers in the trade and distribution centers of retail chains, ensuring customer satisfaction. As far as Jumbo Score is concerned, the retail chain is present only in four small island markets which provides limited profitability unlike retail chains located in larger markets like the US and the UK with immense consumer base. Hence, it can be pointed out that the managers should aim to ensure customer satisfaction in order to generate high profits for the retail chain. The third responsibility of managers in the trade and distribution departments is to deal with customer complaints more efficiently so as to reduce incidences case filing by customers against the retail chains. The managers guide and solve their queries to the feasible extent to reduce the occurrences of customer compliant (Ferreira and Fernandes 2015). Thus, it can be inferred from the discussion that managers in the trading and distribution department of Jumbo Score provides support to the legal department and also enables the retail chain to reduce legal expenses by reducing customer complaints to the possible extent.

Central purchasing:

The managers in the central purchasing departments oversee the product purchasing and logistics operations of the retail chain. The official website of the retail chain clearly mentions that its central purchasing system consists of a large fleet of trucks and warehouses. Brenes et al. (2015) point out that managers play several roles in ensuring appropriate purchasing of finished goods in retail chains. This is because, as the case study already mentions that efficient supply chain and procurement operations leads to ready availability of finished products to customers. It also mentions that the business organisations have sufficient liquidity and at the same time do not have insufficient inventory. As far as the procurement manager is concerned, he plans the procurement strategy using methods like just in time (JIT) and economic order quantity (EOQ). Jones et al.(2017) add to the discussion by pointing that it is very important for the procurement managers to ensure that they source finished goods from ethical suppliers. Thus, it can be pointed out that the managers here have to ensure not only quality inventory of finished goods but have to ensure ethical compliance as well.

Legal operations department:

The legal operations department of the hypermarket chain ensures that the chain complies with all the laws and policies. The main responsibility of the manager of the department is to ensure compliance with laws and legislations.

Vision, Mission, Aims and Objectives of Jumbo Score

The vision of Jumbo Score is to embrace sustainability and operate in the market in a responsible corporate citizen. The mission of Jumbo Score is to provide consumers with high quality products to ensure their value creation. The business objective of Jumbo Score is to serve large base of customers to generate immense revenue.

Part d. Importance of business operations of Jumbo Score business processes:

The three business processes of Jumbo Score described above play significant roles in achievement of its goals and objectives. The business goal of Jumbo Score is to ensure high profits by ensuring maximum possible level of customer satisfaction. Smith (2014) mentions that managers play very important roles to ensure efficient operations in the business organisations. They further point out that this decision making process takes place at all the three levels namely top, middle and lower levels. It is evident from the discussion above that the business operations and their respect managers play significant role in achievement of the business objective of earning high profits. The managers of the trade and distribution operations take important decision regarding acquisition of stock of finished goods while the managers from central purchasing department takes decisions regarding ethical procurement of the inventory of finished goods. Similarly, the legal department managers ensure compliance with the laws and legislations. Thus, it can be pointed out that the operational departments of Jumbo Score through their respective managers ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and profitability.

Part a. Developing plans at Jumbo Score:

The operational plan of Jumbo Score would cover three main areas namely, internal and external customer identification, conducting a market research on the product development of Jumbo Score and principles and methods of short and medium term objective planning. Thus, it is evident that the plan would have three tasks or activities which would further be broken down into subparts, the achievement of which would result in completion of particular activities. The above plan has been presented in form of an activity series which is presented below. The work breakdown structure of the above mentioned plan has also been presented.

Activity nos	Activity details	Time (months)
	Start date	Januray 1, 2019
1	Internal and external customer identification	4
1.1	External customer identification	2
1.1.1	Market survey	1
1.1.2	Customer interview	1
1.2	Employee survey(internal customer)	2
1.2.1	Employee interview by departmental heads	1
1.2.2	Employee interview by departmental heads	1
1.3	Trade and distribution managers prepare reports on the basis of findings of external and internal customer review	1
1.4	Submission of report to apex management and management takes decision	1
2	Conducting a market research on the product development of Jumbo Score	3
2.1	Interview and survey of suppliers	1
2.2	Research of reliable sources like government websites	1
2.3	Submission of report to apex management and management takes decision	1
3	Methods of short and medium term objective planning	13
3.1	Short term planning-Profit increasing	5
	Acquisiring finished goods according to the customer prefernces evident from activity 1	3
	Increasing on-store staff to assist customers	2
3.2	Medium term planning	8
	Training of staff to improve performance	2
	Restructuring supply chain	6

The International Labour Organisation mentions legislations and regulation relating to health and security of employees working for retail chains like Jumbo Score. Jumbo Score comes under the supervision of France and is thus subject to employees’ health and safety laws which France ratifies. The country ratified to Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention 2006 (No. 187). The country follows several OHS codes of the ILO. The conventions of the ILO necessitates the organisations adopt safety rules to ensure safety of their employees. Moreover, the organisations are obliged to train their employees on risk management (Ilo.org. 2018). The working environment of the employees should be made safe and secure the feasible extent to ensure minimum accidents and/or death.

The hypermarket chain, Jumbo can adopt different policies and processes to ensure health and safety of employees working with the firm. The first policies which the hypermarket can enforce is to train its employees. The second policy which the management of the supermarket can apply is to adopt the system of appropriate recording of accidents and fatalities to report to relevant authorities. The third procedure which the retail chain can adopt in restructuring its inventory management and place the same under 24 hours CCTV surveillance. These policies would lead to reduction of employee injuries and accidents within the premises of Jumbo Score.

Importance of Jumbo Score’s Business Processes in Delivering Its Goals and Objectives

MacDonald’s develop SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-related) based on the activities or the objectives the fast food chain sets. For example, the fast food chain first identifies the risks which it has to manage. For example, entry of a new fast food chain in any of its crucial markets. The specific risks which the fast food giant has to manage in this case are retention of customers, retention of its competitive advantage (competitive risks), preventing customers from being attracted to the new fast giant and continue generating high revenue (revenue risks).

The second step is to assess the measurability of the objectives identified in terms of money. It is evident from the example above that the revenue risks or the loss of revenue which the retail chain would suffer due to entry of new competitors can be measured in terms of money and would appear in the books of accounts of the fast food giant. This it can be justified that the objectives of the MacDonald’s is measurable.  Moreover, it can be justified that the company can measurable the amount of resources it can allocate towards management of the risks.

It can also be pointed out that the above objectives like increase in revenue is achievable by forming appropriate marketing strategies. Similarly, the management if competitive risks from the newly entering fast food chains can be achieved by their acquisition by MacDonald’s. Thus, it can be pointed out that the risk management aims of the fast food giant is achievable.

The above risk management measures of MacDonald’s outlined above like increase in revenue and acquisition of subsidiaries are realistic and feasible. The fast food giant can achieve both the objectives using its marketing and financial power respectively.

The risk management measures like acquisition of competitors in order to reduce competitive risks are achievable within set time limit. For example, the fast food giant can strengthen its marketing mix to manage revenue risk in 2 years. MacDonald’s can aim to achieve the second risk management strategy of acquisition of competitor within 5 years. This is because the acquisition of firms attract legal and regulatory compliance. The fast food giant have to comply with laws of both the US, its home country as well as the host country where the subsidiary would be based. Similarly, while acquiring subsidiaries, the fast food giant has to ensure ethical treatment of the employees of the former. Thus, the risk management methods are time bound. Thus, it can be justified from the above discussion that the risk management qualifies the SMART analysis. It can also be pointed out the SMART objectives are closely related to use of resources, legal and ethical compliance.

The fifteen principles of organisational performance are designed to achieve continuous improvement in organisational performances, both qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The first principle mentions that the employees should be honest about their actual capabilities and competencies. Osadchy and Akhmetshin (2015) mention that transparency enforces better understanding between superiors and subordinates within organisational culture. This is because superiors are able to judge the actual competencies of their reporting employees and allocate job responsibilities accordingly. Li, Sarkar and Subhraveti (2015) mention that transparency in the performance reporting of employees also enable the superiors to recognise their training needs. The second principles of performance management is keeping the performance data simple and authentic while reporting the superiors. The third principle is keeping in touch which refers to maintaining continuous communication with the managers. Metzger et al. (2015) point out that continuous communication establishes a more transparent and work-friendly work environment within business organisations. Li, Sarkar and Subhraveti (2015) can again be reiterated here to point out continuous communication actually depends on the level of honesty and transparency among employees. The fourth principle consists of engaging employees while achievement of goals while the fifth principle is utilising the team to achieve targets. Ghaffari et al.(2017) pointed out that engaging employees and utilising the team are closely related to participative leadership style. The seventh principle of building on the strengths of the employees can be interpreted as providing training to employees (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider 2015). The eighth principle is getting the appropriate talents or correct mix of employees. This results in more effective performance and achievement of target. The ninth and tenth principles mention that employees are performance oriented and like to be praised for their performances respectively. The eleventh principle mentions that superiors should inform their subordinates about their actual performances. Ghaffari et al.(2017) mention that having a clear picture about actual performances enable the subordinates take steps to improve their performances. Thus, in this respect it can be pointed out that the eleventh principle strengthens the tenth and ninth principles. While the previous principles emphasise on employees, the twelfth principle emphasises on machinery and equipment. The twelfth principle mentions that the apex management should acquire the appropriate plant and machinery to boost the performance of employees. This principle actually strengthens the third principle ‘keeping in touch’ (Kotabe and Kothari 2016). This is because the in business organisations, especially multinational organisations, technology plays important role in communication and organisational decision making. Thus, the twelfth principle, like its predecessors is aligned to bring about development in organisational performance. The thirteenth principle can be described as a summation of all the previous principles which mentions that individual performance of employees transpires into the performance of the organisation. The managers according to the fourteenth principle should set example before their subordinates to motivate the latter. The fifteenth principle is to perform highly and maintain a healthy competition among workers. It can be pointed out that to some extent this principle can be considered as an extension of the fourteenth principle (Narehan et al. 2014). This means that managers should not only motivate their employees but also ensure effective conflict management between them.

Plans for Implementing Operational Plans

The managers should determine and set certain criteria to measure the employee performances. The performance measurement standards should be both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Sadikoglu and Olcay (2014) mention that managers should set the targets and measure the performance of employees. They should also ensure that the employees preform ethically. The managers should involve the subordinates in making decisions to achieve targets and leading them towards embracing changes.

Part a. Critical assessment of just-in-time, value added chains and statistical process control:

Jumbo Score can combine just-in-time, value added chains and statistical process control to meet business objectives. Farooq, McCrory and Sazonov (2017) mention that business firms should use JIT to acquire raw materials in order to ensure that they have sufficient inventory but at the same time too much excess inventory which would affect their liquidity. Similarly, the managers should use statistical method to analyse the past inventory usage and make more accurate predictions regarding future requirements. They should uses value added chains and acquire inventory to meet the needs of the customers, thus adding value to the latter. Thus, the discussion can be closed by pointing out that a combination of the three techniques to boost their productivity of the company (Nahum-Shani et al., 2017).

References:

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