The operations management is an essential activity for the business of any organization. in order to ensure that a business operates well, it is essential to follow the country code of practice and law. This assignment highlights how the legislation of New Zealand and how the work place safety Act, consumer guarantees Act for the goods as well as the privacy Act are maintained and monitored by Foodstuff. Foodstuff is one of the largest grocery and liquor retailer in New Zealand. The capacity planning of Foodstuff has been highlighted in this assignment. Recommendations to manage the bottleneck have also been mentioned in this assignment. The aggregate scheduling and the various strategies that are commonly used have been highlighted along with the one that is appropriate for the company. Finally, a sustainability and waste management plan has been highlighted, such that the waste management could be done effectively, along with the effective sustainability. The importance of the capacity planning and the aggregate scheduling has also been mentioned in this report.
One of the most essential legislations that needs to be followed by Foodstuff is the health and safety at workplace. This essential legislation ensures that the employees could work safely in the business organization. The assurance of health and safety at the workplace is essential for the diligent work from the employees (Brandimarte & Villa, 2013). Moreover, according to Maslow, one of the motivations in the motivational pyramid is the safety needs of the employees. If the workplace is not a safe one, then the diligent work cannot be expected from the employees. In order to ensure that the workplace is a safe one, the safety measures of the company are monitored and reviewed from time to time.
Compliance with the health and safety at workplace legislation
The safety measures that are reviewed and monitored are as follows:
The safety hazards are a type of hazard that occurs commonly in any business organization, irrespective of the industry in which the company operates. These hazards include the fire hazards, anything that causes spills or tripping, unattended electrical wires. Moreover, the safety hazards also includes unguarded machineries and or moving objects that might cause harm to the human beings (“Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 | Worksafe”, 2017). Thus, in order to ensure that these hazards are not faced by the employees of Foodstuff fire safety measures are taken, with adequate supply of water. Moreover, the electrical gadgets need to be monitored such that they are safe to be used by the employees. The old and outdated electrical gadgets show be disposed such that they do not cause any accident to the employees.
Along with the safety hazards, biological hazards are also considered as workplace hazards. The biological hazards include spread of any virus or infection. The management of the company needs to ensure that if any employee is contaminated with any infectious disease, then he should be sent for leave such that the infection do not spread among the other employees (“Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 | Worksafe”, 2017). Moreover, the management of Foodstuff should ensure that insecticides and pesticides should be sprayed from time to time, such that the biological hazard of bacteria and virus along with insects and pests could be mitigated.
Physical hazards are also potential hazards that affect the effective working of the employees in the business organization. Physical hazards include the radiation from radio waves or microwaves, along with temperature extremes. If the workplace environment is maintained at a very hot or very cold temperature, then the employees cannot work efficiently, thus reducing the productivity of the business organization Foodstuff (“Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 | Worksafe”, 2017). Moreover, exposure to constant loud noise is also considered as a physical workplace hazard. Foodstuff ensures that such physical hazards are not caused at the workplace, such that the productivity of the business could be enhanced.
This type of hazard occurs if the type of work does not suit the body position or strains the body. The ergonomic hazards include the improper posture, awkward movement of the body or a particular kind of vibration that causes harm to the body (“Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 | Worksafe”, 2017). Thus, the ergonomic hazards are mitigated by Foodstuff such that the employees could work effectively without affecting their productivity.
The chemical hazards include the leakage of any poisonous gas along with vapours and fumes that comes from the exposure to solvents (“Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 | Worksafe”, 2017). Explosive chemicals that might be used in the business is kept in a separated and protected place such that the health and safety at the workplace could be ensured.
Ensuring that the work hazards are not faced by the employees of Foodstuff, ensures that the workplace discrimination and workplace violence do not occur. The company takes strict actions against the employees who engage in such activities (“Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 | Worksafe”, 2017).
Thus, the health and safety at the workplace Act is complied with by Foodstuff.
Compliance with the Consumer guarantees Act for Good/ Services
The Consumer guarantees Act for the Goods/ Services ensures that only the fresh goods and services are provided to the customers (“Consumer Guarantees Act | Consumer Protection”, 2017). Moreover, if any good or product is delivered damaged or found not in edible position then Foodstuff needs to return the products and compensate the customer with fresh and good products. However, in Foodstuff, the compliance with the consumer guarantees act for the goods and services are followed diligently (“Consumer Guarantees Act | Consumer Protection”, 2017).
Compliance with the Privacy Act
It is essential that the privacy of the customers are maintained by Foodstuff. Foodstuff maintains privacy in the buying details of the customers, along with ensuring the privacy of the payment details entered by the customers (Commissioner, 2017). The banking details or the card details is not shared with unauthorized personnel and hence the Privacy Act is complied with by Foodstuff.
As seen above Foodstuff, abides by the various legislations of New Zealand such as the health and safety at workplace Act, the consumer goods and services Act as well as the Privacy Act. As a result of compliance, the employees satisfaction is achieved. The employees of Foofstuff are motivated to work diligently and ensure that the customers are provided with the best possible services. Moreover, since Foodstuff abides by the legislations of New Zealand, hence the customers also achieve the customer satisfaction. Thus, Foodstuff is able to achieve employee retention and satisfaction, along with customer satisfaction and retention.
The standard labour hours in for Foodstuff are 80 hours per week and the employees worked for 92 hours per week. Hence, the efficiency = (80/92)*100
= 86.95% efficiency
One of the issues that are faced by Foodstuff that results in bottleneck is during the evening, when most of the people come to collect their groceries and liquors while returning from office. Moreover, most of the customers asking for home delivery, prefers the evening time, for their goods to be delivered at their doorsteps (Cherkasova et al., 2015). This is the time when bottleneck is created and the employees struggle hard to serve all the customers efficiently.
In order to remove the bottleneck during the evening hours, the following solutions are recommended:
In case of Foodstuff the level strategy is maintained. The employees are hired for the permanent positions and the company maintains a stable inventory. Moreover, the employee satisfaction and retention is also enhanced among the employees due to the use of this policy (Lehner, 2015). Thus, this appropriate strategy is used by Foodstuff in order to effectively ensure aggregate scheduling.
One of the most popularly used methods of aggregate scheduling is the graphical methods. This method is a popular method and is easy to understand. However, this is a trail and error method of aggregate scheduling and does not guarantee that optimal solution will be achieved (Martínez-Costa, Mas-Machuca & Lusa, 2013). This requires only a limited number of computation. The stages of the graphical methods are as follows:
In Foodstuff, the graphical method of aggregate scheduling is used for achieving enhancement in the business of the organization. In Foodstuff, the level strategy is used. The workforce remains constant with low level of hiring and firing.
The use of a constant workforce in Foodstuff is beneficial for the company. This is because, with a constant workforce, the employees are satisfied and are aligned to work diligently towards the fulfilment of the organizational goals (Liu & Papageorgiou, 2013). However, in case of additional work pressure, the strategy of overtime could be used among the constant workforce (Rothaermel, 2015). Moreover, if the workforce is constant, the employees will be motivated to work overtime. Thus, the productivity will be enhanced. However, sub-contracting among the constant workforce is also an effective strategy (Schneible, 2015). The strategy of hiring and firing is not an effective one. This is because, in constant hiring and firing, will de-motivate the employees and effective performance will not be obtained from such employees (Vijayan et al., 2014). Employee retention and employee satisfaction is not expected from the employees if Foodstuff uses the strategy of hiring and firing.
Sustainability is defined as the ability to maintain the business without causing depletion to the natural resources (Betz et al., 2015). Foodstuff ensures that the sustainability is taken care. In order to maintain sustainability, Foodstuffs ensures that organic raw materials are used and the grocery that is used is free from pesticides and insecticides (Furrer, 2016). The reduction in the use of energy and saving of water are some of the initiatives that are taken by Foodstuff as an initiative towards sustainability (Lebersorger & Schneider, 2014). Moreover, Foodstuff uses modern technology that reduces the carbon emission and hence sustainability is ensured. Sustainability is in global focus and the most modern trend in the business world. Hence, in order to take up a leadership position in the retail industry, Foodstuff has to ensure sustainability.
Management of the wastes has significance in Foodstuff since a lot of wastes are generated from the operations of the Foodstuff. The company takes various initiatives to use the organic wastes in landfills (Furrer, 2016). However, the plastic and non-organic wastes are recycled and used for other purposes. Thus, the sustainability and waste management is done effectively in Foodstuff (Wang, Rodrigues & Evans, 2015). The current global trends in the waste management includes the reuse of the wastes after recycling. Moreover, the ban in the use of the plastic containers and bottles also reduces the amount of wastes produced. Another global trend includes that the carbon emissions are passed through a treatment plant before it is emitted in the atmosphere. Thus, the waste management trends need to be followed by Foodstuff, such that the wastes could be effectively managed without polluting the environment.
Conclusion
Operations management has a key role to play in any business organization. This assignment highlights the compliance of the various legislations such as the Workplace health and safety Act, Privacy Act as well as the Consumer Goods and services Act. The compliance of these legislations are effective in the enhancement of the business of Foodstuff. The capacity planning of the company has been highlighted in this assignment along with identification of the areas of bottleneck. The areas of bottleneck include the heavy footfall in the evening. In order to manage the bottleneck, it is recommended that automation of the billing system be introduced, along with the automation of the home delivery of the goods and products. The level strategy in the aggregate planning is used by Foodstuff and constant workforce is effectively maintained. Finally, the importance of sustainability management and waste management is highlighted, along with the initiatives taken by the Foodstuff to ensure sustainability management.
References
Betz, A., Buchli, J., Göbel, C., & Müller, C. (2015). Food waste in the Swiss food service industry–Magnitude and potential for reduction. Waste Management, 35, 218-226.
Brandimarte, P., & Villa, A. (2013). Modeling manufacturing systems: from aggregate planning to real-time control. Springer Science & Business Media.
Cherkasova, L., Zhang, Q., Mathews, G., & Greene, W. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,135,075. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Commissioner, O. (2017). Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Introduction. Privacy.org.nz. Retrieved 31 May 2017, from https://www.privacy.org.nz/the-privacy-act-and-codes/privacy-act-and-codes-introduction/
Consumer Guarantees Act | Consumer Protection. (2017). Consumerprotection.govt.nz. Retrieved 31 May 2017, from https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/consumer-law-and-your-rights/consumer-guarantees-act/
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