MASTER OF BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION
Intake 01, Ho Chi Minh City

Subject code:

MGT508

Subject name:

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Assignment No:

01

Student Name:

NGUYEN HUY DUY KHANH

Student ID No.:

E1500219

STUDENT NAME

: NGUYEN HUY DUY KHANH

INTAKE

: 01

SUBJECT

: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

SUBJECT ID

: E1500219

VIETNAMESE LECTURER

: HUYNH THI THU SUONG

ASSIGNMENT No

: 01

WORD LIMIT

: 3,000

I would like to confirm that I have known and understood the examination regulations
of the University of HELP and I hereby undertake this exercise was done honestly and in
accordance with the regulations set out.
Date of Submission:
Signature

Note:
The teacher will not give marks for the assignment without signature.

The student will get mark 0 if violation of the above commitment

Acknowledgements

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ASSIGNMENT 1
Case 1
A.
Influence/
Physical
Evidence

Customer
Actions

Ticket
printing
machine

Customer
arrives

Customer
takes a ticket

Comfortable
chair

Customer
waits

Pharmacy
window

Customer
comes and
hands
prescription

Comfortable
chair

Customer
waits

Pharmacy
window

Customer
receives
prescription
and
guidance

Cashier
line

Customer
comes and
waits

POS
terminal,
member
card

Customer
pays for
prescription

Line of
Influence
Customer
leaves

Line of
Interaction
Onstage/
Front
Office

Pharmacist
prepares
prescription
and guidance

Pharmacist
reads
prescription

Cashier
receives
payment and
issues invoice
Line of
Visibility

Backstage/
Back
Office

Clerk
prepares
drug
Line of
Suppor

Support
Processes

Clerk
reports
drug out

Online credit/debit
card service, cash
register

B. Identify two opportunities for improving the overall process.

Two opportunities for improving the overall process include:

Offering Loyalty Cards to Customers

With the increasing cost of attracting new clients for the company it is ever more significant
for holding on to the ones it has and increasing sales to these clients. In simple terms, a loyalty
card program offers customers rewards and constant motivation for taking action and making
purchases from the business (Keller, 2001). The majority of customers in the present day provide
their customers some type of rewards program or loyalty card. Such programs are a highly
popular means of rewarding customers for their continual business. Additionally, for augmented
sales, loyalty cards are an established, vital marketing technique that makes possible for retailers
to recognize who exactly their customers are, what they buy and amount they are spending.

Market research constantly highlights that retaining present clients is simpler as compared to
attracting new ones (Keller, 2001). Rewards programs and Loyalty cards are chiefly used for
promoting customer retention as well as augment the sales level. Marketers and retailers realise
how essential loyalty cards are for encouraging customers to back up their brands and products
(repeated business) via specials, promotions and offers (target marketing). Moreover, loyalty
cards are basically custom branded and might hold a magnetic stripe as well as barcode. Further,
as fraction of a companys loyalty initiative, the customer offers their personal details to the
company, who would generally add them in the data base, and this data makes possible for the
retailer for marketing to the customer through way of direct mailing, SMS as well as other kinds
of advertising media (Keller, 2001). The company could custom develop a loyalty card for
suiting the particular requirements of the business. Likewise, Lum Pharmacy can enhance its
sales by issuing loyalty cards for its regular customers. This would offer them discounts and
offers on every visit.
Gift card (membership card) is one of the forms of help enterprises increase business
profitability and is the most effective marketing methods nowadays. Just give customers one
plastic card with sufficient information from the first service, and provide them with many
special incentive programs in the next time.
Style done pretty simple but brings many unexpected benefits to the enterprise:
Maintain and retain customers - program loyalty card is a reliable solution to retain
customers, encouraging them to continue to use the service through appropriate
reward mechanism and efficiency
Increase frequency - member card system to encourage customers to come back to
receive special offers from program to help businesses get more orders from
customers are available.
Increased awareness of the services clientele -Card also help enhance customer
awareness of corporate service by encouraging customers to use the service regularly
or trial services through various forms of benefits Deals.
Easy access to new customers - every customer when enjoying preferential policies
from the program will tend to introduce products that store for relatives and their

friends. Therefore, we can say, this is one of the easy ways and the most effective to
increase the accessibility of new customers to the store.
Easily manage customer information - through programs loyalty card, businesses can
easily track and analyze the buying habits of customers from which to easily adjust
appropriate policies for each customers as well as offer more appropriate care policies
to retain them.

Online Ticket Issuing

The feature of online ticket issuing would make possible for the customers to easily issue
ticket at the comfort of their home. The customers can then go accordingly as per their issued
ticket. This would help customers to save upon their time and avoid standing in line.
To help patients and family more convenient in work arrangements, customers can premedical history with your doctor. There are three ways to book:
Direct call to the customer care department through a 24/7 call center (848) 3910
4545
Or schedule a medical examination through online system timing for examination.
Or send Viber / Facebook Messenger to hotline 0906 309276
To book an appointment online, customer care staff our call back within 4 working hours to
confirm the appointment. In the case of the doctor's schedule or time frame you choose to
change, then we would suggest you switch doctors or more appropriate time frame.
In an emergency, customers should go directly to the clinic.
We only keep your appointment within 15 minutes after the appointment.
The appointment only to ensure priority over not make an appointment, we will try to keep
your appointment with the nearest set time.

Case 2
Place
Print
Hotel
Stage
Light
PR
Sell
Press
Day#

x
x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x
x

x
x

x
x

10

13

13

x
x

11

x
x

x
x

12

13

x
x

14

x
x
x
16

15

x
x
17

11

11

15

15

18

11

11

15

15

18

11

14

15

19

11

12

15

15

19

5
3

x
x
18

x
19

20

21

Place
Print
Hotel
Stage
PR
Light
Sell
Press
Day#

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

x
x

10

11

12

13

13

x
x

13

14

x
15

x
16

x
17

18

14

14

18

14

14

18

12

14

17

10

14

14

17

7
4

19

20

21

CPM/PERT for concert of J-rock band

Activity

Time estimates (days)

Name of job
Find a place
Print tickets
Arrange hotel and transportation
Hire stage-light-sound company
Contract PR firm
Check light-sound
Sell tickets
Hold press conference

Job #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Project variance
Standard deviation
CPM: 1-2-4-6
Z
P(1.51)

3,94
1,99
18 days
1,51
0,9345

m
3
1
5
4
2
3
1
2

b
4
3
8
5
3
4
4
3

93,45%

9
5
12
13
4
6
8
5

Mean time Variance

ES

EF

LS

LF

0
5
5
8
5
14
8
14

5
8
13
14
8
18
12
17

0
5
5
8
5
14
10
14

5
8
13
14
8
18
14
17

t
5
3
8
6
3
4
4
3

1,00
0,44
1,36
2,25
0,11
0,25
1,36
0,25

0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0

Case 3
Bob Raines and Megan Waters own and operate the Rainewater Brewery, a microbrewery that grew out of their shared hobby of making home-brew. The brewery is located
in Whitesville, the home of State University where Bob and Megan went to college. Whitesville
has a number of bars and restaurants that are patronized by students at State and the local
resident population. In fact, Whitesville has the highest per capita beer consumption in the state.
In setting up their small brewery, Bob and Megan decided that they would target their sales
toward individuals who would pick up their orders directly from the brewery and toward
restaurants and bars, where they would deliver orders on a daily or weekly basis. The brewery
process essentially occurs in three stages. First, the mixture is cooked in a vat according to a
recipe; then it is placed in a stainless-steel container, where it is fermented for several weeks.
During the fermentation process the specific gravity, temperature, and pH need to be monitored
on a daily basis. The specific gravity starts out at about 1.006 to 1.008 and decreases to around
1.002, and the temperature must be between 50 and 600F. After the brew ferments, it is filtered
into another stainless-steel pressurized container, where it is carbonated and the beer ages
for about a week [with the temperature monitored], after which it is bottled and is ready for
distribution. Megan and Bob brew a batch of beer each day, which will result in about 1,000
bottles for distribution after the approximately three-week fermentation and aging process.
In the process of setting up their brewery, Megan and Bob agreed that they had
already developed a proven product with a taste that was appealing, so the most important factor
in the success of their new venture would be maintaining high quality. Thus, they spent a lot of
time discussing what kind of quality-control techniques they should employ. They agreed that
the chance of brewing a bad, or spoiled, batch of beer was extremely remote, plus they could
not financially afford to reject a whole batch of 1,000 bottles of beer if the taste or
colour was a little off the norm. So they felt as if they needed to focus more on the process
control methods to identify quality problems that would enable them to adjust their
equipment, recipe, or process parameters rather than rejecting the entire batch.
At Rainewater, it is highly important to ensure that every single product produced meets
the set quality standards. The aim should be to meet consumer expectations and requirements.
Also, with having a global presence, it becomes important for the brand to regularly monitor its

quality management system. For example, the standard bottle of brew also has a number of
elements that need to be well checked and verified during the time of production itself. Some of
common checks include composition, packaging, distribution etc. Also, as a major part of testing
happens during the production process itself, it is responsibility of the staff at the company to
monitor progress and ensure hygienic production and packaging environment. Following such a
rigid check process, aids in identifying potential future problems and the way risk could be
mitigated as well as quality standards could be met (Kelemen, 2005). At the company, there
should happen inspection throughout the production process, especially in regards of the
production formula to ensure every product is as per the defined standards.
Moving ahead, the process of inspection can be defined as appropriate sampling of
products after production, so that corrective measures could be taken appropriately to maintain
the quality. Inspection method should be inscribed in the companys organizational process only
with an aim to minimize mistakes and meet high quality standards. This process can be easily
implemented and has low operational cost.
Besides this, the company should follow Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control
(QC) strongly as part of its production strategy. QA process emphasizes upon the overall
operational process and associated functions while QC is mainly connected with the production
line. But in both QA and QC, advanced computers verify different aspects of the production line,
ensure consistency and appropriate quality. This includes creation of the beverage bottles, fill
levels of drink in each bottle, labelling etc (Dale, 2007). QA is also linked to the quality of
goods supplied. For instance, sugar, water, flavours etc. The other aspect of QA is strong focus
upon staff training and ensuring that every employee completely understands operating the
machinery and importance of quality. There needs to be a well structure training module, which
every staff member needs to go through before being part of the production unit. Further,
operating machines also requires expertise staff, which can fix in case any problem arises.
There should be advance computer based check mechanisms, which ensure that every
bottle has right fill level, correct label and other information, including manufactured date, date
of expiry, place of manufacturing etc. And if any faulty product is found, it should be taken off
immediately from the production line. Further, the entire production line should be frozen if the

number of errors becomes high. The bottling plant at the company also should continuously
verify the utilisation level of the production unit through a scorecard technique. According to
Dale (2007), the scorecard techniques is an advanced mechanism to discover what percentage of
the production line is being actually utilised and thereby, offering managers to understand if an
increase in production could be beneficial.
Total Quality Management at the Rainewater
According to Keleman (2005) and Slack et. al. (2007), TQM is an approach and
management practice that aims to keep customers satisfied through different means, including
consistent leadership, continuous improvement, employee involvement etc. Some of the major
components of TQM include meeting the needs and expectations of customers, covering all parts
of the organisation, including every person in the organisation, examining all costs which are
related to quality, getting things right first time, developing systems and procedures which
support quality and improvement as well as developing a continuous process of improvement
(Slack et. al., 2007).
At Rainewater, TQM should involve strict quality management at different levels of the
organisation, including vendors, manufacturing, customers etc. This would aid company to
sustain competitive edge as well as maintain high level of customer satisfaction. The chief
objective of this approach is to improve quality of the products and eliminate weaknesses. As
part of the TQM process, the company should lay strong emphasis on the team work and
customer feedback.
The Production Process at Rainewater
At Rainewater, before manufacturing initiates on line, cleaning quality procedures should
be carried out to clean internal lines, equipment and machines. Moreover, this quality check
should be carried out for both product quality as well as hygiene purposes. When such checks are
carried out the manufacturing process could start. Additionally, Rainewater could make use of a
database system that allows them to execute line checks. For instance, each material should be
coded and every line should be provided, materials bill prior to the process begins. This would
make sure that proper materials are placed on the line. In the absence of such system, it would

not be possible to assess product quality at this high level. Further, other quality checks take in
packaging along with carbonation that is administered by an operator who makes a note of the
values to make sure that they are satisfying standards. So, as to check further product quality the
lab experts should perform more than 2000 spot checks each day to ensure consistency and
quality.
Customer Satisfaction
According to Beckford (2010), customer satisfaction is an important component of the
quality management process. At Rainewater, high attention should be paid to the customer
satisfaction process. Every bottle should have a unique code detailing production details. In case
of any fault or error, this unique code is entered into the production database and proper checks
are performed at that specific production plant. This is one of the means to gain customer trust in
terms of quality and safety. Rainewater also invests in the feedback mechanism where customers
are free to express their views upon taste, delivery, packaging etc (Dale, 2007).
Recommendations
Based upon the discussion in this paper, it is quite obvious that Rainewater should have a
productive and efficient quality management system. Nevertheless, few recommendations can be
put forward, which could be considered by Rainewater in both long-term and short-term. The
company has high level of uncertainty regarding the use of raw materials that are used during the
production process. This might not prove to be a problem right now however with raw material
supplies and availability becoming highly limited there could form pressure to make use of more
recyclable materials and resources. The corporation could be faced with criticism of health and
safety as well as packaging obligations that can have a negative impact on the social image of
Rainewater. As a result, the use of incessant enhancement is noteworthy conception in the
quality management framework along with the operations should search for the most recyclable
packaging available. Even though, this could help a lot in reducing their carbon footprint, distinct
materials might affect the products quality and the production. Further, this might not be the
most appropriate alternative financially during the short run but could enhance social image of
the company in the long-run.

References:
Beckford, J. L. W (2010) Quality: A Critical Introduction (3rd ed.), Routledge: London
Dale, B. G. (2007) Managing Quality (5th ed.), Blackwell Publications: Oxford
Kelemen, M. (2005) Managing Quality Managerial and Critical Perspectives, Sage
Publications Limited: London
Keller, K. (2001) Building Customer-Based Brand Equity, Marketing Management, Vol. 2, pp.
1519.
Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R. (2007) Operations Management (5th ed.), London:
Financial Times Prentice Hall
Taylor, J. (2004) Managing information technology projects: Applying project management
strategies to software, hardware, and integration initiatives, New York: AMACOM