Unit:

Principles of Business Operations

Assignment title:
Analysing Business Operations
20 credit version
Spring - Winter 2021

Important notes
• Please refer to the Assignment Presentation Requirements for advice on how
to set out your assignment. These can be found on the NCC Education
website. Click on ‘Policies & Advice’ on the main menu and then click on
‘Student Support’.
• You must read the NCC Education documents What is Academic
Misconduct? Guidance for Candidates and Avoiding Plagiarism and
Collusion: Guidance for Candidates and ensure that you acknowledge all the
sources that you use in your work. These documents are available on the
NCC Education website. Click on ‘Policies & Advice’ on the main menu and
then click on ‘Student Support’.
• You must complete the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work. The form
is available on the NCC Education website. Click on ‘Policies & Advice’ on
the main menu and then click on ‘Student Support’.
• Please make a note of the recommended word count. You could lose marks
if you write 10% more or less than this.
• You must submit a paper copy and digital copy. Media containing viruses, or
media that cannot be run directly, will result in a fail grade being awarded for
this assessment.
• All electronic media will be checked for plagiarism.
Introduction

This assignment requires you to demonstrate knowledge and skills you have acquired
throughout the course of this module, by producing a 4,000 word, fully referenced,
academic report that addresses the tasks given below.

In order to complete the assignment, you will need to choose an appropriate international
heavy manufacturing organisation to research, and on which to base your responses to
the given tasks. The organisation can be selected from any heavy industrial sector, such
as aerospace, shipbuilding, steel, construction, mining, chemical, energy, , etc.

You can use web resources to enable you to understand your selected organisation,
although do not limit yourself solely to web-based sources of information. You should also
use academic, industry and other reliable sources.

Example Scenario (not to be used by the student)

Morgan Motor Company

In 2019, the last remaining British family-owned car manufacturer was sold to the Italian
investment organisation, Inverstindustrial. While family members retained a shareholding
and employees and management also received shares in the deal, it potentially signifies a
future change in direction for the organisation, which has been producing hand-crafted
cars in Malvern, England for over a hundred years.

Morgan Motor Company was founded in 1909 by Henry Morgan. Morgan wanted a cheap
and easy means of commuting to his automotive workshop in the next town, and therefore
designed and developed a three-wheel vehicle solely for that purpose. Interest in the
vehicle was immediately raised among family, friends and the local community and
therefore production facilities were quickly established. That tradition of producing
bespoke, hand-crafted motor vehicles has continued over its 110-year history.

In an industry dominated by several large automotive manufacturers, producing large-

scale, standardised vehicles on highly automated production lines, the Morgan Motor
Company continues to embrace traditional materials and craft skills to produce original
vehicles for a discerning client market. However, those traditional craft skills are
increasingly being fused with cutting-edge techniques.

Every Morgan car begins life in the chassis shop, where, for the CX-generation vehicles, a
bonded aluminium platform is assembled. From this, a core framework built from ash wood
is made. Ash wood has always been a preferred material for the car’s frame, since it is
flexible to work with, and balances strength and durability, while at the same time it is
lightweight, to support the car’s racing credentials. It also is an environmentally friendly
product, which is important. Nonetheless, the forming of the frame is time-consuming,
utilising a traditional process of steaming combined with wooden jigs, to adjust the frame
to the desired shape. The subsequent aluminium panels fixed to the frame are now an
intricate fusion of tradition and technology, with laser-cut aluminium panels being melded
with hand-finished techniques to ensure a perfect fit and add the external detailing. Each
cockpit typically takes over 30 hours to complete, with skilled leather fitters using specialist
tools, to provide a high-quality, hand-finish. The vehicle is painted using the latest paint
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spraying techniques to ensure a perfect, consistent finish. Here, a client can select colours
not from a standard range, but to match personal taste and requirements.

With every vehicle hand-crafted to a customer’s precise requirements, it means that

production capacity is about 800 cars per year. There has always been a family-friendly
working environment at Morgan, with skills and traditional production practices passed on
to family members through the generations. Family connections are therefore significant
among the 190 employees. Morgan has a heritage of partnerships with suppliers of
components for its cars, notably a twenty-year plus relationship with BMW, to supply the
powertrains that drive Morgan cars, and this is likely to continue, at least for the
foreseeable future.

The sale of the Morgan Motor Company to Investindustrial however, signifies a potential
change in the business’s direction. The global car industry is at a crossroads at the
moment, with manufacturers facing tougher emissions legislation, and a societal push
towards more fuel-efficient and greener vehicles. It is also felt that autonomous vehicles
will become more commonplace. Faced by this increasingly challenging operating
environment, Morgan has potentially looked to external investment to not only increase
production capacity, but also help develop and manufacture vehicles to meet those future
market demands.

https://www.morgan-motor.com/about-morgan/
https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/morgan/investindustrial-takeover/
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/geneva-motor-show/morgan-has-new-owners-heres-
what-means-future
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47455999
https://www.pesmedia.com/morgan-motor-company-acquired-investindustrial-european-
investment-group/
https://gearpatrol.com/2018/04/27/profile-morgan-motor-company-modern-vintage/
https://luxurylondon.co.uk/drive/motoring/morgan-motors-car-company-factory
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/automotive/publications/eascy.html

Do NOT use Morgan Motor Company as the basis of your assignment. This is just an
example. You must choose the organisation yourself.

Please note, this assignment must be your own work as it is designed to test your abilities.

Submitted assignments will be checked for plagiarism. For more information, please refer
to NCC Education’s Academic Misconduct Policy, which can be found on the website.

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Aim
You are required to answer the FIVE (5) tasks below, in relation to your chosen
organisation. For each task, you must fully justify your answer using evidence from your
research.

Task 1 (LO1)– 20 Marks

Assess the key operations activities of the chosen organisation, and how these have
changed over time.

Task 2 (LO2)– 20 Marks

Examine how new technologies are used in supporting the organisation’s value chains.

Task 3 (LO3)– 20 Marks

Examine how the organisation’s production processes are linked to the design of the
goods being created.

Task 4 (LO4)– 20 Marks

Assess the organisation’s need for accurate resource planning and scheduling of
operations.

Task 5 – 20 Marks
a) Discuss the benefits of Lean operations to your chosen organisation

b) Evaluate the learning that you have undertaken in order to complete this
assignment, using the Gibbs reflective cycle (1988) model. Based upon your
learning, you should reflect on each element of the model in order to produce an
action plan, examining what you would do if this happened again.

Guidance
Consult with your tutor if you are uncertain about any aspect of this assignment.

Submission requirements
You must submit a word-processed report.

Your report should answer Tasks 1 to 5. The word count for your report is 4000 words.

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Candidate checklist
Please use the following checklist to ensure that your work is ready for submission.

Have you read the NCC Education documents What is Academic Misconduct?
Guidance for Candidates and Avoiding Plagiarism and Collusion: Guidance for
Candidates and ensured that you have acknowledged all the sources that you have ❑
used in your work?
Have you completed the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work form and
attached it to your assignment? You must do this. ❑
Have you ensured that your work has not gone over or under the recommended
word count by more than 10%? ❑
Have you ensured that your work does not contain viruses and can be run directly? ❑

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