Assignment Brief (Summative Assessment)

Assignment front sheet

Qualification Unit number and title

BTEC Level 4 HNC in Business (Pearson) UNIT4: Management and Operations

Student name Assessor name

Mostain Belal
Date issued Completion date(s) Submitted on:

01/02/2018

Qualification BTEC Level 4 HNC in Business (Pearson)

Unit Number and Title UNIT4: Management and Operations

Unit Tutor Mostain Belal

Internal Verifier Chad Manian Date Verified 01/02/2018

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 Assignment Brief (Summative Assessment)

Assignment Title Management and Operations at Toyota Plc.

Issue Date 12/02/2018 Submission Date

Learning Outcomes Vocational Scenario (Context/Background)

LO1: Differentiate between the role of a leader and the
function of a manager.
The aim of this assessment is to help students understand the difference
between the function of a manager and the role of a leader. Students will
consider the characteristics, behaviours and traits which support effective
management and leadership. In addition, this unit will introduce the
concept of operations as both a function and a process which all
organisations must adopt to conduct business.

Students will be introduced to contemporary and historical theories and

LO2: Apply the role of a leader and the function of a
manager in given contexts.
concepts which will support their learning for this unit.
This paper consists of two tasks; writing essay, writing a business report
This assignment explores the case of Toyota Motor Company. Toyota is
the world’s largest automobile manufacturer with a market capitalisation
exceeding that of General Motors, Ford, Daimler Chrysler, Honda and
Nissan combined, even before the economic crisis. It is also among the 10
most profitable companies in the world and is acknowledged as a major
innovator, having introduced or championed many of the manufacturing
and quality management concepts that have since come to be recognised

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LO3: Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and
managers play in the operations function of an
organisation.
UNIT4: Management and Operations. Assignment Brief (Summative Assessment)
Issue – Feb 2018
as best practice (e.g., Just In Time, Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing etc.).
It started as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works in 1933. This
division was under the leadership of Kiichiro Toyoda. The company was
renamed as The Toyota Motor Co. in 1937. In 1947, two years after the
war had ended Toyota came up with a prototype for a small car, a segment
that the American automakers had ignored. In 1949, this type of car
released for the first time in Japan and was able to give a maximum speed
of 54 miles per hour. The condition of the Japanese economy was in bad
shape with rising costs and high inflation. But Toyota went ahead to
produce as many cars as it possibly could. It produced cars worth $3.5
million but could sell only worth $2.5 million.
In 1980 Toyota went on to become the second highest car producer in the
world behind General Motors which it maintained for close to 30 years. In
1984 Toyota joined hands with General Motors to begin a joint venture
called New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI). This enabled
Toyota to start its production in the U.S. In 2000 for the first time Toyota’s
production exceeded 5 million units worldwide. Toyota’s bestselling car has
been the Toyota Corolla which was released in 1966. As of 2013, more
than 40 million Toyota Corolla’s have been sold worldwide. As of 2012,
Toyota’s production output is in excess of 9,900,000 and has yearly
revenues of $225 billion.
Through the latter part of the 20th century, Toyota posted an enviable
record of growth, profits, and customer satisfaction. Its market valuation of
over $200 billion illustrated how operational excellence could be the
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LO4: Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship
between leadership and management in a contemporary
business environment
UNIT4: Management and Operations. Assignment Brief (Summative Assessment)
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cornerstone of industry-leading value creation and capture, and its vaunted
Toyota Production System (TPS) was the envy of many manufacturing
companies around the world.
Continuous operational excellence throughout the journey is attributed to
its business success. Toyota invented the concept of Just in Time in 1938
(often described as ‘Just in time, stop the line’). The objective was not
simply to reduce inventory, as is often thought, but to avoid building up too
much stock with defects which would have to be written off or corrected.
Just in Time and this culture of quality evolved into the Toyota Production
System and it’s more generic equivalent, Lean Manufacturing, which is the
benchmark for manufacturing organisations across the globe. Toyota
introduced Total Quality Management (TQM) as long ago as 1961 and was
the first to introduce ‘Kaizen’ (lit. ‘Improvement’) to represent the concept of
continuous improvement. These concepts and the associated culture are
practiced in every aspect of Toyota’s operations, including information
systems.
Sources:
Fine, C.H., Rosenfield, D., Bonini, J. 2017. Toyata Supplier Relations, MIT
Management Sloan School, available at:
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?
sourcedoc=/LearningEdge/CaseDocs/08-060.Toyota%20Supplier
%20Relations.A.Fixing%20the%20Suprima
%20Chassis.Fine.Rosenfield.FINAL.pdf&action=default [Accessed on 24th
Jan 2018].
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1Tech, n.d. Toyota invest in 1Tech’s process engineering expertise,

Available at: https://www.1tech.eu/clients/casestudy_toyota1?
menu_type=menu_by_industry [Access on 24th Jan 2018]

Task 1 Covers LO1: Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager. LO2: Apply the role of a
leader and the function of a manager in given contexts.

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 Assignment Brief (Summative Assessment)

Scenario: Being a Junior Manager at Toyota head office in the

UK. In order to create information for trainee staff, your line
manager have asked you to write an essay in which you:

Define and compare the different roles and characteristics of a

modern leader and a manager in general context. P1

Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the function

of a manager apply in different situational contexts in Toyota.
P2

Apply different theories and models of approach, including

situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency by
giving clear examples from case study. P3

Note: you should use the context of Toyota in all your

assignment

Task guidance: Your essay should include the following

points:

P1
✓ Provide two academic definitions of leader;
✓ Provide two academic definitions of manager;
✓ Explain (with relevant examples) the similarities and

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differences between a Modern Leader and a Manager in

the case company.

P2
✓ Think of different situational contexts (e.g., deal with
uncertainty, strategy formulation, goal settings, etc.) in
the case company; and then examine those situations
to show how the role of a leader and functional of a
manager react into those particular situations.

P3
✓ Application of leadership and management theories:
(e.g., select a theory and explain with examples how it
could be applied to different operational situations in the
case company.) You must consider situational
leadership, system leadership and contingency
leadership.

Merits and Distinctions criteria

To Achieve M1 you need to:

Analyse and differentiate between the role of a leader and

function of a manager by effectively apply range of relevant
theories and concepts. You must present some scenarios from

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the case company and analyse them underpinned by relevant

theories and management concepts.

To Achieve M2 you need to:

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches

to situations within the work environment. You must present
some relevant scenarios (relating to different management and
leadership approaches) in the case company and evaluate the
strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

To Achieve D1 you need to:

Critically analyse and evaluate the different theories and

approaches to leadership in given contexts. You must criticise
the theories and management approaches applied in the case
company using different views from management scholars and
industry professionals using desk research.

Submission Format Essay format

Criteria Covered P1 P2 P3 M1 M2 D1

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Task 2 Covers LO3 Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders and managers play in the operations function of an
organisation and LO4 Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between leadership and management in a contemporary
business environment.

Scenario: As part of your junior management position, you need to

produce a report illustrating the role leaders and managers play in
the operations function of Toyota UK as well as examining the
relationship that leadership and management have in the context of
corporate social responsibility; culture, values, ethics and
sustainability. Your report should address the following:

Explain the key approaches to operations management used by

Toyota and the role that leaders and managers play in working of
these approaches. P4

Explain the importance and value of operations management in

achieving business objectives of Toyota. P5

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Assess the factors within the business environment of the company   
that impact upon operational management and decision-making by
leaders and managers. P6

Task Guidance:

Your report should include the following points:

P4

✓ You could think of different key management approaches

such as Six Sigma, Lean Production, TQM, JIT, etc; you must
explain the role of a leader and a manager in executing each
of the management approach identified in the case company.
P5

✓ You could think of different aspects of operations

management such as Control and Distribution system,
Process design, Capacity management, Logistics and
inventory management etc.; you must explain the importance
and value of each of the aspect of management operations in
the case company.
P6

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✓ Explain how a particular type of relationship between

leadership and management (think of different leadership
styles) works in developing CSR, culture, values, ethics and
sustainability goals in the case company;
✓ Explain how the leaders in the case company maintain
relationships with the internal and external stakeholders to
meet their expectations in the context of encouraging,
developing and sustaining entrepreneurship and
intrapreneurship.

Merits and Distinctions Criteria

To Achieve M3 you need to:

Evaluate how leaders and managers can improve efficiencies of

operational management to successfully meet business objectives.
You must present some relevant scenarios in the case company to
evaluate how leaders and managers could improve operational
efficiency applying relevant operational parameters (e.g., JIT,
Continuous improvement, TQM, etc) to achieve operational
excellence linked to the successful achievement of the business
objective.

To Achieve M4 you need to:

Analyse how these different factors affect the business environment

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and wider community. You must present examples from the case
company to analyse the impact (either positive/negative) of CSR,
culture, values, ethics and sustainability on the business environment
and wider community.

To Achieve D2 you need to:

Critically evaluate the application of operations management and

factors that impact on the wider business environment. You must
present different scenarios from the case companies to evaluate how
different operations management approaches (e.g., Lean, JIT, TQM
etc) and other factors (e.g., ethics, sustainability etc.) have an impact
on wider business environment. You could consider the relevant
internal and/or external stakeholders while evaluating the impact of
those management and operational factors.

The submission is in the form of an individual written report.

This report should be presented in a concise business report
style, using single spacing and front size 12. You are required to
make effective use of headings, paragraphs and subsections as
appropriate in your report.

Submission Format Report Format

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Criteria Covered P4, P5, P6, M3, M4 and D2

Sources of information to support you with this assignment

HILL, A and HILL, T. (2011) Essential Operations Management. London: Palgrave.

PETTINGER, R. (2007) Introduction to Management. 4th Ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

SLACK, N., BRANDON-JONES, A. and JOHNSTON, R. (2013) Operations Management. 7th Ed. Harlow: Pearson.

SCHEDLITZKI, D. and EDWARDS, G. (2014) Studying Leadership: Traditional and Critical Approaches. London: SAGE.

Additional Reading

Explore the relevant case studies and texts provided on (Google Classroom: https://classroom.google.com/o/ODg2OTg5NTE4N1pa )

Journals

Journal of Operations Management

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
International Journal of Production Economics
Production planning and control

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Web Links

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-business/leadership-management/understanding-operations-management/content-section-0?active-
tab=description-tab

https://asq.org/

http://www.poms.org/

http://www.euroma-online.org/

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Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria

Pass Merit Distinctions

LO1 Differentiate between the role of a leader and the function of a manager

P1 Define and compare the different roles and characteristics M1 Analyse and differentiate between the role of a leader LO1 & 2
of a modern leader and a manager. and function of a manager by effectively apply range of
theories and concepts.

LO2 Apply the role of a leader and the function of a manager in given contexts.
D1 Critically analyse and
P2 Examine examples of how the role of a leader and the M2 Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different
evaluate the different
function of a manager apply in different situational contexts. approaches to situations within the work environment.
theories and approaches to
leadership in given contexts.

P3 Apply different theories and models of approach, including

situational leadership, systems leadership and contingency.

LO3 Demonstrate an appreciation of the role leaders

and managers play in the operations function of an LO3 & 4

organisation

P4 Explain the key approaches to operations management M3 Evaluate how leaders and managers can improve
and the role that leaders and managers play. efficiencies of operational management to successfully

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meet business objectives. D2 Critically evaluate

P5 Explain the importance and value of operations application of operations

management in achieving business objectives.
management and factors that
LO4 Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship impact on the wider business
environment.
between leadership and management in a contemporary business environment

P6 Assess the factors within the business environment that M4 Analyse how these different factors affect the business
impact upon operational management and decision-making environment and wider community.
by leaders and managers.

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