Operations Management Report For Markeaton Park

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Module Assessment 2

Module Title: Applied Operations Management

Module Code: 5LO507

 

 

 

 

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The purpose of an Assignment is for students to be able to demonstrate that they have successfully achieved the module Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to: 1. Understand the operations function as a mechanism for competitive advantage. 2. Recognise the need to maintain and improve operations to meet demanding quality

standards and customer expectations 3. Understand the role of design, planning, control and improvement in the operations

function, and be able to apply this knowledge to practical workplace/case study situations

 

This is the Assessment guidance as produced in your Module Handbook.

Coursework 2: 70% (Learning Objective 1 and 3) Individual Assignment: Management Report on a real-world project, which provides a detailed theoretical and applied rationale/justification to support the outcomes backed up by recent scholarly books, articles, etc.

Individual, written 3000 words (+/- 10%) assignment which will include the review and evaluation of operations function and recommendations for improvement.

OV E R V I E W In Coursework 1 (CW 1) you have applied your knowledge to the case study/scenario presented. CW1 provided you with an opportunity to understand the application of theoretical knowledge to real-life scenarios. The case/scenario was presented in a structured manner with information/data provided. The expectation was that you will apply specific theoretical knowledge to the provided scenarios.

In Coursework 2 (CW 2) you are presented with a real-life case where you are provided with basic information about the rationale, purpose and scope of the study subject. You are expected to apply the breadth of your knowledge obtained throughout this course and conduct both the online and in-field research to further expand your understanding of the operational aspect of the case presented. In result, you will provide a comprehensive analysis with academic underpinning and recommendations. It is expected that you will spend a total of 30 hours on this research. This time could include, but is not limited to: • Assignment briefing • Q & A session regarding the task, with client/ tutors • Site Visits • Competitor analysis • Skills analysis (Skills that you have developed during this module and specifically by doing CW2)

You should structure your thoughts in a logical manner and present them professionally in a written document. Your answers should not exceed a total of 3000 Word limit (+/- 10%). Word limit excludes Table, Figures and charts.

D E A D L I N E F O R S U B M I S S I O N CW 2 Individual written work must be submitted via Turnitin by 8th May 2020 (05:00 PM) Marked work will be available to view with comments through Turnitin in 3 weeks after the submission date.

 

 

 

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Case Study: The Markeaton Park Project Markeaton Park (including the Mundy Play Centre) is Derby’s most visited and heavily used park and one of the most visited destinations in the East Midlands area, with a wide range of recreational and sporting facilities and attractions. In recent years, the Craft Village has gained a major uplift and all the units are occupied by different businesses. The Community Room is used as a base for a range of events and can be hired. Bookings have already been taken for two art exhibitions this year along with workshops and other public and private training and conferences. Park’s management has applied for Brown Signage at the road for the Craft Village, so more people driving nearby will know and could potentially visit.

The park retains a good reputation as a place to visit and attracts around 1.6 million visits annually while hosting over 100 different events throughout a year. Some of the key events are: • One of the biggest Park-Run in all of the East-Midlands. It attracts over 600 participants weekly. • An Outdoor Theatre & Cinema programme offers something for everyone and the 4 nights of

cinema was a sell-out in 2019 after adding an extra night. • Formerly known as “The Rose Garden” this area has been adopted by an organisation known as

‘Making Spaces’. They provide health and social care services. This is now called “Capability Garden”, created for people living with dementia, their families and carers.

Operational Aspects/Challenges: Park’s operations management span from range of different processes/functions such as maintenance of grounds and facilities, ensuring the seasonality factor on available activities for people, managing the layout of the park, smooth flow, ensuring for the craft village space to be occupied in effective way, engaging with community, capacity management, events planning and management, etc. Some of the key current and upcoming challenges for the park are, but are not limited to: 1. A-38 will be undergoing major improvements starting 2021 and is expected to complete

in 4 years. Since the park has one of the major access points through A38, the management is concerned as to,

• How to keep the Park busy and accessible? • How to ensure that Visitor’s number would not decline but rather increase? • What will be the impact of this on the businesses in Craft Village and how to

avoid/manage this impact? 2. Park has limited budget overall and thus limited budget for Marketing. What possible

ways the management can increase the Park’s visibility and engage with people of all ages and abilities?

3. Park’s management would also like to expand their knowledge as to how people access the park (bike, cycle, walk, car) and what they think about the park, such as its accessibility, facilities, and how they can be improved.

4. Park wants to attract people of all ages and abilities, for this purpose are current facilities, and attractions good enough or do they need improvement? If so what and to what outcome?

 

 

 

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5. The slow decline in horticulture standards and features such as loss of herbaceous borders and bedding, indicating a reduced level of care by the Council.

Some of the continued challenges for Markeaton Park are, • To increase visitor numbers throughout the year. • To increase the income that can be used to reinvest in the park in improved

maintenance and management and provision of a higher quality of facilities. • To protect and improve the parks historic and natural fabric.

 

Please note that the above-mentioned challenges/issues are just a few to trigger your analytical thinking. You must not limit yourself to these only but utilise the knowledge gained through the course and apply different models (such as Value Chain analysis, ITO or IPO model, etc.)

A Way Forward? The Council submitted a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund under the Parks for People programme http://www.hlf.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx. The award was for a grant of around £2.4 million towards a project costing around £3.4 million and was confirmed in December 2012. The Council, therefore, spent the money on improving various aspects of the Park. Details of Markeaton Park and the improvements proposed can be found at http://www.derby.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/parks-and-open-spaces/markeaton- park/ Following this success, the Council will continue to look at other funding streams to finance future improvements.

The Council have done well to obtain past funding – only around 20% of applications for funding actually succeed. Thus, with future funding, it has to make sure that it creates a successful and sustainable leisure facility for the future.

One of the key outcomes is to increase the amount of revenue funding generated by the park that can be used to support improvements to the park’s management, maintenance and infrastructure. There are three existing important sources of revenue: car parking, the craft village rents and income from the pay to use facilities in Mundy Play Centre.

Background Information Detailed Information about Markeaton Park and the Mundy Play Centre can be found on http://www.derby.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/parks-and-open- spaces/markeaton-park/ Useful Web-sites Derby City Council website: http://www.derby.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/parks- and-open-spaces/markeaton-park/

Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211224912365347794408.00047c6d7cb6aaad270 d6&msa=0&ll=52.934465,-1.502037&spn=0.009351,0.019205

Mundy Play Centre: http://www.derby.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/parks-and-open- spaces/markeaton-park/mundy-play-centre/

 

 

 

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Survey Results from 2009

 

 

 

1. How often do you visit Markeaton Park?

121

546

1099

654

178 136 99 74 0

200 400 600 800

1000 1200

Almost every day

At least once a week

About once a month

Once in 6

months

Once a year

Less than

once a year

Never No answer

Frequency of visits

N o.

o f r

es po

nd en

ts

2. If you visit, how long would you usually stay?

275

1603

699

170 144 17

0

500

1000

1500

2000

Less than 1 hour

1-2 hours 2-4 hours All day No answer More than 1 answer

Length of visit

N o.

o f r

es po

nd en

ts

3. How do you get to Markeaton Park?

879

103

1542

82

149 147 6

Foot Cycle Car Public Transport More than 1 answer No answer Missing

 

 

 

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4. Who would you go to Markeaton Park with?

2281

1356

492 551 101 237

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Family Friends Dog On your own

Team/Club No answer

Categories of visitors

N o.

o f r

es po

nd en

ts

5. What do you tend to come to Markeaton Park for?

1566

1881

454

506

575

782

1064

981

793

1143

66

1366

913

121

641

196

266

72

1156

1349

839

394

403

234

43

104

0 500 1000 1500 2000

Relaxing

Walking

Cycling

Dog walking

Exercising

Meet Friends

Events

Picnics

Wildlife/Nature

Feed ducks

Fishing

Mundy Play Centre

Paddling Pool

Wheeled Sports

Pitch and Putt

Play Tennis

Play Football

Play Cricket

Craft Village

Café/Kiosk

Steam train

Road Train

Rowing Boats

Watch/use model boats

Other

No answer

A ct

iv iti

es

No. of respondents

These activites are removed now and new ones are introduced such as Foot Golf and Disk Golf.

 

 

 

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11. Do you live in Derby?

2650

175

Yes No

13. How old are you?

158 102

1087 898

578

6 81

0 200 400 600 800

1000 1200

0 – 15 16 – 24 25 – 44 45 – 64 65+ More than 1

answer

No answer

Age ranges

N o.

o f r

es po

nd en

ts

Q15. Do you consider yourself to have any long- term illness, health problems or disability, which

limits daily activities or the work you can do?

376

2365

157

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Yes No No answ er

Respondent response

No . o

f r es

po nd

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Your Assignment You will produce an Individual Management Report for the Managers of Markeaton Park about certain key operational aspects of the park and project. Your focus must be on providing knowledge about the current operations of the park and suggestions to improve some of these. In particular, Section 1 (see below) is designed for you to provide the Managers of the park with knowledge about how the park currently operates and its analysis. On the other hand, in Section 2 you will provide suggestions regarding how various aspects of the park can be improved and to what outcome. Your analysis and plans need to be underpinned by relevant ‘operations theory’ to support your arguments.

1. As an initial step, you are required to investigate and discuss various operational aspects of Markeaton Park. To do this, you will: a) Identify and discuss what you may consider the most important:

• Inputs (including the transforming and transformed resources), • Transformational operation/process, • Outputs (pure products, a mixture of products and services, pure services) of the park’s

operations b) Conduct the value chain analysis and define the importance/impact of different

stakeholders. c) Identify and briefly discuss the effectiveness of the capacity planning strategy that you

consider Managers of the Markeaton Park may be following d) Identify and briefly discuss the effectiveness of the Markeaton Park layout

As part of this section, and indeed the whole assignment, you must carry out some actual field research to support the ideas presented. One important piece of information currently lacking is quantitative information on where people access the park, how they move around it, congregate and use particular areas of the park. You are required to collect some data about this in a systematic way. You are encouraged to gather this information by visiting, observing and collecting data in groups*. It would be really useful if this data could be collated so that you get a good picture of how the Park is used, How the data is used is up to individuals concerned, but you must all be involved in this. (40 % marks) *NOTE: Group work is for data collection ONLY. Analysis, development of suggestion and writing the assignment is all individual work.

2. You are required to make recommendations to improve the operations of Mundy Play Centre, Craft Village, and Markeaton Park. These recommendations could include, but are not limited to, improvements and addition of facilities, activities, and attractions. Your proposals must generate positive income for the Park. (Do not spend time writing about the things that are being done. Explore new attraction and approaches, which are not covered in their existing plans.) Your recommendations should also address the challenges mentioned in the case study description. (40 % marks)

 

3. Professional presentation and format – appropriate academic citations, references, etc. (10% marks)

 

4. Provide a 250 words description about your Skills Development during this module and specifically by undertaking the Course Work 2. (10% marks)

 

 

 

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Submission Guidance Please make sure to submit your work on-time through Turnitin submission point. No late submission will be accepted. Visit www.derby.ac.uk/esub for guidance on electronic submission of assignments. Support/ Feedback During your seminars/tutorials you will receive helpful and formative Feedback (oral) from a range of stakeholders:

• from your tutors • from your fellow group members • from your Module Leader

Assessment Criteria

In completing the assessments, you need to demonstrate all of the following skills:

 Application of academic concepts to practical situations

 Critical awareness and analysis of the ideas that you explore

 Data Analysis: Demonstrates skill in data analysis and use of relevant tools

 Problem Identification: Demonstrates an understanding of Problem Definition and

reflective analysis of research.

 Synthesis and presentation of key ideas

 Evaluation of complex matters

 Integration of ideas and practice in a cross-disciplinary manner

 Presentation of key concepts/ideas Plagiarism and Collusion You are reminded that plagiarism and collusion are considered serious offences and contravene University of Derby regulations. If your work is found to be plagiarized, or it has been found that you have colluded this is likely to result in failing the minimum standards and learning outcomes within the module and further action could be taken. If you are unsure of the University regulations it is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with them. The regulations can be found in the University of Derby Academic Regulations (3R’s) at www.derby.ac.uk/academic-regulations Remember: All coursework should be submitted on time. There are no opportunities to submit work as late. Even if you submit an EEC request you should submit the coursework you have already completed to that date by the deadline. The only exception is if a student has a support plan and agreed extra time to complete work.

 

 

 

 

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Undergraduate marking scale This scale applies to Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the University Credit Framework. The descriptors are typical characteristics of the standard of work associated with each range of marks. The descriptors are illustrative and for guidance only. They are not comprehensive.

% Mark Mark Descriptors

70- 100%

Excellent Outstanding; high to very high standard; a high level of critical analysis and evaluation, incisive original thinking; commendable originality; exceptionally well researched; high quality presentation; exceptional clarity of ideas; excellent coherence and logic. Trivial or very minor errors. For the highest marks (90 – 100%): an exceptional standard of work illustrating thorough and in-depth understanding, communicated with exceptional authority.

Fi rs

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60-69% Very good A very good standard; a very good level of critical analysis and evaluation; significant originality; well researched; a very good standard of presentation; commendable clarity of ideas; thoughtful and effective presentation; very good sense of coherence and logic; minor errors only. S

ec on

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50-59% Good A good standard; a fairly good level of critical analysis and evaluation; some evidence of original thinking or originality; quite well researched; a good standard of presentation; ideas generally clear and coherent, some evidence of misunderstandings; some deficiencies in presentation. Se

co nd

D

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40-49% Satisfactory A sound standard of work; a fair level of critical analysis and evaluation; little evidence of original thinking or originality; adequately researched; a sound standard of presentation; ideas fairly clear and coherent, some significant misunderstandings and errors; some weakness in style or presentation but satisfactory overall.

Th ir

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35-39% Unsatisfactory Overall marginally unsatisfactory; some sound aspects but some of the following weaknesses are evident; inadequate critical analysis and evaluation; little evidence of originality; not well researched; standard of presentation unacceptable; ideas unclear and incoherent; some significant errors and misunderstandings. Marginal fail.

M ar

gi na

l Fa

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21-34% Poor Below the pass standard; a poor critical analysis and evaluation; virtually no evidence of originality; poorly researched; presentation unacceptable and not up to graduate standard; ideas confused and incoherent, some serious misunderstandings and errors. A clear fail, short of pass standard.

 

1-20% Very poor Well below the pass standard, with many serious errors. Standard of presentation totally unacceptable, incoherent and may be severely under- length. No evidence of evaluation or application. A very clear fail, well short of the pass standard.

Fa il NS Non-submission

No work has been submitted.

Z Academic offence notation Applies to proven instances of academic offence.