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BB215010S Systems and Operations Management

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Lord Ashcroft International Business School

Systems and Operations Management

Department: Accounting and Information Systems Module Code: BB215010S Academic Year: 2011/12 Semester/Trimester: Two


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Contents 1. Key Information ..................................................................................................... 2 2. Introduction to the Module ..................................................................................... 2 3. Intended Learning Outcomes ................................................................................. 3 4. Outline Delivery ..................................................................................................... 4

4.1 Attendance Requirements ............................................................................... 6 5. Assessment ........................................................................................................... 7 6. Assessment Criteria and Marking Standards ....................................................... 19

6.1 Specific Marking Criteria ................................................................................ 19 6.2 Generic Marking Criteria ................................................................................ 20

7. Assessment Offences .......................................................................................... 21 8. Learning Resources............................................................................................. 27

8.1. VLE ............................................................................................................... 27 8.2. Library .......................................................................................................... 27

9. Module Evaluation ............................................................................................... 29 10. Report on Last Delivery of Module ..................................................................... 30


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1. Key Information

Module/Unit title: Systems and Operations Management Module Leader: Dr Helen Benton Cambridge/ Lord Ashcroft Building/ LAB313 Extension: 2626 Email: [email protected] Every module has a Module Definition Form (MDF) which is the officially validated record of the module. You can access the MDF for this module in three ways: • the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) • the My.Anglia Module Catalogue at www.anglia.ac.uk/modulecatalogue • Anglia Ruskin’s module search engine facility at www.anglia.ac.uk/modules All modules delivered by Anglia Ruskin University at its main campuses in the UK and at partner institutions throughout the UK and overseas are governed by the Academic Regulations. You can view these at www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs. A printed extract of the Academic Regulations, known as the Assessment Regulations, is available for every student from your Faculty Office (all new students will have received a copy as part of their welcome pack). In the unlikely event of any discrepancy between the Academic Regulations and any other publication, including this module guide, the Academic Regulations, as the definitive document, take precedence over all other publications and will be applied in all cases.

2. Introduction to the Module

The module will give students the opportunity to understand the role of systems and operations management and its integration into efficient and effective running of business. It takes a practical approach which will give the students a good understanding of good business practice within the global organisation. The soft systems approach of SSM to systems development will be used to analyse and define business requirements. People and management issues will be reviewed with emphasis on communication, teamwork and effective leadership. Quality management and business excellence focusing on customer relations will be considered. Students will develop an understanding of process analysis and improvement and reflect on Business Process Re-engineering using 80/20 principles and Pareto analysis to examine costs, resources allocation, and efficiency related to the delivery of goods and services. The module will consider the impact of systems and operations management and the wider social environment. These skills are becoming an important requirement of employers in many areas of business. Assessment of learning outcomes will be via an assignment submitted at the end of the module. One of the main focuses for the design of this module has been the further development of practice based learning and employability and professional skills. Such skills are implicit in the learning outcomes.


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3. Intended Learning Outcomes

Systems and Operations Management, like all modules at Anglia Ruskin, is taught on the basis of achieving intended learning outcomes. On successful completion of the module, the student will be expected to be able to demonstrate the following:

Knowledge and understanding

LO 1) Assess the role of systems and operations management in an organisation and its integration within the business.

LO 2) Examine the main issues involved in quality management and business excellence

Intellectual, practical, affective and transferable skills

LO 3) Analyse the people and management issues in organisations

LO 4) Evaluate the role of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) in analysing and defining business requirements

The assessment is based on meeting these learning outcomes, explicitly, see sections 5, 6 and 7 later on.

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Assignments due in Weds 9th May, 2012, before 5pm at the iCentre

(Get there early to ensure on-time submission!)

If you have problems meeting this deadline, you may apply for an extension or hand in a mitigation form, seek advice from Jeremy Vanner, Student Advisor, Cos

407.

PLEASE NOTE: extensions or mitigation are only granted when there is a good reason, for instance, illness.

Lack of organisation or starting too late are not considered good reasons!


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4.1 Attendance Requirements

Attending all your classes is very important and one of the best ways to help you succeed in this module. In accordance with the Student Charter, you are expected to arrive on time and take an active part in all your timetabled classes. If you are unable to attend a class for a valid reason (eg: illness), please contact the LAIBS absences team. Anglia Ruskin will closely monitor the attendance of all students and will contact you by e-mail if you have been absent without notice for two weeks. Continued absence can result in the termination of your registration as you will be considered to have withdrawn from your studies. International students who are non-EEA nationals and in possession of entry clearance/leave to remain as a student (student visa) are required to be in regular attendance at Anglia Ruskin. Failure to do so is considered to be a breach of national immigration regulations. Anglia Ruskin, like all British Universities, is statutorily obliged to inform the Border and Immigration Agency of the Home Office of significant unauthorised absences by any student visa holders.


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5. Assessment

The assessment for this module consists of one part: Part 010: Individual assignment Word Limit: 3,000 words Written assignments must not exceed the specified maximum number of words. All assignments, which do so, will be penalised. The penalty will be the deduction of 10% of the maximum marks available (i.e. 10%). Assignments will not be accepted without a word count on the cover sheet. Submission Date: 010: Individual assignment: must be received by 5 pm on

Weds 9th May, 2012

Write a report that analyses the systems and operations management practices at Atokowa organisation (supplied) and makes recommendations to improve their business. This must be in the format of a business report and should include the following:

Learning Outcome

Mark

Systems and Operations Management Analysis and Evaluation

1. Apply appropriate models to the organisation to critically analyse how systems and operations are currently managed. This may include (but is not limited to) applying and/or analysing: the input-process-output models; 4V’s typology; business process mapping; the decision-making hierarchy; systems levels; the role of systems to support business processes and pareto analysis.

LO1 and LO3

25%

2. Apply the techniques of soft systems methodology (rich picture building; root definitions; CATWOE analysis and/or conceptual models) to analyse the current issues in the organisation. Through this analysis summarise the main business requirements of the organisation.

LO4 25%

Systems and Operations Management Recommendations

3. Explain how the organisation can improve quality management; business improvement and excellence in their systems and operations. Your recommendations should be specific and focused on the organisation.

LO2 25%

4. Identify the relevant people and management issues that may arise in implementing your quality management; business improvement and excellence recommendations (in 3). Explain how these issues could be managed.

LO3 15%

Report Style and Academic Rigour

Your report should be written in good business English and be well structured and presented. It should be set out as a business report, including an executive summary;

N/A 10%


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introduction and conclusion. It should be written as a report for the CEO of the business, not as if it is an assignment. Your report should clearly include the academic insight, i.e. the concepts and the supporting references involved, indicated in the report and listed in the references and bibliography.

Case Study: Atokowa™ Advantage Atokowa™ Advantage are a major player in the stationery and office supplies industry in Australia. Atokowa™ Advantage sell a wide range of stationery and office supplies to individuals; businesses and other organisations. They own a number of retail outlets; deliver stationery and office supplies directly to organisations and do customised printing for organisations. The Atokowa™ company was founded in 1964 by Lachlan Atokowa in Sydney, Australia. Lachlan started up his own photocopying business in his garage when he purchased a Xerox 914 machine. The Xerox 914 was the first commercially successful photocopying machine. His business started out as Atokowa™ printing and they reproduced copies for different organisations in Sydney. Atokowa printing quickly grew, so in 1970, Lachlan purchased a retail outlet and extended the business from photocopying to business printing. Atokowa also printed: brochures; flyers; letterheads; business cards; compliments slips; memo slips; fax headers and NCR (no carbon required) pads. They developed a reputation as a high quality printing company. The business continued to grow and Lachlan developed his vision to become the one-stop shop for stationery and office supplies. He expanded and purchased more outlets in the Melbourne area and Perth area (see Figure 1). His retail outlets were well stocked with a wide range of paper; office supplies and office furniture, alongside, the original printing business. Lachlan renamed Atokowa Printing to Atokowa Office Supplies in 1980 as he felt this was a more appropriate name. In 1983, Lachlin decided to retire early and handed over his business to his eldest son, Jonathan Atokowa. Jonathan’s vision for the business was to focus more on technology. Atokowa started selling the Commodore 64 and the IBM PC 5100, which was the latest technology at this time. Jonathan continues this interest in technology through selling a range of information technology products in their retail outlets. Jonathan, like his father, is very ambitious and he led the aggressive expansion of the business into Adelaide; Brisbane; Canberra and Newcastle areas. Figure 1. Location of Atokowa’s retail outlets in Australia (indicated in bold type)


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Jonathan has been running the business, supported by 4 other Directors on the Board: Paul Fairclough; Ranjeev Patel; Hayley Atokowa and Graham Newcourt. Paul Fairclough, who is the Retail Operations Director, manages the retail outlets and he is based in Sydney. Ranjeev Patel is the Purchasing and Supply Chain Director who is in charge of managing the procurement and distribution of the product categories and he is based in Melbourne. Hayley Atokowa (daughter of Lachlan) is the Marketing and HRM Director in charge of the group marketing endeavours and overseeing the human resources. Graham Newcourt is the Finance Director overseeing all financial accounting and reporting. An organisation chart of the top three levels of Atokowa Advantage is shown in figure 2. Figure 2: Atokowa Advantage Organisation Chart

Atokowa market to two distinct types of customer: the individual consumer and the business customer. The retail outlets serve both consumers and businesses alike. Atokowa are not sure how much of the sales revenue in their shops is from individuals or business customers. The printing arm of the Atokowa, called Atokowa Custom Print is around 90% business customers. It is widely believed that their B2B sales make the majority of their sales revenue and hence, business customers are considered very important to them. A summary of the annual sales for each outlet and the Atokowa Custom Print is shown in table 1.

Jonathan Atokowa

CEO

Paul Fairclough Retail Operations

Director

Ranjeev Patel Purchasing and Supply

Chain Director

Hayley Atokowa Marketing and HRM

Director

Graham Newcourt Finance Director

Jeremy Walker Adelaide Area Manager

Carl Owens Brisbane Area

Manager

Sarah Riley Canberra Area Manager

Louise Ranger Melbourne Area

Manager

Kylie Shewsbury Newcastle Area

Manager

Bruce Manfield

Perth Area Manager

Cheryl Lyons Sydney Area Manager

John Shipton Furniture Category

Manager

Gavin Cavendish Technology Category

Manager

Lauren Michaels Paper and Stationery Supplies Category

Manager

Anton Humpreys Warehouse Manager

Melbourne

Jemima Scott Training Manager

Carl Noble National Marketing Campaigns Co-

ordinator

Louise Grey In-store Promotions

Co-ordinator

Julia Simons HRM Manager

George Hargreaves Atokowa Custom Print General Manager

Melbourne

Moree Jones Company Accountant

Giles Pullen Management Accountant

Hermione Monaghan Financial planning

Manager

Lillian Newnham Imports Manager

Tamara Wright Purchasing and

Payments Manager


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Table 1 Historical Sales at Atokowa Annual Sales 2010-2011 2009-2010 2008-2009

Retail outlets: Adelaide Aus $2,887,288 Aus $2,852,467 Aus $2,817,849 Brisbane Aus $4,873,302 Aus $4,668,331 Aus $4,637,887 Canberra Aus $980,169 Aus $964,428 Aus $942,225 Melbourne Aus $9,715,027 Aus $9,593,978 Aus $9,285,806 Newcastle Aus $1,314,929 Aus $1,285,922 Aus $1,270,316 Perth Aus $4,033,789 Aus $3,985,101 Aus $3,972,604 Sydney Aus $10,952,480 Aus $10,672,096 Aus $10,403,014

Retail total: Aus $34,756,984 Aus $34,022,323 Aus $33,329,702 Atokowa Custom Print Aus $16,783,450 Aus $16,223,530 Aus $15,867,210 Atokowa Retail Operations For many years, each retail outlet operated their own paper-based stock control system. It was essential that these systems were accurate as each store manager had to re-order stock from the Melbourne warehouse. This system was deemed very cumbersome and involved frequent stock taking activities after work for the employees, employees were literally counting the items in stock at least once a quarter. In 1998, Paul Fairclough (who was manager in the Melbourne store at the time) pushed for the implementation of an integrated EPOS (electronic point of sale system) that would enable stock to be tracked byn the bar code. In 1999, Jonathan Atokowa brought Paul to the Sydney headquarters to manage the design and implementation of a Microsoft Access database application. This became known as ASIS – short for Atokowa Stock Information System. The success of the ASIS application was based largely on simplicity. Each Atokowa retail outlet was equipped with a standard Windows PC connected over a simple local area network (LAN) to the checkout EPOS systems. Every transaction taken at the till is processed:

1. Product scanned into EPOS system 2. Products are totalled 3. Payment is taken 4. Once payment is taken, every individual item sold was written to the

Transactions table in the ASIS MS Access database (without impacting the operation of the checkout process in any way)

5. When any retail transaction occurred via the Transactions table, the quantity of that product held locally in the store was decremented in the separate Table (Stocks). The Stocks table holds a record for each product line offered by the company. The Store Manager monitors this information to maintain an efficient level of stock control.

6. At the end of the day the store manager runs and reviews the Daily Reorder report – which shows all stock lines which have reached their designated reorder level. (Each stock record in the Stocks table has a re-order level field).

7. The store manager may adjust the re-order quantity (e.g. six boxes) if they predict an increased or reduced demand for a particular product line.

8. Every week (excluding Brisbane area and Perth area), the store manger raises a delivery request to the Melbourne warehouse for the replenishment of stocks via EDI (electronic data interchange).

9. At the warehouse, the delivery request is processed and checked thoroughly for any unusual requests (to avoid errors).

10. If the warehouse has the available stock then the warehouse operatives pick and pack the delivery and palletise it. In the event that the stock is not


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available, it will be ordered and the retail outlet notified that the delivery will be incomplete.

11. The pallets for each outlet are then forwarded to the store using a third party logistics (3PL) within 7 working days of receiving the request (excluding the unavailable items). Bear in mind, the distance between Melbourne and some of the other retail outlets is vast.

Retail outlets located in the Brisbane area and Perth area operate a similar procedure but they only order every fortnight (task 8), due to the distance between the store and the warehouse in Melbourne. For all store managers deciding on the amount of safety stock needed and setting the reorder levels is not an easy decision to make. Store management – Pricing, stock decisions and returns In the old days, under Lachlan Atokowa, and when Jonathan Atokowa was in charge of the retail operations, a high degree of central control was retained by the Sydney headquarters. Each Store Manager was only expected to follow instructions reliably and run each store on a competent day to day basis. Pricing was handled centrally and the following formula was applied:

The price charged for products = unit cost of each product (actual amount paid to the suppliers) + 25% + Goods and Services tax (GST).

GST is Australia’s equivalent of VAT and is currently 10%. Apart from occasional sales and discounted obsolete stock, there were very few exceptions to this procedure. Lachlan had always judged 25% to be a ‘fair’ and realistic profit margin and until recently there was little evidence available to challenge this view. When Paul Fairclough moved to the Sydney headquarters, he initially took control of the implementation of ASIS. After the successful implementation, Jonathan Atokowa promoted Paul Fairclough to Retail Operations Director in charge of the retail stores. Paul proposed that a more decentralised management approach would benefit Atokowa. A decentralised approach would allow each store manager to offer deliveries to customers and to control prices locally to ensure they were competitive in each market place. The board deliberated about this decision. In 2003, the board accepted the idea. It was Paul’s remit to change the culture from a centralised structure to a decentralised one. The first thing Paul introduced was to enable each store to offer their own delivery service. Although this change was met with consternation, each store was given a van and a driver, and despite the initial concerns, stores were happy with the extra revenue that the delivery service offered. The next major change was to completely change the pricing structure. The ASIS was updated so that each store manager could see the current unit cost of each product. This figure was the actual unit cost charged by the supplier plus a small internal margin designed to represent Atokowa’s warehouse management costs and the 3PL costs. Any margin achieved over and above this figure would represent the profit attributable to the store itself. An example of the new pricing is now given. A stapler might cost Atokowa Aus$3.00 including shipment from the supplier to the Atokowa warehouse in Melbourne. The unit cost entered in ASIS might then be Aus$3.60 (which included 20% for warehousing costs and onward delivery from Melbourne to the store). The actual store price might be $4.84 (Aus $4.40 plus 10% GST) and the profit element attributable to the store would be 80 cents (Aus$4.40-$3.60). Under this new procedure each Store Manager was encouraged to set their own retail prices, higher or lower according to their own knowledge of the local market in order to try and maximise local profits. However a clear majority of slightly bewildered store managers simply stuck to Lachlan’s rule and just added 25% to


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every unit cost – and continued to operate on that basic principle. As Bruce Manfield (Perth Area Manager) stated “I prefer the 25% pricing rule so I advise the Perth managers to stick to that. With so many product lines it would get ridiculous to develop pricing for all of them. I prefer the consistency.” However, Sarah Riley (Canberra area manager) says “Being able to set the prices has really worked for us; we can stay on top of the competitors and make sure we have the right prices for Canberra.” Operating issues with ASIS Business customers Several Atokowa store managers work hard to cultivate local business accounts– who are a valuable source of repeat business. Paul appreciates the value of such customers and is aware of the grumbles from the store managers – relating specifically to ASIS. The database system was never designed to support business accounts where local businesses and other organisations expect two facilities: Firstly, the option to settle each account monthly via a typical formalised invoice procedure (rather than pay for each transaction on the spot like a member of the public). Secondly, some level of discount typically based on the quantity of business transacted with Atokowa Advantage. Several Atokowa store managers offer these facilities via a horrendously complex manual paperwork system – which involves considerable time and effort to administer. The alternative is that without it too many business customers will take their regular business to any number of competitors. All store managers are pretty much in agreement that something needs to be done to enable business customers to be served better. Cheryl Lyons sums it up, “We have to have business accounts otherwise there are too many competitors in Sydney that would steal even Atokowa’s oldest clients. I’ve found a way to do it with my folder based accounts. But it is far from perfect. Mistakes are made as receipts get lost and it makes cashing up at the end of the day a nightmare. But without it, the profits from Sydney would be a fraction of what they are now.” Atokowa’s customer service operations Hayley Atokowa manages the marketing and HRM side of Atokowa. Hayley set up the training program for store managers and feels it was important to ensure that customer service skills were being developed. Hayley has also been instrumental in developing both national and local advertising and promotions. She feels Atokowa must be recognised as a brand that their customers can trust. She is adamant that the success of Atokowa lies in delivering excellent customer service both at Atokowa Custom Print and within the retail stores. Hayley reviews the feedback forms that are left in Atokowa’s retail operations frequently. Last year’s feedback is summarised in table 2. Table 2 Atokowa - Data from Customer Feedback Cards

Frequency (year)

Long waiting time in store 67 Assistant didn’t know how to process my account

30

Invoice on my account was incorrect 30 Delivery was late 18 Wrong items were delivered 8


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Assistant was rude 7 Assistant didn’t know about the products 3 Prices are too high 3

Hayley considers that the main problem is with handling business customers; she says “Business customers are put off by the excessive paperwork involved. I’ve told Paul many times that ASIS needs to be updated or, frankly, in my opinion we need to invest in new technology. We need to be able to handle accounts and also develop a website for online sales.” Atokowa Custom Print Atokowa Custom Print is the foundation of the business, from which the rest of the organisation developed. Atokowa Custom Print remains one of the largest players in the market place. George Hargreaves is the current general manager at Atokowa Custom Print. He loves his work and stays up-to-date both in printing technology but also in marketing techniques. “Atokowa to me is all about quality, we produce the best colour and black and white printing in Australia as far as I am concerned. We also offer a personalised service second to none.” George put into place a clear procedure for printing requests and says the secret is verification with the customer. “I make sure the customer checks and is happy with the proofs, even if they say there is no need to see them. That way there are no surprises in colour match and therefore, we have 100% customer satisfaction.” It’s George’s belief that there could be more alignment with Atokowa Custom Print and the retail outlets. He says, “I think we’re missing a trick, at the moment customers cannot place orders for printing at the retail outlets. They can only do a small amount of photocopying. If the retail outlets could take the orders for custom printing then my team could take over in terms of checking the proofs and getting the products to customers.” George goes on “The majority of the printing work comes from Sydney and Melbourne. I would like us to widen this to our other regions. If we could train each store to understand what we can do here at Custom Print. They could enter the customer details and their needs and Custom Print could then take over.” Warehousing Anton Humpreys has been the warehousing manager since 2006, his role is to manage the incoming deliveries; organise the warehouse; manage the picking and packing process and oversee the 3PL pickups. His role requires excellent scheduling and organisation skills as the number of SKUs (stock keeping units – i.e. each product is a stock keeping unit) at Atokowa is in its 1000s. When Anton took over, he quickly requested the budget for a WMS (warehouse management system). This was approved and Anton implemented the system which allows for the SKUs to be tracked in terms of the current available stock and its location within the warehouse. On a day to day basis, containers will arrive on trucks from the Port of Melbourne. Every delivery that arrives needs to be counted and entered into the WMS. Every delivery is also visually checked for quality. After this check, the stock then needs to be organised in the warehouse in its specific location. This is very important so that every SKU can be located during the pick and pack task. The physical size and shape of the items varies quite dramatically and hence the warehouse layout and organisation is an important aspect to manage. Anton operates a FIFO (first in, first out) policy, which means that the products have been there for longest are the first ones that are picked and packed. Anton sticks to this policy, even though it increases the handling. His reason for this is, “I know that with our products we don’t have to worry about sell by dates. But if we make sure that the oldest items are used first, it will mean we end up with less obsolescence if the product is updated/styled


Page 14 of 31

differently. Also, I know which products have gone out, so if there is a problem I can locate the outer (the packaging the product is in) by the code on it and ensure everything is in an order.” The incoming containers are only part of the role, the other important aspect is picking and packing according to the delivery request from each store. Anton says, “The WMS has made the picking and packing so much better, each of my operatives has a handheld device that identifies where that SKU is located, so the forklift driver knows where to go.” The products required are palletised to enable them to be moved around easily. Once the delivery is ready for despatch to the retail outlet, the 3PL is called to pick up the relevant pallets. The day to day processes in the warehouse run relatively smoothly. However, there are a number of issues with over-stocking of items that are not selling well and obsolete products. Anton is not sure what to do about these issues. He fells that there needs to be more consideration of this by the Category Managers. He says, “At the moment, the warehouse is big enough to just keep this stock. But, it is not ideal, for example, I’ve got 100s of expensive leather chairs that have been sitting there for months and I’m not even going to go into the gimmicky things that Lauren is always buying that never sell. I’ve tried to talk to Ranjeev about it, but I don’t want it to look like I’m complaining about my colleagues.” Atokowa Purchasing and Suppliers Atokowa source their products from a range of suppliers as they offer both branded stationery products, e.g. Rexel; Kensington etc. and major technology brands, e.g. Toshiba; Compaq etc. They also offer lower cost items supplied by smaller brands. Ranjeev Patel also developed the Atokowa range of products in 2008. The role of the Category Managers is to find the best suppliers in their category, monitor them and manage the procurement process. The Category Managers are supported by Lillian Newnham (on the import side) and Tamara Wright (on the documentation and processing side). However, it is the Category Manager’s job to decide what to purchase, who from and how much. All three of the Category Managers agree that this is extremely complicated. They put this down to the ASIS system, Lauren Michaels says, “Although the ASIS is great for the stores, it is not great for purchasing. We would have to sort through the delivery requests from all the areas to really understand what is selling well. Anton always gives us a stock status report. But if I’m perfectly honest, my team don’t have time to accurately reconcile the two or do any effective form of forecasting. Instead, we usually order based on Anton’s report and our gut feeling.” Gavin Cavendish is also scathing of the ASIS system, he says, “ASIS is out of date, seriously, why do we have different stock systems in the stores to the warehouse system. My team carefully review both as technology develops quickly, we can’t afford to be purchasing too many, when it become obsolete so quickly. I think its time for ASIS to go – but it’s not my place to say that.” The majority of the suppliers are located in China and Hong Kong. There is a task to consolidate the different products and this is conducted close to port side in Shanghai. Consolidation involves bringing together the deliveries into full container loads. Lillian Newnham co-ordinates the shipping process, endeavouring to ensure full container load or when the container is part full, sell the additional space to other organisations. The preferred shipping providers that Lillian uses are China Shipping Company and Maersk. Each shipment has to be accompanied with the correct export/import documentation that complies to the legal requirements. This is Lillian’s forte, she has many years experience and a law degree.


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Atokowa range of products The Atokowa range is Ranjeev’s favourite project, he initiated it in 2008. Ranjeev and his team identified manufacturers of paper and stationery items that could make the items and add the brand name Atokowa to them. The idea behind this initiative was two-fold: 1) higher profit margins and 2) getting the brand of Atokowa onto the desks of their customers. The higher profit margins were attained as there was no middleman, Atokowa were dealing directly with the manufacturers and could find some high quality products that aligned well with the Atokowa brand. The second aim was that by having an Atokowa stapler on the desk the name would become ingrained with the product itself and help build loyalty in the store. This worked really well for paper and stationery supplies. Lauren Michaels said “Although this has led to a dramatic increase in the number of products I have to manage, I do feel it was worth it. For example, the desk caddies with the Atokowa name on them have sold remarkably well, much better than the Rexel ones. We’re able to find unique products that sell which have Atokowa on them – it can’t be bad for business!” However, for John Shipton, in charge of sourcing furniture, the concept has not been as successful. John identified a desk chair manufacturer that would supply the chairs at a very reasonable price. They looked great and the design looked very innovative. However, customers were taking them back to the stores with many complaints. These problems were with the wheels and the height adjustment. “The wheels came off within a week” a customer from a Perth store said. Another from a Brisbane store remarked “Once I changed the height of the chair it would not go back up again.” The whole fiasco ended up in disaster with all the chairs being recalled and the contract with the manufacturer terminated. John Shipton considers “maybe it’s just not right for the furniture category; it’s too difficult to find quality suppliers”. Ranjeev supported John through the recall, but states “We need the branded furniture; we just need to understand how to manage the quality better. This is a new area for Atokowa, so there were bound to be a few initial problems.” Technology and IT In 1964 Lachlan purchased the state of the art Xerox 914 and Atokowa was born. This commitment to the latest technology for printing services continues to this day. George Hargreaves ensures that Atokowa printing equipment is the latest in technology and well-maintained to ensure that the print quality is flawless. However, when it comes to the systems used to run Atokowa the approach has been more reactive. They have developed specific systems to meet the needs of the different areas of the business. Atokowa Custom Print is managed entirely through paper and some spreadsheets for pricing calculations. Atokowa retail stores each operate their own independent ASIS system. The warehouse in Melbourne has their WMS which is not linked with the ASIS system. Graham Newcourt had Sage Finance and HR and Payroll system implemented for his team for producing company accounts and payroll. This software organises Atokowa’s cash flow and payroll and ensures they adhere to financial and business regulations. However, for the finance team the lack of a system makes their job tiresome. Tamara Wright’s team have to process the purchasing requests into Sage. To produce company accounts, Moree Jones and Hermione Monaghan work together to try to ensure a realistic view of Atokowa’s current stock/assets across the retail outlets and the warehouse. Giles Pullen, as the management accountant, provides information about the performance of products; retail outlets and Custom Print. However, he says, “I wish I could do more, but the way the data is collected I can only scratch the surface in my analysis. The data I get comes from so many sources and in all different formats. I would love to be able to analyse the product categories more fully. I think some interesting ideas could emerge from this analysis.”


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Atokowa have a small website that is visually attractive and serves the purpose of brand-building. It gives information about the products sold, location of retail outlets and Custom Print’s services. There are divided opinions at Atokowa about the idea of developing this more fully to an online store. Paul Fairclough is adamant that this is a bad idea “There would be a lot of conflict if we went online and it would undermine the retail operation entirely. The idea of market-based pricing at each store would go out of the window – a bad move. Online sales are not right for Atokowa.” Anton has a similar view, but his concerns are on the operational processes, “I know Hayley Atokowa is keen to go more online, but practically in Australia and for Atokowa that is too difficult. How could we deliver to individual customers in such small quantities across such a distance without that being incredibly costly? Would the Melbourne warehouse pick and pack for each customer across the whole of Australia?” Jonathan is more reflective, “We can consider selling online. But we need a clear business case for that.” Ranjeev quietly thinks (but only airs this view with his wife), “Whatever Hayley may think, with all the different systems used at Atokowa, Atokowa are not ready to go online, whether they want to or not.” This case study is fictional and written by Dr Helen Benton for learning purposes. Do not reuse without my expressed permission. Any likeness to persons or organisations is purely co-incidental. Sources used to create this case study: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008. Article: Population Distribution, Australian Social Trends [online] Available at: <http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/1F6CDA9A1D5E6E9DCA25748E001292BF/$File/41020_2008_1.pdf> [Accessed 12 November 2011]. Australian Taxation Office of the Australian Government, 2011. Guide to GST [online] Available at: <http://www.ato.gov.au/content/00221985.htm> [Accessed 18 November, 2011]. IBM, 1980s. IBM Archives: 1980s. Available at:<http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/decade_1980.html > [Accessed 10 November 2011]. IBM.unknown. IBM Archives: IBM Personal Computer. Available at:<http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc/pc_1.html> Xerox Corporation. 1964. [video online] Xerox 914 TV commercial [online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xZYcWsh8t0> [Accessed 10 November 2011].


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All coursework assignments and other forms of assessment must be submitted by the published deadline which is detailed above. It is your responsibility to know when work is due to be submitted – ignorance of the deadline date will not be accepted as a reason for late or non-submission. All student work which contributes to the eventual outcome of the module (ie: if it determines whether you will pass or fail the module and counts towards the mark you achieve for the module) is submitted via the iCentre using the formal submission sheet. Academic staff CANNOT accept work directly from you. If you decide to submit your work to the iCentre by post, it must arrive by midday on the due date. If you elect to post your work, you do so at your own risk and you must ensure that sufficient time is provided for your work to arrive at the iCentre. Posting your work the day before a deadline, albeit by first class post, is extremely risky and not advised. Any late work (submitted in person or by post) will NOT be accepted and a mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment task in question. You are requested to keep a copy of your work.

Feedback

You are entitled to written feedback on your performance for all your assessed work. For all assessment tasks which are not examinations, this is provided by a member of academic staff completing the assignment coversheet on which your mark and feedback will relate to the achievement of the module’s intended learning outcomes and the assessment criteria you were given for the task when it was first issued. Examination scripts are retained by Anglia Ruskin and are not returned to students. However, you are entitled to feedback on your performance in an examination and may request a meeting with the Module Leader or Tutor to see your examination script and to discuss your performance. Anglia Ruskin is committed to providing you with feedback on all assessed work within 20 working days of the submission deadline or the date of an examination. This is extended to 30 days for feedback for a Major Project module (please note that working days excludes those days when Anglia Ruskin University is officially closed; eg: between Christmas and New Year). Personal tutors will offer to read feedback from several modules and help you to address any common themes that may be emerging. At the main Anglia Ruskin University campuses, each Faculty will publish details of the arrangement for the return of your assessed work (eg: a marked essay or case study etc.). Any work which is not collected by you from the Faculty within this timeframe is returned to the iCentres from where you can subsequently collect it. The iCentres retain student work for a specified period prior to its disposal. To assure ourselves that our marking processes are comparable with other universities in the UK, Anglia Ruskin provides samples of student assessed work to external examiners as a routine part of our marking processes. External examiners are experienced academic staff from other universities who scrutinise your work and


Page 18 of 31

provide Anglia Ruskin academic staff with feedback and advice. Many of Anglia Ruskin’s staff act as external examiners at other universities. On occasion, you will receive feedback and marks for pieces of work that you completed in the earlier stages of the module. We provide you with this feedback as part of the learning experience and to help you prepare for other assessment tasks that you have still to complete. It is important to note that, in these cases, the marks for these pieces of work are unconfirmed as the processes described above for the use of external examiners will not have been completed. This means that, potentially, marks can change, in either direction! Marks for modules and individual pieces of work become confirmed on the Dates for the Official Publication of Results which can be checked at www.anglia.ac.uk/results.


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6. Assessment Criteria and Marking Standards

6.1 Specific Marking Criteria

Grade A (70+) Produces a first class report document that would not be out of place in a professional management consultancy. A superbly presented report showing a clear understanding of the issues addressed: all the key information issues plus ability to present clear analysis and professional recommendations. Grade B (60-69) The report demonstrates clear knowledge of the issues in systems and operations management. The report generated should be well analysed and presented showing a good understanding of the key issue/s addressed. Well presented and credible documentation which would be welcomed by a client. Grade C (50-59) Acceptable analysis and reporting of systems and operations management issues with in an organisation, which could be improved by an experienced professional without much difficulty. Demonstrates some understanding of the main points addressed structured in a reasonably well presented document. Grade D (40-49) A poor report showing minimal understanding of the material covered. Report would be of little practical use to management. Mediocre/unrealistic analysis (majority of the work is description), weak structure and poorly presented documentation. Fail The report is unacceptable, failing to show any understanding of the basic principles covered and a serious inability to address any key points. The report is entirely superficial and disappointing documentation of no practical use in a real scenario.

BB

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ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY GENERIC ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND MARKING STANDARDS

LEVEL 2

Generic

Learning

Outcomes

(Academic

Regulations, Section 2)

Assessment criteria by level

Marking standards (by mark band)

70%+

60-69%

50-59%

40-49%

30-39%

1-29%

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Page 21 of 31

7. Assessment Offences

You are reminded that any work that you submit must be your own. All suspected assessment offences will be investigated and can result in severe penalties. Please note that it is your responsibility to consult the relevant sections of the Academic Regulations (section 10 – see www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs) and the Student Handbook. When you are preparing your work for submission, it is important that you understand the various academic conventions that you are expected to follow in order to make sure that you do not leave yourself open to accusations of plagiarism (eg: the correct use of referencing, citations, footnotes etc.) and that your work maintains its academic integrity. Plagiarism is theft and constitutes the presentation of another’s work as your own in order to gain an unfair advantage. You will receive advice and guidance on how to avoid plagiarism and other elements of poor academic practice during the early stages of your studies at Anglia Ruskin. Introduction Being honest in your work is at the heart of studying and working at university. To be honest in your work you must acknowledge the ideas and work of others you use, and you must not try to get an advantage over others by being dishonest. It is important that you understand what it means to be honest in your work. Although there is general agreement within the UK academic community about the types of activity that are unacceptable, this does vary slightly between institutions, and may be different from where you studied before. We have developed this guidance to help you understand what it means to be honest in your work, and what you should do to make sure that you are handing in work that meets our expectations. This means we can make sure that we can maintain reliable standards for our academic awards, and students continue to enjoy studying for academic qualifications that have a good reputation. In this guidance we will: • clearly define what being honest in your work and good practice mean, and how

you can achieve this; • define ‘assessment offences’, including plagiarism, cheating and collusion; • identify the resources, help and advice available to help you learn the academic

skills you need to avoid committing assessment offences; • explain how we expect you to behave; and • describe what happens if we think you have committed an assessment offence. Being honest in your work and good practice You can show good practice when you do your work independently, honestly and in a proper academic style, using good referencing and acknowledging all of your sources. To show good academic practice you must: • show you understand the literature;


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• use research from academics and others in your area of study; • discuss and evaluate ideas and theories; • develop your own independent evaluation of academic issues; and • develop your own arguments. To support your own good practice you will need to develop your: • skills at studying and getting information (for example, reading, taking notes,

research and so on); • skills in looking at an argument and making your own evaluation (for example,

having a balanced opinion, using reasoning and argument); • writing skills for essays, reports, dissertations and so on; • referencing skills (how you include your sources of information in your work); and • exam techniques (for example, revising and timing). Achieving good practice is not as complicated as it may appear. You need to do the following. • Know the rules. • Make sure you reference all of your information sources. Poor practice or

dishonesty in your work (such as plagiarism, cheating, fraud and so on) can be a result of you not knowing what you are allowed to do.

• Develop your own style. Sometimes students include too much original text from the work of others, as they believe that they cannot ‘put it any better’. Although you should try to express ideas in your own words, quoting or summing up ideas from academic sources is fine, as long as you say where you have taken this from. You must also reference other people’s performances or art in your own work. It fine to use other people’s performances and art, but you must be completely clear about why you are using that work, and make sure it is obvious that it isn’t your own.

Definitions of assessment offences Plagiarism Plagiarism is when you present someone else’s work, words, images, ideas, opinions or discoveries, whether published or not, as your own. It is also when you take the artwork, images or computer-generated work of others, without properly acknowledging where this is from or you do this without their permission. You can commit plagiarism in examinations, but is most likely to happen in coursework, assignments, portfolios, essays, dissertations and so on. Examples of plagiarism include: • directly copying from written work, physical work, performances, recorded work or

images, without saying where this is from; • using information from the internet or electronic media (such as DVDs and CDs)

which belongs to someone else, and presenting it as your own; • rewording someone else’s work, without referencing them; and • handing in something for assessment which has been produced by another

student or person.


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It is important that you do not plagiarise – intentionally or unintentionally – because the work of others and their ideas are their own. There are benefits to producing original ideas in terms of awards, prizes, qualifications, reputation and so on. To use someone else’s work, words, images, ideas or discoveries is a form of theft. Collusion Collusion is similar to plagiarism as it is an attempt to present another’s work as your own. In plagiarism the original owner of the work is not aware you are using it, in collusion two or more people may be involved in trying to produce one piece of work to benefit one individual, or plagiarising another person’s work. Examples of collusion include: • agreeing with others to cheat; • getting someone else to produce part or all of your work; • copying the work of another person (with their permission); • submitting work from essay banks; • paying someone to produce work for you; and • allowing another student to copy your own work. Many parts of university life need students to work together. Working as a team, as directed by your tutor, and producing group work is not collusion. Collusion only happens if you produce joint work to benefit of one or more person and try to deceive another (for example the assessor). Cheating Cheating is when someone aims to get unfair advantage over others. Examples of cheating include: • taking unauthorised material into the examination room; • inventing results (including experiments, research, interviews and observations); • handing your own previously graded work back in; • getting an examination paper before it is released; • behaving in a way that means other students perform poorly; • pretending to be another student; and • trying to bribe members of staff or examiners. Help to avoid assessment offences Most of our students are honest and want to avoid making assessment offences. We have a variety of resources, advice and guidance available to help make sure you can develop good academic skills. We will make sure that we make available consistent statements about what we expect in this document, and in student handbooks and module guides. You will be able to do tutorials on being honest in your work from the library and other central support services and faculties, and you will be able to test your written work for plagiarism using ‘Turnitin®UK’ (a software package that detects plagiarism).


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You can get advice on how to honestly use the work of others in your own work from the library website (www.libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/referencing.htm) and your lecturer and personal tutor. You will have an opportunity to do a ‘formative’ assignment before you finish and hand in your first ‘summative’ assignment. A ‘formative’ assignment is one in which you can talk about your work thoroughly with your tutor to make sure that you are working at the correct level for your award, and that you understand what is meant by good practice (a ‘summative’ assignment counts towards the assessment for your course). You will be able to use ‘Turnitin®UK’, a special software package which is used to detect plagiarism. Turnitin®UK will produce a report which clearly shows if passages in your work have been taken from somewhere else. You may talk about this with your personal tutor to see where you may need to improve your academic practice. We will not see these formative Turnitin®UK reports as assessment offences. If you are not sure whether the way you are working meets our requirements, you should talk to your personal tutor. They will be able to help you and tell you about other resources which will help you develop your academic skills. What we expect from you We will make sure you have the chance to practice your academic skills and avoid accidentally breaking our Academic Regulations. On page nine of the Student Charter (see http://www.anglia.ac.uk/keydocuments for the Student Charter and rules and regulations), it says you have to ‘be aware of the academic rules relating to your studies’. To make sure that you are aware of the rules, we expect you to agree to: • read this guidance and make sure you thoroughly understand it; • work through ‘PILOT’, the online tutorial available on our library website

(http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/pilot/), which aims to help you learn good practice and has a useful section on plagiarism;

• make sure that you are familiar with how to reference (acknowledge other people’s work);

• correctly reference all the sources for the information you have included in your work;

• identify information you have downloaded from the internet; • never use someone else’s ideas for a performance, film or TV programme, their

artwork, graphics (including graphs, spreadsheets and so on and information from the internet) as if they are yours;

• only hand in your own original work; • never use another person’s work as if it were your own; and • never let other students use or copy your work. What we will do for you To help you avoid making assessment offences, our staff will: • make sure they are familiar with the guidance on being honest in your work and

the Academic Regulations;


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• tell you clearly about the guidance on being honest in your work and any guidelines on misconduct, and record the dates for future reference;

• arrange library information sessions for you; • promote the resources on the library website and put links to them in module

guides and student handbooks; • include statements on academic honesty in each module guide, making sure they

are consistent throughout our university; • make you aware of the punishments for misconduct early in the course; • give you effective guidance on how you should acknowledge the information you

have used; • tell you, in writing if possible, how far you may work with other students in your

coursework; • plan procedures for assessing work in a way that reduces plagiarism, cheating

and collusion; • be aware that you may have worked differently in the past and make sure that

you are aware of good practice in the UK; • familiarise themselves with ‘Turnitin®UK’ and its reports; and • report all suspected misconduct using the proper disciplinary procedures. Procedures for assessment offences An assessment offence is the general term used to define cases where a student has tried to get unfair academic advantage in an assessment for themselves or another student. We will aim to give you as much help as possible to avoid an assessment offence. We listed a number of possible assessment offences earlier in the document. These, and any relevant breaks of the Academic Regulations are dishonest, unacceptable and not allowed. We will fully investigate all cases of suspected assessment offences. If we prove that you have committed an assessment offence, we will take action against you using our disciplinary procedures. For full details of what punishments you may receive for assessment offences, see the Academic Regulations, section 10 at: www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs And finally One of the main aims of university is to give you the ability to learn, have independent judgment, academic rigour and intellectual honesty. You should encourage people to ask questions, to show personal and professional honesty, and have mutual respect. You, university teachers and support staff are responsible for working together to achieve this aim. References Adapted from Scott, M, (2000), Academic Misconduct Policy. A model for the FE Sector. (Copyright _ Association of Colleges 2000)


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More information Academic Regulations, section 10 (www.anglia.ac.uk/academicregs) PILOT, the online tutorial in academic practice (www.libweb.anglia.ac.uk/pilot/ ) Referencing procedures (http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/referencing.htm) RefWorks, a bibliographic management service that allows you to create a personal database and collect bibliographies in a variety of styles (www.libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/refworks.htm) The Student Charter (see http://www.anglia.ac.uk/keydocuments for the Student Charter and rules and regulations).


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8. Learning Resources

8.1. VLE

Online learning support is provided via Anglia Ruskin’s VLE facility (http://www.anglia.ac.uk/vle). On-campus login is automatic, however, off campus, you can login, as follows: Go to: http://www.anglia.ac.uk/vle

Use your Anglia Ruskin login (e.g. hmb123) and password On the VLE, you can download material, join discussions and much more.

8.2. Library

Resources Notes

Key text White cover: Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. and Johnston, R. 2011. Essentials of Operations Management with MyOMLab, Harlow: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. OR Black cover: Slack, N., Chambers, S., Johnston, R., 2010. Operations Management. 6

th ed. Harlow

:Financial Times Prentice Hall

We will draw heavily on Slack et al’s book. Students are advised to purchase a copy. Either copy is fine for this module. For those students with the intention of studying Operations Management as a final year module, the 2010 is advised as it has more detail in it. Nigel Slack is a leading OM expert with many books in this area, the two recommended here both have paint pots on the cover.

Books The books in the list below focus on information systems in business and operations management. Bocij, P., Chaffey, D., Greasley, A. and Hickie, S., 2008. Business information systems: technology, development and management, 4th ed., Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Checkland, P. 1999. Systems thinking, systems practice: with a 30-year retrospective, Chichester: John Wiley Checkland, P. and Poulter, J., 2006. Learning for Action :a short definitive account of soft systems methodology and its use for practitioners, teachers and students, Chichester: John Wiley. Jacobs, F.R. and Chase, R.B., 2011. Operations and supply chain management. 13th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Laudon, K. and Laudon, J., 2010 or 2011. Management Information Systems. 11th or 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Slack, N., Chambers, S., Johnston, R., 2010. Operations Management. 6

th ed. Harlow :Financial

Times Prentice Hall

All of these books are available in the library. Excellent source for business and management information systems Good reference for the SSM section. Good reference for the SSM section. A good source for considering aspects of Operations Management. Excellent source for business and management information systems E-book and an extended version of the key text


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Wilson, B., 2001. Soft systems methodology: conceptual model building and its contribution, Chichester: John Wiley

E-book and good reference for the SSM section.

Journals It is important that you draw from material contained in academic journals. These are some relevant titles. Academy of Information and Management Sciences Journal ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems Foundations and Trends in Technology, Information, and Operations Management Front office Operations and Management Frontline Solutions: Technologies For Extending Information Management Information & Management Information and Organization Information Management Information Management and Business Review Information Management Journal Information Media & Technology: the Journal of NRCD Information Strategy: the Executive’s Journal Information Systems Management Information, Knowledge, Systems Management INFORMS Journal on Computing Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management International Journal of E-Business Research: An official Publication of the Information Resources Management Association International Journal of Information Management International Journal of Information Technology and International Journal of Operations & Production Management Journal of Enterprise Information Management Journal of Global Information Management Journal of Information Systems and Small Business Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management Journal of International Technology and Information Management Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology Journal of Management Information Systems: JMIS Journal of Operations Management Logistics Information Management Manufacturing & Service Operations Management: M&SOM MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems Operations & Fulfillment Operations Management Production and Operations Management An International Journal of The Production and Operations Management Society The British Journal of Administrative Management The Information Management Journal

Available in the Digital Library.


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WPOM: Working Papers on Operations Management Specific journal articles Porter, M.E., 2001. Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, 79(3), pp.1-18.

Websites See the “Web links” section of the VLE for links for helpful links.

Additional notes on this reading list Link to the University Library catalogue and Digital Library http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/ Link to Harvard Referencing guide http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm

Faculty Liaison Librarians LAIBS Diana Garfield ([email protected]) extn 3192 Cambridge Naomi Prady ([email protected]) +44 1223 363 271 ext 2581 Chelmsford Deborah Stebbing ([email protected]) +44 1245 493131 ext 3610

9. Module Evaluation

Towards the end of the delivery of this module, you will be asked to complete a module evaluation questionnaire to help us obtain your views on all aspects of the module. This is an extremely important process which helps us to continue to improve the delivery of the module in the future and to respond to issues that you bring to our attention. The module report in section 11 of this module guide includes a section which comments on the feedback we received from other students who have studies this module previously. Your questionnaire response is anonymous and you will receive a summary in e-Vision of the scores of all your modules two days after the survey closes. The Module Evaluation process is managed on-line. More information is available at:

http://web.anglia.ac.uk/curriculum/survey_stu.phtml Please help us to help you and other students at Anglia Ruskin by completing the Module Evaluation process. We very much value our students’ views and it is very important to us that you provide feedback to help us make improvements. In addition to the Module Evaluation process, you can send any comment on anything relate to your experience at Anglia Ruskin to [email protected] at any time.


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10. Report on Last Delivery of Module

MODULE REPORT FORM

This form should be completed by module tutors (where there is more than one delivery) and forwarded to Module Leaders who compiles the results on to one form for use at the Programme Committee and other methods of disseminating feedback to students.

Module Code and Title: BB215010S Systems and Operations Management Anglia Ruskin Department: Accounting and IS Location(s) of Delivery: Cambridge; Chelmsford and Peterborough Academic Year: 2010/11 Semester/Trimester: 2 Enrolment Numbers (at each location): Cambridge (295); Chelmsford (105) and Peterborough (20) Module Leader: Lynn Snape Other Module Tutors: Dr Helen Benton; Dr Hermann Rapp; Naowarat Lewis; Dr Mahmoud Al-Kilani; John Herring and Romas Malecivius. Student Achievement Provide a brief overview of student achievement on the module as evidenced by the

range of marks awarded. A detailed breakdown of marks will be available at the Departmental Assessment Panel.

Here is an overview of the results for Cambridge; Chelmsford and Peterborough:

Results

A B C D Deferred Pass

rate

1st

attempt Mean

Std.

Dev.

Semester 2 A-1 Chelmsford

105 1 57 31 12 4 96% 96% 57.4 9

Semester 2 C-1 Cambridge

295 47 49 68 80 51 83% 83% 50.6 17.3

Semester 2 PE-1 Peterborough

20 3 6 1 4 6 70% 70% 51.8 18.6

There was a good pass rate and average mean marks of 50.6-57.4%.

Feedback from Students Briefly summarise student responses, including any written comments

Students at Cambridge scored the module a 6.6/10 average from 52 responses; in Chelmsford a 5.1/10 average from 17 students and in Peterborough 6.3/10 average from 4 students. The module was well-received on the whole. Students were keen to work on the assignment and voiced this in the workshops.


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Module Leader/Tutor’s Reflection on Delivery of the Module, including Response to Feedback from Students (including resources if appropriate)

The module went well and the students engaged well.

Developments during the current year or planned for next year (if appropriate)

No fundamental changes seem necessary.

External Examiner’s Comments State whether the external examiner agreed the marks and/or commented on the

module

The external examiner agreed the marks for semester 2 2010-11.

Documents

Lord Ashcroft International Business School Systems … - System Operation... · Lord Ashcroft International Business School Systems and ... is available for every student from your