Operations Management / Business Simulation / Process Improvement
3,500 words
Operations and Simulation Analysis: Sam’s Sandwich Shop
This operations-management portfolio uses the Sam’s Sandwich Shop case study to examine service-process performance, simulation modelling, resource planning and operational improvement within a busy takeaway food environment. The case concerns a small sandwich outlet located in the departure lounge of Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, where rising terminal capacity is expected to increase customer demand over a five-month period. Students investigate how the store’s current sandwich assembly and service process performs under this growing demand and identify opportunities for operational improvement. MGT4924 Assignment instructions… The assessment consists of three related tasks. Task 1 – Arena Simulation Model requires students to develop a valid and functioning discrete-event simulation of the current system using Arena Simulation software. The model must accurately represent customer arrivals, ordering and payment, movement between the service counter and sandwich assembly area, preparation of meat, cheese and vegetarian sandwiches, resource constraints, queues and the possibility of sandwiches being rejected and remade. A commentary of up to 500 words must be included within the model to explain its main components and operation. MGT4924 Assignment instructions… MGT4924 Assignment instructions… The case provides defined operational resources, including three servers, two cash registers, one meat counter, one cheese counter and one vegetarian counter. The same server completes the full customer-service cycle, and customers join a single FIFO queue when both a server and cash register are not immediately available. The simulation must run for one week, equivalent to 168 hours, using multiple replications. MGT4924 Assignment instructions… Task 2 – Simulation Report requires a professional 1,000-word report analysing the system’s performance across the five-month period using results generated from the simulation study. Students must conduct experiments to determine suitable resource levels for each month and provide justified recommendations concerning the number of resources required for optimal operational performance. Tables and figures must be created independently in Excel rather than copied directly from Arena outputs. MGT4924 Assignment instructions… Task 3 – Operations Report requires a 2,000-word critical report examining two operations-management concepts in the context of Sam’s Sandwich Shop and the wider takeaway-food sector. Students analyse how the selected concepts are or could be implemented, identify associated operational problems and impacts, evaluate potential solutions, and consider relevant tools, techniques, methods and emerging technologies that could improve performance and competitive advantage. Two detailed and justified recommendations must be provided for each selected concept. MGT4924 Assignment instructions… Overall, the portfolio integrates discrete-event simulation, process analysis, resource optimisation, operational performance measurement and evidence-based operations-management decision making. Strong submissions are expected to move beyond simply reporting simulation outputs by critically analysing performance, evaluating experimental results, presenting high-quality data visualisations and producing logical, well-justified operational recommendations. MGT4924 Assignment instructions…
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Software Engineering / Enterprise Systems Development
3,000 words
Enterprise Software Engineering Development: ParkaLot Parking Management System Analysis, Design and Prototype
This Enterprise Software Engineering Development assessment is based on the ParkaLot Group, a fictional operator of multi-storey parking garages across major UK cities. The organisation currently relies on fragmented manual processes, basic barrier-based vehicle counting, local spreadsheets, on-site payment and inconsistent customer access arrangements. Students act as software engineering consultants and are required to analyse these operational weaknesses and design a centralised enterprise parking management system capable of supporting reservations, customer accounts, vehicle identification, billing, real-time occupancy monitoring, dynamic pricing and management reporting. COMP1471 CW 2526 The proposed ParkaLot platform is intended to integrate customers, parking spaces, reservations and billing across the garage network. Planned functionality includes online registration and reservation, recurring and corporate parking arrangements, licence-plate recognition, automated space allocation, sensor-based occupancy tracking, centralised monthly billing, electronic payments, promotional pricing and predictive overbooking. The system must also provide dashboards and historical reporting to assist management with capacity planning, staffing, pricing and operational decision-making. COMP1471 CW 2526 The coursework is completed in two main development phases. Phase 1 – Structured Analysis and Design requires an Entity Relationship Diagram representing the logical data model, a Data Flow Diagram including a Level 0 context diagram, and implementation of a prototype database. Phase 2 – Object-Oriented Development extends the system using object-oriented analysis, design principles and UML, with substantial business and user-interface functionality implemented using suitable OO technologies. COMP1471 CW 2526 The final report contains analysis of the 5 Ps of software engineering: Problem, Process, Project, Product and People. Students discuss the business problem and commercial risks, justify the development methodology followed, define resources and budget, document project artefacts and requirements, and identify the main stakeholders involved in the project. The technical design section includes the ERD, DFD, UML use-case model, at least three sequence diagrams, a detailed class diagram and discussion of design patterns. COMP1471 CW 2526 Students must additionally submit a functioning prototype that reflects the design and participate in acceptance testing and a live demonstration. Individual students are questioned on both theoretical and technical aspects of the submitted system. The assessment also evaluates group contribution, peer and self-assessment, personal reflection, research quality, communication and professional teamwork. COMP1471 CW 2526 The weighting places substantial emphasis on technical design and implementation: the UML design is worth 24 marks, the software prototype 15 marks, design patterns 6 marks, and acceptance testing/demonstration 25 marks. This makes the coursework strongly focused on demonstrating the relationship between requirements analysis, software architecture, UML modelling, implementation quality and working enterprise-system functionality. COMP1471 CW 2526
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