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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