Managing operations

This workbook aims to help you apply a range of analytical skills and techniques to management operations. The workbook contains four case studies, which will give you the opportunity to apply what you have learned in the three or four sections preceeding the case study. You will be familiar with some of the topics, whereas others, for example, management and objectives (MBO), may be new to you. Equally, although planning and objective setting were introduced in Paper 4, project management may well be entirely new to you. The first part of the workbook covers objective setting and project management as a way of allocating work. Within this, techniques of work breakdown are introduced. Next comes quality and persuit of excellence: various approaches and theories are introduced and you will have the opportunity to apply your knowledge in developing quality - both control and assurance - in a payroll department case study. The strategic role of marketing is discussed, both nationally and internationally and using quality systems as one of its cornerstones. The last four sections discuss the role of legal provision with an emphasis on good practice, a topic which will be further explored in Workbook 4. When you have completed this workbook, you should be able to: -identify work objectives and plan to meet them -estimate the duration, resoource requirements and cost of individual projects -plan out the progress of a project -allocate resources optimally evaluate the strategic role of marketing define the manager's roles and responsibilities in relation to the working environment.