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2
Operations Management
AQF Level 8
Student Name
Student Number
Capstone Assignment – Redesign of an Operations Process
Word count: 3002 The word count matches the
3000 words required (+10%).
The title page is well set and
presents the essential
information.
3
Executive summary
As the basis for this report, observations of a common cleaning process were
completed and critical issues of capacity, work sequencing and bottlenecks in
production flow were identified. The process that is undertaken to perform
the work encompasses all performance measurements outlined by Slack and
Brandon-Jones in the textbook Operations and Process Management (2018).
These issues lead to opportunities to reduce unnecessary costs and improve
customer perception of quality. A critical analysis of capacity, flow and lean
synchronization is used to identify a cost saving opportunity of twenty two
percent labour cost and the ability to improve the customers experience.
Using this information, the company can begin to “shift to a culture of
coordinated continuous improvement (CI) rather than running individual
efforts” (Bollard et al. 2017, pp. 1) An operations strategy to Invest in staff
development, involve everyone in improvements, manage effective changes,
make fact-based decisions based on measured and reliable data and celebrate
the wins is outlined in a matrix derived from Slack and Jones.
Opportunities are identified and seven recommendations are made surrounding:
• Implement a Bollard approach to process improvement
• Training all staff on process improvement
• Utilizing analytics
• Identify and invest in small capital equipment
• Realigning human resources
• Removing the waste
• Reconfiguring the flow
Following these recommendations will ensure that the entire company can
benefit exponentially by operating collaboratively and celebrating process
improvements. These changes will significantly bring down the cost and
improve the customers perception of quality. These changes will also ensure
that similar processes throughout the system can be made better to improve
both cost and the customer’s journey.
References are not required in
the executive summary. This
quote is better suited to the
body of the report.
The findings of the analysis
(areas for improvement) are
touched on.
All findings, including
recommendations should be
summarized in the executive
summary.
4
Table of Contents
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….4
2. Operations Strategy Matrix……………………………………………………………………..4
3. Organizational Context……………………………………………………………………………6
4. The Process ………………………………………………………………………………………….6
5. Critical evaluations of the process …………………………………………………………..8
5.1 Process Design, flow configuration…………………………………………8
5.2 Critical evaluation of capacity planning and control………………….9
5.3 Critical evaluation using Lean Synchronizations ……………………. 10
6. Recommendations ………………………………………………………………………………. 11
6.1 Implement a Bollard approach to process improvement ……………… 11
6.2 Training all staff on such approach……………………………………………. 12
6.3 Utilize analytics ………………………………………………………………………. 12
6.4 Capacity Planning and Control… ……………………………………………….. 12
6.5 Realign human resources…………………………………………………………. 13
6.6 Lean Synchronisation ………………………………………………………………. 13
6.7 Flow Reconfiguration ………………………………………………………………. 14
7. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 15
8. References………………………………………………………………………………………. 16
The use of capital letters in
the headings and subheading should be
consistent. There are some
inconsistencies here that will
need to be addressed by
changing the headings and
sub-headings in the body of
the report.
Use Word to generate the
table of contents to ensure
good formatting and the page
numbers match those in the
report.
5
1. Introduction
The topic discussed in this paper is the analysis of and recommendations to
improve a process repeatedly performed within the operations of an
established cleaning company that operates in Canada and employs
approximately 375 Staff. The company’s goal is to become the leader in
commercial cleaning sector. In order for operations to support this goal, they
must excel in meeting the five performance objectives related to quality,
speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. The process chosen was the
repetitive cleaning of an office. Similar processes make up most of the
companies’ operations at customer sites.
Labour cost is the greatest expense for a commercial cleaning company. Cost
may be a driver of the cleaning company’s ability to retain new business, but
quality is the main performance measure that successful cleaning companies
are able to retain customers. The process that is undertaken to perform the
work encompasses all performance measurements outlined by Slack and
Brandon-Jones (2018), speed and flexibility are drivers of overall cost while
dependability supports overall customer perception of quality.
Critical issues of team capacity and improper sequencing of work are identified in
this report. A focus on operations flow configuration, capacity
planning/controlling and lean synchronization is used to provide
recommendations which will show that opportunities exist to enact changes to
the existing process. These changes will significantly bring down the cost,
improve the customers experience though quality and in turn result in better
value to the customer.
2. Operations Strategy Matrix
“The operations strategy matrix is one method of checking the reconciliation
between the inside-out and outside-in perspectives.” (Slack & Brandon-Jones
2018, pp 64). It is important to understand this view and how it relates to the
companies’ performance objectives and decision-making process:
• From a top down view, the company wants to improve efficiency and
bottom line while reducing customer complaints and customer
turnover. The company is prepared to provide any training needed to
The introduction could start by
introducing the topic of
operations improvement and its
importance to a business. This
would provide the opportunity to
introduce theory/literature.
The business is briefly
introduced.
The process is named. The writer
could more fully connect this to
the performance objectives to
justify its selection.
The areas of focus are justified.
The findings and implications of
the report could be left for the
conclusion and executive
summary.
A quote is not an ideal way to start
a paragraph. Quotes should be
incorporated into the writer’s
sentence e.g. Slack and BrandonJones (2018, pp. 64) define an
operations strategy matrix as
“one…”
Alternatively, this information could
have been paraphrased.
A positive point is the way the
second sentence refers to the
quote.
6
accomplish this.
• From an outside in perspective, the company’s operation strategy is to
leverage market share and references from the target industries as
well as its accomplishments in the area of cost reduction and quality
improvement. Focus is put on sales related activities to be aimed at
markets where the company has shown operational breakthroughs.
• From a bottom up perspective, the company needs to find ways to
learn from improvement initiatives in all areas, focus on
improvements that provide impact to the whole company. To do this,
they need to take on the easy fixes first instead of analyzing for days
and share improvement information between all facets of the
company.
• The inside out perspective of the strategy is to become the leader in
commercial cleaning sector by: Investing in training at all levels
focused on continuous improvement and change management.
Measure and report quality inspection reports and use them as a way
to find process constraints. Take a team approach to improving and
learning from mistakes in a fact-based manner rather than a blamebased manner.
Theory/literature could be used
to introduce each perspective.
The benefits of pursuing each
strategy could be stated for each
perspective.
Operations terminology is used.
7
Figure 2.1 The operations strategy matrix
3. Organizational Context
The companies strategy has been to manage and reward individual units and
individual supervisors for performance. Bollard et al. (2017) suggest a different
approach and that the “Shift from running uncoordinated efforts” Bollard et al.
(2017 pp2) within departments to a company wide approach with each change
focused overall on how the customer experience is impacted. Bollard(2017)
further notes that in order to become better as a whole company, operational
beakthroughs must be shared with the entire organization to learn from each
other. An improvement made in one siloed part of the operation should be
made available and taken advantage of by the entire company.
4. The Process
The process was observed over three evenings to ensure that a benchmark of
average time of tasks are accurate “The benchmarking methodologies for
assessing the three main aspects of facilities service provision are process,
quality and cost” (Wauters, 2005 pp 142). The current practice is an
adherence to labour budgets based on how many total hours it should take to
complete each cleaning assignment. The budget hours for the cleaning
Label figures according to the
AIB Style Guide. As the first
figure presented, this should be
Figure 1: The operations
strategy matrix.
This figure is modified from a
source. Figures require a citation
under them (see AIB Style Guide
section 11.11).
Source:
A page number has been
included in the quote. For one
page use p. and for more than one
page use pp. with a space before
the page number.
Theory has been used to indicate
the importance of the
organizational context and the
alternative approach.
Wherever possible, aim to

The company’s strategy is stated.
Noting shortcomings of this
approach would help justify the
alternative.
8
process observed was 7.5 hours yet the cleaners were constantly averaging
over 8.5. The company was considering increasing the price. However, raising
prices when the customers journey does not reflect a good perception of
quality and in a market where there is a lot of competition is a risky
proposition.
Tasks included in the cleaning process are:
• Garbage cans emptied.
• Vacuuming of carpet.
• Dusting of all horizontal surfaces.
• Moping of hard surface floors.
• Cleaning and sanitizing of the desks, touchpoints, washrooms,
lunchrooms.
• Set up and tear down.
Each of the cleaners on site had duties separated and had individual
responsibilities that they rotated through. Table 4.1 shows the average time
each of the individual cleaners spent on each of the tasks.
Table 4.1

Table 4.2 is a process diagram that encompasses the overall tasks, how they
were separated by individual cleaner and the sequence that each cleaner
followed.
There is an opportunity here to
link into the importance of
process analysis and therefore
the purpose of the report.
The process could be
more fully described
using terminology from
the course.
9
Table 4.2 Cleaning process diagram
4.3 Limitations
As noted in the list of wastes, there was overproduction in cleaning. It is unclear
whether the employees were cleaning the area for a second time just to look
busy to the observer.
5. Critical evaluations of the process.
5.1 Process Design, flow configuration
Critical issues of high cost and low quality are created by the flow configuration
are due to improper sequencing in the process design, “Process design defines
the way units flow through an operation” (Slack & Brandon-Jones, 2018 pp. 192).
Vacuuming is started in one area before the same area has been dusted and
cleaned/sanitized. When vacuuming starts before dusting and cleaning dust and
debris removed from desks falls to the floor. This creates an appearance that
the floor was not actually vacuumed. The second problem with sequencing is
This figure helps the reader
understand the process that is
under discussion. As such, it
could be placed earlier in the
section.
Figures you create should be
referenced in a way that
credits you as the creator. See
the AIB Style Guide, section
11.11.
This is a key point that can
lead to recommendations. As
such it should be discussed in
more detail.
Three areas are evaluated in
this report. It is important to
check the current assessment
question as the requirements
may differ from term to term.
Grammatical errors detract
from communication.
Grammarly and other tools
can help pick up areas that
require rephrasing.
10
that many garbage bins are emptied before the area is cleaned. The employee
doing the cleaning and sanitizing can find debris that needed to be put in the
garbage afterwards making the garbage can look as if it had not been emptied.
These may seem like trivial issues as the work was done but “Measuring building
condition is a subjective practice” (Campbell & Bigger, 2008, pp. 34). Since the
process has little to no visibility to the customer, all that the customer sees is the
final outcome and this drives their perception of the overall quality.
Table 5.1 Outlines the flow of work of each of the cleaners:

The sequencing of the cleaning activities cannot be solved through the use of
staggered scheduling in this case. Most cleaners do not own vehicles, in this
case only one of the employees had a car and the team carpooled. The
customer site is in an industrial area that is not accessible by bus. Both
customer and company guidelines state that employees must not work alone.
Due to these considerations the three cleaners cannot be made to start and
finish at staggered times.
5.2 Critical evaluation using Lean Synchronizations
The basis of lean is to identify and remove waste from an operation, waste is
defined by Womak and Jones as “any human activity which absorbs resources
but creates no value” (1997, Pp. 15). Five critical issues pertaining to wastage
were identified:
Inventory: There were multiple boxes of disposable gloves stored in the
Janitors room. If each cleaner wear two gloves a night five days per week one
hundred and thirty gloves are needed for a month. As the boxes come with
300 gloves each, a box of gloves is only required every two and a half months.
Little theory has been
incorporated into the
discussion, and that poorly.
Theory is best paraphrased
and applied to the discussion.
The information from
Campbell and Bigger needs to
be explained.
Problems in the sequencing are
identified.
This information demonstrates
critical analysis by considering
different stakeholders and
raising a challenge.
Tools such as Grammarly can
help improve writing and pick
up issues such as this run-on
sentence.
Aim to draw on the literature
for more than definitions. The
literature could be drawn
upon to indicate reasons for
waste, the importance of
removing waste etc., as
appropriate.
11
In this case, there was almost one year’s worth of inventory.
Motion: Due to the division of duties including one cleaner changing all
garbage containers, one cleaning and sanitizing all areas, and one performing
all vacuuming, almost every room in the building is visited three times. The
supply room was visited nine times due to the process design and two more
times unnecessarily. Those visits included filling a bottle that could have been
filled at the start of the shift and looking for a scraping tool that the vacuum
operator had in his pocket.
Waiting: Two of the three cleaners always spent time waiting for the vacuuming
to complete. Overproduction: During one observation, the reception area was
cleaned for a second time while waiting for the vacuuming to finish.
Defects: As vacuuming was completed in some areas before the desks were
wiped, the wiping of the desks left debris on the floor after cleaning was
completed. Sequencing of garbage collection followed by dusting and cleaning
also left the employee who was cleaning putting garbage found in the already
changed bin. These two sequencing issues create the appearance of missed
garbage bins and poor quality vacuuming to the customer when they arrive
the next morning.
The most significant waste was under the classification of waiting which
wasted about seventy five minutes (almost 15% of total time). The second
waste was movement of all cleaners to and from all areas of the building.
“Some improvements, however small, must be possible, and must be found, as
a part of normal operating duties.” Challenge (1990, pp. 85) in an effort to pick
the easily available low hanging fruit, all of the boxes of gloves except one
were taken to other client’s facilities reducing the inventory from twelve
months worth of gloves to just over two.
Table 5.3. Areas of the process where waste was observed.

The use of sub-sub-headings is
appropriate.
5.2.1 Inventory
Theory and/or literature could
be used to support the
discussion.
The issues present in the
process have been identified.
A general statement from the
literature has been introduced
here. More specific literature
about redistribution of
resources may be available.
12

6. Recommendations
6.1 Training all staff on such approach.
Training could include but may not be limited to:
• A course should be developed to be included in the compaies internal
training program that will teach all staff to identify contraints, wastes
and help them effect change management.
• A regulary scheduled information session on the improvements
made to processes shoud be held and celebrated.
• Team members should be encouraged to learn from and apply
these same or simular changes to the hundreds of repetitive
cleaning processes throughout the system.
6.2 Utilize analytics.
Analytics are available through the operating software and the supervisors
weekly log. The company will need to begin leveraging information from the
software to look for improvement opportunities (sales through operations
through quality). Sales staff should be involved in the operations review
meetings to learn about new initiatives and breakthroughs in order to keep
their own quoting skill sharp.
6.3 Realign human resources
The most impactful change to capacity would be to reduce the cleaning team
from three cleaners to two. By reducing the capacity of the overall team and
resequencing the cleaning process, the bottleneck will have been eliminated and
The recommendation could be
more clearly linked to the
analysis and address the issues
found in the process.
Ideally, include an introductory
sentence or paragraph before
the sub-heading.
Options could be explored
and constraints should be
mentioned.

13
no longer control the throughput of the process. This coupled with the addition
of tools and balancing the workload between the two cleaners will make a
significant reduction in waiting time.
6.4 Lean Synchronisation
In order to reduce waste the following recommendations are made:
Inventory: Reduce glove inventory. Followers of Six Sigma adhere to a
technique to Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control (DMAIC) but in
an article from 2010 Franciso writes:“Not every defect-reduction challenge
required the rigors of the DMAIC methodology”. In the spirit of CI a just do it
approach was taken and this was done.
Motion: Peter Drucker wrote “Do not believe that it is very much of an advance
to do the unnecessary three times as fast” (Drucker, 2012. pp.91). In this case,
cutting the time it takes to go back and forth to the supply room would not help,
cutting the unnecessary trips to the supply room will. Divide the work area.
Create a functional layout of tools that can be transported to the work areas
with the cleaners to reduce trips to the supply room from eleven to seven.
Waiting: Rebalance the workload between the two cleaners to reduce waiting
time.
Defects: Increase tools available and reschedule the sequencing of work to
ensure that garbage cans are completely empty and debris not on the floor
when the customer arrives at work the next day.
6.5 Flow Reconfiguration
In order to correct the critical issues with the flow caused by improper
sequencing and customer perception of quality, the flow of work can be
changed. The building should be separated into two zones for the dusting,
garbage removal and cleaning of 20% of the office area by one of the cleaners
prior to vacuuming. The other cleaner can perform the same tasks on 80% of
the offices before cleaning all of the bathrooms and moping of the hard
surface floors. Vacuuming should not start in any area before the same area
has been dusted and cleaned/sanitized and cleaning never started in an area
before garbage bags were removed.
Table 6.7.1 and 6.7.2 Outline the recommended flow and new process map
14
and time savings that can be accomplished following the recommended
changes to managing the capacity, balancing the flow and addressing the
wastes using lean synchronisation:
Table 6.7.1
A new process map that
outlines the improved process
has been included. It should be
given a title.
15
Table 6.7.2

7. Conclusion
Focusing on the critical issues of capacity and improper sequencing using
analysis of operations flow configuration, capacity planning/controlling and
lean synchronization has shown opportunity to improve cost and quality. The
changes that have been recommended will result in; a marginal increase in the
costs of tools that will be significantly outweighed by the reduction in labour
costs of an overwhelming 22% shown in Table 3.2 and 4.3. The changes
recommended will also lead to reduced quality issues by changing the
sequencing thereby improving quality and in turn deliver better value to the
customers. The company that was initially considering increasing costs, is now
in a position to offer the customer a discount instead. This potential offer of
reduction could result in an extension to the contract.
In order to continue to sustain these changes and drive a culture of CI the
company must ensure to share this information with all departments,
celebrate the win and learn holistically from the change. Operations strategy
should be updated to include the matrix identified by Slack and Jones (2020)
and constantly reviewed. Training for all levels in the organization should be
developed and a new process writing strategy will be started that involves all
facets of the organization from sales through Quality Assurance.
Implementation of these initiatives along with the use of analytic information
from the operating software and a culture of CI will lead to a better experience
for the customers.

clear.
16
8. References
Bollard, A., Larrea, E., Singla, A. and Sood, R., 2017. The next-generation
operating model for the digital world. Digital McKinsey”, March.
Cain, C.R., Cain Charles R, 1984. Caddy for janitorial supplies. U.S. Patent
4,475,660.
Campbell, J.L. and Bigger, A.S., 2008. Cleanliness & Learning in Higher Education.
Facilities Manager, 24(4), pp.28-36.
Challenge, N.M., 1990. kaizen.(‘Ky-zen.’) The principle of. pp 85
Chen J C, Dugger J and Hammer B (2000) “A Kaizen Based Approach for Cellular
Manufacturing Design: A Case Study”, The Journal of Technology Studies, Vol.
27. No 2, pp. 19-27.
Drucker, P.F., 2011. Technology, management, and society. Harvard Business
Press.
Francisco, D 2010. Just do it – Problem solving made easy. {online}
Available at < (accessed April 11 2020)
Goldratt, E. M., & Cox, J. (2004). The goal: a process of ongoing improvement.
Great Barrington, MA, North River Press, pp371
Palmer, V S. (2001) “Inventory Management Kaizen”, Proceedings of 2nd
International Workshop on engineering Manufacturing for Applied Technology,
pp 55-56
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management:
principles and practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Smith, D., 1999. The measurement nightmare: How the theory of constraints can
resolve conflicting strategies, policies, and measures. CRC press. pp2
References should be
formatted in line with the AIB
Style Guide.
Example:
Bollard, A, Larrea, E, Singla, A
& Sood, R 2017, ‘The nextgeneration operating model
for the digital world,’ Digital
McKinsey, 1 March, viewed
30 December 2023,
https://www.mckinsey.com/
capabilities/mckinseydigital/our-insights/thenext-generation-operatingmodel-for-the-digital-world.
Punctuation and formatting
are important in referencing.
e.g. single quotation marks
for titles of article, Lower
case letters for titles of
articles, Italics for Journal
titles, no capital for vol. and
no. etc.
Refer to the AIB Style Guide.

17
Wauters, B 2005 “The added value of facilities management: benchmarking
work processes”, Facilities, vol 23 no.3/4 pp 142-151 [online]
Available at: https://www.emerald.com/insights/publication/issn/0263-2772
(accessed April 14 2020)
Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T., 1997. Lean thinking—banish waste and create
wealth in your corporation., Simon & Schuster Inc. pp.15.