Operations Management Principles: Analysing The Current Operations Of C-Quest Marine Laboratory Essay.

Description This assessment task is designed to apply Operations Management principles, theories and models. You are to apply these to analyse the current operations of an organisation described in a short case study. The assignment requires you to write a succinct business report that identifies the operational issues in the case and develops an argument about their root causes. As such, your diagnostic business report presents a cause/effect argument that reflects the insights from extensive research within the academic literature relating to operations management. The objective is to identify and specify the problems that exist. Some research into the sector would also be beneficial.

Current Operational Activities of Marine Laboratory

Organization management defines the administration of the business practices that help in creating a high level of the efficiency in an organization. The main aim of the operation management is to convert the resources into the goods and services that help in maximize the profit of an organization. Each and every business wants to utilize the resource with full efficiency (Galliers, & Leidner, 2014). The report includes the analysis of the operational management of the C-Quest marine laboratory. The manager who manages the operation tries to bring some innovative and effective ideas into the work that enhances the demand of the customers for the particular products. This management becomes a challenge for the manager as a manager need to take tough decisions considering the situation (Pwc, 2017).  The decision over here consists of a size of the plants, strategic decision related to the administration of the company, bringing innovative ideas, etc.

The report talks about the operational issues that hamper the current operations of the CQuest marine laboratory. Operation activities include directing, controlling, and outlining the working in the organization. The report also consists of the problems that are generally occurring in the hospitality industry.

C-Quest marine laboratory is based on Great Barrier Reef. The marine laboratory comes under the tourist places. It consists of 600M2 floating permanent platforms. The operations of the company are related to the marine laboratory with scientists study.

• Currently, the main focus of the C-Quest marine laboratory is in forming the strategy for the target audience. The organization working shows that organization keeps changing the target segments (Bernstein, 2014). Changing target is necessary for the company and these changes in the target audience come considering the season. According to the seasons in the northern hemisphere the demand increase due to vacations in May to October. Similarly, Australian and New Zealand tourist visit in the month of the November and April along with the southern hemisphere tourist.
• The organization is bringing an improvement in the quality of the services it is providing to its customers. Managing the quality can be considered as the one of the operational activity. To increase the level of satisfaction of the customer organization need to enhance the quality of the services (online kettering, 2016). Hence, they will be able to attract more and more tourist towards the marine laboratory. This fosters the growth and success of the company.
• Operational manager of the organization tries to add-on new innovative ideas into the business day-to-day operations (Heizer, 2016). For instance, the organization can provide a tubular walkway to the customers or tourist so that they can get the facility of analyzing the underwater observations. The organization can facilitate the tourist from the facility of snorkeling or diving tours. This may attract the tourists towards the fun activities they will like to participate.
• As per the case study, the company granted a marine park permit five years ago. The step was taken by the company to share their eco-marine science venture with the 120 tourists per trip. The CQuest marine operated a company that operates a catamaran (who has the license to carry 100 people). The appointed company helped the organization to transport tourists from 30 nautical miles from Trinity inlet in Cairns to the platform. The whole activity needs the management of the tourist at the same place. Similar to this plan now company is making plan $3m expansion that includes the second level to the platform. This planning helps the company in enhancing the brand value and success of the company. In the second level, an organization will provide overnight accommodation for 10 tourists. Along with the scientific staff of 4 that remain on the platform. Planning is one of the important activities that are included in the operations management. This is one of the most important activities that need to be considered but planning decides the success and failure of the task depends. The company is planning for providing the facilities of the kitchen and bathroom amenities. This shows that the company is focusing on the value-adding activities that help the organization in delivering the customer satisfaction.
• Apart from the enhancement in the customer satisfaction, there will be a competitive advantage to the company. Nowadays in each and every field, there is a tough competition among the marine laboratories. By managing the operations organization is trying to bring effectiveness in the working.

There are numerous of the issues and root cause from which marine laboratory is dealing today. With the emergence of the social media marketing, the trend of the marketing is changing. For dealing with the marketing issue company needs to adopt few changes in the way of marketing. Hence, this will enhance the knowledge of the employees in the organization. The operations manager will be able to make the effective decisions.

• The competition is increasing day by day and it is becoming leading issue for the organizations. For facing the competitive world company needs to implement new strategies and plans. The strategic plans help the company to deal with the threat of the rivalry.
• Monsoon season with cyclones is one of the common threats for the organization. CQuest marine needs to manage the supply side because there is a seasonal fluctuation in the demand as per the media reports. There are a threat and danger from the cyclones, salt-water crocodiles, and marine stingers (Vernberg, & Vernberg, 2013).  
• Improper utilization of the permits by the organization. Cooperation in the operations management is one of the root issues that are found in the organization. For instance, company permit to 120 tourists to visit anytime but only once. The organization also provided the facility of the transportation by forming operation with the catamaran. The operation manager heightened that they can secure a faster catamaran that can probably do 2 tourists rotations in a day. The initial slot can come in the morning and departure at the time of the lunchtime. The second slot can come in afternoon after the departure of the first slot. This would have provided an opportunity of earning the double amountfrom tourists.
• The organization realized that they are still relying on the traditional tourism supply chain to source passenger loadings. Supply chain plays an important role in the working of the company. Over here it is clearly mentioned that company needs to find a better way to bring changes in the supply chain. Not only the supply chain but the cash flow that is undertaking is not effective. CQML is going to receive the payment from the tourism agents 90 days after the tourists have paid the amount or experienced the trip. The tour agents deduct 40% out of the retail price as their commission and then give rest 60% amount to the company. The retail price of the tour charged to the tourist is approximate $199; this includes lunch at the time of morning tour tourists or canapés and wine at the time of the afternoon tour. Better cash flow may bring an effective way of working for the company and might be possible will help the organization in enhancing the profit (Kroes, & Manikas, 2014).

The tourism and travel business is included in the hospitality industry. Scrutinizing and management of both the field together are not an easy task. The companies manage both tourism and travel need to face some of the difficulties. The tourism sector is continuously expanding across the world (Smith, 2014). The problems that are faced by the businesses in this sector include safety and security. Safety and security are one of the leading issues in this sector. Those businesses who are leading in this industry provide lip-service to security issues than then opposing the problems from roots (Hitt, Carnes & Xu, 2016). There is a numerous number of tourist officers who don't have any contact with the local police departments. For the tourism sector, visitor's security is a primary focus as this may cause a loss in the future.

Issues and Root Cause of the C-Quest Marine Laboratory

Employee retention is increasing day by day in the tourism industry. Frontline employees receive low pay and are not loyal towards the company. The employees worked for the tourism companies can easily switch job. The employees in the tourism industry easily get a job (Terera, & Ngirande, 2014). This may lead to the challenge for the companies as they want skilled manpower which is difficult to maintain in this industry. HR needs to recruit skilled labor for their organization (Baum, 2016). Another problem that is frequently faced by the tourism industry includes the problem of the political conditions. The tourism sector has to deal with the changes in the policies made by the government. Though the government said that they support tourism but the restriction makes it more complicated (RSM, 2017). Tourism and travel sector have a huge dependency on the cost of the fuel. The gasoline and fuel cost impact the whole industry, summer is peak time when most of the tourist spends an amount on the travels. This problem may force tourist to adjust their spending as they don't want to pay high charges for the fuel. The industry needs to find out the best solution to come out of the challenge.

Tourism is an extremely taxed industry. The amount that the travelers have to pay is huge because they have to bear charges such as airline ticket, hotel, rental car, etc. government of the different countries claims that they provide additional benefits to the tourists (Becker, 2016). Often government failed to complete whatever is committed by them. World tourism needs to work on the infrastructure facility to create customer loyalty. These infrastructure facilities include proper handling of arriving passengers, transportation of the luggage of the customers, waiting area, reception area and other facilities. Companies need to develop proper facilities so that customers don’t face any problems in terms of the infrastructure of the hotels. Lack of knowledge of the tour guide, most of the people believe to hire tourist guide so that they get to know more about the tourist places. The tourist guide helps the tourist by giving them information about the tourist places where they can visit. There are very few tourist guides who can speak in the multiple languages (Cetin, & Yarcan, 2017). This shows the lack of education and training that may lead to the losses to the tourist companies. Over here, to come out of these challenges the companies need to facilitate proper training facility or need to hire trained and skilled employees.

Identification and Specification of the Problems

Tourism and transport forum CEO John Lee said that Australia needs to introduce working holidaymaker visa with other countries such as Australia and China accept Indonesia. This is not only for the Australia but for the whole world. Companies should do tie up with the other countries to enhance the tour packages (News.com.au, (2012). This may promote the tourism activity from the company's side. As people avoid going on vacations due to the rise of the prices of the airline tickets or hotels.

Conclusion 

The above report includes the analysis of the operational management based on the case study. The company’s operations shows that company is planning to expand platform. The improper utilization of the permit can be resolved. Company should appoint trained and skilled operation manager expert. The expert can evaluate the strategies and plans for proper utilization of resources. This will enhance the revenue of the company. C-Quest marine can try to implement the effective supply chain which helps the company in dealing with the agents. Cash flows play an important role in organization so company should keep an eye on the cash flow management. The reason C-Quest generally faces issue related is cash flow. The company should add-on services to enhance the demand of the customers or to attract tourist.

References 

Baum, T. (Ed.). (2016). Human resource issues in international tourism. Elsevier.

Becker, E. (2016). Overbooked: the exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and Schuster.

Bernstein, J. S. (2014). Identifying Market Segments, Selecting Target Markets, and Positioning the Offer. In Standing Room Only (pp. 125-143). Palgrave Macmillan US.

Cetin, G., & Yarcan, S. (2017). The professional relationship between tour guides and tour operators. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 1-13.

Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (Eds.). (2014). Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Heizer, J. (2016). Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.

Hitt, M. A., Carnes, C. M., & Xu, K. (2016). A current view of resource based theory in operations management: A response to Bromiley and Rau. Journal of Operations Management, 41(10), 107-109.

Kroes, J. R., & Manikas, A. S. (2014). Cash flow management and manufacturing firm financial performance: A longitudinal perspective. International Journal of Production Economics, 148, 37-50.

News.com.au. (2012 April 21^st). Big challenges facing Australian tourism in 'Asian Century'. Assessed on 18^th August 2017.  https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/big-challenges-facing-australian-tourism-in-asian-century/news-story/2b523420848208acf8687a68bd12949d

Online kettering, (2016). What are the current 5 challenges of operations management?. Assessed on 18^th August 2017, https://online.kettering.edu/news/2016/10/18/what-are-5-current-challenges-operations-management.

Pwc, (2017). Operations, Assessed on 18^th August 2017. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/operations.html

RSM. (2017). Seven big issues for travel and tourism in 2017. Assessed on 18^th August 2017. https://www.rsmuk.com/ideas-and-insights/seven-big-issues-for-travel-and-tourism-in-2017

Slack, N. (2015). Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Smith, S. L. (2014). Tourism analysis: A handbook. Routledge.

Terera, S. R., & Ngirande, H. (2014). The impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), 481.

Vernberg, F. J., & Vernberg, W. B. (Eds.). (2013). Pollution and physiology of marine organisms. Elsevier.