Consultancy Report on Improving Business Operations and Performance at Airport

The Sales Director of your consulting firm has recently spent a lot of time at the airport talking to various managers working in different departments – collecting information and looking for new consultancy opportunities to improve business operations and bottom line performance.

The Sales Director has provided you with all this information in the case document. You are required to analyse the information carefully, address the various questions and make a series of informed recommendations as to how each manager could improve their operations performance, and in doing so generate increased profitability at the airport.

The Sales Director wants to use your analysis to negotiate a new consultancy contract so the accuracy and clarity of your arguments and calculations, supported with theory where relevant, are essential. You are to submit your work in the form of a high quality consultancy report document that would impress the CEO of the airport.

The overall structure and presentation quality of the report will also be worth (assessed at the Interim stage). You are expected to create a corporate identity for your consultancy firm (any sensible name, logo, brand, style etc. is acceptable) and use it to create a professional report.

Review the case study very carefully and the nine topic areas identified by the department managers below You are required to produce a professional 3000 word (=/- 10%) consultancy-style report for the Sales Director ensuring that each of these nine areas is addressed

Report Presentation

A single business report (one document) is expected to a high standard of preparation and presentation style.  As a general rule, a report should be structured with:

• appropriate cover page,

• table of contents,

• executive summary,

• introduction,

• main body

• Nine separate sections – one for each task

Pages should be neatly designed with headers/footers including page numbers. Further guidance will be provided over the course of the module.

• This assignment must be completed individually.

• You must use Harvard referencing system.

• Your work must indicate the number of words you have used. Written assignments must not exceed the specified maximum number of words. When a written assignment is marked, the excessive use of words beyond the word limit is reflected in the academic judgement of the piece of work which results in a lower mark being awarded for the piece of work (regulation 6.70).

• Assignment submissions are to be made anonymously. Do not write your name anywhere on your work. Write your student ID number at the top of every page.

• Where the assignment comprises more than one task, all tasks must be submitted in a single document.

• You must number all pages.

In order to achieve full marks, you must submit your work before the deadline. Work that is submitted late – up to five working days after the published submission deadline - will be accepted and marked. However, the element of the module’s assessment to which the work contributes will be capped with a maximum mark of 40%.

Work cannot be submitted if the period of 5 working days after the deadline has passed (unless there is an approved extension). Failure to submit within the relevant period will mean that you have failed the assessment.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Guidance and the specific criteria for each scenario question will be published to the student within the case study. The general assessment criteria for the entire assignment are as follows.

• Knowledge and understanding of various theories, tools and techniques within the field of operations management and project management.

• The ability to select and apply tools and techniques in the context of a specific scenario

• The ability to present a coherent and practical solution in a clear and informative manner, close to the standard expected from a professional management consultant

The general assessment criteria relating to the knowledge and understanding and intellectual skills, as listed in the relevant Anglia Ruskin assessment criteria and marking standards are appended below. Specific guidance will be provided to students on areas, topics, concepts, theories etc. during the course of the module.