Operations Management London Zoo and Nottimham Castle Case Study

In todays information age, it is consequential for businesses to take gain of the available avenues to r distributively out to customers and potential customers. Tourist take upions such as capital of the United Kingdom menagerie, and Nottingham fortress, be no exceptions of being in the age of constant quantity information flows. These places want to attract visitors with their ease layouts and over wholly experiences, and to improve upon what they already feature, they would bespeak to optimize their products through well planned motions management.When 1 studys of a zoological garden and a historic museum, it is really natural to think of twain places as tourist attractions, but what they offer the visitors could be very assorted. The capital of the United Kingdom Zoo offers patrons the experience of interacting with animals that we would early(a)wise lose very minor chances of implementing, while the Nottingham go brings the visitors game in time and allows them to feel and see the history. The zoo needs to attract people with their animal collections, while the Nottingham stronghold needs to intrigue visitors with their well laid out tours, guides, and interesting historic facts.The purpose of this report is to describe how each of these places, the London Zoo and the Nottingham palace, ar run in terms of subroutines management, then to identify realizable flaws and ways to improve upon their current operational methodology. Though these devil places argon both tourist attractions, but their appeals be unique to their own. The zoo offers arouse and dynamic interactions with live animals, so it needs to capitalize on the animals it has or through possible new animal achievements. The Nottingham fortress on the other hand should cater to what the visitors would be most interested in sharp about the place.To wrap up this report, a comparison in the midst of the cardinal locations give be d angiotensin-converting enzyme. Not tingham Castle prat trace its history back to 1067 the wooden castling was built by the Conqueror. In 1878, Prince of Wales disperseed it as a municipal museum and art gallery and it has since become one of the commonplace scenic spots in Nottingham city. According to Nottingham City Council website, Nottingham Castle is open Tuesday to sunlight from 10am to 4pm. From March to September it opens until 5 in the evening. Although the Castle only provides parking for disabilities, public parking and railway station be all within 10 to 15minutes walk.In order to attract more visitors, Nottingham Castle has a Tuesday free entry plan for the local citizens. Other visitors tin can purchase tickets from 3 to 5. 5Pounds depending on different showcases of tickets. There is only one entrance into the Castle, thitherfore after visitors purchase the tickets they have admission to every of the places inside Nottingham Castle which involves the indoor(a) facilities museum, art gallery an d outdoor facilities nice pedestal, playground. It can be seen that Nottingham Castle has both the educational and entertainment functions which be suitable for family void activity.Figure 1 Nottingham Castle process and layout plot Source BBC Local Nottingham Website Nottingham Castle is surrounded by walls, when visitors go into the stronghold gatehouse they will see a beautiful garden and the fortress atop the hill. As can be seen in the Figure 1, Nottingham Castle has well-tried to arrange a route for visitors. Visitors usually are attracted by the robin redbreast Hood statue just outside the castle before heading to the castle gatehouse to purchase the tickets. at a time inside the Castle, visitors can access any preparedness to their likings and do not necessarily have to follow the route which is suggested by Nottingham Castle.According to BBC Nottingham local website, the route suggested by Nottingham Castle shown as to a lower place Robin Hood Statue > Castle Gatehouse > Victorian Bandstand > east windn terrasse > Guard Room > Dungeon 01 > Dungeon 02 > Long Gallery > Castle Roof > Soldiers Tunnel > Mortimers Hole > Cannon Position > millers Cottage In this case, Nottingham Castle could be classified as process layout. This is because when visitors flow through the operation, they choose a route from induction to facility according to their needs. (Slack et al. , 2004) Nottingham Castle is considered a small Castle.The museum and gallery are all located inside the Castle. The space of the exhibition compare to numerous other museums is on the smaller side. The Castle Cafe and shop are not very busy during the day. Visitors normally spend one to two hours to see all the facilities. Therefore, the flock of its output is low. Moreover, when visitors go to the gatehouse, the staffs are not only selling tickets but also in charge of the gratuity shop. Slack et al. (2004) state that when the volume is lower, the it emize of staff will be lower and therefore individual staffs are likely to perform a wider range of tasks (p. 0) this situation can be observed at Nottingham Castle.It exponent cause visitors to wait in the prospicient queue, because of the customers who want to buy give way and tickets have to wait at the same counter. Once the visitors are in the Castle, they can access many attractions. For adults, they can enjoy the art and historical display children can experience the outdoor playground and some indoor displays which are design for kids on ground floor. Furthermore, Nottingham Castle hold different events and tours throughout the year. (Table 1) These information shows that Nottingham Castle provides extravagantly variety of works.However, when there is no special event, the outdoor facilities tend to be idle. The function of playground and bandstand will be low. Table 1 Nottingham Castle events and tours Events Time open-air(prenominal) theatre June, July and August Robi n Hood Pageant October Christmas events including visiting Santa Christmas Fireworks diachronic en-enactments Indoor and outdoor activities for families All year desire Festivals and fairs Cave tours Tuesday Sunday Private hire During the weekends, holidays and school passs, the number of visitors will increase.In addition, the castle is closed on Mondays the number of visitors can fluctuate broadly depending on the time of the year. Along with big crowds,variation of demands can arise. It is then crucial for the Nottingham Castle staffs to assist the patrons when necessary. Visitors do not need to spend for a long time to find staffs for assistant. The transforming resources such as Castle, Museum and gallery are upliftedly visible to the visitors. The second case in this essay is London Zoo. Since it undetermined in 1828, London Zoo has been one of the most favorite attractions in England. (Watt and Stuart, 1995, p. ) Similar to Nottingham Castle, London Zoo adopt proce ss layout as their operation layout type. Visitors do not have many limitations after they get into the zoo.Once inside the Zoo, not only staff and facilities are transforming resources but so are animals. Therefore, the collection of animals and their well-being is very important for the zoo. The average number of visitors during holidays, weekends and special events tend to be high. The number of visitors can peak at 18,000 people per day compare to 4000 to 6000 people on average. (Watt and Stuart, 1995) Base on these figures, the volume of London Zoos output is high.Moreover,London Zoo offers high-variety service. They have grown their animal collections and developed childrens zoo, education centre etc. Additionally, questionnaires are sent out to customers to help them improve their daily operation. Although the volume of London Zoo is high, the Variation of demand is quite high as well. According to Watt and Stuart (1995), daily number of visitors fluctuated dramatically. The lowest and highest visitor be are 48 and 18. 000 people. London Zoo is predicted as a high visibleness leisure facility. Most of the transforming resources are visible to the visitors.During peak periods, the zoo will hire more temporary stuff to help unchanging stuff and thus provides customers a better experience. After conscientiously examining each facilitys operations management, we can then compare and contrast them side by side. As discussed,the Nottingham Castle and the London Zoo have the same type of operation layout which is process layout. One disadvantage of process layout is customer queuing. (Slack et al. , 2004, p. 217) This hold out is present in both of the two cases, especially during peak periods. London Zoo has queue everywhere, even the food in the shop is not up to the demand. Watt and Stuart, 1995) The other problem which appeared in authors own experience was the clarity of flow in Nottingham Castle was low. Although visitors are free to choose their o wn route, the signposts in Nottingham Castle appear to be not clear. The unclear signposts sometimes confuse visitors causing visitors to be fainthearted whether they have been to the all the facilities on each floor. This problem match other possible disadvantage of process layout which is complex flow could be hard to control. These two disadvantages both affect visitors experiences adversely.As we have intercourse customers satisfaction is crucial to any business sustainability and credibility. Therefore, improvement should be interpreted to upgrade their service quality. Refer to the difference between the four Vs in each facility. (Figure 2) Due to the size of the facility, London Zoo tends to have high volume and variety to their outputs. Furthermore, London Zoo shows higher degree of profile than Nottingham Castle. This is not only about contacts with the staff, but also higher visibility of the transforming resources to visitors. For instance, sometimes, visitors could have the chance to see workers feeding the animals.Hence,there is more interaction between transformed and transforming resources in London Zoo. Figure 2 Nottingham Castle and London Zoo Four Vs One common issue between both facilities is high variation in demand. This could lead to unstable financial statements and high unit costs. (Slack et al. , 2004) For leisure facilities, not surprisingly, the number of visitors varies from period to period. For example, during the summer vacation or school holidays, more families are willing to visit leisure facilities. The number of visitors will also get a boost when there are special events.This kind of unpredictable situation has a great impact on both places, especially the London Zoo. On the Easter and August Bank holidays we can easily reach 10,000 people. (Watt and Stuart, 1995, p. 8) Having a coarse number of visitors in a day might be a good thing on curtly term profits. However, fluctuation of visitors can be a challenging obst acle to formulate a long term plan for due to the uncertain demands between peak and come out times without sacrificing the quality of product. The shortage of stuff and products can lower the service quality which directly affects its reputation.As London Zoos handler Jo Gipps said (Watt and Stuart, 1995, p. 12) They (visitors) will spread their dissatisfaction or disappointment by line. The consequence will be that visitors will not return, and new visitors will not be attracted Since London Zoo is a bigger facility than Nottingham Castle, the temporary shortage on staff and products in busy months should have more impacts on its overall customers experiences. Thus, having a plan to cope with the short term increasing demands is even more vital for the Zoo to include in its operations management.This essay described Nottingham Castle and London Zoo in terms of operations management. After identifying each of facilities characteristic, it can be found that the basic layout adopt ed by both is process layout. Since visitors are free to move inside the zoo and the castle, the layouts of facilities need to maximize the handicraft flow and put down well indicated signs for the visitors. The appropriate management of the affair flow and the demands that are associated with a big crowd of people is a major mission for both the Nottingham Castle and the London Zoo.To some extent, Nottingham Castle and London Zoo have many similarities. Continual developments are the keys to attract more visitors to both places. However, due to the size of the facility and the nature of go provided, London Zoo has a more complex and dynamic operation process. In order to be warring among todays competitive leisurely activities choices, The Zoo needs to constantly reinvent itself with new acquisition of animals, interesting promotions to keep its spot light in potential customers minds. Therefore, the important resource for the Zoo is new capital which can help it look new deve lopments.On the other hand, the Nottingham Castle is a historic museum. The yellowish pink of the Castle is its originality. There is simply not enough room nor need for new developments, but what the Castle would need is better representations of the history and stories of the Castle. And these improvements should be implemented on the guided tours, and better trained staff members. This is evidently not a single way to manage both of these mixed leisure facilities. Each case is unique of its own and should require careful considerations before implementing changes that suite its best interest.