Operation Management What should your competitive priorities be and what capabilities do you want to develop in your own core and support processes?

To begin with, so as to establish an online grocery delivery business, there are a number of factors (both internal and external) that need to be taken into account so as to ensure success of the business. Prominent among them is partnership with the grocery stores. In this instance, there will be the partnership between two brick and mortar grocery stores that presently are not engaged in any kind of grocery delivery business. In addition, we must be assured that we will have consumers who are ready and prepared to pay the additional dollars for the service. Taking this into consideration, the ideal consumer for this service is an individual who leads a considerably busy and chaotic life, barely has the time to visit the grocery store, and has medium to high ranging income (Collier and Evans, 2009).

The second aspect is ascertaining the competitive priorities. In accordance to Ward et al. (1998), competitive priorities are important scopes that any business supply chain ought to satisfy for its consumers. Some of them include the following:

1. Quality importance

Manufacturing, marketing, and production functions have been depicted as possessing various definitions of quality. These consist of durability, reliability, features, and perceived quality.

2. Cost importance

Companies and manufacturers are apprehensive with how much particular procedures will cost because this can be the factor of making a difference with the competition. Classifications related to manufacturing expenses consist of production costs, inventory reduction, productivity and also utilization of capacity.

3. Delivery time importance

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This particular factor is imperative for sustaining competitiveness. In particular, the business unit might not have the most economical product or highest quality products, but it has the capacity to compete on the foundation of dependably making product deliveries as initially promised (Ward et al., 1998).
Is it possible for a project to have more than one critical path?

Yes, it is possible to have more than one critical path in a project. It is without doubt not the perfect setting but it may take place. In particular, if there is more than one critical path, then this implies that there might be less resources and greater diversion for the project manager, along with that for the team.

Discuss the implications of such a situation with respect to each of the following aspects:

a. Project risk

Having more than one critical path implies that there will be a rise in the project's risks. A project with more than one critical path owing to the similar duration, there is an increase in the level of the project risk. The completion of the whole project could be hindered by postponing activities along any one of the critical paths.

b. Total available slack

The implication of having more than one critical path is that there will be a greater total available slack. This is because the free time of every activity within the ESS and LSS will be much greater.

c. Resource dependencies

With more than one critical path, tasks can be accomplished in lesser time or days with adequate staffing.

d. Responsibilities of the project manager

Having more than one critical path implies that the manager will have more responsibilities owing to the…