BTEC Level 3 Unit 4: Applied Commercial and Quality Principles in Engineering Assignment Brief

BTEC Level 3 Unit 4 Assignment Brief 

Vocational Scenario or Context

You are working as a final year apprentice in a large engineering company supplying high valued, quality designed consumer products ie Dyson Technology UK. Your supervisor is pleased with your work, your understanding of the way in which the company operates and the efficient way in which you carry out tasks. As a result, your supervisor has asked you to investigate ways in which company can become more competitive and respond to trade considerations more efficiently. She wants you to explore how small sized companies are able to gain a competitive edge over other companies, and to evaluate methods which could be used to create a competitive advantage. Your supervisor has asked you to explore the business activities and trade considerations which influence the decisions that engineering companies make. You are to report back on these, as these will influence the competitiveness of the company.

Task

You are going to evaluate the key business activities of an engineering organisation and the trade considerations which together combine to influence the competitiveness of an organisation.

To do this:

Your tutor will provide you with a case study: Dyson Technology UK, as your engineering organisation that either manufactures engineering high end products and provides aftercare engineering service in terms of repair and maintenance.

You will need to:

• Research the key activities of the different business functions within the given engineering organisation and explain how business activities influence an engineering organisation. The key activities are including manufacturing of products or delivering services, supply chain management, marketing and sales, customer relations, purchase management, staff recruitment, staff management and finance.
• Research how tendering and contracting impacts on trade considerations within the engineering organisation.
• Research methods employed by the engineering organisation to gain a competitive advantage.
• Research the role of intellectual property rights as a way to increase competitiveness.

You then need to:

Produce a report that:

a) Explores the key business activities of a given engineering organisation;
b) Explain how the trade considerations influence a given engineering organisation;
c) Analyse how the combination of (a) and (b) can create a competitive advantage and benefit for the given engineering organisation.

You should be able to use technically correct language and a high standard to evaluate:

• Information on the various business functions within your given engineering organisation. You should provide details of how each of the functions within the organisation contributes to and influences the competitiveness of the business.
• Information on trade considerations, including contracts and tendering and how these influence the given engineering organisation. You should refer to terms, warranties and the consequences of non-performance along with the documentation that would accompany a contract or tender.
• Information relating to the methods that the given engineering organisation could adopt to gain a competitive advantage, and their benefits, including protecting intellectual property rights and outsourcing to manage costs.

Checklist of Evidence Required

A written report detailing how key business activities and trade considerations influence an engineering organisation and how these can be adopted to create competitive advantage, based on a case study for a given engineering organisation.

Criteria Covered by this Task

Sources of Information to support you with this Assignment

• Case study Dyson UK | Official Site
• Dyson investigates air quality | Dyson
• Best vacuum deals: Dyson, Henry and cordless hoover offers for May 2019 | London Evening Standard | Evening Standard

Porters 5 Forces – https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5446-porters-five-forces.html