BTEC Assignment Brief
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Foundation Diploma in
Qualification
Engineering
Unit number and title Unit 4: Applied Commercial and Quality Principles in
Engineering
Learning aim(s) (For NQF A: Examine business functions and trade considerations
only) that help engineering organisations thrive
Business Activities and Trade Considerations
Assignment title
Joanne Pollitt-Wright
Assessor
16/03/2022
Issue date
20/04/2022
Hand in deadline
You are working as a final year apprentice in a small
engineering company. 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 the company can become more competitive
and respond to trade considerations more efficiently. She
wants you to explore how similar sized companies can gain
Vocational Scenario or a competitive edge over other companies, and to evaluate
Context 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.
You are going to evaluate the key business activities of an
Task 1 engineering organisation and the trade considerations which
together combine to influence the competiveness of an
organisation.
To do this:
Your tutor will provide you with a case study for an
engineering organisation that either manufactures
, engineering products or provides an engineering service.
You need to:
• Research the key activities of the different business
functions within the given engineering organisation,
including manufacturing of products or delivering services,
supply chain management, marketing and sales, customer
relations, resource management, staff recruitment, staff
management and finance.
You will also need to:
• 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)
investigates the trade considerations that influence a given
engineering organisation; and c) considers how the two
combines for the benefit of the given engineering
organisation. Your report should include:
● 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 A written report detailing how key business activities and
required trade considerations influence an engineering organisation
and how these can be adopted to create competitive
2
BTEC Assignment Brief v1.0
BTEC Internal Assessment QDAM January 2015
, advantage, based on a case study for a given engineering
organisation.
Criteria covered by this task:
Unit/Criteria
To achieve the criteria, you must show that you are able to:
reference
4/A.D1 Evaluate, using language that is technically correct and of a high
standard, how key business activities and trade considerations
combine to influence an engineering organisation, which can create a
competitive advantage
4/A.M1 Analyse how key business activities and trade considerations influence
an engineering organisation, which can create a competitive advantage
4/A.P1 Explain how key business activities influence an engineering
organisation
4/A.P2 Explain how trade considerations influence an engineering organisation
Sources of information Books
to support you with Engineering and Commercial Functions in Business; Bolton
this Assignment W.; Elsevier, 2014; ISBN 9781483183961
Intellectual Property Rights for Engineers, 2nd Edition; Irish
V; IET 2005; ISBN 9780863414909
Websites
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/inte
llectual-property-office
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/blogs/iptutor/
Above are some examples of websites. Further useful
resources may be found at
http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/published-
resources.html#step1
Other assessment Case study
materials attached to
this Assignment Brief
3
BTEC Assignment Brief v1.0
BTEC Internal Assessment QDAM January 2015
, Peter Bodor
Id:336242
Examine business functions and trade considerations that help engineering
organisations thrive.
• My Company builds special elevators for job sites where
workers use it to move from one floor to another. Each part of
the elevator is special there are no parts that have the same
size or shape and because of this precision is a key in this
industry.
• The elevator company has a standard company structure with the
CEO at the top then there are the sector managers which are
responsible for the different sectors of the company e.g.,
production or sales or marketing, under them are the production
managers or sales managers (middle management) and then there
are the normal employees and sales assistant , this simple format
ensures that every employee know what to do and who to report
to if there is an issue.
• As the elevator company started to get bigger an more orders
started coming in each week the company could not keep up because it takes 2 days for
the full elevator to be manufactured and then it takes at
least 2 days for inspection and to test it if it fits together
then the delivery it takes at least 2 day depends on the
location. This put too much pressure on the employees, so
they started making mistakes which meant that out of 10
elevators manufactures 6 had some faults/issues, the
company had to think to expand the business or scale
down, the elevator company put out a tender which means
that different companies bid for the job and the best gets
the job. Infinity QS won the tender as the elevator
company was looking for a monitoring system which can identify issues and create a
flow chart which helps identify issues.
• Infinity Qs can monitor all types of information from surface finish of the plate to sales
and marketing to ongoing production (using digital gauges in the machines) This
increase the company’s competitive advantage because the entire manufacturing
process to inspection can now be done in 2 days compared to 4 days before Infinity QS
was implemented into the company. This means that the company can double it
manufacturing capabilities and take on more jobs which will expand its business and
attract more customers because they can see that the elevator company is fast and
reliable and accurate which gives them a greater competitive advantage to less known
companies.
