Weekly online
Join interactive online teaching, with guided reading, practical activities and assessment work around the live sessions. Your written course plan confirms the timetable, learning hours and masterclass arrangements for this module.
Professional learning · Project Controls & Management
Operations & Information Management.
Make capacity, workflow and information work together.
Reliable delivery depends on the everyday operation as much as the project plan. This course explores how work flows through an organisation, how capacity and inventory affect performance, and how information supports decisions at the right time. Its learning scope is informed by OTHM’s project-management unit and supported by operations-management reading and the original Lester text in KBC’s collection. Through proposed service and production cases, you will investigate bottlenecks, compare operational choices and define useful controls. The aim is to improve the connection between what the organisation promises, what its processes can deliver and what managers need to know.
Weekly routeAgree your timetable
Live online2 hours a week
Module startsOctober · February · June
Learning structure1 module
The professional challenge
Make the next decision with more confidence.
A service team reports that it is fully occupied, yet customer waiting times keep rising. Project work competes with routine demand, stock records are unreliable and each department uses different figures. You need to understand the actual constraint and propose changes supported by credible information and clear measures of improvement.
Who will benefit
For project professionals, operations managers, service leads and improvement staff who depend on shared people, equipment, stock or information. It is especially relevant when project changes affect an established operation, when departments plan separately, or when decisions about capacity and priorities are made without a consistent view of demand and performance.
What you take back to work
Practical capability, built through learning.
- Explain how operational choices affect project and customer outcomes.
- Analyse capacity, demand and workflow constraints.
- Evaluate inventory and scheduling approaches in context.
- Specify information and quality controls for improvement.
Inside the course
A connected learning journey.
KBC proposes 14 sessions across four months: 1–2 operations and priorities; 3–5 capacity; 6–8 inventory; 9–11 scheduling; 12–14 information, quality and an integrated improvement review. These are proposed teaching blocks rather than textbook chapters. Any formal OTHM route must also account for its full guided and independent study requirements.
01Understand the operation and its priorities
Reading connection: OTHM operations topic; Slack/Brandon-Jones/Burgess chapters 1–3 and 6.
Explore the differences between service and production processes and the relationship between operations, finance and marketing. KBC’s proposed case asks you to map how a customer request becomes a delivered outcome. You will identify handovers, competing objectives and the measures each department uses, then explain where local efficiency could be working against the performance of the whole process.
Apply it at work: Create a process map and a balanced set of operational questions.
02Match commitments to effective capacity
Reading connection: Operations Management chapter 11; Lester chapter 30.
Consider how demand, skills, availability and constraints affect what an operation can actually deliver. In the KBC scenario, the headline staffing figure hides time lost to rework and competing project duties. You will challenge capacity assumptions, compare responses and explain the implications of retaining work internally or using an external provider. The emphasis is on a defensible recommendation with visible assumptions and trade-offs.
Apply it at work: Produce a capacity assessment and an options brief.
03Make inventory decisions with usable evidence
Reading connection: OTHM inventory topic; Operations Management chapter 13.
Explore why organisations hold inventory and how demand, lead times and service needs shape the decision. KBC’s exercise compares expensive slow-moving items with low-cost items that can stop an essential service. You will examine a simple classification and ordering approach, test its assumptions and identify what the information system must record.
Apply it at work: Prepare an inventory-control proposal and data-quality checklist.
04Schedule work around the real constraint
Reading connection: OTHM scheduling topic; Operations Management chapters 10–11 and 14.
Consider how priorities and available capacity affect the order in which jobs or requests should be processed. The proposed case includes urgent work that repeatedly interrupts planned activity. You will compare sequencing choices, identify their effect on waiting time and completion, and describe an escalation rule for genuine exceptions. The discussion asks when a local scheduling change will help and when a wider decision is required.
Apply it at work: Compare two schedules and recommend a transparent priority rule.
05Use information and quality controls to improve
Reading connection: OTHM quality topic; Lester chapter 37; Operations Management chapters 15–18.
Bring together data ownership, timely reporting and the evidence needed to know whether a process has improved. In KBC’s final activity, an apparently successful change has reduced one measure while increasing errors elsewhere. You will design a small review that checks the complete outcome, identifies unreliable information and assigns follow-up actions.
Apply it at work: Create an information-control plan and a measurable improvement proposal.
Learn around your working life
Time to understand. Space to apply.
Online or in a city near you
Face-to-face delivery can be arranged in London, Maidstone, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Your course offer confirms the venue and teaching dates.
A London masterclass to start your module
Meet your tutors and fellow professionals at an optional full-day London event. KBC covers the event, agreed transportation, refreshments and an open buffet dinner. Confirm arrangements with the team before booking travel.
Support between sessions
Return to class recordings and learning resources, bring questions to your tutor and use free one-to-one tutoring and coaching support. Your course plan sets out the guided reading and practice needed alongside live teaching.
Your route to recognition
Know what the assessment involves.
KBC proposes an operational improvement report supported by a process map, capacity analysis and information requirements. The May 2025 OTHM specification adds quality-management coverage and identifies an approximately 4,000-word report for the formal unit, addressing all five learning outcomes. Centre assessment and external verification apply to that registered route. A professional short course should therefore state its own assessment arrangements separately and should not imply automatic unit credit. The work can use a suitable anonymised operation or a structured case.
Your written offer records the award or course completion requirements, any examination fees included, and the relevant eligibility checks.
The professional knowledge behind the course
Explore the books and standards.
The learning themes above bring together the relevant guide, syllabus and workplace practice. KBC’s teaching sequence connects these ideas through discussion and application.
- OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Project Management — Operations and Information Management for Project Managers ↗OTHM Qualifications · Specification, May 2025; qualification 603/5638/8
Unit K/618/0233; formal unit has 20 credits, 80 guided hours and 200 total hours.
- Operations Management — Nigel Slack, Alistair Brandon-Jones and Nicola Burgess ↗Pearson · 11th edition, 2026 publication; specific formats carry differing publisher dates
Publisher contents include operations strategy, process design, capacity, inventory, planning/control systems, quality and improvement.
- Project Management, Planning and Control — Albert LesterButterworth-Heinemann / Elsevier · 7th edition, 2017; ISBN 9780081020203
Supplementary original book from KBC collection. Verified chapters 12 (work breakdown), 13 (estimating), 19–24 (networks), 27 (reporting), 30–34 (resources, costs, procurement), 37 (information), 44–45 (closure).
Your investment
Get a course offer that fits your route.
Request the standalone fee for your chosen format, including the teaching, reading materials, assessment and membership arrangements relevant to this course.
Exploring the full PCP apprenticeship?
£27,000 apprenticeship funding + £7,000 additional IPC support. The IPC package covers professional examinations, memberships, graduation, Benenden Health membership, London masterclasses and agreed transport.
These figures relate to the complete Project Controls Professional apprenticeship. Standalone course fees are separate. The team confirms eligibility, any employer contribution and the contents of your written offer.
Explore the PCP pathway →Your questions, answered.
Is the course relevant to service organisations?
Yes. Service capacity, queues, handovers and scheduling are part of the proposed casework.
Does information management mean learning a software package?
The focus is information requirements, ownership and decision quality. Any specific software training should be stated separately.
Does the course include quality management?
Yes. The current unit specification includes quality systems, and the final proposed block connects them with improvement.
What would this help you achieve?
Talk to KBC about your experience, your goals and the right learning route for you.