Every company objective is to produce maximally using the scarce available resources. Control involves trying to determine whether the laid standards and processes are followed. Process Control is supposed to identify problems in the production process and recommend remedial measures (Xu and Nee 36). The activity has four steps commonly observed by all organization.
The first step in process control is establishing standards. These are metrics used to determine the performance of the organization. One of the standards might be financial standard. This helps to establish the amount of money that should be spent in producing a specific unit. Market share standards can be set in determining the amount of market share a product should capture within a given time limit. Time standards are set to determine the duration to be used in producing a specific product or supplying it to the market.
The second step in process control involves trying to evaluate the performance of different activities. The evaluation is supposed to determine whether what has been achieved is below or above what was intended (Xu and Nee 38). Performance can be measured in respect to the amount of revenue generated by sale of the product. Expenses in production should be measured to determine the returns on investment. Stock evaluation is done to determine whether the stock in the stores equals the minimum stock level supposed to be retained. The quality of the product should be inspected before its release into the market. Products that do not meet the minimum quality standard should not be released into the market.
The third step of process control is the comparison of performances. The comparison is supposed to determine whether the company is meeting its intended targets in either marketing or production (Xu and Nee 212). Targets set on the number of units that should be produced within certain operational phase should be met. Data collected during evaluation should be used in establishing variances. Production that surpasses the targeted production means the organization is performing optimally and is utilizing the available resources correctly.
The fourth step of the process control is implementing corrective measures on deviations. Deviations realized during comparison step should be corrected before they cause catastrophic effect on the performance of the organization. Deviation from set standards means the organization might be facing some problems. Corrective measures may include reducing the size of the workforce to minimize production costs (Roffel and Betlem 21). Increased marketing may be introduced to expand the market share of the organization. The corrective measures within organizations are supposed to be implemented after being passed by the management. They should be evaluated continuously to determine their effectiveness.
The first step in the process control is the most crucial step in each organization. Its importance arises from the fact that a mistake made at this step will reflect in the other steps. Organizations sometimes set up unrealistic standards. These may lead to stress among the workers and managers as they try to achieve the set goals. Standards set below the real capacity of the organization might give a good representation of the company, which is untrue. Wrong standards might lead to releasing of poor quality products into the market. These products may lead to loss of the market share that is disastrous to organizations, especially in the drug industry, where setting wrong standards is known to be tragic (Roffel and Betlem 29). Releasing of sub-standard drugs to the market and their failure may result to court suits costing billions of dollars to the organization.
Works Cited
Roffel, Brian and Ben, Betlem H. Advanced practical process control. Berlin New York: Springer, 2004.Print.
Xu, Xun, and A. Y. C. Nee. Advanced design and manufacturing based on STEP. Dordrecht: Springer, 2009. Print.
