Answer: 01
First of all, the acceptability or rejections among consumers, which constitute the target market, have a very heavy role to play in such a source-and-deliver organization. It is a must that my organization looks carefully over both, the sourcing of the materials and handing over the required product, at the end. Both are controlled from the central brain which is the call center which receives customer orders and passes on their information to their colleagues at each end.
Therefore, any company in such a business will seek to have competitive priorities in the following areas
1. Supply Chain Management
2. Order Processing and Other Information Management Systems
The above will be areas of my company’s core competency. The objective will be to make inventories as less as possible since inventories represent unworked capital. Here, buying products at larger volumes may be economical but inventory costing is also important. Therefore, there will be conflicts of competing interests. In the inventory example, the best way out is by the EOQ (Economic Order Quantity). In this way, existing management ideas and techniques will be integrated with fresh and innovative looks at inventory management, logistics management and finally, information processing, through efficient IT systems.
Support processes will include dependency management. The organization should work as a team with its suppliers so that the dependency is there but at the control of the organization. This will ensure availability of ordered items whenever they are required.
A project can have only one critical path. By project, we mean here that its end is at one unique point and not at the interface. In a single project, critical points can be changed by crashing certain activities and subsequently, increasing the cost. However, even then there will be the only single critical path (the new path). The condition here is that the project is required to have a well-defined completion point.
Project Risk: Crashing is not desired as it increases cost. It is here that project risk becomes vital i.e. preventing crashing and if crashing has to be done, crashing realistically.
Slack time: On the critical path, there is no slack time. The more the slack on other events, the less the risk of the project
Resource dependencies: A key factor in following the critical path. Risk increases with more dependency of resources. However, it is too expensive to be eliminated altogether.
The Project Manager is responsible to plan for all such contingencies and situations, which may arise and delay the project, as he knows the conditions best.
Answer 02:
The processes are shown in the flow chart given in the next page. The different processes are as follows.
1. This is the preliminary part of the order. Client calls up call center and the call center passes on the information.
2. The Raw material is sourced.
3. The material comes, is received and taken internally to warehouse.
4. The Raw material is taken to its processing center where it is processed and packaged.
5. Quality Control checking : Labeling, SQC
6. Barcoding for identification. ( Hologram may also be considered.)
7. Scanning where particulars are recorded for efficiency records later.
8. Transporation to Logistics Hub.
9. Delivery to Customer.
Flow Chart showing the different processes.
Answer 03:
JIT and EOQ are two types of inventory control management methods. JIT is the acronym for “Just-in-time” Inventory Management. A JIT inventory management system refers to inventory being stocked with only what items are required to fulfill the demand. There is no excess stockpiling of raw materials. The advantage of JIT is that inventory costs are minimized, and there is no wastage of raw materials, which is very important as we deal here with a company that deals in frozen food. In JIT, the system is designed in such a way that release of a material-batch from the stores immediately places the order for another material-batch by automation. Inside, as a processed material is released by one workstation; it is immediately supplied with another piece of material, for processing. In one production center, the workstations are aligned in the order of manufacture adjacent to each other. JIT keeps inventory involvement of capital at a minimum and ensures no wastage on “if you don’t have it, you can’t waste it theory”. As per Kokemuller, JIT has the disadvantage that it needs to maintain a fine balance between the customer and the supplier. “If company buyers fail to adjust quickly to increased demand or if suppliers have distribution problems, the business risks upsetting customers with stock outs”.(2014). JIT also has the disadvantage of requiring precise co-ordination at the distribution end between suppliers and retailers. A fully automated IT based system between retailer and distributor is expensive. Dell Computers, solve this problem, by direct retailing.
An EOQ based system is a control system which uses a mathematical formula to determine when it will be most economical to place reorders i.e. after how many units. It is used in single production plants. EOQ is an acronym for Economic Order Quantity, and it depends upon the demand, the ordering costs and the storage costs. Here, the disadvantage is that it cannot take into consideration matters like seasonal fluctuation of demand. It also assumes steady demand levels and instant goods availability for restocking.
If done inefficiently and uncreatively, every association can be a source of conflict. Here, there will not be any conflicts because.
- The dependencies are not confined to one party.
- The analyzed company will invest money in keeping a careful control over its associate’s stocks. Relationship buying and selling methods will be utilized.
Solution 04:
In today’s markets, competition is high so margins of error are narrow. This is all the more true in the case of the proposed grocery supply business.
First of all, a quality control system is meaningless if no one defines the word quality. The specification of the various items must be finalized and agreed to by both the parties. Once this is done, only then can quality be measured, the units of measure as stated in the specifications. Compliance with the FDA standards of food and labeling is the minimum level of quality that we can accept from our associates. We can also come up to a standard level above this which will be more valuable if we enhance it with our brand name. In general cases, extreme QC methods are generally not required because quality increase is a costly affair towards the end and in most cases is often not required.
Secondly, responsibilities for the process needs to fixed and everything should be in writing. This is similar to what standard quality procedures entail like ISO 9001.In addition, the box methods of Statistical Quality Control may be employed, in accordance with a sampling plan. In a Black Box system, quality is checked at the input and output and not within. Again, the white box method concerns itself with quality checks in the process.
As an example, let us consider a pound of butter. Once it arrives, it is weighed and chemically checked randomly. It is then processed where it can be or may not be checked depending upon the length of the process. At the outgoing point, it is weight checked and labeling checked again randomly. These types of modern QC methods shall be used and we will have a fully controlled QA Policy. The QAP will be displayed in our website.
Solution # 05:
Efficiencies need to be maintained in every business. Efficiencies of all resources need to operate at a peak level as otherwise; low efficiencies may result in a waste and loss. Although human and machine efficiencies can be measured in output/day (1 day being equal to eight hours) of work, the implications of the same increasing or decreasing can be best understood only by two ways.
- Mechanical Scheduling: Scheduling means making a realistic plan with what resources are available with one, of deployment the most efficient way. A schedule comes from a plan which again is dependent upon the resources available and their capacities. From this, the prepared realistic schedule, if not achieved, will mean that something is wrong, somewhere. As per Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, it may be that a bottleneck has sprung up leading to delays. Planning and Scheduling involves making a number of assumptions, and it is possible that a single assumption may be wrong. In such a case, milestones, which are somewhat like pit stops in a Formula one race, for quality assessment between managers and workers are a must. Empowerment of workers can also be tried out.
Initially, our goal will be to strive for the maximum efficiency possible by adjusting and tinkering with the production line. Once the efficient configuration is found out for the particular process, then it will be adhered to until more symptoms of inefficiency become visible.
- Financial Results: There needs to be two efficiency checking measures. Financial forecasting will be also done as shown below (Planning for business growth)
Based on both mechanical scheduling and financial forecast and finally by evaluating efficiency on the basis of financial ratios like Quick ratio, Working Capital Ratio, Returns to Assets ratio, etc. efficiency of the process can be measured and the effectiveness of the efficiency measures described can also be found out . This is important because as my business continues to grow, the ideal efficiencies will change.
References:
Kokemuller, N. (2014). Advantages and Disadvantages of Just-In-Time Inventory, Chron.com. Accessed on the internet on 06/10 at <URL
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-justintime-inventory-21407.html>
Ministry of Small Business and Revenue. (n.d.) Planning for Business Growth: A Step by Step Guide, Published by the Ministry, British Columbia. Accessed on 10/6/2014. < URL www.smallbusinessbc.ca/pdf/PlanningforBusinessGrowthGuide.pdf >
