business factors
Running head:MANUFACTURING OPERATING FLOWS
DeAnna Forbes
Colorado Technical University
Unit 3 Individual Project
1/25/2017
Problem at hand and alternatives.
The problem at hand is reaching the customers on the west coast due to high freight rates, due to low density of the products and also due to timeliness of delivery.
Alternatives.
Through freight equalization so that the end customers would pay the same amount of shipping costs as the west coast competition charged regardless of their location.
Advantages and disadvantages of distributing products from multiple locations.
Advantages
Quick delivery: delivery time is reduced which means you can move products at a quicker pace.
Low transportation costs: products are spread out over a large area therefore the cost of delivering an order decreases.
Easy access: if for example in need of a product for display or to get to the customers, it’s easier when products are in multiple centers.
Multiple inventories: they serve as backup system for when one location runs out of a particular product that you need to ship {William:1994}
Disadvantages
Managing shipping : there is high costs in selling and delivery of products due to multiple locations.
There is an increased administration as a result of additional invoicing receivable collections and logistics coordination from warehousing to shipping.
There is an added cost of some distribution channels that sometimes outweigh the additional revenues received.
Brand management: third party might advertise your product on all of its partner websites acting as a disadvantage {Sam :2017}.
Manufacturing operation flows
The flow structure of the process used to make or deliver a product or service impacts facility layout, resources, technology decisions and work methods. It can either be classified as a job shop or a flow shop.
A job shop process uses general purpose resources and is highly flexible. A flow shop process uses specialized resources and the work follows a fixed path and hence less flexible than a job shop.
The process structures differ in several structure such as: flow, flexibility, number of products, variable cost, labor content and capital investment {Green:1997}
Steps in producing the order.
Maintaining inventory.
Responding to a sales order to determine availability and location in inventory.
Confirming pricing.
Configuring the order{if there is more than one piece of product}
Booking the order{placing a request into the inventory system for what is ordered}
Acknowledging and confirming the order is booked.
Determining the shipping address where the items will be sent.
Determining which carrier will be used to ship the item.
Issuing order changes initiated by the customer after the sale.
Processing the order.
Shipping the order, which may go directly to the customer .
Delivering the order to the customer.
Handling returns of unacceptable or damaged goods by either refilling the order or refunding the customer.
And lastly updating the inventory {simon:2014}
The activities and rough timelines in producing and shipping an order.
A sound production planning in order to maximize productivity. This acts as a map that helps you know where you are going and how long it will take you to get there.
Forecast market expectations-to plan effectively, you will need to estimate potential sales with some reliability on historical information, market trends or established orders.
Inventory control-Reliable inventory levels have to be established and a sound inventory system should be in place.
Availability of equipment and human resources should also be keenly noted to ensue an effective running process {Wilson:1983}.
Risks for not completing an activity on time.
Effect on company revenue: the staff will be compensated with their term grade rather than financially.
Reasonableness of delivery deadline: delivery of the required products by the customer is usually interfered with as delays can occur.
Mismanagement of open time is usually not utilized therefore leading to low productivity.
There is an increased labour costs by not eliminating wasted time and not improving the process flow.
Increases inventory costs by increasing the excessive work in process inventories{shruti:2015}
Metrics to assess success.
Reasons to measure performance metrics.
It improves the bottom line by cutting down and improving productivity and mission effectiveness.
A balanced scorecard allows an agency to align it’s strategic activities to the strategic plan and permits real deployment and implementation of the strategy on a continuous basis.
Measurement of process efficiency provides a rational basis for selecting what business improvements to make first.
It allows managers to identify best practices in an organization and expand their usage elsewhere.
It permits bench marking of process performance against outside organizations.
It can also raise your agency’s Baldrige score which can serve to increase its long term chances of survival {paul:1998}.
Metrics to access success
Strategic planning: it provides the management with insight into how a particular area of the business is performing in relation to strategic goals.
Operating profit percentage: it strips out the impact of one time revenue and expenses to reveal how the business is perfoming.
Maximizing the benefit from your metrics: performance metrics measures the performance of your team .The most direct way to achieve results is to tie compensation to the most relevant metrics.
How to measure metrics
Tracking: the best place to start is the unique visitors, this refers to the number of individuals who visit your website during a given period of time, where each visitor is only counted once.
Tracking the page views –these are the cumulative number of individual pages that your visitors click on during a given period of time.
Bounce rate –tracking the percentage of visitors who come to your site and then immediately leave before clicking on any other pages.
Conversion rates –this is the percentage of visitors to your site who take a specific action that your content encourages them to such as signing up for your newsletter.
Sharing metrics with employees
The metrics should be shared with the employees so that they can as well feel engaged in the work and know what’s going in the work.
Its also important in that the employees can take it upon themselves to improve the company.
References
William C {1994}.The changing role of the distributor.
C W Green{ 1997}.perry’s chemical engineer’s handbook.
Louis W {1988}. Marketing channels.
