Assignment 5: Business Plan – Final (i only need the excel part done, section 2)

Running Head: OPERATION, TECHNOLOGY and MANAGEMENT PLAN 0

Operation, Technology and Management Plan

Operation plan

NAB company operation plans are as given below

The main aspects of operations

The company possesses some processing and distribution assets as indicated below:

Inventory

Leading assets

The availability of machinery and apparatus will help the company have an automatic production and packaging process. This will be coupled with the highly specialized and skilled labor force that will be majorly comprised of over five permanent employees. The labor force is boosted by the existence of hired experts from our main competitors whom we believe will be the key to the successful operation of the NAB Company as we look forward to becoming the lead market competitor.

With our company having embraced mechanization in its production process, we expect that this will significantly decrease the cost of production relatively to if we lacked proper machines. The readily available means of transport which is in the form of company van will help in reducing tremendously on the transportation costs of the products plus it will boost on the punctuality of the appropriation of the goods to destined various business sectors, therefore, reducing jamming of completed product stock in the company’s stores.

Competitive advantage

The company appreciates the existence of different brands in the market that are competing for a fair percentage customer share of the market bringing forth the existence of competition. Fortunately, the company has formulated a strategy that will help at tackling the completion menace in the market. Investing in market and research development will be a priority. This will entail continuous market studies in a bid to come up with a new flavor that is yet not to debut in the market. This will help the company stay relevant to the market, therefore, enabling the company to stay abreast. The company, for, example looking forward to coming up with a tropical pine flavor in the market.

Our market approach will also act as a strategic instrument in competing against our good competitors as we will try formulating a product that is effectively suitable for both high-end customers and low-end customers. The packaging design of our products and how it is delivered will be put into focus to ensure the company's product attracts our clients. Lastly, our advertisement strategy will target the client to make sure that he relates the product as part of their lives. We will be ensuring that our drink is viewed as a necessity rather than a luxury product.

The company understands its current position as a small batch prototype company with a large vision that is to take up the market as a leader. It is worthy to note that is his significant constraint is the financial capacity. Fortunately, with the hiring of the highly skilled employees that have experience in the financial world will help pool investors that would be interested in chip in their money for the development of the company. These funds will assist in the acquisition of more machines such as the capping machine, automated conveyor belts and distribution vans rather than outsourcing them to plough more profits. The profits harvested from these operations will be injected back to ensure the company stays afloat and ahead of its competitors.

Quality control will be a top priority to ensure that the company taps more customers that will be in the long term be loyal to our products. The company will cooperate with the national standard bureau to ensure the products meet the quality standard provided for by the government. This is because the company cares about its customer’s health.

Technology plan

We appreciate that we recently live in a technological era that every production, marketing and sales aspect is in a way connected to the technology application. Therefore, it is our goal that the company stays ahead by being on top of new developments and continually upgrading not only in our machinery and merchandise but also in the worker skills.

Software needs

We are eager to incorporate technology in manufacturing and generation processes where activities like blending, packing and graphic design is automated courtesy of the software running the equipment in the firm. This would reduce the time involved in these processes relatively compared if we applied the manual process. Moreover, we possess representation program that will aid in branding the bottles and formulating and designing the general product outlook.

Hardware needs

We have put up a network hub where computers are interconnected and will relay commands to machinery that will prompt them to perform their designated duties. The company has ensured every department has PC (Macintosh) which will help with the running of the product and store, organizing and retrieving of organization data and information. We also plan to set up an E-commerce system to tap more customers. Establishing and introduction of the accounting programming, database and inventory system will also help in the running of the company.

Personnel needs section

We plan to outsource cyber securities services from major internet companies to help in securing our network structure from cyber attacks. We have initiated a program whereby every labor personnel is trained on the use of QuickBooks as we are planning to enroll them in every office department of the firm.

Management & Organization

Key Management and employees

Our company is structured in a way that it has four major departments that are interrelated and at the same time independent in their functions. These departments are basically, the product research and development, marketing, sales and shipping department. The product research development will be responsible for conducting experiments or studies in a bid to come up with new flavors or redesigning the already existing products of the firms. This department is essential for the company since it is basically where the product is developed and designed to suit the customer flavor. In this part, the company will have an Engineer expert who in this case is Simon Russell, who has 23 years of experience in the coca cola company. His experience will be vital in the development department. We shall also have a team of workers in the Quality and Testing center in this department which shall aid in developing a quality product in the firm.

The marketing department will be responsible for creating awareness of the company product to customers through advertisements and promotions. I will head this department with our main objective being to shift our business from being a small business to a notable company with an annual turnover of $ 5 million in 2 years. This could seem ambitious, but it is possible with my specialty in finances and marketing and experience of 10 years in the financial market.

The sales department is also a vital department that plays a key role in raising the company revenues through the sale of our product to our customers. In the sales department, we will have a Project Manager, Mr David Knowles - former head of project management in the StandStill Corporation for about 15 years. He will work together with sales coordinator-Mr. Adam Abbot.

The shipping department will have a role in transport the various product to different market destinations where the customers can easily access and buy the products. The shipping firm will take care of the vans of the company through their maintenance.

Company Management Hierarchy

References

Karimi, J., Somers, T. M., & Gupta, Y. P. (2001). Impact of information technology management practices on customer service. Journal of Management Information Systems, 17(4), 125-158.

Luftman, J. N., Lewis, P. R., & Oldach, S. H. (1993). Transforming the enterprise: The alignment of business and information technology strategies.IBM systems journal, 32(1), 198-221.

Week, B. (2000). Knowledge management and new organization forms: a framework for business model innovation. Knowledge management and virtual organizations, 2-19.