System and Operation Management: Atokowa Company - Assignment Example

?SYSTEMS AND OPERATION MANAGEMENT Introduction Atokowa company is an aggressive business that is aimed at exploiting businessopportunities and advantages that prevails in the market that has at stake the alternative of undertaking a detailed analysis of a how business systems are managed currently in employing appropriate models in order to take into account the goals of the business, work attainment and the impacts the models employed have on the customers. In employing business models mapping and hierarchy models, Atokowa project can be the analyzed better. In order to make decisions, priorities have to be made and created (Evans, 2006). Process mapping is identified as an important tool in proper analysis of the business model as it considers the business goals, absolute work achievement and the consequential impacts of such models on the customers. Atokowa Company has found the tool to be quit beneficial from this tool as it meets the approach in model identification and improvement. The workers of Atokowa Company are proud of the company, thus being more and more motivated and finally improving on productivity. The tool has helped the company avoid downfalls that may occur times. The company will be in position to figure out its employees basically on what they are actually tying to attain as per the objectives to the company’s course (Williams, 2006). The model below has been selected in order to review and re-engineer a customer-centric approach (Phillips, 2004). Product design and conceptualization which entails design of Atokowa range of products. Secondly is the procurement and supplies that comprises of supplier selection criteria, shipping and management (Michael & Bates, 2005). Thirdly, stores and inventory that deals with pricing structuring. Fourth is retailing operations that comprise of product summation, Monitoring, product scanning, Re-ordering and payments (Kendrick, 2009). Warehousing being the fifth is all about deliveries, scheduling and packing and lastly is the sales and marketing which include training and customer feedback. The Atokowa product life cycle is shown below. The figure below is an illustration of Atokowa product lifecycle (Satyanarayana, 2006) General goals The main objective of Atokowa is mainly aimed at becoming a leader in the global market in printing and stationery services via latest technology (Samli, 2006). Specific objectives within the mapping model The company is aimed at reducing paperwork and thus increasing efficiency of the retailing operations process. It is also aimed at increasing its competitive advantage by quick deliveries and pocket friendly prices to the customer. They are also targeting to improve on the customer servicing as they are looking forward to being the leaders (Hachman & Johnson, 2000). They opt to employ the latest technologies in carrying out their operations and finally to quality systems to meet changing needs of customers (Waters & Waters, 2009). Risks of processing and operations at Atokowa Risks occurrence bring downfall to the organization any may affect the objectives that may have be set in order to keep the company moving. Basing on Atokowa Company, its risks have documented basing on how they affect its activities. New risks are a basis of continued research and development. Other risks that affect the company have been presented in the table below. Table 1: Risks identified with Atokowa process and operations Risk Consequences Level of outcome Frequency Responsibility Action Online store generation disagreement Many online customers are not reached M L Paul Fair clough Carry out a decision based research on viability of on-line sales Customer service are reported to be of low quality Customers walking out H H Hayley Atokowa Improve process, emphasize on good customer service Atokowa process control Process control tools Ensure that adequate control process is executed so that the variability and safety is achieved. In enhancing variability, high dependability product saves money. In reducing the variability then money is saved as cost will have been lowered that is connected to production of high quality products deemed to meet customers’ expectations. If at all the Atokowa process is of low quality, then high costs has to be incurred in the operations in ensuring high quality product is achieved. A dependable process is desired as they are flexible to an extent of which a specified product can be produced. The main tools that are mainly used in product or service process analysis by business entities are Histograms, Deming control charts Pareto charts and scatter graphs (Evans, G.J 2006) are: Process Profile Work Sheet Process Process owner Trigger events Inputs Outputs Marketing Hayley Needs of the customer and technology needs Questionnaires, Interview schedules Analyzed data Design Ranjeev Price, technology, brand style Product concept Product design draft Procurement Ranjeev Quality of customer product needs List of customer needs Delivered goods Stores Louise Capacity and effectiveness of storage Receipts Stocks Operations Paul Speed, efficiency, accuracy Orders/ requests Sales Warehousing Anton Shipment schedules, customer needs Packages Shipment Atokowa model analysis The technical analytical approach requires identification of key or critical operations within the production process, the purpose of each unit operation has to be specifically identified in respect to its inputs, transformations and outputs (SmartPros2002). Questionnaires, interview schedules are prepared and administered to Atokowa customers adopting data sampling techniques, research designs and data analytical achieved had to give analyzed data. The data can be presented in the form of graphs, and pie-charts. Process analysis will take into consideration the product life cycle steps below. Atokowa product concept goes through visualization of the product and how the customer will find the attributes of the product appeal, the designer must have customer needs during design matching specification, flexibility, reliability, accuracy, serviceability and availability of parts. The resulting product is a design model which should be run through the production or operation system. The procurement process adopts the list of needs from the designer, customer specification and other accessories required to complete production. The resulting item is the supply of raw materials and accessories. Timely delivery of printing materials at Atokowa makes it possible for smooth operations and deliveries. The stores process is rich with taking inventory and relaying the merchandize as required in the operations. This design orders are retained in the store and a system, ASIS, is important in calculating stores revenues. Operations are crucial in dispensing items through point of sale. Items knocked through the ASIS software, operations include delivery of items via 3PL to reach customers through its conventional routes. This process has not been efficient since customer orders takes a fortnight due to the distance between Melbourne and delivery areas. Decision Hierarchy Models Every business entity requires decision making. Gathering process and customer data is important in developing sound judgments on what needs to be done and to what extent (Saaty T.L 2008). In this regard, decision making takes into consideration the inefficiency of the processes and how the company should put more effort in ensuring adequate attention. The initial stage is identifying the appropriate process. Atokowa Company should base their decisions on improving the following areas delivery channel, pricing structure, customer service, online sales, training, and customer needs, and stock turnover. Atokowa process prioritization Key process Prioritization allows for quick identification of a problem or slow process that requires urgent rectification, optimal financial and human resource allocation in order to meet the overall goal of increased profitability and customer satisfaction. The processes below have been ranked using the analytical hierarchy model and the resulting weight shows the magnitude of the attention to be given to the process. Table 2: Atokowa process prioritization DC P OS T ST CR CS Priorities DC 1 5 3 4 1 1/6 1/8 0.146 P 1/5 1 2 1/4 1/5 1/4 1/3 0.043 OS 1/3 1/2 1 1/3 1/7 1/8 1/3 0.028 T 1/4 4 4 1 1/2 1/3 1/5 0.105 ST 1 1 7 2 1 1/2 1/3 0.131 CR 6 4 8 3 2 1 6 0.307 CS 8 3 3 5 3 1/6 1 0.237 Basing on the order of priorities, Atokowa Company should consider the ways of satisfying needs of its customer. Problem Identification The first step is identification and circumstance exploration into which the troubles cases that may arises. In deciding what to explore, we focus on how Atokowa Company can be efficient and command a big market share. The assessment given is the process into which it requires efficiency. The key words become efficiency and market share. This forms a starting point though it may change depending on the shift of more aspects of the situation. It could be increasing efficiency and market share in general or adopting franchises to that run independently. Since relevant data on customer service, sales and costs have been done basing on qualitative and quantitative achieved hods, it is given that the data arises to define and analyze a problem. The problems encountered by Atokowa departments in carrying out functional activities such as expensive poor delivery channel, poor pricing structure, low stock turnover, no capacity of potential online sales, employee lack proper training, low quality of customer service, customer needs not achieved . The troubles encountered in this situation is put in richness form expressing company structures, processes, work climate, the culture of the employee, issues expressed by employees and conflicts arising and how they are solved. The scenario that necessitates this change is the collaborative activities include ensuing customers have the confidence in the quality employed in Atokowa products, the basis of employee training and motivation, employing expertise in their respective departments within the company, addressing customers needs in a fairly manner, provision of incentives in order to enhance productivity and designing products that merge customer needs. These form a credible perspective. It is given that service integration modeled to improve outputs indeed increases service costs as it identifies unachieved needs that previously were concealed by ‘holes’ in the service. Therefore, it could be possible that Atokowa’ s silent aim could be cost reduction, the management point of view could deem the improvement process as trivial and may intentionally frustrate the project. Transformation of the process is imperative if efficiency and greater market share is to be realized. After identifying the transformation, other key elements of the system are also identified: In this case, the CATWOE model for Atokowa process improvement will be as follows: Customers will comprise of Atokowa product buyers who are the customers, Actors who are departmental experts with the role of processing, employees, auditors and inspectors. Transformation: shift of low efficiency and market share to greater efficiency and wider market command. Weltanschauung: market command brings about company sustainability and reputation. Owner in this case is the Atokowa management Environment: established organization culture, wide geographical coverage, rigid investment decisions. In describing the possible system, Atokowa management sponsored activities by departmental experts in charge of the processes, employees, auditors and inspectors to shift of low efficiency and market share to greater efficiency and wider market command of Atokowa product buyers in order to bring about company sustainability and reputation through established organization culture, wide geographical coverage, and proper investment decisions. Conclusion As per the findings the Atokowa advantage needs on understanding customer need and also on improving customer service. Customer needs that have the view of the customer have emphasized on quality. Atokowa advantage should ensure that they give its staff the ability to make assessments since they have the ability. This demands that the decisions on customer service improvement and satisfying customers should be achieved. Creativity is needed in order to give options into which brainstorming and SWOT analysis are used. Process mapping is identified as an important tool in proper analysis of the business model as it considers the business goals, absolute work achievement and the consequential impacts of such models on the customers. Atokowa Company has found the tool to be quit beneficial from this tool as it meets the approach in model identification and improvement. The workers of Atokowa Company are proud of the company, thus being more and more motivated and finally improving on productivity. The tool has helped the company avoid downfalls that may occur times. The company will be in position to figure out its employees basically on what they are actually tying to attain as per the objectives to the company’s course (Mombet, 2010). Recommendations An attempt is to put into consideration the process, people, and environment in which they operate. Despite of all these, workers’ experience and skills are important in merging job specification to potential job seekers. This therefore does not create challenge to personnel because it is based on routine and a clear principle. The challenge does not affect the processes at product cycle and this has to do with the key business of the company that is printing and furniture sales. Design evaluation that the company had in place, the range of products which have customer specifications in built. The image of the company has been developed for quite a long time and has turned to a national reputation. The challenge the company has is in increasing its market share and realigning the processes into meeting the new status of work. This indeed required risk analysis in Table 1 since it involves great budgetary allocation. In order to: Meeting customer needs The company should have its own ISO quality management system which should entail how customer needs will be achieved. It is easier to determine these needs for Atokowa range of products for instance, if it involves adopting certain kind of furniture or fine print, indications are that the customer has given specifications on the drawings outlining how exactly the product should look like. This forms the easier part of knowing what the customer requires. It thus means that the quality manual should always have an imprint of customer needs. Again when selling the furniture or print products it at times becomes difficult to precisely know the customer needs. This will involve doing a market research, visiting customers at their work place, attending events, talking to people and getting updates on the current trends of competitors. Involving services of a trainer in variety of formats is a plus to the company. Other ways should include making service a priority. There is no reason an employee should have an excuse of not availing time for a great customer service. The frequency of those who said that they had to wait for long in the queue to be served is a story of a failed and miserable customer service. The company ought to consider it a priority by backing up the words with actions. Employees should form a regular habit of talking to customers and knowing what they want through direct and open conversations. The company should use every resource availed to look for solutions and get opportunities on board. Since customers and employees are the best resource to Atokowa, the group knows best what customers want and what they can afford to do for them. Employees should therefore be involved in every aspect of operations and planning. If customers are more engaged, they become more loyal. Ultimately make it easy for customers to give feedback. Optimize the pricing structure Setting the right price is determined by marketing considerations on how it will influence the Atokowa advantage brand image, how it will define the brand, product design, how it shapes trial and iterative purchase behavior. This makes the right price determination difficult than it was previously envisaged. Traditional practitioners like Atokowa are facing aggressive low cost competition. To stay competitive, the firm reduces on the selling price of the product by cutting on the profit since the GST is constant. This serves to prevent high yield customers not to sulk. The company should perhaps look into details on how to utilize network revenue management optimization, preselecting price points and considering the worth of the additional price points. Atokowa Company needs to push for higher inventory ratios which will increase its effectiveness. The company lagging on turnover is not up to the task of performing to the expected. 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