Intermittent Manufacturing Systems

In Intermittent manufacturing systems, the goods are manufactured specially to fulfill orders made by customers rather than for stock. Here the flow of material is intermittent. Intermittent production systems are those where the production facilities are flexible enough to handle a wide variety of products and sizes. These can be used to manufacture those products where the basic nature of inputs changes with the change in the design of the product and the production process requires continuous adjustments. Considerable storage between operation is required, so that individual operations can be carried out independently for further utilization of men and machines. Examples of intermittent systems are: machine shops, hospitals, general office etc. Characteristics of intermittent  manufacturing  systems are: Most products are produced in small quantities. Machines and equipment are laid out by process. Workloads are generally unbalanced. Highly skilled operators are required for efficient use of machines and equipment. In-process inventory Continue reading

Production Control- Definition, Objectives, Levels and Factors

Definition of Production Control All organizations irrespective of size, use production control to some degree. In small organizations, the production control may be performed by one person; but in large complex industries the production control department is normally well-organised and highly specialized.   Production control presupposes the existence of production plans, and it involves the use of various control techniques to ensure production performance as per plans.   Co-ordinating men and materials and machines is the task of production control. Production control may be defined as “the process of planning production in advance of operations; establishing the exact route of each individual item, part of assembly; setting and finishing dates for each important item, assembly and the finished products, and releasing the necessary orders as well as initiating the required follow-up to effectivate the smooth functioning of the enterprises.”   According to Henry Fayol, production control is the art and Continue reading

Price Discrimination in Managerial Economics

In today’s economies where product and service competition is dense, to sell products and services to consumers in the way as expected by the company has become harder but at the same time necessary compared to the past. It has become unavoidable for the firms to use various pricing strategies alongside with the classical selling strategies to reach this goal. In today’s economic conditions in which the markets being far from full competitive state resulted the firms functioning in this market to become more or less a price-maker. For this reason, one of the ways for the firms that aim to increase the total income thus the total profit can use is, to implement different pricing for consumers with different specialties instead of applying the same pricing for all the consumer groups. Because the consumers having different income levels, taste and choice cause them to have a desire to pay Continue reading

Concept of Economic Value Added (EVA)

The onset of liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy over the ten years has resulted in shift of the corporate goals from socio-economic focus to an increasing shareholders value. Therefore, the present day need is to choose the right metrics that would help to measure organizational progress in meeting the above mentioned strategic goal. Although there are few traditional performance metrics like balance sheet measures (namely, rate of return, shareholders’ profit, earning per share) and market driven measures (namely, market capitalization, price earning ratio), these are subject to certain deficiencies. Balance Sheet based measures are veiled in accounting anomalies that generally measure notional profit, not real ones and market driven measures are prone to volatility of the bourses. The need is for a mix and match measure that factor in a market’s assessment of a company’s value. At the same time, it should be a real measure of its Continue reading

Conceptual Perspectives on Management

Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in government. In all organizations, where group of human beings assemble for a common purpose, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort. Efficacious and effective management is not possible without in-depth knowledge of the organisation which is being managed. Organisational knowledge is absolutely critical to building, preserving and leveraging institutional excellence. It is like the air you breathe-you cannot measure it, touch it, or see it but you cannot survive without it. The basic elements of management are always there whether we manage our lives or our business. In fact, management is used knowingly or unknowingly by everybody born as human being on this earth. Continue reading

Concept of Project Based Organizations (PBO)

In today’s turbulent market, a lot of organizations is still seeking for a strategic advantage over others and a lot of them has actually seek Project Based Organization (PBO) as a way to propel them for greater height and thus, gain a strategic advantage over other companies. However, there are still questions how they can best make use of this new organization structure approach to create a synergy between company business mission, strategy, and project as well as portfolio management Project Based Organizations refer to organizational forms that involve the creation of temporary systems for the performance of project tasks or activities. PBOs are gaining increased attention as an emerging organizational form, but there is very little knowledge on how PBO function in practice and what value or benefits in adopting the practice of Project Based Organizations. Needless to say, there are not many findings on how the extensive use Continue reading