Concepts of Throughput Accounting and Theory of Constraints

Financial Management

Kaizen – Understanding the Japanese Business Philosophy of Continuous Improvement

Operations Management

Role of Leaders in Shaping Organizational Culture

Management Principles

Organizational Culture – Development and Importance

Management Principles

Five Important Organizational Cultural Models

Management Principles

Manufacturing Systems – Meaning, Components and Selection Factors

Production is a conversion function by which goods and services are produced. A typical production system comprises of three main components: Inputs, Transformation process and Output. Inputs are men, materials, machines, instructions, drawings, and paper work and instructions. The Transformation Process involves operations, mechanical or chemical, to Change/convert inputs into outputs. It also includes activities that assist conversion, Output is goods and services (e.g. products, parts, paper work, served customers etc.) The combination of operations and activities stated above employed to create goods and services are known as manufacturing system. A manufacturing system therefore may be looked upon as an independent group of sub-systems, each sub-system performing a distinct function. Different sub-systems may perform different functions, yet they are inter-related and require to be unified to achieve overall objectives of the organization. Manufacturing system needs to interact with both internal and external environment. The internal environment is the combination of Continue reading

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DSMC/ATI Organizational Performance Improvement Model

Out of the organizational performance improvement planning process come specific performance improvement interventions, tactics and techniques. Note that these interventions happen at five checkpoints. Upstream systems, inputs, process, outputs and downstream systems. Quality management efforts must be defined relative to these five checkpoints. In effect, transformation and continuous improvement efforts are commitments to a practice of managing all five-quality checkpoints. The management team then develops, through the performance improvement planning process, a balanced attack to improve total system performance, not just system sub-components. After interventions are made to the system, measure, assess and analyze organizational performance at the five checkpoints to determine whether the expected impact actually occurred. Based on these data, make an evaluation relative to the business strategy, the environment (both internal and external), the vision, the plan and the improvement actions themselves. Note that the process of evaluation is separate from the process of measurement. In addition, Continue reading

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Brand Value Proposition

The bottom line is that unless the role of a brand is simply to support other brands by providing credibility, the brand identity needs to provide a value proposition to the customer. What is a brand value proposition? Brand value proposition is a statement of functional, emotional, and self-expressive benefits delivered by the brand that provide value to the customer. An effective brand  value proposition should lead to a brand–customer relationship and drive purchase decisions. The central concepts of functional, emotional, and self-expressive benefits of brand  value proposition  are explained below. 1. Functional Benefits The most visible and common basis for a brand value proposition is a func ­tional benefit–that is, a benefit based on a product attribute that provides functional utility to the customer. Such a benefit will usually relate directly to the functions performed by the product or service for the customer. For laser printers, functional benefits might Continue reading

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Designing Strategy-Supportive Reward Systems in Organizations

Creating a strategy-supportive reward structure for an organization is an important task as it is a powerful management tools for gaining employee buy-in and commitment. Meanwhile, the key to creating a reward system is to promote relevant measures of performance that the dominating basis for designing incentives, evaluating individual and group efforts, and handling out rewards. In a competitive business climate, more business owners are looking at improvements in quality while reducing costs. While businesses need to get more from their employees, their employees are looking for more out of them. Employee reward and recognition programs are one method of motivating employees to change work habits and key behavior’s to benefit a business. As the strategy-supportive reward structure motivates and attracts the employee, designing the reward structure for an organization is quite complex. This is because the importance of the reward structure should define on the job and assignment in Continue reading

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CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering) Tools

CASE is an acronym for computer Aided Engineering. This involves using software packages to accomplish and automate many of the activities of the information system development including software development or programming. Building Blocks Computer Aided Software Engineering can be a single tool that supports a specific Software Engineering activity to complex environment that encompasses tools, a data of people, hardware, network operating system standards and other components i.e. environment architecture composed of hardware platform and operating system support lays the ground work for CASE. But the CASE environment itself needs other building blocks. A set of portability services provides a bridge between CASE tools and their integration framework and the environment architecture. The integration framework is a collection of specialized programs that enables collection of   specialized programs that enables individual’s CASE tools to communicate with one another, to create a project database and to exhibit the same look and Continue reading

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Factors Influencing the Product Line Decisions

The extent to which a company can add new products is not unlimited.   Very often, the scope for having new products is in some way related to the existing conditions of the firm.   The goods may be : 1. Cost Related Goods A company may decide to add a product which may be the result of a common production process.   For example, a company which strikes oil may decide to produce petrol or mobil oil, kerosene, gas, wax, etc.   A company producing sugar may decide to produce molasses. 2. Demand Related Goods A firm may decide to add a product which is jointly demanded.   For example, manufacturers of Sulekha Ink have gone in for production of other related items of stationery like sealing wax.   Food Specialties Ltd. added Maggi to their various food products.   Weston Electronics, manufacturers of tape recorders, colour TV sets, Continue reading

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