Inventory and Process Management-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp

Questions: 1.Critically evaluate whether the advantages of holding these outweighs their disadvantages. 2.Evaluate the capacity of one facility in the supply network of an Organisation that you are familiar with. 3.Select one process or an operation in a company you are familiar with, and critically evaluate how the four core planning and control activities are performed. 4.Identify an operation or process in your organisation SNC Lavalin, and discuss how the gap between its current and required performance should be assessed and addressed. Answers: 1.Inventory Management Inventory management has been a major concern in the modern business world. SNC Lavalin is a globally recognized organization that provides construction, engineering, operation, and maintenance services. It also offers oil and gas products, hydropower activities, as well as mining and metallurgy to its customers. Like other organizations, many concerns have been raised concerning the management of inventory in the organization. It is hence essential to understand the principles that guide the holding of inventory in an organization or what informs the decisions of managers especially the supply chain managers to hold or sell inventories in an organization. Different perspectives have been given to address these concerns; however, it still remains unclear as to whether inventories should accumulate in an organization only when the advantages of holding them outweigh the disadvantages. It is thus important for the business managers to get a firm understanding of everything involved in the inventory management. An inventory is usually a business current asset but can be expressed in this context as a tangible personal property which is held up by the business or an organization for sale in the ordinary course of business and therefore it represents an asset that that is likely to be converted into business revenue (Taleizadeh Nematollahi 2014, p. 102). In most case, the goal of having inventory in a business is to facilitate sales for an organization. Inventory management, however, is defined as the art at which organizations or businesses manage assets that are normally viewed as a liability even though in real business terms its an asset (Slack et al. 2015, p. 296). According to this definition, it can be concluded that an inventory is viewed as an asset, but an asset that organizations or businesses dont want too much of it. With such an understanding it is therefore important to state that inventories should actually be allowed to accumulate in a business when their advantages outweigh the disadvantages. This is because of the costs associated with holding and managing the asset. These costs may make the price of the inventory higher than the market price and result in losses. Managers are therefore keen on establishing the costs and impacts of stock outs, the missed service opportunities as well as the unforeseen supply chain opportunities (Slack et al. 2015, p.301). Therefore the key to effective inventory management is balancing as well as maintaining an adequate inventory that will ensure that there is smooth production as well as merchandising flows while minimizing the costs associated with holding inventory to ensure firm financial performance. For example in a real estate business organization, company or firm, a house is normally seen as an asset to the company. The prices of acquiring a house keep on changing but the value of the houses keep on growing irrespective of the dynamics in the housing industry. Therefore the advantages of holding a house in a real estate company may include high future returns as the land and property rates keep appreciating as compared to the cost of maintaining the house over a certain period of time (Slack et al. 2015, p. 298). If we take for instance vehicle that is bought for sale in the same company or organization, holding that asset yet its not a fixed asset is subject to huge maintenance costs as well as the price of vehicle in the market keep on depreciating and therefore there is a likelihood that if not sold now it may be sold in future at a lower market value. 2.Capacity Management Capacity management is information technology management process mainly aimed at ensuring that all resources such as labor force, technology, raw materials, and inventory are of the right quantity as per the business standards (Slack, Johnston, Betts 2015, p. 258). The adoption and implementation of this process ensures that the required capacity exist within the operation of the organization (Milewska 2017). The capacity management process entails three categories which are the business capacity management, service capacity management, and component management capacity. All these processes are observable throughout an operation. The capacity level is the maximum level of output SNC Lavalin can comfortably produce to sustain the specified level of consumers demand. Good capacity management requires proper planning and control to acquire a specified capacity level of productions in every company. The main reason is that since there is no single system that can work for a longer period without making a break. Therefore, it is the manager's role to create a well-planned system, which ensures a uniformed level of capacity by hence avoiding congestion stage known as the bottleneck, which will finally slow down the production process. The bottleneck stage always takes place when the order of load is more than the production system hence making the delaying on the delivery of a customer order. The bottleneck is actually can be avoided by appropriately offering training to the employees, and even contracting reliable vendors. The company can, therefore, purchase equipment that has the higher processing power to meet their demand- capacity level. Optimum capacity is a situation whereby the company uses the minimum cost of production to achieve a higher standard of production (Nikiforo 2013). These are achievable when the company employs well systematic production techniques. Demand capacity aids in determining the degree to which an added or expanded facility are in need throughout the planning period. It relates the installed productive capacity to the output capacity The methods used to capacity is said to vary from one company to the other as well as from one commodity to the other. However it is important to state that there is no perfect method that can be adopted by accompanying the firm in capacity management. Like in inventory management, the best way to manage inventory cud be by adopting a method that will reduce the holding costs and the cost associated with maintaining the inventory. In this case, by adopting the Just in Time (JIT) inventory control method within the company seeks to deliver inventory to the production floor or company just in time for use (Slack et al. 2015, p. 308). It also provides an exact quantity required to complete a certain production function towards capacity management of the organization. Understanding the fact that the effectiveness of the method also depends on the company suppliers to deliver on demand I would also make sure that the suppliers have a ware house near or close to our company or production o r manufacturing unit (Bookbinder Dilts 2016, p. 2). This will reduce the costs associated with holding inventory until they are used for production as well as the maintenance cost of the safety stock, ensuring that SNC Lavalin improves in its performance. 3.Resource Planning and Control Planning is the formulation of the intended activity and the expectations at specified time and future. On the other hand, controlling is the process of addressing any changes that may arise during the process. Therefore, resource planning and control is the process of managing the ongoing allocation of resources through determining what is suppose to happen and ensuring that it takes place as intended (Slack, Johnston, Betts 2015 p. 372). SNC Lavalin is a globally recognized organization that provides construction, engineering, operation, and maintenance services. It also offers oil and gas products, hydropower activities, as well as mining and metallurgy to its customers. In the organization, planning and control entail more on than reconciliation between the market requirement, and the operation is the resource. For an effective resource planning and control, it has to take care of the customers need, known as customers interface and translate it to the operations through supply interface. The client interface controls the relationship between the customer and the company in the every days activities of the business. It thus describes a type of the customers experience that always fall in between the quality of the product and the customers expectations. Therefore it is very paramount that the client interface forms the basis of the companys operations since customer these activities are always either negotiable, made through an order, or distribution channel. The supplier interface, on the other hand, represents the connection between the operations activities and those of the vendors. The period taken by all the events during the operation directly affect the supply chain hence the suppliers need to be updated correctly to ensure the quality of the products and services to the consumers. There are various activities in the planning and control; these are; Loading which is the amount of work that can be allocated to a particular stage (Chu Snppington 2015, p. 258). It is divided into finite whereby there is the limit in the capacity planning and infinite that has no limit in capacity planning. With finite capacity loading, it is easy, necessary and prohibitive to limit the cost of the load. Sequencing is a more informative set of decisions that control in what order job to pass. In sequencing, the company should prioritize the customers needs and work with the due date. Through this all the first products that were ordered to be released first. Scheduling is the process of giving in-depth information that contains the start and end of all activities. During scheduling, Gantt chart that provides time on a bar graph is preferable since it is easy to understand. The scheduling always focuses on the bottleneck part of the operation. It helps to the pace of the most load resources .the approach used the excellent production technique whereby the if the rate of flow is higher than that of the bottleneck then the system produces wrong items and when the rate is of flow is lower than that of the bottleneck, the system is not entirely in utilization. Monitoring and control ensure that all activities take place as stipulated in the plan. There are two methods used in the monitoring and control, these are the push and pull control. The push control is when the work center pushes the work in front of them without passing of any work. Any deviation from the plan is adjustable as required while in the pull system, work is drawn from the other station as the customer is the only trigger to the type of flow. The nature of planning and control changes with time hence there is short term medium and long term interventions. The short term interventions are possible when a there process does not need any plan, and the medium responses allow only slight deviations from the plan while the long term entails all the objectives, resources required for the achievement. The nature of the decisions made in the program also depends on the demand and supply quality of the product. When a there is uncertainty in the provision of a product, then planning and control are always harder than those that their supplies are very certain. 4.Current and Required Performance Operations or processes in an organization are the methods adopted by a company with the aim of achieving the set objectives. By discussing how the gap between the current and required performance within an organization can be addressed, the company can evaluate and adopt efficient and effective systems for its work process and performance. SNC Lavalin is a globally recognized organization that provides construction, engineering, operation, and maintenance services. It also offers oil and gas products, hydropower activities, as well as mining and metallurgy to its customers. However, customer service and management in an operation process that needs to be monitored to identify the gaps between the actual and desired performance. A successful assessment of the gaps between the desired and actual performance is the foundation of the desired improvement in performance for every organization, a process that requires the adoption of two sets of activities (Slack, Brandon-Jones, Johnston, Betts 2012, p. 436). It involves assessing the current operation and performance of every individual and using the information to suggest the most effective target performance. However, the first step is determined by the nature of the measures adopted within the operation, an aspect that involves deciding on the relevant aspects of performance. It should also focus on adopting detailed measures in assessing the factors affecting customer service in the organization. In support of this assertion, Sanger (2008) denotes that a balanced scorecard framework is an approach adopted as a performance measurement strategy adopted by many organizations and can hence be successfully adopted within the company in assessing the gaps and find ing relevant solutions that can fix them. Addressing the gaps in the customer service in the organization will require the management to set targets for performance for the employees who directly or indirectly deal with customers. The plan can be achieved by focusing on the strategic targets towards the companys customer management objectives, historically based targets, external performance targets relating competitor and external operations, as well as absolute performance targets by the theoretical upper limit targets. In addressing the existing gaps, the organization can as well adopt various improvement paths that are proven to affect performance improvement as pointed out by Sanger (2008, p. 89). For instance, the organization can adopt the continuous and breakthrough improvement paths. The study also denotes that the business process re-engineering approach, as well as the breakthrough approach, can be adopted in an organization in case a drastic change is required with the aim of ensuring a drastic and dramatic perfo rmance increase. Slack et al. (2012, p. 437) denotes that continuous improvement focuses on different small but never ending improvements that will then become part of the normal operations process and activities within the organization. With the primary focus on ensuring the organization maintains improvement in its performance, there is a need for focus on continuous improvement to ensure the organization remains competitive in the market. However, there are assumptions that even though every operation management strategy adopted in an organization contributes indirectly or directly to performance improvement in an organization, there are some techniques that are often more popular in association with the desired improvement. It is hence the assumption behind most global organizations adopting the use of the cause-effect diagram, correlation or scatter diagrams, why-why analysis, and Pareto analysis as supported by Slack et al. (2012, p. 437). Also, one of the biggest challenges during improvement is sustaining the improvement momentum with fissionability in every new improvement approach in the process. In a systematic study, Guerci, Longoni, and Luzzini, (2016) point out that most of the improvement ideas adopted by different organizations tend to provide worthwhile element but often do not affect the projected results. As a result, adopting the above strategies will require the organization to ensure that it adopts management strategies that will be flexible enough to accommodate the results without having a great effect on the organization. These can be adopted through top management support, development, and training towards sustainable strategies geared towards achieving the recommended operation processes. List of References Bookbinder, J.H. and Dilts, D., 2016.Logistics information systems in a Just-In-Time environment. Chu, L. and Sappington, D. (2015). Contracting with Private Knowledge of Production Capacity. Journal of Economics Management Strategy, 24(4), pp.752-785. Guerci, M, Longoni, A, Luzzini, D 2016, 'Translating stakeholder pressures into environmental performance -- the mediating role of green HRM practices',International Journal Of Human Resource Management, 27, 2, pp. 262-289, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 24 August 2017. Milewska, E. (2017). It Systems Supporting the Management of Production Capacity. Management Systems in Production Engineering, 25(1). Nikiforos, M. (2013). The (Normal) Rate of Capacity Utilization at the Firm Level. Metroeconomica, 64(3), pp.513-538. Sanger, M 2008, 'From Measurement to Management: Breaking through the Barriers to State and Local Performance',Public Administration Review, 68, pp. S70-S85, Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost, viewed 24 August 2017. Slack, N, Brandon-Jones, A, Johnston, R Betts, A 2012, Operations and process management, 3rd edn, Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow, pp.372373. Slack, N, Brandon-Jones, A, Johnston, R Betts, A 2015, Operations and process management, 4th edn, Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow. Taleizadeh, A. Nematollahi, M., 2014, An inventory control problem for deteriorating items with back-ordering and financial considerations. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 38(1), pp.93-109. Urtasun-Alonso, A., Larraza-Kintana, M., Garca-Olaverri, C. and Huerta-Arribas, E. (2012). Manufacturing flexibility and advanced human resource management practices. Production Planning Control, 25(4), pp.303-317.