Inventory Management and Just In Time (JIT)
Introduction Supply-chain management plays a pivotal role in ensuring goods, and services are delivered on time to customers. Within supply-chain management, inventory management plays a central role. Inventory involves various cost, investment, space management, etc. Also there are chances that stored inventory may get damaged or get stolen adding to extra cost to the company. […]
Symptoms of an Overheating Economy
The IMF recently asked the Philippines to take measures to rein in its overheating economy. This is not the first time the IMF has made such a statement. In fact, IMF commonly asks countries to take measures to prevent “overheating.” However, the problem is that there is no standard definition which defines the phenomenon of […]
Why Do Exports Matter?
Countries all over the world try to promote exports. Almost every country offers financial incentives to exporters. Countries like China have Special Economic Zones wherein exporters are not charged any tax. Similarly, other countries have special banks and insurance agencies promoted by the government to facilitate export growth. This brings us to the importance of […]
International Logistics – A brief introduction
Supply Chains ride on Logistics Networks and IT Applications/Internet. In this topic a brief introduction to each of the Logistics Function/Industry is attempted. The foundation of logistics function is based mainly on Transportation by Road, Rail, and Air & Sea. Maritime trade has existed since times immemorial. History is replete with the major maritime routes […]
The Problem with the United States Postal Service
Amazon Allegations: President Trump has been very critical of Amazon. He believes that companies like Amazon are benefitting off of taxpayer’s money. This is why Donald Trump has specifically mentioned that Amazon is misusing the cheap postal service being provided by United States post. Since this service is meant for common people and not mega-corporations […]
Business in present times is very challenging and dynamic. The nature of markets, life cycle of products and services as well as the Customers and their expectations have changed. So has competition. No business can survive this change unless and until they re-invent themselves and equip themselves to face competition. While some Organizations build their competitive edge on research and development, some bank of human resource and delivery or support capabilities while many choose to bank on their Organization as the competitive edge.
By Organization we mean an Organization structure that is built on sound business processes that enables each and every resource to bring the best to the table and to deliver their promise to the customer. It also enables them to change and adapt to new requirements very fast thus enabling them to meet the new challenges emerging in the business environment on daily basis.
When we talk about Business Process Engineering or improvement, we are not referring to something that is entirely new to the business world. Along with industrialization we do see that the Organizations developed processes to help increase their productivity, aid in mass production as well as to help eliminate the obstacles. But then these processes were being relied upon to help co-ordinate the functions and not necessarily to drive the business operations. The processes relied upon people to follow them and the people needed to be supervised all the time to ensure productivity. At the same time we also see the earlier Organizations existing with hierarchical structures and division of authority, power and absence of delegation.
If we look at the phenomenal growth of the multinational companies who have made global impact in the past few decades, it is very clear that these Organizations chose to re-invent themselves and change to be ahead of the times. The re-invention of the Organization happened on the basis of business processes driving the business operations. Such processes depended upon delegation of authority as well as specific responsibilities too. These Organizations chose to end the bureaucracy that plagued them and embrace efficiency in the form of re-orienting themselves to the market requirement. The outcome of such changes is very evident as under:
Entire Organization aligned itself to focus on customer with every individual from management to operations keeping customer satisfaction as the goal of the entire Organization. Such alignment naturally leads to the Organization tuning in to the Customer requirement, anticipating his needs and focusing on planning for products for tomorrow. Automatically we see such Organizations building on their competitive advantage and an edge over competition.
Organizations gain a lot by improving their business processes. The removal of redundant processes and bureaucracy in decision making and un necessary paper work/documentation as well as hierarchical structure helps increase the productivity, efficiency as well as yields better return on investments made in the operational areas besides reducing mistakes and errors that cost the Company.
With efficient processes and visibility of performance, people get motivated to perform better. Imagine the effectiveness of the sales team when they find the new business process demanding less of their time in writing reports and documentation and giving them more time to be in front of the customer and close sales. The Organization will definitely benefit on the sales front.
Finally Business processes when designed and implemented well are very effective in driving, controlling and managing the business operations. The responsibilities and authorities get defined making the Organization more democratic and dynamic.
In the long run, bringing in business processes to manage the business helps the Organization expand its operations and businesses in multiple locations, geographies and markets while continuing to retain effective control over all business units.
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