2005 Events Destined for American History Textbooks

Supply Chain Complexity Risk And Innovation Using Social Network Analysis - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2031 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? Supply chain has been described as a complex network of interrelated firms transforming materials into finished goods and services. Complexity in the supply network has been known to reduce the supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. However, given the present and embedded impact of social network in the transfer of resources, recognizing alternate influence of social networks to the supply chain is relevance to management of supply chain. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Supply Chain Complexity Risk And Innovation Using Social Network Analysis" essay for you Create order In this article, we present a tentative framework to study the impact of supply chain complexity on the supply chain innovation from the perspective of social network theory. Keywords: Complexity, Social Network Theory 1. Introduction This article applies social network theory in linking supply chain complexity to the innovation performance of the supply chain. The last two decades have seen an unwavering confluence of the conventionally rooted field of logistics, purchasing, sourcing and operation management into a distinguished area widely known as the supply chain management (SCM) [1]. According to the proponents of the SCM, these conventional areas can no longer run as loosely linked pocket of excellence [2-4]. In addition to that, businesses must also expand, establish and regulate the material and information flows as well as the relationship that tie these fields together, and connect these fields with the external entities such as the suppliers and the customers [2]. Concurrently, SCM perspectives obligate firms to expand the scope and network of their business activities that need be managed [1]. The nature of these activities have taken the turn to be more complex and challenging as businesses have bec ome a global network, making widely and geographically dispersed partners and customers difficult to control and managed [5], and more customers demanding customized produce, creating an increasingly shortening product life cycles [6]. The management of the supply chain, hence, is certainly a challenging task, and many would acknowledge that a supply chain is a complex network of interrelated entities. In this article, we employ some of the concepts of the social network theory to clarify and provide a pictorial rendition of the aspects of the supply chain network that make them complex and the suitability of SNA to the supply chain research. It begins with an outline of social network theory and the uses to which the theory has been applied to explain organizational phenomena. Then we provide the relevant literature foundation in the areas of supply chain complexity which is posited as structural and relational complexity, grounded in the social network theory. We then peruse th e topical work, carried out to date, linking the social network theory to supply chain and apply the salient concepts of social network theory to the supply chain complexity. Base on that, we provide initial propositions that through the lens of social network theory. In summary, this paper provides theoretical and managerial implications related to supply chain complexity with the objective of guiding future studies and supply chain investment and strategic activities. 2.0 Social Network Theory Social network theory focuses on pattern of relationships and interactions between the actors of the network and examines the availability of resources and the exchange of resources between these actors [7-9]. In the context of social network theory, the resource exchange can be in the form of tangible materials such as raw materials [10], goods [5], and money [11]. Resource can also be intangible such as information [11], and consultation [12]. Each relationship in a social network refers to the type of resource exchange. These exchanges occur between actors of the network which can be an individual, a clique, or an organizations link in a complex supply chain network [5, 13-14]. Network structures are an extension of these dyadic exchanges or ties between two actors [15]. Network models explicate structures in the network in terms of the relational pattern between actors. Combination of network relational ties can form the bridge through which non-adjacent actors or organizati ons can communicate [7]. The quantitative analysis of networks in the form of socio-graphs or socio-matrices has form the basis of Social Network Analysis (SNA). The SNA methodology has been documented extensively in several literature such as Knoke and Kuklinski [14], Wasserman and Faust [8], and Scott [9]. Seminal work in applying the concepts of social network to the supply chain management matters were undertaken by Lazzarini, Chaddad and Cook [13] and Borgatti and Li [16]. Concepts of social network theory have been applied extensively in the innovation literature and gained extensive application in the last couple of decade [17]. In his seminal paper Granovetter [18] stated that differing relational characteristics with regard to the strength of relationships enabled innovation to flow through the social network. The Strength of Weak Ties paper by Granovetter [18], paved the way to many more research applying SNA to innovation studies. Ibarra [19] study the effect of networ k centrality on the innovation performance and concluded that network centrality is important in administrative innovation. Abrahamson and Rosenkopf [20] argue that the number of links in a network, weak or small, can have a very large effect on adoption of innovation among actors of the network. Ahuja [12] research into the chemical industry patents indicated that network direct ties and indirect ties both positively contribute to firm innovation. Tsais [21] study of 24 business unit in petrochemical and 36 business unit in food company showed that interaction between network position and absorptive capacity significantly impact the business unit performance and innovation. Obstfelds [22] result of multi-method study of social network and innovation in an automobile engineering departments show that network density and diversity contribute positively to innovation performance of the unit. Fritsch and Kauffeld-Monz [23] indicated that strong ties are more beneficial for the exchange of knowledge and information than weak ties essential for innovation development. In contrast to the use of social network theory in the innovation and organization literature, the usage of social network constructs to the supply chain management hasnt been well developed [24]. For example, although the early articulation of supply chain as supply network by Harland et al. [25] call upon the concept of social network in supply chain, their usage of the term social network did not enunciate the terminology commonly associated with social network theory. Choi and Hong [10] used SNA to depicts the actual flow of material and information in an automobile supply chain, however, the network depiction did not discuss the relationship content, the essence of social network theory [9]. Carter, Ellram and Tate [26] gave example of the application of social network in the context of logistics research. Recently, scholars have highlighted the salience of SNA to study the complex supply netw ork. For example Borgatti and Li [16] apply network concepts to both hard and soft types of ties, e.g. materials and friendship respectively. Lazzarini et al. [13] introduced the concept of net chain analysis. Net chain analysis is a set of network consists of horizontal ties between supply chain actors which are arranged base on vertical ties between the actors in different layers of the supply chain. In their article Lazzarini et al. [13] acknowledge the quantitative use of social network theory in the depiction of supply chain structure and stated that: ..network analysis stress the importance of interdependencies between firms and how inter-organizational relationship can be a source of competitive advantage (p.1) 3.0 Why the study of supply chain complexity needs SNA and the Theoretical Foundation Existing models and approaches to understand and model the complex supply chain have been reviewed in the literature [27]. In an empirical case study base on the air line industry, Brookes and Lewis (2006) concluded that the approaches were somewhat insufficient to describe some phenomena in the supply chain. They claimed that the existing approaches are not capable of exploring and determining the appearance of similar organizations at every tier of the supply network. For example, in an automobile supply chain, some small group of suppliers of materials could be supplying to other tiers of other automobile manufacturers supply chain. This phenomena although seems irrelevant due to contractual agreements, could be explored for different purposes. In addition, Brookes and Lewis (2006) claimed that the existing approaches to understand the complex supply chain network are not able to model and determine the suppliers in the network whom also supply to and communicate with the networ k competitors. The featuring of these suppliers in the competitive supply chain must be identified so that its potential economical effects and risk can be abstained. Moreover, with the move towards greening the supply chain [28], the complexity of the supply chain has increased. The green supply network demands the need to capture the network bi-directional and complex flow within the green supply chain. The effects of this bi-directional flow of the network need to be captured and understand in order to capture the true nature of network structure and communication flow (Brookes and Lewis 2006). Furthermore, the common generation of supply chain network diagrams are not able to describe the actual complexity of the supply network. The following illustration highlights the issue. Figure 1 display a linear perspective of Honda Accord supply chain. The data was obtained by Choi and Hong [10] through case study over a period of five years. Base on Figure 1, the diagram only provide the visualization of the formal supply chain interaction activities. The complexity of the supply chain only reflects the linear perspective of this supply chain. Many research on the supply chain complexity have adopted the linear perspective in explaining the negative impact of supply chain complexity [2, 29-31]. Figure 1: A sample supply chain structure of Honda Supply Chain (Model Accord) Source: Choi and Hong [10] Figure 1, however, is merely a representation of the formal interactions of the networks actors. The supply network also consists of informal interactions that take place amongst the firms inside the supply chain. These interactions can be in the form of a communication network (informal) or as exchange network (formal). For example, Figure 2 represents more complex supply network links of the same data by Lin et al. (2011). This supply chain network is the pictorial rendition of Honda supply network investigated using the social network analysis. Figure 2: Hondas Supply Network visualization using social network approach Source: Lin et al. (2011) The two diagrams reflect two different visualizations of a focal firm supply network. Hence, understanding supply chain complexity requires a much detailed visualization of the network exchange and communication network in order for the firms to benefit from the relationships and tie that exist within this inter-relationship. According to the network theory, the complexity of the supply chain, resulting form the multiple firms and multiple formal and informal relationships could also positively influence the performance or innovation of firms [12, 32-35]. The lens of social capital theory also provides more supportive arguments for a network approach to supply chain complexity. The premise of social capital theory is the notion of embeddedness [36]. Granovetter [18] argue that during interaction and communication activities actors in the network behave in an imperfect economic rat ionality because actors are embedded in network with other actors. These actors are capable of providing more resources than would otherwise be possible. Granovetter [18] added that two form of embeddedness are most salient, the structural embeddedness i.e. the actors structural form of constructed world, and the relational embeddedness, the embeddedness with relate to direct and indirect relationship between actors within a related network. Example of structural embeddedness of firms in a supply network would be the relative positions of firms, the firms distance from others and connections, and the relational embeddedness example would be the relationship strength, quality and duration [36]. The structural and relational embeddedness concept of Granovetter [18], are relevant for analysis of supply chain complexity. Firms operating in a global and complex supply chain are evidently connected with each other working to meet the demand of the end users. Despite the network structu ral and relational complexity firms has actually different level of relationship closeness such as process integration and business relationship, between them. Social capital theory suggest that each of this dimensions influence actors performance [37]. Similar findings of have also been stated in other studies such as [38]. In advancing the concept of social network to the supply chain complexity, this paper argues that the salient network theory concepts of actors and ties and embeddedness of firms within the complex supply chain network may result positively to the innovation performance of the firms. In the next section, we discuss the relevant social network theory concepts and relate them to the supply chain complexity.

How Democracy Has Made A Grand Mark On Humanity Essay

The concept of democracy has made a grand mark on humanity, evolving in one of the most powerful civilizations of humankind, Ancient Greece. The perpetual idea emerged during the 6th century B. C. E., almost 2,500 years ago. Its untimely disappearance for a few thousand years gave way for various ups and downs of tyrannical and dictatorial monarchs and sovereigns. Worldwide, many states have struggled with maintaining steady political powers that consider the best interests of all of the state’s people. John Dunn addresses the history of democracy, expressing similarities and differences between modern and ancient democracy. According to Dunn, though the type of â€Å"demokracia† occurring in Ancient Athens was very different from the forms of democracy that we see in the world today, all successful democracies share similar fundamental characteristics, equality, stability, and change. A country’s past affects its future, especially within the political realm. In order to shift from a politically traditional to a more politically modern state, major crises must be underway. For efficient and effective progress to be realized, there must be changes to the customary norms of the political culture and overall political atmosphere, starting from the elites, moving down towards to citizens. Identity, leadership, and participation all must have dramatic shifts of their primary elements before a country is able to stabilize itself as a building block for a democratic government.Show MoreRelatedEssay on Postmodernism: Myths and Realities1996 Words   |  8 Pagespostmodern world--a world better explained by theories and concepts different from those of the modern world dating from the Enlightenment and before. The theories and concepts of postmodernism are widely and prominently applied in adult education. So, how do postmodernists characterize postmodernism? What are the critics critiques? Do proponents and critics agree on anything? 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My Interpretation of Art Essay - 901 Words

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The Role of Women in Society Free Essays

The Internet is a global information system. Nowadays, the internet is popular everywhere in the world. The Internet provides many useful utilities for users but besides that it also has negative. We will write a custom essay sample on The Role of Women in Society or any similar topic only for you Order Now I will analysis advantages and disadvantages of Internet specifically. The first, the Internet is a big store of information. Any kind of information on any topic is available on the Internet. You can find it by the most popular search engines. Beside, you can share information with other people around the world. Secondly, the Internet connects many people all over the world. And it easier to stay in touch with your friends by chatting, e-mail messages, forum†¦. Stay up date with happening in the whole world and the new technology and information. You can get latest news of the world on the Internet. Another benefit, there are many services on internet, especially entertainment. You can watch online movies, listen to music on websites or play online games†¦Besides, there are also disadvantages. Children can connect to these websites that are for adult only. They can see the information which is not good. This is serious problem. Another problem is the wastage of times. Some people waste a lot of time in chatting or to play games. At home and offices, many people use Internet without any positive purpose. In conclusion, there are many advantages and disadvantages of the Internet, Depend on you, it will be the advantages or disadvantage. You should balance study and play. 3. In Viet Nam, the number of death by traffic accident is considered as large as the number of death by plague. There’s about more than 30 people die everyday. With the traffic conditions in Vietnam, accident is object to happen. The roads are too narrow to travel easily. Moreover, many pot-holes can appear everywhere to threaten the goers. To solve this problem, we only have one way, it’s improving the road. Whenever the roads are repaired, the traffic is more dangerous with the unfinished structures. People still travel on the repairing roads, and the roads are more and more narrow. We also can build the tunnels but it is very costly. Viet Nam has to borrow money from other countries and no one knows when the government can pay it back. In addition, the tense of Vietnamese people is poor. The roads in the cities are choked with so many vehicles such as motorbikes, bicycles, taxies, buses, cyclos and pedestrians because people do not follow the laws well. They even don’t obey the traffic lights or signs. Now, the government gives many new strict laws to improve the present posture. The traffic is better and better day by day. In conclusion, with many measures now, the traffic in Viet Nam will be good one day. Despite the poor conditions Viet Nam can solve this problem themselves by the development of economic. How to cite The Role of Women in Society, Papers

Illiberal Instituions Essay Example For Students

Illiberal Instituions Essay MOST OF THE INSTITUTIONS WITHIN WHICH WE LIVE OUR LIVES ARE MANIFESTLY ILLIBERALWe all lives are governed by the institutions like law, government, religion, education, family, employment market and others. All these institutions tends to look towards the formation of a society. They do not say that society is made up of aggregated individuals but that individuals are the product of society. This is a conservative notion which is in conflict with the ideology of liberalism. To look at all the institutions within which we live our lives and focus on their characteristics is beyond the scope of this essay. In this some of these institutions would be reviewed and their political approach would be examined. Where possible I would try and look at the whole institution on its own, but where the discussions about the whole institution is too broad, the focus would be on specific examples of the attitude of the institution. In case of law, I would emphasise would be on the laws treatment of women and how that shows the law approach to be illiberal. In religion I would be focusing on one kind of religion, Islam to show how all religions are conservative. In the same way focus in education would be on boarding schools. The rest of the institutions: family, employment, government and market economics are covered in singularity as institutions. As I mentioned earlier the focus in respect to religion would be Islam. I intend to look all some of the basic rules and principles of Islam and examine their attitudes. Islam believes in the authority higher then humans. It believes in the sovereign power of God which is called Allah in the religion. He is suppose to be higher than all the other beings in the world. He is referred in Quran (Muslims holy book) as the Creator and Sustainer of lives. This means that all the human are dependent on Him for their living. This is against the liberal theory, which believes in all beings, being equal. Thus, this concept of higher authority brings out the conservative attitude of the religion. Allah is the ultimate authority in an Islamic society and all the rules and regulations emerge from him. There are two kinds of duties that a Muslim owes one to Allah and the others to his fellow beings. The duties owed to Allah are Tauheed (believe in oneness of God), Salat (five time prayers), Fasting and Haj (the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.) Those owed to his fellow human beings are numerous, as individuals have certain duties to fulfil in different relationships for the building of a society; but each individual has the basic duty to pay Zakat (a portion of their income to help the poor.) This goes towards the building of a homogenous society, where Muslim society as a group has to be supported so those individuals arising from that society are on as much of an equal scale as possible. In this way Islam realises the hierarchy in a society, where some individuals are more powerful than the rest. They have more resources and the others in the society, and the religion promotes the use of those extra resources for the use of the weaker ones in the society. This is completely against the liberal idea, which says that all individuals are equal and have the same governing power. Islam does not believe in formal equality, which strips the individuals of their difference and puts them in the situations that are more adverse to their situations then the illiberal ideas. It recognises the difference that exists in the society and tries to help individuals those bases by making a stronger society, which would support them. Zakat is an obligation, which every earning Muslim has to fulfil, but there are other duties, which are specific to the position one occupies in the society. A ruler is responsible for his subjects well being, he has the responsibility of making sure that all his empire have food and everyone is being treated fairly and justly. In the same way, people have the responsibility to choose the ruler who would abide by the Islamic principles. Parents have duty to take care of their children, and in return of this duties children owe complete obedience to their parents. There is Prophet Mohammed (P.B It's amazing how you feel you can trust someone with your life, and then they just turn against you and make your life living hell EssayAll these developments in the martial relationship has led to the liberal view that marriage is purely contractual agreement, where both the parties have equal opportunity to negotiate. However, this is not the view that common law tends to take. Common law ten ds to bend towards the idea that there is just one standard contract of marriage. If individuals want they may make the amendments in their own marriage and negotiate the terms but as far as the law is considered those terms will not apply. The contract that common law hold to be binding is same for everyone, and there is no place for negotiations there. The only choice that an individual has in this case is whether to enter the contract or not. What liberals have done is that they have confused the private relations of the couples with the institution itself. The marriage itself is very patriarchal, and still very much about the domination of male over the female. This is because the law presumes that both are in equal free to make choices, of whether to work or to stay home, to own property individually or jointly, and to acquire assets. However, that is not the case as women earn only 70% of male income. Thus, males still remains the dominant wage earner and ultimately the decisi on-maker, whereas, wife is still responsible for taking care of husband, children and home. In a modern society like England, the relationship between parent and child is non-contractual as well irrespective of what liberals would like to believe. A child does not choose his own parents in a market where he can bargain the best terms. He is brought into the world without any say of what type of parents he will have. There is no liberal idea of freedom and equality involved here, and if the society treated both the parents and children as individuals, it would be the most obscure thing to do. Children are dependent on parents in any society, and so is the case in Britain. Parents are the dominant partners in this relationship and this is even recognised by the law. Parents have legal rights over children because of the financial support they provide them. This defies the liberal idea of individuality, which says that all the individuals are equal and have same bargaining powers. The result of treating the Parent-child relationship as purely contractual would result in complete commotion and anarchy. The third power relationship described by Aristotle in a family was that of master and servant. He puts this relationship in this category because of the economic set-up of his time. With the industrial revolution, the master-servant relationship has been replaced by employment contract. This contract is the strongest key to the liberal ideas which dictates that each individuals will make the best deal in the market and the ultimate result would be a better society. This liberal thought is the surface appearance of the capitalistic approach that believes people are like commodities sold in the open market and all have equal opportunity to negotiate the best bargains. The liberal ideology, which finds it origin in capitalism, is very superficial, as on the surface we are just exchanging commodities for money. However, this is not what happens in reality; reality is b ased on the elements of master-servant relationship of early 17th and 18th century. To actually believe that all individuals have equal probability is to diminish from the reality. It is an obscure belief that a single individual would be in anyway equivalent to the big co-operate multinationals or that an employee in any organisation would have same bargaining power as the employer. An individual in the market has the choice of finding the best party available to make the contract; but that does not imply, that the party he has chosen is the best one for him. There is no chance for him to negotiate the terms if all the employers are offering the terms that are in their favour. An individual looking for an employment, only one choice and that is whether to accept the job on the terms offered or to have no job at all. Beyond that it all goes in the favour of employer. The irony of the fact is that the line between an opportunity to choose ones contract and to negotiates one contract is in favour of the powerful. This shows the liberal idea of freedom of contract is manipulated to the benefit of the dominant class, which swings it back into the domains of 17th century master-servant relationship. This is a relationship of subordinate and the dominant, which has more conservative element than liberal. Open market is an institution, which has an adverse on our lives, we are mostly acting as consumers in one form or another in most of contracts. Liberal tends to view that individuals should be allowed to negotiate their own contracts and law should not interfere with the contracts all. They believe that each individual is formally equal and has the equal opportunity to negotiate the best bargain for himself / herself. However, this is not true, as each of us do not have equal resources and knowledge. This unbalance in power will automatically lead to contracts, which are one-sided; again with the rich and powerful taking advantage of the underprivileged. Looking at the inflation in the market, the graph is positively skewed towards the big multinational companies rather than the individuals. There is a very limited scope for liberalism in the market; it can only give individuals theoretical equality, which is deprived of any factual reality. The liberal surface appearance has an und erlying conservative ideology, which governs the market. Even the common law recognises this underlying conservative ideology. This is evident from the decisions made in cases where the judges have held implied obligations and dismiss exclusion clauses which may be of deficient to a particular party in contract. The legislation also recognises this and has passed Acts and Regulations, which protect consumer rights. UCTA and UTCCR are the two important legal codes, which protect the individuals against the unfair contract terms. This completes forgoes the liberal idea of freedom of contract. thus, rendering another important institution to be illiberal. Education is another hierarchic society which ignores the liberal ideas, the best way to view the hierarchy in the education is to look at the system that operates within the boarding schools. The strong chains of traditions in a school regulate this system, where there is a patriarchal relationship between the students and the academic staff, student and the administration and among the students themselves. In boarding schools, the relationship between teachers and students is based on more authority than in a regular school. This is because if the atmosphere is relaxed the students would loose the respect required for the functioning of the school. The administrative staffs like the housemasters and housemistresses have an enormous amount of power to detain the students, if they are found to be breaking rules. The rules on the whole are a lot stricter than at a normal school. In a boarding school students are refrain from eating chewing gums, from spending excess money, from keepin g more than specified amount of objects on their dressing tables and eating mid-night meals. These rules are usually non-existent on the students living home, because they are not required to maintain the authority if the superiors. The other reason for these rules is to make sure that there is no supremacy between the students of the same standard. This is a development towards a homogenous society, where individuals are put under shadow for the benefit of the society. The extra privileges come from the position one holds in the boarding school. If one is senior student there are extra privileges awarded to him. The rules relaxed as one climbs the stairs of the boarding school hierarchy, and if one ends up in the position of prefect or head students. The privileges awarded are far greater compared to other students. This hierarchic build up in the boarding system is the reflection of a society which awards rights and powers in accordance with the position one holds. This is complete antithesis of the liberal ideas of individual before the society and formal equality. These are all very conservative ideas, which maintain the patriarchal society. This shows that even though most of the institutions which govern are lives appear to be liberal in their view, are extremely conservative. All of them tend to put the good of society before the good of individuals. The liberal ideas of equality and freedom seem very attractive when viewed under the dust of idealism, but when looked through the prism of realities they seem shatter into pieces. All the institutions viewed seem to suggest that liberal ideas cannot exist without the underlying conservative theory.

Reduced Turnaround Time Improved Process â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Disacuss About The Reduced Turnaround Time Improved Process? Answer: Introduction An investor organization recently acquired engineering equipments manufacturing organization called Latino Engineering based in South Whales, Australia. The company had 300 employees and most of them were retained in the company after acquisition. Latino engineering designed developed and manufactured specialized engineering equipments for utilities, infrastructure, construction and Oil gas industries. Problem Description After Latino engineering was acquired by the investor firm, the company stared to face some major issues in the company as complaints of the customers started to increase drastically within 12 months of the deal. The customers who were earlier happy with the services of the organization had started to complain about multiple issues such as poor follow ups, delivery of wrong or defective instruments, long turnaround time, and unresponsive service team. Rationale As consumer complaints increased, the customers of Latino engineering were losing confidence in the organization which further resulted into decrease of orders and thus, a decrease in revenues of the engineering firm. The bottom line and profitability of the company were also declined significantly. With the frequency of complaints received about mentioned issues, the company clearly needs to make improvements in its processing cycle, quality of equipments, information systems, and service deliveries. With appropriate steps taken to enhance the existing system of Latino, the company would be able to resolve the issues that caused complaints to rise. The company has only 3 months to do that. Thus, six sigma principles would be used and a continuous improvement plan would be developed as it would allow company to make significant changes in less time. The company is losing its customers already and if the improvements are not made fast then the company has a risk of losing even more of them soon. This could be very damaging to the reputation of Latino engineering as well as the investor organization. Thus, it is essential to develop and implement a continuous improvement plan in the organization. Objectives Objectives of the continuous improvement include: Improvement in the turnaround time Improvement in the service deliveries and follow ups with customers Reduce the production of defective parts in the manufacturing unit Improve the information systems of the company such that delivery errors can be reduced Timeframes Assuming that the continuous improvement plan would get approved in the first week of Oct 2017, the project would start from 11th Oct 2017 and would be completed in three months by 10th Jan 2018. Action Steps Milestones Root cause analysis 25th Oct 2017 Proposal development 5th Nov 2017 Approval of proposal 6th Nov 2017 Initialization and preparation 26th Nov 2017 Activities planning 1st Dec 2017 Final approval of plan 2nd Dec 2017 Quality improvement 5th Dec 2017 Process cycle improvement 10th Dec 2017 Designing and development process improvement 20th Dec 2017 Service delivery improvement 25th Dec 2017 Improved system testing 5th Jan 2018 Employee feedback 8th Jan 2018 Project Closure 10th Jan 2018 Challenges The challenges that Latino Engineering is currently facing include: Equipment defects: Customers are complaining of receiving defective orders. Defective products can result from faults or defects in designing or manufacturing processes. However, quality issues can still be avoided from reaching the stage of final product delivery if they are detected using appropriate performance benchmarking or testing procedures. However, the company is unable to do that because of which, customers are receiving defective products. This suggests that the company needs to improve upon its quality management and performance management systems such that defect free products can be manufactured. Decline in the efficiencies: The efficiencies of the operations in the company are reducing mainly due to decline in productivity of the staff. The staff is unable to follow up with customers effectively and timely during the designing and development phases which affects the final outcome of production which is often not satisfactory for the customer. Other issues that have resulted from these inefficiencies are wrong or misplaced orders, wrong delivery and bad service (Tech-Clarity, 2012). Turnaround Time: The Company is facing major delays in processing orders because of which employees are unable to respond to the queries of customers on time. The customers are frequently complaining about these delays in serving them. The turnaround time of the company after placement of the order is very long as per customers. The company lacks integration in different processes of the supply chain which is further adding to the turnaround time as the speed of work is dependent on people involved in completion of work. Moreover, the company is using a number of applications from different vendors that cannot exchange information between each other directly because of this lack of integration causing delays in communication and updates. Wrong deliveries to customers: Some customers of the company have received wrong deliveries which reflect upon the challenges of delivery and information processing. The company is thus facing problems in the area of information management which is affecting the deliver services of the company. Continuous Improvement Plan The principles of six sigma are being used for preparing the continuous improvement plan for Latino Engineering which would include the following: Root Cause Analysis The causes behind the problems currently faced by Latino Engineering can be identifies as below: Equipment defects: As per six sigma concepts, a defect can defined as a variation from the expected value of the output that is not acceptable to the user or the customer of the product. TO be able to see the defect, acceptable limits of the product performance must be known. These limits act as measurable benchmarks of performance in the industry. Benchmarking can be used to identify the causes behind equipment defects. These benchmarks are defined by industry experts from the industry (Baudart Corp, 2016). Inaccurate order processing: if the data generated or managed during the order management process is inaccurate then it can lead to deficiencies in deliveries. Some of the factors where problems can be seen include size of consignment, product value, and contractual arrangements. Causes behind these problems can include missing address, order entry errors, order modifications, wrong address entry, and insufficient delivery information received (Jakobsson, 2010). Designing and development issues: The customers of Latino Engineering are complaining about the insufficient follow ups from the staff of the company during the stages of product design and development that is affecting the outcome of the development. There are inefficiencies observed in information management that are making it difficult for the company employees to resolve the customer queries. Common causes of inefficiencies in information management during design and development could be complexities of product management, lack of control over changes, and more(Vaidyanathan, 2012). Turnaround Time: The time taken between the order placement and the delivery is the turnaround time. A list of activities that consume time in the process include: Checking of the availability of stock Designing of unavailable equipments Identification and listing of part requirements Parts procurement Parts delivery Parts assembling Product testing Order dispatch Logistics and Transportation Equipment delivery (Chakraborty, Kumar, Malguri, 2016) Needs Assessment Following improvements are required: Order management: The Company needs to have better control over the order management system such that processing problems like wrong order entries, order duplication and other order processing errors can be eliminated. Turnaround time reduction: As per the complaints from the consumers, the turnaround time is high which is causing concerns in customers. Thus, the company has to work on the process cycle time in a way to reduce the total turnaround time for the customer orders. Service delivery: Service delivery problems can cause problems of delays, delivery errors, and can affect the servicing capability of the company employees. Because of this lack of the staff productivity, customers are getting dissatisfied. In order to solve these service management issues, the company needs to work of the services. Reduction in Defects: Defects are resulted when the product is not fulfilling the quality requirements. The company is not able to ensure that the deigning and manufacturing processes follow the desired quality standards which are why defects are increasing. To make improvement in the situation, it is essential that the company uses a strong quality management practice. Improvement Actions The needs identified in the previous step can be fulfilled using following action steps: Order management process control: To control order management process, organization should use right structure with right people having right skills. Thus, the company needs to modify its structure to enable better control which can be done by centralizing management of resources so that the whole lifecycle of the product can be managed from a single place. With this centralization, multiple processes including product catalogue, product pricing, and information management can be managed from one location. Enhanced operational efficiencies: Order processing cost can be reduced with reduction in quotation errors during the processing of orders. For this, an automation software may be installed in the organization that would allow employees to process orders through the system which would reduce the probability of errors and thus, improve the efficiency of order processing. Improve quality: To enhance the quality of services provided by the company including designing, development and manufacturing, it is essential that the business processes implemented are accurate and consistent with the quality specifications or benchmarks defined by the industry. Thus, a industry trends must be studied with respect to quality of products and systems based on which performance of products may be measured such hat defects can be identified and eli9minated before the final product is delivered to the customer(Capgemini, 2017). Turnaround time reduction: Centralization of processes would also centralize the information sources such that order processing time would reduce as multiple systems would not be required for managing information. Further, with automation of the order processing system using computers would reduce the time taken by the employees on managing processes which would further reduce the turnaround time. An application can be implemented such that it provides automatic task allocation facility upon receiving the order such that the interdepartmental communication time is reduced. The system would automatically check for the availability of the person and would assign the task accordingly and the information about the same would be notified to all the employees allocated work and those managing them through the centralized system. All these measures would reduce the turnaround time significantly (MindTree, 2017). Besides these measures, there can be several other ways that company can use to reduce the order processing cycle time for Latino Engineering such as: The processing of the orders is done in a sequential manner such that one process is followed at one time. However, some of the processes can be actually run simultaneously without the need of waiting for a previous process to complete. If this is done, the waiting time and thus, the processing cycle time would also be reduced. Concurrent engineering methods can help the staff do this. Some of the tasks that can be managed simultaneously include concept development, bill creation, and product designing. With the implementation of concurrent engineering, the process cycle can be reduced up to 80%. Besides concurrent processing, modification in some of the processes can also help reduce the processing cycle time such as document approvals. Instead of taking approvals for every process immediately, the approval process from one department can be clubbed such that all the processes and documents to be approved go one department at one time instead of going to and fro between different departments for approvals. This would reduce the processing time of the order (Bhojni Raj, 2015). When people are working in the organization, they can get interruptions from multiple calls from clients for follow up. Instead of the staff answering their calls, if an IVR system can be implemented, the system can be used for automatic updating of the information to the client such that only when there is some major concern that needs to be discussed with the company staff, the staff would be connected to. This would reduce the e number of calls that would go to the staff directly and thus, will save the order processing time (Andersen, 1999). Implementation Plan For implementation of the continuous improvement plan in Latino engineering using six sigma processes, the time available to the company is only 3 months and thus, a fast and highly organized process that guarantees effective implementation is required. For this, the company can take Awareness-Motivation-Competency-Implementation approach in which implementation would take four steps including: Awareness: Before the actual implementation of the continuous improvement plan, it is essential that the employees of the company are well informed about the expected changes in the system so that they would know how the changes in the processes would affect their work. Thus, the first step to this development would be creation of awareness about the adoption of six sigma and continuous improvement processes in employees of Latino Engineering. Some methods of awareness creation can be used by Latino Engineering such as poster campaign on expected results, informative newsletters, suggestion boxes, posting of benchmark results in the industry, motivational screen savers on systems and more. Motivation: Once the staff is well informed, it also has to be motivated so that an acceptance is there for the new methods which would encourage the employees to learn and use new practices adopted by the organization. The role of senior management would be critical at this stage as they would need to keep their juniors motivated towards achievements which can be done by providing them rewards and recognition. The company needs a cultural transformation to be able to adopt the six sigma practices and thus, it is essential that all the employees are motivated towards adopting the change as the change would demand significant work from them. Competency development: , At this stage, the employees of Latino Engineering would be trained on the use and applications of six sigma practices as it would necessary to develop their competencies for managing the improvement processes. Developing competencies is necessary because of the employees are not competent enough then it can lead to failure of the improvement plan. The organization can use trainings for enhancing the competencies of people. Training would build a strong foundation for the development as the employees would be able to learn about six sigma practices as well as acquire skills. Certifications on six sigma can also be provided to a selected staff to give them extensive practical knowledge. Regular training involving all the staff members can include topics like waste elimination, lean principles, DMAIC, defect identification, quality management, lean design, and productive maintenance. Implementation: Once the staff is both motivated and equipped to handle required improvement tasks and processes, the actual implementation of the six sigma methods would take place through the execution of the planned activities. However, before this can happen, a suitable environment has to be created for adoption for which, data would be collected from the system and it would be analyzed using software tools for suggesting how improvement practices can be implemented. The tools can also be used for tracking project activities, managing training and triggering the processes for improvement. A continuous morning and reviewing of the improvement activities would help the company ensure that the plan is implemented effectively and is giving expected results (Sarma, 2017) Communication Plan Six sigma knowledge-base provides a variety of ways communication can be managed between the staff and the stakeholders for different purposes. Some of these methods can be used by Latino engineering such as: Meetings for regular discussions and decision making Town hall gatherings for announcements Memos to employees for information Presentations for training and guidance Minutes recording for updates QA sessions for training and problem resolution Intranet posts for informing Manuals for training Emails for regular communication Phone calls for emergencies for informing Milestone events for giving recognition and motivation Survey for getting feedback Suggestion boxes for improvement Brown bag lunches for team management Based on the needs of stakeholder groups, appropriate method of communication can be used. Conclusions This report was prepared to suggest a continuous improvement plan for the Latino Engineering which is facing major complaints from customers who are upset about the order processing errors, processing time delays, product and service quality. The report explored the root causes of the problems identified and it was found that the company needed to improve upon its order processing system, information management system, and quality management practices. For this, a continuous improvement plan based on six sigma principles was recommended. Some improvement steps were suggested including implementation of concurrent engineering, modification of process sequences, installation of order processing software, and more. These changes are expected to reduce the process turnaround time, enhance service delivery capabilities and reduce product defects. References Andersen, B. (1999). Process Cycle Time Reduction. ASQ. Baudart, F., Corp, F. (2016). Figures dont lie: Be honest about your OEE score. CFE Media. Bhojni, S., Raj, M. (2015). Perspective: The New Order in Order Management. Infosys Limited. Capgemini. (2017). Streamlining the Order-to-Cash process. Capgemini. Chakraborty, S., Kumar, B., Malguri, A. (2016). Reducing the Truck Turnaround Time inside a Heavy Manufacturing Industry through Makigami Analysis. International Journal of Advanced Information Science and Technology (IJAIST), 39-45. Jakobsson, L. (2010). The Impacts of Incorrect Sales Orders on the Purchase Order Processing, Continuous Improvement of the Purchase Process. HELSINKI SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS. MindTree. (2017). Reduced turnaround time and improved process efficiency for an insurance provider. Mindtree. Sarma, A. D. (2017). Follow a Structured Approach to Continuous Improvement. iSixSigma . Tech-Clarity. (2012). Tech-Clarity Perspective:Best Practices for Developing Industrial Equipment . Tech-Clarity, Inc. . Vaidyanathan, R. (2012). Design to Deliver: A Game Changer for the Discrete Manufacturing Industry. Genpact.