Harvey Industries is an organization which has appeared in a complicated position. The work of the inventory control system can be easily improved if to check the marketing principles and apply those to the manufacturing system. Analyzing the work organization at Harvey Industries, many aspects are going to be considered and the pieces of advice are going to be offered to improve the work and make the company profitable and flourishing.
Company structure and it appropriateness is one of the main principles of management. The distribution of the roles in the company is not clearly stated. Having a hierarchical system of relationships in the Harvey Industries, everybody strictly knows who he/she is subordinate to. Still, the responsibilities of each employee are not really defined.
According to the situation in the organization, “the current inventory control ‘system’ consists of orders for stock replenishment being made by the stockroom foreman, the purchasing manager, or the manufacturing manager whenever one of them notices that the inventory is low” (Stevenson, 2009, p. 602).
Each of the mentioned employees can notice the problem and report about it, but there is no a person who is responsible for this task. Strict distinguishing of the responsibilities is an opportunity to make all people do their business and increase the productivity of each department and the whole company in general.
Planning is important, but Harvey Industries fails to implement strong planning system in the working process. Planning is an inevitable part of logistics. Perfectly organized logistics and planning can reduce the problem of lack of the required items. According to the information we have, “if the assembly department needs items that are not stocked on the assembly floor, someone from that department will enter the stockroom and withdraw the necessary material” (Stevenson, 2009, p. 602).
As a result, the manufacturing process is paused. To eliminate this problem, some logistics and supply chain management principles should be applied. There is no need to increase the amount of paper work. All the orders and needs in the items can be delivered via IT systems which should connect all the departments to increase the time for placing orders.
It has been reported about the problems with low-value items, like bolts, screws, etc. The very idea to call them low-valued says about the relation to them. But, the absence of those items can lead to the pausing of the whole manufacturing process. Absence of appropriate logistics and planning is the main reason for the problem.
Coordination and decision making should be provided not only by the President or managers separately. Being responsible to the President, Sales manager, Manufacturing manager, controller and purchasing managers should report to each other to improve the information exchange among departments and influence the communication among them.
According to the existing hierarchy, Assembly foreman, Stockroom foreman and Quality engineer are accountable to manufacturing, but the Controller should also be aware of the done work. So, it is important to change the subordination to improve the information exchange and the work in the organization.
Thus, it is possible to conclude that the change of the management principles, like planning, company structure, logistics and supply chain management, coordination and decision making can improve the working process at Harvey Industries, its productivity and help it recover from present financial crisis.
Reference List
Stevenson, W.J. (2009). Operations management. New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.