ZBZ Company: Managing Activities Report

The presented study is divided into two parts. The 1^st part focuses on a hardware & software company named ZBZ’s new goal based on consumer viewpoint regarding some specific criteria of organizational design, strategic planning, quality management, future prospect etc. The 2^nd part is representing a Gantt chart of a specific projects working schedule.

Executive Summary for First Part

Here is presented a problem arises from operational activities of ZBZ where their revenue has decreased & as a solution they have focused on broadcasting medias by offering much customized service. Thus to perform such task, management becomes responsible to formulate existing areas of organizational structure, planning & operations, health & safety issues & the overall future developments for the firm.

Introduction

Before going forth the details of several aspects of ZBZ Computing System, we should have a focus on its base condition. ZBZ is a manufacturer of computer hardware & storage systems that also posses a short range software division. Because of a sudden fall of their market share, ZBZ conducted a primary research & found that the company can earn customized revenue from service revenue rather than direct sales of their product.

Thus, the sectors of customer aspect, response of market & collaboration of cross-function are essential elements which are not fitted to the current culture of ZBZ. Thus, the adoption problem by the people of the company, essentiality of a division manager arises who will introduce a successful entry of media industry through an accessible solution. In this regard, the main task will be concerned with a deep interaction of customer through the entire service work relating organizational structure, planning, quality management, safety, future prospect etc.

The areas for which a division manager is concerned for are-

Section 1: Organizational Structure

Organizational structure or design is popularly known as a hierarchical idea of co-ordination of parties that make a collaboration & contribution for delivering a common goal. As ZBZ has a number of entities, this structure should be made up depending on the different styles, objectives & affordability of workload on them.

As the company’s newer vision is likely to go on a customer focus of minimizing broadcasting gap, the main task will engage in developing a new mission regarding the overall objectives according to the new motive of regaining of market share.

ZBZ has recently discovered the necessity of customer orientation towards the profit motive with their existing hardware & a few new software systems. As the company’s motive is not to behave traditionally like other companies in the same industry, their mission should support the entire prospect. For this, at first ZBZ should understand the environmental context. The mission outlines the organizational purpose, premises, values & directions.

So, the probable mission statement would be- “Require Us, Gain First” which may focus the company’s intention to serve the customer through the differentiation as the traditional hardware & software industry is not mostly oriented by this view. This mission of the company is accompanied by the purpose, premises, values & direction along with strategic, tactical, operational goals & plan. Such as-

This graph shows the accomplishment of mission to the purpose of the company to regain a maximum profit with distinct values & direction of management for the proper utilization of workforce that is directly related to the different levels of goals & plans.

• Thus, ZBZ’s new task to develop its mission strategy will involve-
  • Co-ordination of employees.
  • Synergies of existing departments.
  • Innovation & activation of newer services.
  • Overall customer service.
  • Major focus on wide expansion of products.

Thus, before choosing any specific organizational design for ZBZ, there are some specific assumptions on which the proposed structure will be based-

• Core Technology: – Technology consists of the conversion processes used to transform inputs (such as materials or information) into outputs (products). ZBZ uses multiple technologies.
• Environment: – One important environmental dimension integration that is the degree to which the various subunits must work together in a coordinated fashion.
• Organizational Size: – The size of the organization is another factor that affects its design. It is referred as the total number of full-time or full-time equivalent employees.

On the basis of those influencers, the suggested organizational structure for ZBZ is Functional (U-Form) Design which is discussed below-

The functional design is an arranged based on the functional approach to departmentalization. Under the U form arrangement, the members & units of the company should be grouped into functional departments such as marketing & production.

For the organization to operate efficiently in this design there must be considerable co ordinations across departments. This integration & co-ordination are most commonly the responsibility of the CEO & the members of senior management.

This chart is applied for ZBZ as it is a medium-size manufacturing company. In the U-form organization none of the functional areas can survive without the others. Here, marketing needs product from manufacturing to sell & funds from finance to pay for advertising. This approach allows the organization to staff all important positions with functional experts & facilitates integration & co-ordination. On the other hand, it also promotes a functional, rather than organizational focus.

Section 2: Planning of Work Activities

Based on market response, customer satisfaction & loyalty viewpoint, broadcasting or media coverage may act as an important catalyst of ZBZ.

• Broadcasting may be successful to identify the needs of the customer as media affords a high public acceptance & believability in both local & international market. Several Medias occupy mass-market coverage, audience selectivity & interactive capacity by which it is possible for them to convince people about the differentiation & modified service provided by ZBZ.
• For offering a project plan to ZBZ for the accomplishment of new goal, some responsible parties are mentioned as following-
  • Planning Staff.
  • Planning Task Force.
  • Line Management etc.

Considering such important influencers of a planning module, the specific plan for the required period would be as following-

Here, a tactical planning would be applicable in which the strategy focuses on resource, environment, mission & primarily people & action. First, management needs to address the tactical goal derived from the broader strategic goal. Here, it implies development & testing of the product through the service of customization. The next dependent factors are specified resources & time frame. Thus, ZBZ may make an investment mostly in not only North America & Asia Pacific but also other areas of its target market.

Finally, the company must use its human resources. Since it has 500 employees, management needs a greater involvement with its HR, identify the reasons of reluctance of their interaction, motivate them accordingly & essentially modify the policies & procedures that are assumed as obstacles for achieving the goal to reach the customers.

KYB installation would possibly do this task more perfectly as the media coverage posses a number of advantages for public administration. Introduction of large investment, technologies, product development & human resource accomplishment may fulfill KYB’s each & every requirements within the limited time period.

Section 3: Management of work activities

Knowing the complex characteristics of KYB as a traditional customer in the industry of broadcasting, ZBZ should execute its tactical plan more carefully as regardless of how well a plan is formulated, its ultimate success depends on the way it is carried out. Thus, this management will depend upon the astute use of resources, effective decision making, & insightful steps to ensure that the right things are done in the right ways.

Here, the management must focus on quality control of product as the customer is very much quality sensitive. It should monitor whether the product is producing, developing or installing according to the requirements, then it should be made sure that each decision maker has the information & resources necessary to get the job done. Vertical & horizontal communication & integration of activities must be present.

As the contact also reveals the requirement of the customization of the service work to be done at the operational headquarters of KYB, it would be probably complex of ZBZ as the company has a shortage of experience & resources. But if it performs the customer service well by the proper implementation of existing resource co-ordination, quality control, innovative approach & overall installment of modern software, it would be possible for the company to gain the attention of customers.

Section 4: Quality Management

Quality is one of the major determinants of business success today & is central issues in managing organization. Quality has several different attributes. Thus, it is the totality of features & characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. So, quality management is a procedure of ensuring each of the activity essential for designing, developing & implementing a product as well as service are effective regarding to that system & its performance.

Like other companies, quality management of ZBZ also comprises of three major elements:

• Quality control
• Quality assurance
• Quality improvement

Quality management of ZBZ not only focuses quality of its hardware & software tools but also the procedure of achieving or modifying those.

The company can use assurance & improvement for the stable account of higher quality. As KYB broadcasting is very much conscious about quality of product, the research team must conduct the task of quality development very cautiously. Regarding the concept solution, broadcasting companies are the widest ground for gaining revenue.

Once ZBZ makes a decision to enhance the quality of its products, it must then decide how to implement this decision. The most pervasive approach to managing quality has been called Total Quality Management (TQM)- a real & meaningful effort by the organization to change the whole approach to business in order to make quality a guiding factor in everything the organization does. The major ingredients of TQM are-

• Work teams are common vehicles for employee involvement.
• By the use of automation & robots, ZBZ can make products with higher precision & better consistency than people.
• Availability of materials can also pose to convert a higher quality.
• Improved methods can improve product quality of the company.

Beyond the strategic context of quality, managers can also rely on several specific tools & techniques for improving software that can be used during the actual transformation process. The most appropriate method for ZBZ would be-

• Value-Added Analysis: – It is the comprehensive evaluation of all work activities, material flows & paperwork to determine the value that they add for customers. Such an analysis often reveals wasteful or unnecessary activities that can be eliminated without jeoperdising customer service. For example, ZBZ might determine that its contacts were unnecessarily long, confusing & hard to understand. Thus, it can adopt this procedure regarding quality.
• Statistical Quality Control: – It is a set of specific statistical techniques that can be use to monitor quality. Acceptance sampling is important for product testing.

Section 5: Health & Safety

According to the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970 (OSHA), employers who do not maintain safety & health right of workers, will be punished. It directly mandates the provision of safe working conditions. It requires that employers-

• Provide a place of employment that is free from hazards that may cause death or serious physical harm.
• Obey the safety & health standards established by the labor union.

As ZBZ’s one worker is not satisfied with the current working hour & environment as he has to work more than the usual working hour for which he is suffering from a severe pain in his neck & hand, the company must take necessary steps to ensure some measures that would be better for the staff. Such as,

Compensation- which is the state-administrated & employee funded programs should be designed to provide financial & medical assistance to employees hearted on job. Thus the goal of this compensation will be-

• Providing prompt, sure, & reasonable medical care to victims & income to both victims & their dependents.
• Providing a “no fault” system in which the suffered employee can get quick relief.
• Promoting research on workplace safety.
• The company must contact the OSHA consultant to get things started.

Additionally, for employee welfare, management can reschedule working hour considering leisure, rest & other mental satisfaction.

Section 6: Future Improvements

The future improvement of a can be predicted by analyzing of forecasting current sales volume, cost & overall profit. Thus, after implementing a strategic plan, it is essential to monitor the improvement of work by gathering information from those who actually performed the operational task.

One of the popular measurements for estimating future improvement is forecasting, which is the process of developing assumptions or premises about the future. Here, some related issues are-

• By sales forecasting ZBZ can predict future sales & thus idealize the degree of improvement. Because monetary resources are necessary to finance both current & future operations which is essential for all types of businesses. Revenue forecasting is another term by which the future revenues from all potential sources are measured.
• By technological forecasting the company can estimate what future technologies would likely be emerged & the economic feasibility. Here, ZBZ’s main concern should be the modified software in which it had engaged the updated technological advancement.
• Besides, the company can forecast future improvement of human resource, raw materials & other resources.

Additionally, the company can use a normative procedure of identifying future improvements named break-even analysis. It is a procedure of identifying the point at which revenues start covering their associated costs. It might be used to analyze the effect on profits of output combinations or various levels of outputs against the inputs.

As the initial employee synergetic condition of the company was not very developed, after the implementation of new plan, ensuring safe environmental context & motivating tools, it can also be monitored about the employee development.

Gantt chart

Gantt chart is popularly known as a bar chart which describes a project schedule. It commonly presents the beginning & ending dates of the finishing & zest elements of that project. Finishing & zest elements form the breakdown structure of the indicated project. Critical dependencies include network of precedence that shows the relationship among several activities. Thus, ZBZ can use the Gantt chart for showing the current schedule by using percentage to complete shades of data.

While using this chart, the company should have knowledge about a number of benefits & limitations. The major advantage of Gantt chart lies whether the company is trying to represent a project schedule in WBS (Work Breakdown Structure). By using this chart, audience can realize the task easily.

The major problem lies in the use of Gantt chart for those who equalize the design of this chart with normal project design while they want to indicate WBS by indicating schedule activities at the same time. For that, a full maintenance of task becomes impossible. Another problem states that this chart may visualize more complexity of a project which also affects project effectiveness. Additionally, sometimes a Gantt chart also misrepresents the working schedule.

However, in case of ZBZ Company, the use of Gantt chart is logical because it is suitable to represent this chart for small projects which adopts on a single screen. To prepare Gantt chart, we need to use Microsoft excel. Here, the company needs to prepare such chart for the project where the customer group is KYB broadcasting. The task involves a deadline of 6 months. The chart is as-

The Gantt chart has been prepared on the basis of some assumed data is will be presented in Appendix A. Here, the project requires seven activities to be done & those activities are titled as idea generation, initial research conducting, product development, product testing, product installation, product customization & planning for future execution. The entire task would start at January 1, 2008 & end between June 14, 2008 under the required 6 months or 180 days according to the customers’ requirement.

Bibliography

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Kotler, P., Armstrong, G. (2006), Principles of Marketing, 11^th Edition, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi, ISBN: 81-203-2825-6.

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Appendix A