Perkins customers are other companies like Rover, JCB, McOrmic and Cattapillar. Cattapillar may own Perkins but Perkins manufactures engines for them.
Perkins main competition are world wide companies like Cummins, Deutz, Volvo Penta, IVECO, Sisu Diesel.
Perkins has experienced changes in recent years. Perkins now sell more engines than ever before this is so they can make more of a profit and to keep one step ahead of the competition (these are the engines they make;)
Business activity for Morrisons
Morrisons operates in the tertiary sector we know this because they sell their stock to the general public. The shareholders for Morrisons are the general public.
Morrisons main customers are the localised public.
The main competition for Morrisons are; Tesco who are the largest supermarket in the top 4, ASDA who are number 2 in the top 4, and Sainsbury’s who are number 3 in the top 4.
Comparison for business activity
(A2)
The similarities of the business activities between Morrisons and Perkins are they have both grown in recent years by getting many more customers and competition has weakened. Each company has a wider range of products for example Morrisons sell non-food items like clothes, electronic products and kitchen items. Perkins now sell a range of power engines.
The differences are that they operate in different sectors and they sell to different kinds of customers, Morrisons sells to the general public and Perkins sells to other companies. As each company sells different kinds of products they get different kinds of customers.
Business ownership (A1)
Business ownership for Perkins;
Perkins is a private limited company this means that they invite people to buy their shares from their company and they do not sell to the general public.
The parent company of Perkins is Cattapillar who are also a customer of Perkins. Cattapillar is a public limited company.
Perkins limited liability this means that if your company gets bankrupt you only pay back what you have lost, unlike unlimited liability where you can loose everything.
Morrisons business ownership.
Morrisons is a public limited company this means that they sell shares to the general public. Even though it is plc it is in the private sector because it tries to make a profit unlike in the public sector which is there to provide a service.
Morrisons is now the parent company of Safeway because they bought them for £3,000,000,000.
Business ownership comparison(A2).
One difference of the two companies is that Perkins has a parent company (Cattapillar) and Morrisons is a parent company (of Safeway).
A similarity of the two companies is that they both have Annual General Meetings (AGMs), at an AGM shareholders come together and vote for new director and represent their interests for the company.
Companies have ton register with the registrar of companies, this is at the companies house, you must fill out a number of documents including;
- A memorandum of association, which gives details about the company including name, address, activity and shares of the company.
- Articles of association giving details of the voting rights of shareholders, how profits will be shared and what the directors will do.
After this a certificate of incorporation will then be given to the company so that they can start trading.
Business location(A1)
(A1) location-Perkins
Perkins main headquarters address is;
Perkins Engines Company Limited
Frank Perkins Way
Peterborough, PE1 5NA
United Kingdom.
Frank Perkins chose to locate his business here because he has a history here so he wanted to make Peterborough known for something good. He also placed it here because Peterborough has a skilled engineering workforce because it has a lot of good schools like, Kings. Perkins is also located on the A47 which is a major transport link to airports like Stansted to fly parts and engines in/out of the United Kingdom
(A1) location-Morrisons
The Morrisons in Peterborough’s main address is;
Lincoln Road
Peterborough
PE4 6WS
Here is a map of the location of the Morrisons store in Peterborough
Morrisons is located here because it was previously a Safeway store site Safeway located here because it was close to localised customers and because it is in a residential area they can train some semi-skilled workers from the area.
Morrisons is located near one main road that links to the A1 (a major transport link to many places)
(B1) Functional areas of Perkins
Some of the functional areas of Perkins are; Operations, Finance and marketing. The operations department deals with the manufacturing of products.
This chart shows all of the different departments for Perkins
The operations department contains; raw materials, components, buildings, machinery, tools, equipment and people (these are called INPUTS) to make the products (OUTPUTS). The process of this is called “Production”. In the case of Perkins: Engines.
Perkins uses TQM (Total Quality Management): This is used to focus attention to deliver high quality products and services, this means that all employees must take responsibility for the quality of their work. Employees must have training and commitment from everyone involved
Perkins uses Just-In-Time for stock control: this means that stock must arrive just before they are needed. This method cuts costs but this means that Perkins has to rely on their suppliers to deliver stocks quickly and regularly
The Finance department handles the money needed to run the business on a day to day basis. In the case of Perkins, the department monitors department budgets and handles the financial accounts (e.g. balance sheet, profit and loss, break-even charts).
The finance department manages financial documents. For example, when Perkins buys goods from its suppliers they use many different documents including; order forms, delivery note, goods received notes, invoices, credit notes, statements, remittance advice slips, and receipts. These documents are also used as proof of purchase.
The order form is used by the buyer (Perkins or a company buying from Perkins) to place an order for certain goods they might need.
The delivery note is sent with the goods to tell the buyer what is in the container and if the delivery note says that the wrong goods are in the container the buyer can send it back and get a credit note for money off
The marketing department is mostly concerned about customer needs. They must, find out what customers want in products, sell products in the right places, create various advertisements so the customers know that the products is available. In the case of Perkins, engines.
Web sites are used as part of advertising and telling others around the world how the company works. Perkins do so well in their trade partly because they have a very strong website containing all information about how they engines work and various other subjects.
Generally engines are a very hard product to sell so Perkins get representatives to go overseas to international trade fairs. The representative has a table in a hall and they have to try to sell products to other companies.
Perkins must use market research to find out the types of engines that are most popular then Perkins can improve the engine further and sell it for more than the other so therefore making more profit.
Communication.
C1
ICT Methods
CAD (computer animated design) is used in Perkins to design engines and show the customers what the finished product will look like
E-mail is used in Perkins as a fast and detailed way to communicate to communicate between departments of the business and a way to send documents from one place to another quickly by attaching them to an E-mail.
ICT robots are used as an easy way to build the engines because all they needed to do was to install some software and programme them for what they are needed to do.
Written methods
Financial documents are used as communication to customers and to confirm that their order has been received. There are a variety of financial documents starting with the Order form then going to the delivery note followed by the credit (if needed) ect.
Letters are also used as communication to customers, suppliers and other Perkins factories.
Oral
Department meetings are used in Perkins because it is a way for the heads of each of the departments to say what is happening in their department and also to assign jobs to each department and to show others designs for their newest engines. These meetings are time consuming and they might also cause conflict between colleagues sharing their opinions about what is happening in the business. These meetings are held once a week in Perkins and they are attended heads of all functional areas or the head of one department and their employees.
Production meetings are used to share ideas about what the next engine will be like. These meetings are also time consuming and can be disrupted easily by lateness.
C2
Communication inside functional areas
Email is used inside the functional areas to send information to other employees this is good because it keeps the employees up to date with what is happening within the department, it is also a fast way of communicating and you can also attach documents. Email can also be bad because employees might send the wrong information or they might send it to the wrong employee.
Department meeting are useful inside Perkins no matter if it is a meeting with all the department heads or just the one head of that specific department (this is the one I shall talk about in this paragraph) this is a good method of communication because it means that all employees shall know what their newest assignment but these meetings can also be bad because they are easily disrupted by people being late and these meeting can also cause conflict between workers and compromise the amount of engines made, if some employees are not getting along it will bring down worker morale.
Fax is used inside functional area to send important documents around the functional area of the business. This is good because it is like a photo copier and a telephone because employees can send other employees documents and still have the original copy.
Between functional areas
Fax is used between functional areas in the same way as they use it inside the functional area of the business.
Intranet is used between functional areas because it is like a closed circuit internet just for Perkins. It is used to give employees a basic idea of what they may need to do. This is made by the Administration department to let employees know what customers they are providing for and what types of engines they would like.
Email is used between functional areas because they can send documents of what the customer wants and how they want it made. This is used by employees to send each other information quickly and neatly.
Communication with people outside the business
The telephone is used to contact people outside Perkins. This can be used to contact people who work for Perkins or customers of Perkins (Perkins generally does not phone customers but they use letters and financial documents)
Telephone conferencing is used to have three or more way conversations for people who work at home for Perkins this is useful because they don’t have to keep putting people on hold. Telephone conferencing can also be bad because employees may not be able to understand others if they are from other countries. This can also be used to communicate with rich customers.
Letters are used to communicate with customers to see what they want and if they are still loyal to Perkins. They are also used to communicate to shareholders so they can have the information about how the business is running.
External influences
D1 Identifying External Influences
External influences = Things that the business has little or no control over.
Competition = Rivals that sell similar/same products to compete in the same market.
Economic conditions = Things that the business would have to pay for (different kinds of business would have to pay for different things) e.g. exchange rates £1 - $2.
Environmental constraints = All businesses have to obey these laws so they don’t over pollute the environment or make people’s lives, who live near the factories, suffer because of all the fumes.
Exchange rates = When a UK business sells overseas they will need to change their money to match the currency of that of the other business. All businesses that sell overseas will have to pay to get their money exchanged.
Interest = To start or expand a business you will most likely need a loan to do this. The interest rates affect how much it costs to borrow money from the bank and then pay the money back over time. When these rates rise it means that the business borrowing the money would have to pay more to borrow that money. The problem for most businesses is that they do not know when these rates are going to change and they can not control them.
D2 Impact of Change Morrisons
When something changes in the market that Morrisons belongs to there is always an impact on each of the businesses, you could call it a ripple effect.
E.g. Change; There is a new entrant into the market
Impact; Sales start to fall because customers may go to this new place and so to counter this, Morrisons will have to start dropping prices or finding new products to sell.
Change; Competition starts to sell new products
Impact; Morrisons would start to loose customers to this business selling the new product, to counter this Morrisons would have to try to get a hold on this new product, a similar product or a better product to try to draw their customers back
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Change; Interest rates rise
Impact; Customers with loans do not buy as many Morrisons products because they do not have enough money, this causes profits to decline, this then causes customers to shop elsewhere because Morrisons have a less disposable income and would have to start to dropping products because they are either not being sold or they do not have enough money to keep them.
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Change; Taxes on fuel rise
Impact; This starts to eat into their profits because it costs money for the fuel they use to transport their goods from the factories to the warehouses
D2 Impact of change (Perkins)
Change; Exchange rates rise.
Impact; This eats into their profits because it would cost more money to change their money from one currency to the currency of the other company.
Change; Volvo Penta release a new and better product
Impact; Perkins would be forced to release a similar new product and if they didn’t they could loose some of their current customers to Volvo Penta.
Change; The Government increase landfill taxes
Impact; Because this payment rises it means that Perkins would not be able to keep all of their profits as they would have to pay some of the profits to the government.
