managment functions

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Geoffrey Wilson

(13505606)

Management Studies Assignment 1

a) List the four functions of management and explain how you think each would relate to the role of a production manager in an engineering company?

The four functions of management are planning, organizing and staffing, leading and controlling.

Planning

The first function of a manager is to plan all his actions before fulfilling them. A production manager in an engineering company must always be planning ahead and looking to the future of the company. The production manager should be watching the amount of stock the company has in relation to the amount of work that is ahead of him. A good manager will also be setting goals for himself and planning ways to meet them. A production manager in an engineering company might set a goal for himself like getting two new orders a week. A manager will need to be able to make decisions as well and a good manager will have these planned out. A production manager might have to decide weather to buy a new machine and plan to see if it would be cost effective.

Organizing and staffing

The second function of a manager is to keep the business organized and fully staffed. In an engineering company a production manager must have the place organized so that the staff has the necessary equipment available to achieve the goals set. The production manager must also organize the jobs for the staff and the order they do them in.

A manager must also have the ability to hire staff. If he doesn’t he won’t have the necessary human resources to carry out the workload. In an engineering company the manager must be able to have the skills to pick staff with all the necessary attributes to work there.

Leading

The third function of a manager is to lead the rest of the workforce. This means the manager must influence others to achieve organized objectives. As a result it involves energising, directing, persuading others and creating a vision. To be a good leader you must have good interpersonal skills some of these would be motivating, communicating, coaching and helping team members achieve their goals. A production manager in an engineering company would have to motivate his staff this could be done by setting incentives for the staff. A manager that is good at motivating staff will be good at leading a more productive workforce. This management function is about inspiring people and using all your management skills to inspire the workforce, a good way of doing this is to let the staff lead by example. A production manager in an engineering company should be able to get down and do the small jobs that the ordinary worker has to do, this is a good method of inspiring people. This function is about team building as well and this could be achieved by having fun days at work which will increase team morale. As the manager in an engineering company you should offer your staff with a clean and save work environment this will increase the group morale, this is all part of leading a healthy and happy workforce.

Controlling

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Controlling

The third function of a manager is to control the company. An older manager would have a very different approach to this function. For example an older manager would make all the decisions himself were as the younger manager will invite others to join in decision making. A production manager in an engineering company might have to decide weather to take on a big order at late notice the older manager would take on the order and demand long hours to get the job done were as the younger manager will consult the staff to see if they thing they are capable of meeting the target before making the decision of accepting the job. The controlling function also involves going back and fine tuning the original plan. An example of this in an engineering company would be if the company planed to make an extension to the building because of an increased workload but after revising the figures realised that there was a cheaper way of handling the workload than building a new building.

b) Suggest what key performance indicators could be used to measure the performance of the production department and how performance might be improved?

Key Performance Indicators, which are also known as Key Success Indicators, do not give answers, instead they raise questions and direct attention to certain situations and help a company define and measure progress toward organizational goals.

When a company has recognized its goals it must find a way of measuring progress toward these goals and improving manufacturing performance. Key performance indicators are those measurements.

Most company’s analysis themselves, this is usually based on historical information but Key Performance Indicators should be based on real time data that should be used to support decisions that develop manufacturing performance. In order to get constructive change the Key Performance Indicators require careful planning and completion. As with many of the managerial issues, acceptance of Key Performance Indicators and how they will be used to improve performance can be criticized. To effectively influence performance improvements based on Key Performance Indicators there are three main points to follow:

• Measurability
• Team acceptance
• Performance to managerial goals

Measurability

The Key Performance Indicator must be measurable. The outlook of the measurement must be documented and accepted before the procedure begins. Explaining fully to your team and making sure they fully understand exactly what is to be measured will help in the excavation of the measurement. Setting goals and desires are fine however sometimes they can be too vague but Key Performance Indicators are always very clear and unmistakable.

Team acceptance

Team buy in is often the difference between success and failure of many manufacturing projects. In regards to Key Performance Indicators it is critical of this strategy. Key Performance Indicators are usually the main source of information concerning the performance of a procedure that is being observed. In order to effectively use the information everybody concerned needs to know why the indicator was selected and how it represents the underlying situation and given that the figures will be used as an indicator of process performance, it is compulsory that the whole team use it in the same way.

Performance to managerial goals

Company goals and inventiveness are at the heart of Key Performance Indicator. Through determining a way to measure the success of a plan companies are able to keep an eye on change. When action is required, Key Performance Indicators will provide advance warning. Successful Key Performance Indicators completion means limiting exposed performance information to only key indicators. Often there may be a need to measure the whole procedure. While this is explicable, the difference between KPI and other metrics must be understood and imposed.

In a production department an example of a Key Performance Indicator used might be to cut complaints. The first thing the company must do is confirm what constitutes a complaint and what form this might take. Then the company must decide how to measure your Key Performance Indicators. You should set review dates and compare them against previous figures, your business plan, budget or other agreed standard. If you spot a difference or problem, your departmental Key Performance Indicators will help you backtrack and pinpoint the cause. In this example you would compare complaints each month and see if there are any trends. For example there might have been a member of staff off for a few weeks’ holidays in the month of June and that month might have received very little complaints. This shows that a member of staff work might not be up to standard and should be monitored to see if this is the case. If this appears to be the case then that member of staff could be sent on a training course, this is automatically going to help the quality of the product produced.

Whatever Key Performance Indicators are selected, they must reflect the company’s goals, they must be key to its success, and they must be measurable. If the production department’s goals change then the Key Performance Indicators must change as well. For example the department might have to raise the workload and this is obviously going to leave it possible for the department to receive more complaints. The department should set targets within there Key Performance Indicators, this should be done by involving the staff in the setting of these targets. A production department could set a target like 10 percent decrease in customer complaints. This is easy to measure and will be something that is going to improve the performance of the company if it can be brought down by 10 percent each month. Keep your staff up to date with the figures of the Key Performance Indicators. This will encourage them to meet the targets set. Once your department reaches there target you should encourage your staff as this will increase morale among the workforce and will help you maintain the Key Performance Indicators set. Staff should also be rewarded for there contribution in setting and meeting the targets because the management could not have met them on there own. The performance will obviously be improved using Key Performance Indicators because you are involving the whole workforce to join in on the decision making and the laboring. In the example I used the department is trying to reduce customer complaints so if that is achieved then you must be doing something right. The production department could set a lot more Key Performance Indicators like producing more items per week this will definitely increase the department’s productivity.

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