1.2 _ Basic functions of management
Management operates through various functions, often classified as planning, organizing, leading/motivating and controlling.Planning: deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week, next month, next year, over the next 5 years, etc.) and generating for action. Organizing: making optimum use of the resources required to enable the successful carrying out of plans. Leading/Motivating: exhibiting skills in these areas for getting others to play an effective part in achieving plans. Controlling: monitoring -- checking progress against plans, which may need modification based on feedback.
Formation of the business policy:
The mission of the business is its most obvious purpose -- which may be, for example, to make biscuits. The vision of the business reflects its aspirations and specifies its intended direction or future destination. The objectives of the business refers to the ends or activity at which a certain task is aimed. The business's policy is a guide that stipulates rules, regulations and objectives, and may be used in the managers' decision-making. It must be flexible and easily interpreted and understood by all employees.
The business's strategy refers to the coordinated plan of action that it is going to take, as well as the resources that it will use, to realize its vision and long-term objectives. It is a guideline to managers, stipulating how they ought to allocate and utilize the factors of production to the business's advantage. Initially, it could help the managers decide on what type of business they want to form.
All policies and strategies must be discussed with all managerial personnel and staff. Managers must understand where and how they can implement their policies and strategies. A plan of action must be devised for each department. Policies and strategies must be reviewed regularly. Contingency plans must be devised in case the environment changes. Assessments of progress ought to be carried out regularly by top-level managers. A good environment is required within the business.
The development of policies and strategies
The missions, objectives, strengths and weaknesses of each department must be analysed to determine their roles in achieving the business's mission. The forecasting method develops a reliable picture of the business's future environment. A planning unit must be created to ensure that all plans are consistent and that policies and strategies are aimed at achieving the same mission and objectives. Contingency plans must be developed, just in case. All policies must be discussed with all managerial personnel and staff that is required in the execution of any departmental policy. Where policies and strategies fit into the planning process, they give mid- and lower-level managers a good idea of the future plans for each department. A framework is created whereby plans and decisions are made. Mid- and lower-level management may add their own plans to the business's strategic ones.
1.3 Managerial levels and hierarchy
The management of a large organization may have three levels:
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(or "top management" or "upper management")
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Low-level management, such as or
- Foreman
- Rank and File
Top-level management : Require an extensive knowledge of management roles and skills. They have to be very aware of external factors such as markets. Their decisions are generally of a long-term nature Their decision are made using analytic, directive, conceptual and/or behavioral/participative processes They are responsible for strategic decisions. They have to chalk out the plan and see that plan may be effective in the future. They are executive in nature.
Middle management : Mid-level managers have a specialized understanding of certain managerial tasks. They are responsible for carrying out the decisions made by top-level management.
Lower management : This level of management ensures that the decisions and plans taken by the other two are carried out. Lower-level managers' decisions are generally short-term ones
Foreman They are men who have direct supervision over the working force in office factory, sales field or other areas of activity of the concern.
Rank and File The responsibilities of the persons belonging to this group are even more restricted and more specific than those of the foreman.
Section 2: Developing Superior People Performance in the Supply Chain
“Many believe today that ‘people’ are the organization’s main resource. More and more companies are coming to the realization that effective management of their people is the key to achieving superior performance.” (Mullin P. 2001, p15)
2.1 _ The people of the supply chain
Failing to manage your company's talent needs is the equivalent of failing to manage your supply chain. And yet the majority of employers have abysmal track records when it comes to the age-old problem of finding and retaining talent.
Supply chain managers "ask questions like, 'Do we have the right parts in stock?' 'Do we know where to get these parts when we need them?' and 'Does it cost a lot of money to carry inventory?' These questions are just as relevant to companies that are trying to manage their talent needs, In other words, the principles of supply chain management, with its emphasis on just-in-time manufacturing, can be applied to talent management. Managing supply chains is about managing uncertainty and variability. This same uncertainty exists inside companies with regard to talent development. Companies rarely know what they will be building five years out and what skills they will need to make that happen; they also don't know if the people they have in their pipelines are going to be around.
2.2 Case Study: IBM's Supply Chain for Deploying People
In a world in which products can be replicated globally with relative ease and cranked out by low-cost manufacturing operations, services and customization offer fresh profit-making opportunities. And while product innovation remains important at the new-look IBM, software and services are an increasingly bigger part of the picture. (In 1999, software and services accounted for 54 percent of IBM's revenue, hardware about 40 percent; the most recent figures, which are pre-Lenovo, are about 64 percent and 32 percent, respectively.)
In the 1990s, when products ruled at IBM, the supply chain was centered on physical assets such as semiconductor fabrication facilities, says Bob Moffat, IBM's senior vice president of Integrated Supply Chain. Labor management, from a supply chain perspective, "was a minor part of the cost." With the focus on service, that equation is turned around. This has major implications for supply chain management, Moffat says, both in terms of the skill sets managers need and how the profession relates to the enterprise as a whole.
IBM's development of its people-focused supply chain grew out of its long-established track record for making and delivering products. Indeed, an effort is under way to map IBM's manufacturing supply chain principles to the organization's service business. But people are not items of production, and IBM employs approximately 180,000 people in its services business. "In an asset-based supply chain, you have a system for identifying each and every one of your parts," Moffat says, and the parts must meet certain specifications. Put people center-stage as the primary asset, and "most companies do not even have a common taxonomy by which they can place all of the talents and skills of their employees into a system and categorize them," he says.
Thus, Moffat and his supply chain team are working with IBM HR executives to create a new labor resource management system—based on a uniform taxonomy of skills—that will enable IBM to more efficiently match its labor resources to customers' needs and deploy the right expertise quickly. For example, IBM has created templates for employees to log their skills in a common way. The data can then be accessed by business units seeking expertise for a particular assignment. IBM also is aiming to create a better balance of labor supply and demand—for both the short and the long term—by comparing the needs of the market with the database of available skills. With this analysis, the company is well positioned to address projected resource excesses or shortages by skill set. (For example, the firm might boost training efforts in a particular area.) The new labor management system will even provide alerts when the availability of resources capable of meeting demand falls below accepted levels.
The challenges of creating an efficient labor-based supply chain extend beyond internal labor management, Moffat says—for example, how to use partners in the fulfillment of service contracts. Communicating with suppliers and achieving the economies of scale needed when dealing with small companies that may employ only a handful of people are also challenging. "We are spending a lot of our intellectual time on this," Moffat says.
IBM's labor supply chain program has been in the prototype phase for the past 10 months, and the company says it's already seen the benefits. Employees' time is documented against a set of activities such as work, vacation, and education. A 14-week view of billable and non-billable activities for each individual is then captured. The system has achieved two measurable results. First, the difference between forecast and actual hours given in any week was reduced from more than 15 percent to less than 9 percent. (Not all of that improvement accrues to chargeable hours, but most did, according to IBM.) Second, the company improved its utilization of available billable hours by up to 5 percent, a gain that has a direct impact on business performance.
2.3 _ People retention and Superior Performance
“A company is known by the people it keeps, people retention can only be assured by making sure that the organization focuses strongly on motivation.” (Mullin P. 2001, p86)
Employee retention, especially of your best, most desirable employees, is a key challenge in organizations today. Using loyalty strategies for employee retention is the modern best practice. Competitive salary, competitive vacation and holidays, and tuition reimbursement are three basics in employee retention. Especially for Core people, these are the holy grail for recruitment and retention. But, employers can reduce employee turnover in many other ways. (If you think these read like the Golden Rule, you're right, they do.)
Reducing employee turnover is dependant on the total work environment you offer for employees. Below recommendations about reducing employee turnover are also common-sense, basic and incredibly hard to find in organizations today. Select the right people in the first place through behavior-based testing and competency screening. The right person, in the right seat, on the right bus is the starting point. At the same time, don't neglect to hire people with the innate talent, ability, and smarts to work in almost any position even if you don't currently have the "best" match available. Hire the smartest people you can find.
1. Offer an attractive, competitive, benefits package with components such as life insurance, disability insurance and flexible hours. Better benefits = reduced employee turnover.
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Provide opportunities for people to share their knowledge via training sessions, presentations, mentoring others and team assignments. Employees like to share what they know; the act of teaching others .
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for employees at all times. ; use their ideas; never ridicule or shame them. Via your communication, share that you value them.
- Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results.
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People want to enjoy their work. . Engage and employ the special talents of each individual.
- Enable employees to balance work and life. Allow flexible starting times, core business hours and flexible ending times. (Yes, his son's soccer game is as important as work.)
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Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible. Involve them in the discussion about company vision, mission, values, and goals. This will never "live" for them or become "owned" by them if they merely read it in email or hanging on the wall.
- Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance.
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Base the upside of bonus potential on the success of both the employee and the company and make it limitless within company parameters. (As an example, pay 10% of corporate .)
- Recognize and celebrate success. Mark their passage as important goals are achieved.
- Staff adequately so overtime is minimized for those who don't want it and people don't wear themselves out.
- Provide opportunities within the company for cross-training and career progression. People like to know that they have room for career movement.
- Provide the opportunity for career and personal growth through training and education, challenging assignments and more responsibility.
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Communicate goals, roles and responsibilities so people know what is expected and feel like .
- Encourage employees to have good, even best, friends, at work.
Section 3: _ Conclusion
Supply Chain Management is not all about software and systems, although it is vitally important to get the correct technology in place. Once you have a correct IT system working and verified, the last thing you should do is sit back and expect systems and process’s to run your business for you.
Supply chains are really about talent not technology, especially as the market place grows ever more complex. It has become essential for supply chains to be run by best in class logistics experts. In the current competitive marketplace where there is immense demand for people and the talent pool is growing slowly, Human Resource Management plays a vital role in an organization. Recruitment and Retention of the right employees has become essential to the progression of any organization.
Identifying the right people with the right experience and or qualifications to join your organization and once you have the right people incentivize and encourage these people to stay through employee retention programs, for after all as discussed in this assignment it is people that control the supply chain.
Bibliography:
Mullen Pat(2001), “Management and Supervisory Skills”-- Advanced Certificate in Logistics Management Module 4
Weblinks:
www.getpeoplesmart.com
