Free Essay about NAB Company: Operation, Technology, and Management Plan

This paper focuses on explaining the operations, management, and technology plan. The operations plan will define the specific actions that will need to be undertaken to support the strategic goals of the NAB Company. The plan is intended for current period use but can be used in the future with appropriate changes. The technology plan will outline the various technological resources that the company will use to perform various activities such as product development, personnel management, order processing, inventory management, and customer service. The management plan will outline a rationale for the company's management structure. The plan will also explain the relationship between the various functional units in the organization.

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Operations Plan

Key Aspects of Operations

Production process: The Company's production facilities will be located in Huntsville, Alabama. All manufacturing operations will take place in the company owned factory. The company will adopt a just-in-time inventory management procedure. This system of production ensures that products are manufactured only when a customer has placed orders and not before.

Labour utilization: The Company will hire experienced workers from relevant industries as part-time employees. The part-time hires will help in training the company's permanent employees and will eventually be phased out.

Product distribution: the company will use indirect distribution channels in which only the retailers will be involved. This means that the retailers will purchase the product directly from our company and sell them to the end consumers without passing through intermediaries such as wholesalers.

Product promotion: the company intends to use a combination of different mediums to promote its products and create awareness among consumers. Essentially, the company will use a combination of online and offline medium for marketing communication purposes. Some of the mediums that the company will use include TV and radio campaigns, newspapers and magazines, company website, social media, and billboards. The company will also leverage the power of celebrities to promote its products (Armstrong & Cunningham, 2012). The company will conduct a comprehensive market intelligence analysis every six months to establish latest market trends and possible changes in consumer demands. Later on, the company's operations will be changed to match those needs.

Cost and Time Effectiveness

The company will seek to achieve high levels of cost-effectiveness with the overall goal of maximizing return on investment. In this regards, the company will minimize all expenses such as labor material and overhead. Labour cost reductions can be achieved by reducing the number of workers hired by the company as well as the rate of wages paid. Other costs can also be reduced by automating most systems in the manufacturing system. Materials costs can be reduced by sourcing materials competitively and by having multiple suppliers for each category of raw materials. Overall, the company will invest in modern manufacturing equipment and technologies that make the production more efficient and cost-effective. The target is to maintain a minimum profit margin of more than 40%.

The company will seek to achieve the minimum possible turnaround time for producing its products once an order has been placed. To achieve this objective, the company will consolidate its supply chain sources using a vendor managed inventory system. This way, the company will have uninterrupted supply and the full inventory of all raw materials required to produce the products. The company will also reduce lead times by outsourcing certain assembly builds.

Competitive Advantages and Problems Addressed

The company seeks to achieve and maintain strong competitive advantages in terms of product quality, cost, and development of the niche market. Cost competitive advantages will be achieved through use of skilled workforce, efficient operation systems and low-priced raw materials. Product competitive advantages can be achieved through differentiation. This will be enhanced by producing products that are unique, valuable and low-priced. The company will install state-of-the-art systems to expedite efficiency in the production process. The main problems that the company will seek to address in the manufacturing process include delays in the production process, low quality of products and inefficiencies in order processing.

Technology Plan

The company will need various types of technologies to support various activities such as order processing, management of personnel, control of inventory, communication with customers and production of the beverage. The specific technologies are described below:

Hardware and Software Needs

Production: Soft drinks manufacturing is a very complex process that involves the infusion of water with various ingredients such as sugar, carbonating agents and other ingredients. The final process also requires the product to be packaged in specially designed containers. The main technologies that will be required to support this process include bottle preparation machines, mixing equipment, bottle filling machines and conveyor systems. These technologies have been estimated at a cost of $100,000.

The company will use computerized systems to track the movement of inventory. The main technologies will be barcodes and computerized point-of-sale systems. The bar-code based inventory management system will require a bar-code scanner and appropriate software, which can be custom tailored to the company's business. Using the scanner, all raw materials will be checked in at the point of reception and final products checked out as they exit the company's premises. The point of sale system will be installed to work alongside the bar-code system to monitor the movement of inventory out of the company's premises or warehouse. These technologies are expected to cost $5000.

Order processing: the company will implement a standardized order processing system. This will enable smooth and fast processing of orders regardless of whether the customer places an order via telephone or by filling a form online. This way, employees processing the orders will know what information is needed and what ought to be done to deliver products to the customers. The order processing system will be designed in such a way that it is impossible to process incomplete forms. This way, it will be easier to avoid backlogs or unnecessary wastage of time. As part of the company's customer service excellence, the order processing system will have the capacity to inform customers of the status of their orders. This means that if there are any delays or problems with the order processing system, customers will be informed promptly. Once products are shipped, customers will be informed about the carrier, the tracking codes, and the expected delivery date. The order processing system is expected to cost $1000.

Communication Technologies

Engagement with customers will be the most important aspect of the company's marketing efforts. Apparently, the quality of customer service will either degrade or enhance customer loyalty to the company's brand. The main customer service technologies that will be used include a website, email, social media, text services and telephone. The website will be optimized to enable the customer to engage directly with the company staff and ask questions in real time (Dess, Lumpkin & Taylor, 2015). The email will be deployed to improve customer service and to more easily respond to each customer's queries. All communications with customers will be unified such that it is easier to know when a customer asked a question and whether it was answered. To manage communications with customers more effectively, the appropriate software will be installed such as Customer Relationship Management.

Personnel Needs

The company will deploy a robust technology system to help all processes right from recruitment to staff training and performance management. For staffing purposes, the company will develop an e-recruitment web portal where vacant job positions will be posted. The company will purchase open source software to be used in the management of employee data. In addition, there will be software that will support the company's training and development needs. The system will be specially designed to support both offline and online employee training needs. For performance management, a computerized performance management system will be used. This will make it easier for managers to monitor the performance of each employee and recommend appropriate remedial actions. All HRM software is expected to cost $2500.

Management and Organization Plan

Management Structure

The business is organized as Limited Liability Company. In terms of the organizational structure, the company will adopt the hierarchical structure as shown below:

Figure 1: NAB Company Organizational Structure

Board Members and Key Employees

Board of Directors: There will be a board of directors, which will be responsible for overseeing the activities of the company. The board will hire the chief executive officer who will be responsible for the implementation of day-to-day management decisions. Among other roles, the CEO will be responsible for ensuring that the organization is properly staffed to achieve its competitive advantages. There are five senior managers who report directly to the CEO. These are the chief financial officer, the chief operations officer, the human resources manager, the vice president in charge of marketing and the IT executive.

Operations manager: Will be responsible for ensuring that the necessary organizational goals are established as per the set goals. The goals will be defined in such a manner as to motivate the staff towards providing customers with cost-effective and high-quality professional services and to meet all stakeholders' expectations. To realize the firm's goals (on the short-term and long-term), the executive management will develop the right strategies for guiding employees in offering individualized services that are tailored to the needs of each customer. In this regard, the management's long-term goal is to develop a team of well skilled and trained staff that will be capable of ensuring that all business needs are established in the most efficient and effective manner.

Human resource manager: will be responsible for the development and implementation of sound employee management policies and procedures. More specifically, the HR manager will ensure that the required structures and policies are put in place to help the company to make consistent use of its workforce to achieve its bottom-line objectives. For sustainable and long-term gains, the human resources manager will be expected to play a critical role in promoting policies intended to promote effective communication in the workplace, especially between managers and employees. This will be in addition to clarifying, guaranteeing and protecting the rights and responsibilities of each employee working with the company.

Marketing manager: will have the responsibility of delivering the company's service level agreements. This means that the operations manager will be responsible for ensuring that the company's service level agreement is developed and that it effectively binds the company and its customers into a mutually benefiting business relationship. For this objective to be achieved, the operations manager will ensure that the elements of product quality, service execution, and responsibilities are agreed between the company and all its customers. There will be cross-functional teams...