Importance of Effective Materials Management

Effective materials management involves maximizing material productivity. This requires well coordinated approach towards various problems related to materials. With respect materials it helps in decision making. Effective material management solves many problems and some of important problems are as follow:

1. Inventory Problem - It helps in solving problems related to reducing inventories in the context of reducing uncertainties in demand and supply. It helps in projection of demand. The gap between demand and supply is very crucial for any business hence effective materials management is very important.



2. Pilferage – Issues of proper planning regarding avoidance of pilferage are also solved by effective materials management,



3. Improving Materials Productivity ‐ Problems regarding standardization and reduction methodologies for improving productivity are also solved by effective materials management,



4. Waste Management - Effective materials management also helpsw in developing policies and procedure for managing waste materials.



Issues of proper planing of store or warehouse are also important part of effective management and it involves store layout. Hence for solving above problems an integrated approach of material management must be applied properly.
 

Factors to Decide Effective Capacity of a Plant

1. First of all you have to consider financial resources and investment which are made and likely to be made by the organization.

2. The material factor that includes design, variety, quantity, the neccessary oerations and their sequence.

3. The man factor that includes direct and indirect workers and manpower utilization.

4. The movement factor that includes transportation.

5. The waiting factor that includes storage and delays.

6. The service factor like parking lot, waiting rooms and maintainance.

7. To decide effective capacity of a plant you have consider future demand including competition factors and others events.

8. Apart from general growth in demand you have to consider market trends and other factors like changes in monsoon etc.

9. Historical data and analysis of product life cycle helps tp decide the effective capacity of plant. For example, the growth of LCD TV sets can be compared with life cycle of other color TV sets and long term predictions of LCD TV sets can be made based on such comparison.

10. Other factors like outside and inside building features and the change factor like versality and expansion should be considered to decide effective capacity of plant

What are the other important factors?

Difference between branding and marketing

Branding is related with brand and marketing is related with market. Amazon is a brand and when you hear this word the thoughts that come in your minds are result of branding and marketing. Marketing and branding both are interrelated and you cannot separate them because marketing cannot exist without branding and branding cannot exist without marketing.
Marketing is a broader term and branding is only one part of marketing. basically marketing is related with four Ps or four Cs. Objective of marketing is to create sale while objective of branding is to create a positive image in consumer`s mind.
In branding these activities are mainly important creating brand, expanding brand and exploiting brand. While in marketing all activities of sales, advertising, pricing and distribution are involved.
Branding is more related with logo, color, shape etc. while marketing is telling the public about the brand.
Brand is a perception while marketing markets and manages that perception. Marketing creates awareness of brand in consumer`s mind. Marketing promote your brand in market.
In short branding is creating your image while marketing is related with the activities that that cause the public to want to know more about what you sell.

Positive Mental Attitude

Attitude is a very small thing, but, hey, it has many advantages. Behind every successful man there is the same secret and that is the positive mental attitude.A man of negative attitudes lives in a negative world while a man of positive attitude lives in a positive world. It would not be an exaggeration that attitude is the key to the success. Attitude formation starts the day a baby is born into the world. I would like to tell a story here. It was a monster in a village and he used to eat villagers everyday. Because he was bigger in size so it was difficult to kill him. A child name of Goliath killed him because of his positive mental attitude. When villagers asked him how did he kill such a big giant then he replied he was not big to hit but he was big to miss and rest is the history.

Attitude change is only possible if we are able to change our thoughts and reactions to everything around . Before going into the ring Mohammad Ali used to say, “I am the greatest”. He used to say this because he wanted to make positive mental attitude and rest is the history.
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If you lack a positive attitude inside you, then it may be termed as you being a pessimist. Your attitude towards life, environment, people, things, events and even yourself determines the quality of life you are going to have.

Selling service is tougher than selling goods

Service being intangible, marketer needs to put on more efforts as he cannot show the things that he is marketing. Being intangible, services cannot be touched or seen.
Because of following characteristics selling intangibles services are tougher than selling goods:
1. Because of intangible character of services marketer faces these difficulties – sampling difficult, difficult to judge in advance, not possible to have patent or copyright. Hence intangibles are relatively difficult to promote. For example, in contrast to soap where you can immediately check its benefits, there is no way to do so in the case of teachers because teaching is an intangible service.
2. Because of inseparability services require presence of performer, direct sale, and also face difficulties because of limited scale of operations and geographically limited market. For example, a plumber and a beautician has to be physically present to provide the services.
3. Heterogeneity characteristics of services makes standardization very difficult task to achieve. For example, the doctor who gave you his complete attention in his last visit may behave a little different in the next time.
4. Services cannot be stored and are perishable. Apart from this most services may face fluctuating demand. For example, there is a peak demand time for busses in morning and evening.
5. In the case of services, customers have access to but not ownership of them.
Thus because of above characteristics of services the marketer must try to convince the customer that the services, they are providing are `the best`.

Role of Operation Manager in Today`s context

No doubt, operation management is a central function of every organization.

1. One of the most important function of operation manager is to make decisions in the production function.

2.Operation manager has to Plan the conversion system.

3. Operation manger should do organising and structuring of operations.

4. Operation manager has to do Job and work design.

5. Monitoring and controlling quality, quantity and cost are another functions of operation manger.

6. With the fast changing development of information technology, the role of operation managers has become more important because they have to adapt according to faster communication mediums.

7. Because of open economy and fast changing technology the role of operation manager has become multi disciplinary that`s why it is more important than what was few years back.

8. Today operation management is essentially a function concerning decision making with respect to operation system.

9. In today's context satisfaction of customer is at lowest cost is necessary, that is the main responsibility of manager.

10. As far as decision making is considered today's operation manager makes three types of important decision. i.e. strategic, operating and controlling or monitoring. decisions. These decision are related to product, process and manufacturing facilities.

Thus it can be concluded that in today's context the role of operation manager is not confined to conversion activity but much beyond that. Above functions clarify the role of operation manager and importance of role of operation manager.

What are the other important functions and why?

Important Factors for Site Selection of an Industrial Plant

1. Location is mainly affected by internal factors of organisation like technology and external factors like political and social environment.

2. If the product is fragile or if the transportation cost is high like in assembly type industry than location of a plant should be nearer to the market.

3. Sometimes accessibility of raw material is important than site should be nearer to raw material supply places.

4. Transportation facilities and availability of manpower play a significant role in site selection.

5. Infrastructure that includes power, water and communication facilities.

6. Community facility and community attitude should be considered.

7. Waste disposal, ecology and pollution need to be considered.

8. When selecting size future expansion needs to be considered.

9. The topography, soil structure and drainage must be suitable.

10 Land cost also play an important role in site selection.

The fertiliser plants are located near the source of raw material. For example, in India Manglore fertiliser at Manglore, Madras fertiliser at Madras, FACT at Chocin. These are the relevant location for above industries.

In the machine tool industry market factors and infrastructure will come into the picture. That's why these industries are scattered over different parts of the country.

What are other important factors ?

Tasks of a Professional Manager

Tasks of a Professional Manager: Those individuals who practice management as a profession are known as professional managers.

1. A manager first should set the objectives, which the firm must achieve.
2. Having decided upon the objectives, the manager must provide purposeful direction to the firm.
3. The manager must constantly monitor the progress and the activities of the firm to ensure that it is moving in desired direction.
4. Ensuring survival and seeking growth of the firm are critical tasks of a manager.
5. Managers maintain firm`s efficiency in terms of profit generation.
6. In today`s fast changing world one of the very critical tasks of every manager is to anticipate and prepare for the increasing competition.
7. Managers must look after both internal and external factors to an organization.
8. Managing for innovation is one of the great tasks of manager.
9. Managers must provide training to every employee of the organization.
10. Every manager has to build a human organization because man is the most critical resource of an organization.
11. To retain talent the manager should provide a comfortable working environment and appropriate to participate.
12. Every manger has to sustain leadership effectiveness. Every manager is a leader in the sense that he has to influence and inspire his subordinates.
13. Managers maintain balance between creativity and conformity.
14. It is manager`s task to ensure that the change is introduced and incorporated in a smooth manner.
15. The use of computers has totally changed the way of information handling. Now it is a task of manager to define what the relevant information is.
16. Manger has to cope with growing public and political criticism.
17. It is manager`s task to fulfill increasing level of aspiration.
18. To create positive impact in society the managers should maintain good relations with various society segments.
It can be concluded that the tasks may vary depending upon the managerial level, function and industry to which mangers belong.

What are the other tasks of a professional manager?

General Sources of Conflict

Management today is forced with the awesome responsibility of ensuring optimum level of growth in environment that is full of conflicting situations. Here are some general sources of conflict:
1. Resource availability is always a constraint for most organizations and various unit of the organization compete for these resources.
2. Groups or departments in an organization have different functions to perform and often the goals on one group are incompatible with goals of another group. For example, a marketing team is always oriented giving more discount and credit period to the customers to maximize sales, whereas the finance department will oppose the move as it will reduce the profitability and will create more in the department.
3. In an organization various departments depend on each other for the successful completion of their tasks. This interdependence can cause conflict in the organization.
4. A lot of conflict is generated within the organization because various groups within the organization hold conflicting values and perceive situation in narrow individualistic manner. For example, management-labor conflict.
5. When two organizational units compete over new responsibility conflict may arise from disagreement about who has to perform new responsibility.
6. Change can breed intergroup conflict. For example, acquisition and mergers encourage intergroup conflict.
7. Poor communication such as noise is also a source of conflict.
8. Too much or too little communication of information can lead to conflict.
9. Individual personality characteristics also add to the conflict especially in the case of individuals who are highly authoritarian, arrogant and dogmatic.
These were the general sources of conflict in an organization.
What are the other important sources of conflict in an organization?

FIFO and LIFO Methods

To value inventory there are two common accounting methods -

1. FIFO

2. LIFO

How do you value inventory?

FIFO method is mostly used by many organizations. Basically FIFO or LIFO is used for two reasons -

A. For pricing : It shows the way how the inventory`s selling price is set.

B. COGS – It is also used for value of inventory and the value of your cost of goods sold.

1. FIFO – FIFO stands for “first in, first out”. First item that comes into your warehouse will be the first item shipped out. It means oldest item will be sold first. For example, if a retailers buy 10 cell phones in January 16 and 20 cell phones on 17 January on January 16 he paid $50 for each cell phone and on January due to price hike he had to pay $60 for same cell phone. He sold 25 cell phones in the year. Using FIFO method cost of goods sold would be – {10*$50 + 15*$60 =$1400}. According to FIFO method this $1400 is considered valuation of inventory.

2 LIFO – LIFO stands for “last in, last out”. This method is vice – verse of the FIFO method. Last item that comes into your warehouse will be the first item shipped out. It mean newest item will be sold first. According to above example if you use LIFO method than cost of goods sold would be – {20*60 + 5*50 = $1450}. Now it is simple according to LIFO method this $1450 is considered valuation of inventory.

As far as choosing of method is concerned, though FIFO is mostly used but there are also some advantages of using LIFO method. You have to chose the method considering the price. It depends whether prices are rising or falling.

Difference between Primary Memory and Secondary Memory

Primary Memory: Primary memory holds the programs and data required by the CPU for carrying out its operations.
Types of Primary Memory:
A. Random – Access Memory (RAM): RAM has become the synonym for main memory. RAM is very fast, the access time is in Nano seconds. RAM is volatile that is the contents of RAM are lost when the power supply to the RAM is discontinued. RAM is further divided into two types of memories-
a. Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM): In this type of memory the data is stored in cell of transistors and capacitors and the data has to be refreshed every few milliseconds.
b. Static Random Access Memory (SRAM): This does not require periodical refresh. SRAM is faster than DRAM but it is more expensive as compared to DRAM.
B. Read Only Memory (ROM): A part of computer storage is ROM that cannot be erased or changed. ROM is nonvolatile i.e. its contents are not lost when power is switched off. ROM is also divided into two types of memory:
a. Programmed Read Only Memory (PROM): This is used for storing some specialized application by the computer designers instead of chip designers. PROM can be written only once.
b. Erasable Programmed Read Only Memory (EPROM): This can be erased and programmed many times.
Secondary Memory: The secondary memory is non-volatile and has larger capacity. The most common form of secondary storage devices are magnetic tapes and magnetic disks.

Disciplinary Action Procedure

For every misconduct and act of indiscipline, the manager has to take a disciplinary action against the particular worker. A typical disciplinary action has following steps:
First of all a preliminary enquiry is held in order to find out whether any misconduct exist or not.
Delinquent employee is to be issued a charge sheet, call him to submit his explanation within a specified period of time.
It is considered by the disciplinary authorities that delinquent employee`s presence might endanger the safety of other workmen or he might temper with evidence, he may be suspended.
After receiving his charge sheet the workman may submit his explanation.
The enquiry officer should issue a notice of enquiry.
On the appointed date and time, fixed for enquiry, the following persons should be present apart from the enquiry officer: presenting officer, delinquent employee, representative of delinquent employee.
The enquiry officer should record the date, time, and place of enquiry, names of the persons present and obtain their signatures on the order sheet.
The enquiry officer`s report is submitted to the disciplinary authority. Before he takes a decision, he is required to furnish a copy of the enquiry report to concerned employee. The punishment should be awarded on the basis of the employee, gravity of misconduct and past decisions in similar cases.
The employee can appeal against punishment.
Before passing an order of discharge or dismissal, the employer has to arrange for a fair and proper inquiry.

There are specific purposes of disciplinary action in an organization. A typical disciplinary action procedure has above 10 steps.

The advantages of using Linkedin.com to network

Why do people use Linkedin and why should you use Linkedin?
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 120 million members. Like all other top social networking sites it is growing at a rapid pace.
There are lot of benefits of using Linkedin-
1. It provides you online identity. When people Google you they can find your Linkedin profile on Google at the first page.
2. You can find world class and great answers from world class experts at zero cost. You can learn a lot from these answer and you can use these answers on your blog.
3. For better online identity, discussion and for branding you can create a group on this site.
4. To get opinion on various issues you can create a poll.
5. You can find past and present colleague and professional on Linkedin.
6. You can find a great job with the help of this site.
7. You can share and get advice from industry experts.
8. Linkedin is the only website where you can find depth in profile.
9. Linkedin is used for career management by many professionals.
10. Some people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” in order to make a sale.
11. You can track start ups and your competitors.
12. You can be updated with current trends of industry with this great site.
13. Professional organizations post their jobs and find the good talent on Linkedin.
14. There are lot of applications available on Linkedin that can be used for various purposes. For example to collaborate your projects you can use behance. To promote books you can use amazon reading list, share your documents with box net. Link you blog and use huddle for communication, where are you travelling that can be shared via Tripit. Share your presentation with slide share. All these great application are available on a only a single site and that is only Linkedin.
15. You can get recommendations and at the same time you can recommend others on Linkedin.
16. The best thing about this site that all these features are provided free but you can create a premium account for greater benefits and for using in mails.
17. You can sell products.
18.You can generate leads.
19. It is very good for your online identity and for Google presence.
20. And last but not least, you can drive massive traffic to your blog.
Above advantages tell the great importance of Linkedin.