Original Creations: Issues and Recommendations for Improved Operations
Verified
Added on 2023/06/07
|13
|4363
|223
AI Summary
This report discusses the issues faced by Original Creations in its operations and administration, including manufacturing, quality assurance, and market research. Recommendations are provided for improved development of new products and enhanced assessment of market potential.
Contribute Materials
Your contribution can guide someone’s learning journey. Share your
documents today.
Collaborative Activity and Individual Report
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
Table of Contents MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3 PART – 1.........................................................................................................................................3 Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................3 Introduction..................................................................................................................................3 Reasons.......................................................................................................................................3 Key Issues present at ORIGINAL CREATIONS........................................................................4 Recommendations........................................................................................................................6 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8 PART – 2.........................................................................................................................................9 Reflection....................................................................................................................................9 REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
MAIN BODY PART – 1 Executive Summary The following report will be discussing various issues in the management and operations of Original Creations like getting the manufacturing by other companies instead of doing it self, facing of barriers in case of foreign manufacturers, absence of appropriate measures of quality assurance, low quality and damaged products being delivered to the customers, inefficient and inexperienced staff of the company, decision making rights held by a single individual in the company and absence of the process of market research in the company. Introduction Appropriate and relevant strategies suitable for a particular type of operation in the organisation are very essential to be implemented and even evaluated and monitored otherwise the organisation may face serious issues which will ultimately in the long run will result in disruption of the sales and there will be need to shut down the business. To avoid such unfavourable situations to happen in the organisation it needs to have effective workforce, appropriate hierarchy of decision – making, appropriate market research policies, etc. Therefore, the following consultancy report will be discussing and exploring the particular specified reasons due to which any entity will require such consultancy report. Then, key issues will be discussed present in the organisation named Original Creations which are hindering its objectives of development of better products and revealing its need to forecast the demand effectively of its products in the market. Thereafter, justified recommendations will be given related to any adjustments that the organisation will be requiring to make or change that it will be needing to incorporate for better development of new products and effective assessment of the market potential. Reasons The following consultancy report has been very elaborately formed and presented to address the issues of Original Creations in development of the better new products and improved assessment and forecasting of their potential in the market (Giles, 2018). There are various reasons for preparing this report. One of the reasons is failure of its latest project on which the company was working for the past 3 months to convert it into a new product and market it. The company does not manufacture the products that it develops on its own by itself but gives order
to the other companies who are already in the business of manufacturing of similar products or are capable to manufacture such products. It also has its manufacturers in China where there are certain issues like barriers due to language, issues of communication and the differences based on cultural basis. The major concern of Original Creations for which it requires such a report is because of the failure of the consecutively 10thnew product and the founder, Mary Shelley is concerned that the company may be on the verge of losing its direction (Sarthou and et.al., 2021). Its most recent failure i.e., extended toenail clipper failed due to variety of reasons i.e., the actual sales and revenue from such product were lower when compared to what was expected, the quality and utility of the product did not meet the expectations of the consumers, many products arrived at the customer’s place in a damaged condition. All of these reasons led to the decrease in the sales of this product and its boxes kept on stacking up in the warehouse of the company taking up the unnecessarily large space and requiring maintenance cost to be incurred on them. All the reasons also led to high volume of return of the product back to the company (Nevile, 2019). Therefore, such low sales did not justify its manufacturing cost and high rate of product return did not support the strategy to continue selling the product in the market. Althoughthefounder,Maryandher2directorswhohandletheoperationsand management of the projects comes from a technical background but other members like, HR team are relatively inexperienced, logistics and warehouse teams contains staff which is recruited temporarily via agencies of employment, etc. Key Issues present at ORIGINAL CREATIONS There are various issues that Original Creations is facing which are enlisted as follows: The company only does the work of selling its products and does not manufactures or produces its products on its own (Casañ, Alier and Llorens, 2021). Such manufacturing and production is done by other companies which is already engaged in manufacturing of the similar line of products or is fully capable of producing such products based on the requirements of the company. ThecompanyutilizesservicesofmanufacturersbothintheUKandtheforeign manufacturers like in China (Mansouri and et.al, 2020). The issues with such foreign manufacturer is complexity in the communications with such manufacturers due the barriers
Paraphrase This Document
Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
based on the languages, issues related to the communication and differences based on the cultures. Also, the products manufactured are sent to the warehouses where only spot checks are carried out to ensure that the quality is optimum but instead, regular and systematic checks shall be devised and implemented on such products to avoid manufacturing of defective and low quality products. Its recent product failed in the market due to which was tenth in the row to fail. Such product failed due to issues like low volume of sales in the market along with complaints of the consumers regarding low quality of the product and its utility not up to the mark as was expected by the consumers (Liu, Yang and Chao, 2019). Also, there were complaints regarding delivery of damaged goods resulting in increased rate of returns of the products. Therefore, this led to non – justification of the manufacturing costs incurred and continuation of the product. Also, the HR team consist of members who are relatively inexperienced and the logistics and warehousing team consists of members who are recruited temporarily mainly through the employment agencies. The process of idea generation includes monthly meeting on every last Friday. In such a meeting, Mary Shelly is the only one who approves the idea to develop a product in which she resorts only on her judgement and her feel for the market. The company does not conduct any market research before launching of any product as the founder is of the view that product is best tested on its ability to sell in the market (Noer, Hasnunidah and Abdurrahman, 2019). Also, feedback by only a small portion of customers is taken through questionnaire. Thus, analysing the above issues it can be said that the company faces issues regarding the manufacturing of the products which comes under production department, regarding the quality checks implemented by the company on the products received in the warehouse, increased manufacturing costs, inefficient and inexperienced staff, process of generation of an idea along with requirement of team work in such process and absence of any market research prior to the product launching which is the major issue.
Recommendations Based on the understanding and assessment of the above reasons and issues, there are certain recommendations which Original Creations has to consider and make respective changes in the organisation for improved development of new products and enhanced assessment of the market potential. First of all, the most serious issue in the organisation is absence of the process of market research prior to launching of the new product and relying on the actual sales figures to depict the success or failure of the product (Wahlen, 2018). Following steps can be recommended to address the above issue: Seeking information from various sources of intelligence like sales partners i.e., distributors who are already surviving and performing in this line to know the actual conditions in the market and what to do to tackle them. Primary research which involvesinterviewingthe consumers, conducting surveys and forming focus groups. Although it is a time – taking and costly measure but the results will be more accurate and insightful. Start the sales with a small group of individuals instead of going all in and then making the required changes based on the information and feedbacks obtained from such small group. Next is opting to manufacture the products by the company on its own which will drastically reduce the cost of manufacturing and also, the barriers like language, communication and culture can be avoided. Such in – house manufacturing will also have other benefits like easy and effective communication due to elimination of the language barriers and differences due to different time – zones (Drummond, O'Toole and McGrath, 2022). Therefore, the chances of misunderstanding reduce to a great extent if the communication is real – time and crystal clear brief can be communicated regarding the specifications of the product. The entity will also be able to react quickly to the sudden market changes through faster decision – making quick implementation of the of the newer strategies. Also, in – house manufacturing is more effective method of production by the entities who are mainly engaged in manufacturing of the products that are highly customized and that are manufactured in relatively lower volumes. Now to address the issue of marketing and appealing to larger number of customers following efficient strategies of marketing can be followed which will solve the issue of low level of sales:
Framing Marketing– According to this strategy what is said is not important but how it is said is more important i.e.: oLoss Framing – This involves telling customer what they will lost if they don’t opt for the company’s product. oGain Framing– This involves telling customers what they will gain if they opt for the company’s product. oStatistical Framing– This involves facts which supports a point to sell the product. Sensory Marketing– An unforgettable pleasant experience that the customer experiences online or at the physical store. Also, it is recommended for the company to install and implement various measure of quality checks at various stages to avoid delivery of defective products to the customers and also avoid production of quality products instead of only random spot checks (Albó, Hernández-Leo and Moreno Oliver, 2019). Now, to keep the quality of the products under check, various tools that can be used here are as follows: Implementing the system of using check sheets to tick off the day to day tasks which includes counting of the inventory, damage caused to the inventory, accounting for the missing inventory if any, etc. Elaborated and detailed flowcharts can be followed for monitoring of each and every movement of the inventory i.e., receipt, shelving, pick – up, packaging and shipping and any further inspection if required. Identifying and prioritizing the most crucial problems by the warehouse managers on the basis of Pareto chart so that these problems can be resolved in priority wastage of time can be avoided on resolution of petty issues. Anothereffectivemeasurethatcanberecommendedisinclusionofthewhole management team when making the important decisions like approval of a product to be included in the product portfolio i.e., in this case, the other 2 directors as well. Such team work is very essential for the entity as it allows better and more effective problem solving. This is because of the fact that opinions and ideas of a group of people will always be more innovative and creative than of a single person (Ribal And et.al., 2020). Also, when the people work in a team they are bound to be more motivated and inspired to get the tasks done effectively and efficiently so that the targets can be achieved by the team regularly and timely and therefore,
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
success can be achieved. Daily issues and problems can also be addressed effectively as team work teaches the members the skill of conflict resolution which may arise as the individuals are of the different skills and opinions and when such opinions clashes, the conflicts are bound to arise. Lastly and one of the most important aspect is the workforce of the organisation. Workforce needs to be properly trained and even before that, individuals shall be appropriately skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and shall have expertise in their concerned department. This is because of the simple reason that when an individual is not educationally and mentally equipped to handle a task he shall be either removed from such a position or he shall be given a proper training so that he can carry out such task with efficiency and expertise (Vijayalakshmi and Kanchana, 2020). Also, complicated tasks like HR, logistics and warehousing needs to be done by the individuals who knows what has to be done and can handle the situation of complications if need be. Conclusion Conclusively, the above report studies the case of Original Creations which is currently facing certain issues in its operations and administration which includes manufacturing of the products in the company by third party instead self – manufacturing which may effectively reduce the cost of manufacturing and resultantly, the final costing of finished goods and thus, will help in decreasing the sales price of the products to make them more appealing. Also, such self – manufacturing of its own products will allow the entity to have an opportunity of monitoring the process of such production and maintaining the quality of such process and also of the final product being manufactured. Additionally, the products manufactured which are transported to the warehouses are only subjected to random spot checks instead of structured and systematic quality testing of the finished goods. This is an issue as if these transported goods were checked for their quality beforehand, then the customers would not have been sent the low quality and damaged goods. This step would’ve protected the image of the company from getting degraded and otherwise failing products would’ve have flourished and succeeded in the market. Thus, addressing the concern of the founder, Mary that the company is losing its direction and may get off – track and fail in the coming time. Another issue which Original Creations is facing is that its consecutively
10thproduct failed in the market. Primary reasons for such failure includes inability of the entity to not being able to achieve the desired amount and volume of sales. Also, the quality of such products was very low and did not meet the expectations of the customers. Such expectations of the customers were not met considering the quality of the products as well as their utility. Complaints were also received regarding receipt of damaged goods which consequently increased the return rate of these products. All these issues made the cost of manufacturing and the decision to continue selling these products unjustified. Most importantly, there is no dedicated department or team who is responsible for conducting the market research on a product before it is launched in the market and the founder, Mary believes that true test of the product is only be actually selling it in the market without any prior research. This ideology is not at all correct as such launching of products in the market without any proper research will lead to failing of the product and facing of the losses in the market which could’ve been avoided if such research was already conducted. PART – 2 Reflection From the associated session of Week 6, I can very confidently say that the experience and knowledge that I gained from this week’s session is very positive and I feel that it will be really helpful for me in the further studies and career opportunities. Before the starting of this session I was very excited and curious to learn and know the concepts in hand and after the successful completion of this session, I was very satisfied with the knowledge that I obtained and I’m sure that it will be helping me in furthering my career after my studies are completed. Remembering all that was taught to me in the session, I learnt the meaning, importance and role of Human Resource Management along with the importance of being motivated throughout the whole process. I also learnt and received guidance on how to prepare a good CV. Now, I feel that I am more confident in the current semester than I was in the previous one and the instructor also gave very helpful information which will easily help me in completing my assignments. This also helped me to develop my problem solving skills in any given situation. In the session of technology and e – commerce, my experience related to the learnings was very positive and I can assure that I have a very positive feeling towards the studies in general. Relating to the content and module of this week relating to technology and e – commerce, I was excited as through this session, I will be able to have a good grip on the
concepts of computer and information technology (ICT) and specially regarding the usage of Microsoft Office. After completing such a elaborated and insightful session, I am both confident about my skill relating to such information technology and satisfied with the knowledge, skills and training that I received. During this session I learnt about the different types of e – businesses namely, B2B, B2C, C2C, etc. also, I learnt about the concept of information system and its significance in the computers. Also, the concept of Enterprise Resources Planning systems was taught which was very interesting. After attending this session I am fully prepared to attend the coming assignments. Also, my skills of time – management have improved a great deal when compared to the starting of the year and most importantly, my skill relating to the academic communication are also improving. The associated and very interesting session of innovation and international business taught me the very important and complicated concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation which may seem to be very common and easy topics but has a lot of depth and technical concepts to get understanding of. Along with the concept I also learnt how to manage such innovation in the organisation when there are multiple individuals involved in the process and all of them have their own specific and peculiar opinions and ideas. I was also told that next different forms of legal ownership will be taught which is again a very interesting, realistic and relevant concept to learn about. Although I came across various mistakes which I did in my first assignment in which I did not focussed enough on the given case study and wrote in general. The main reason according to me for such mistake was my hesitation that the reflection that I will be writing will not be academic enough. Here I understood the importance of application of SWOT analysis in preparing my paperwork and also the importance of application of SMART goals in the content which makes the paperwork more relevant, specific and attainable. This topic also explained me the importance of communication with other and also working collaboratively with others. Then in the final session I had to admit that although I was eager to attend the classes and learn about the topic but was a little anxious. But this had no effect on the experience that I gained from this learning and I had absolutely positive outlook towards it and because of this, I felt perfectly positive and confident towards my studies. The lessons that I studied and learnt from this session included the concepts of logical fallacies. And after that I studied different types of fallacies. I agree that the session was hard and complicated to follow as the topic was
Paraphrase This Document
Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
very hard. Also, as I attended the session online while at work it became more complicated and tough to follow. Therefore, I need to dedicate and allocate extra hours for reading the slides given using which I was taught and therefore, go deeper into more detailed and in – depth research. Conclusively, all the above sessions and learning processes were very fruitful and enhanced my academic knowledge to a great extent which can also be applied in the future to enhance my career growth. Action Plan: SkillsActivitiesResourcesTimetakenSuccesscriteria In depth analysis of the case study Reading activities, Linking the things with attributes Properand relevantmaterial likebooksand articles, etc. 2 weeksWas able to know aboutthecase after reading and analysingthe different attributes Academic writingClarifying all the questionsinthe case Maintained recordofthe appropriate evidence 3 weeksDevelopedthe knowledgeto thinkandwrite about the case by knowingoutthe proper incidents Workingwithin the team Forming a group, volunteering with the colleagues Properfunding andabilityto developthe strengthofteam workandteam members with the proper knowledge of the task to be performed 1 weekGot familiar with theteammates after having in the abilityto cooperateand maintain the work forcewiththe colleaguesof differentnature and knowledge in
the team Problemsolving skills Makinganidea journal,using mind maps Webresources, books,articles, blogs, statistics of theproperdata available 2 weeksDevelopedthe problemsolving skills by working accordingtothe proper managementof the activities and bycooperating with in the team
REFERENCES Books and Journals Giles,A.,2018.NavigatingtheContradictions:AnESLTeacher'sProfessionalSelf- Development in Collaborative Activity.TESL Canada Journal.35(2). pp.104-127. Sarthou, G. and et.al., 2021, September. Extending Referring Expression Generation through shared knowledge about past Human-Robot collaborative activity. In2021 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)(pp. 1879-1886). IEEE. Casañ, M. J., Alier, M. and Llorens, A., 2021. A collaborative learning activity to analyze the sustainability of an innovation using PESTLE.Sustainability.13(16). p.8756. Mansouri, K. and et.al, 2020. CoMPARA: collaborative modeling project for androgen receptor activity.Environmental health perspectives.128(2). p.027002. Nevile, M. R., 2019. Objects of agreement: Placing pins to progress collaborative activity in customdressmaking.InObjects,bodiesandworkpractice(pp.3-32).Multilingual Matters. Liu, C. C., Yang, C. Y. and Chao, P. Y., 2019. A longitudinal analysis of student participation in adigitalcollaborativestorytellingactivity.EducationalTechnologyResearchand Development.67(4). pp.907-929. Vijayalakshmi, D. and Kanchana, J., 2020. Evaluating the effectiveness of the collaborative learning in fashion studies.Procedia Computer Science.172.pp.991-1000. Noer, S. H., Hasnunidah, N. and Abdurrahman, A., 2019, April. The effect of jumping task and collaborative activity on enhancement of student critical thinking ability. InInternational Conference on Educational Sciences and Teacher Profession (ICETeP 2018)(pp. 295- 301). Atlantis Press. Wahlen,S.,2018.“Foodsharing”:Reflectingonindividualizedcollectiveactionina collaborativeconsumptioncommunityorganisation.InContemporaryCollaborative Consumption(pp. 57-75). Springer VS, Wiesbaden. Ribal, M. J. And et.al., 2020. European Association of Urology Guidelines Office Rapid ReactionGroup:anorganisation-widecollaborativeefforttoadapttheEuropean Association of Urology guidelines recommendations to the coronavirus disease 2019 era.European urology.78(1). pp.21-28. Albó, L., Hernández-Leo, D. and Moreno Oliver, V., 2019. Smartphones or laptops in the collaborative classroom? A study of video-based learning in higher education.Behaviour & Information Technology.38(6). pp.637-649. Drummond,C.,O'Toole,T.andMcGrath,H.,2022.SocialMediaresourcingofan entrepreneurial firm network: Collaborative mobilisation processes.Journal of Business Research.145.pp.171-187. Online . [Online]. Available through: <> . [Online]. Available through: <>