Managing Innovation and Continuous Improvement: A.C. Gilbert Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of A.C. Gilbert's innovation and continuous improvement strategies. It begins with an introduction to the concepts of innovation and continuous improvement, followed by an examination of the key systems and processes used by A.C. Gilbert, including its supply chain, operational systems, and product/service delivery methods. The report then develops elements of a review strategy, including objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and the performance review process. Performance monitoring for the supply chain, operational systems, and product/service delivery is discussed. The report further analyzes variances from plans and targets for key result areas (KRAs), identifies relevant trends, and explores opportunities for new technological or e-commerce applications. The second part of the report focuses on the implementation of a performance improvement strategy, including strategic goals and action plans. The report concludes with an overview of the findings and recommendations for improving innovation and continuous improvement within the organization.

MANAGE
INNOVATION AND
CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ASSESSMENT 1.............................................................................................................................1
Key Systems and Processes used by A.C. Gilbert..................................................................1
Development of Elements of Review Strategy......................................................................2
Performance Monitoring........................................................................................................3
Variances from Plans and Targets for Key Result Areas (KRA)...........................................4
Trends relevant to A.C. Gilbert..............................................................................................5
Identification of New Technological or Electronic Commerce Opportunities......................5
ASSESSMENT 2.............................................................................................................................6
Introduction............................................................................................................................6
Performance Improvement Strategy.......................................................................................6
Briefing And Consultation Session........................................................................................8
Lead Session...........................................................................................................................8
Summary.................................................................................................................................9
Revising Strategy....................................................................................................................9
Risk Strategy..........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................9
ASSESSMENT 3...........................................................................................................................10
Examination of aspects of Part 1 – Implementation.............................................................10
Action Plan for transition and communication.....................................................................11
Review of Part 2 - Follow Up...............................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is a procedure that refers to modifying as well as adding specific features
within an organisation's existing products as well as services, which enhances their usage. On the
other hand, continuous improvement is the process which is inclusive of modifying and bettering
the company's performance (Boer and et. al., 2017). The report below is based on two case
studies of companies A.C. Gilbert and is divided into several assessments. Assessment 1
addresses performance and sustainability review strategy of A.C. Gilbert. On the other hand,
Assessment 2 includes implementation plan to embed new process for the organisation
ASSESSMENT 1
Key Systems and Processes used by A.C. Gilbert
As reflected within the case study, A.C. Gilbert was one of the most recognised
organisation that dealt with toy manufacturing and distribution. One of the major areas of focus
for the company was related to producing top quality products that were durable as well as
reliable. However, with time and changes in culture and technologies, firm experiences hardships
and subsequently discontinued its operations from the market. However, there are several key
systems and processes that were used by A.C. Gilbert and are discussed below:
Supply Chain:
The firm's supply chain consisted of several entities which had different roles that are
mentioned as under: Suppliers: After appropriately setting up the design of toys, the firm acquired raw
materials for its offerings as well as packaging from suppliers. Manufacturer: The firm itself acted as the manufacturer and after acquisition of raw
materials from suppliers, the firm indulged into producing toys as per required and pre
requisite standards. Distributors: The final products of the organisation were then sent to warehouses to be
distributed further (Fitzgerald and Stol, 2017). Retailers: The stored products were then distributed to different retailers from where end
customers bought the toys produced by the organisation.
Operational Systems:
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 Design: The very first system within the firm was working on the design of toys that the
company was intending to produce. Concept development was performed by several
designers for different products as per the objectives of the firm. Planning: This operation had a separate department within the company and indulged
into determining requirements related to production, sales, time schedules, etc. Manufacturing: This operation is one of the major operations of A.C. Gilbert as reflected
within the case study. It includes making of the products as per the standards set during
planning with use of quality materials as well as emphasis on durability. Distribution: Warehouses and retailers were chained together by the company to make its
toys available to its end users (Saunila, 2017).
Product/Service Delivery:
To ensure effective product delivery, the firm contacted and associated itself with
retailers. Moreover, due to its low cost production, the sales team first acquired orders from
customers, on basis of which the set unit was produced and delivered through retailers.
Development of Elements of Review Strategy
It is imperative that an appropriate review strategy is developed in context with the
systems and processes by A.C. Gilbert as discussed above. Elements of review strategy for these
aspects are mentioned below: Objectives: One of the first element upon which the review would be based is the
objectives of the strategy. As per the description, these aspects within systems and
processes of the company are subjected to cut up the cost and ensure highest quality in its
products. Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Another element of the review strategy is to
appropriately evaluate indicators for the performance of the company on grounds of
marketing, relevancy to supply chain management, current trends, sales and preference.
As per the systems above, the firm had a good reputation and was associated with quality
suppliers and distributors and functioned in alignment of the current trend of that time,
resulting in higher sales and preference (Baumann and et. al., 2016). This denotes a
measurable value that is liable for demonstration of the ways in which firm can attain
their key business objectives. For this firms like A.C. Gilbert utilises KPI’s at each level
for evaluation of success so that they can attain their targets within specified time frame.
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Higher level of KPI’s emphasise on entire performance of business on the other hand low
level lays focus on processes of each individual department along with activities carried
out within each individual department like HR, marketing and many others. Basically, it
denotes that objectives have been formulated with respect to specified tasks and if they
are attained then next objective will be carried out ensure that overall goal is attained.
 Performance review process: The process for reviewing is quite simple, i.e., performance
standards are being set on basis of quality, production and marketing and the performance
would be reviewed accordingly.
Performance Monitoring
Performance monitoring for supply chain, operational systems and product/service
delivery would appropriately be monitored using the review strategy above (Peurach, 2016) .
This monitoring is discussed below:
Supply Chain: Objectives: As per the case, the objectives upon which the supply chain would be
reviewed till 1966 is cost, and time of delivery as per the pre set time. KPI: The indicators of the supply chain would reviewed in context of whether they
satisfied the area of quality of raw materials, cost and quality of retailers. Review Process: Standards within the whole process would be set in terms of quality at
first, and then would be reviewed in terms of supply chain management.
Operational Systems: Objectives: Objectives would be reviewed in terms of technology, marketing, quality and
relevant trends. KPI: Quality Management, Relevance to market preference and packaging would act as
indicators of performance. Review Process: The standards set would be regarding market analysis and use of
technology while producing products.
Product/Service Delivery: Objectives: Objectives would be reviewed against Time and Quality management. KPI: Cost, quality, safety and time would act as indicators for A.C. Gilbert till 1966.
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 Review Process: Standards in terms of delivery as per the set standards and quality and
time taken to produce the products would be used to review the toys (Palm, Lilja and
Wiklund, 2016).
Variances from Plans and Targets for Key Result Areas (KRA)
The concept that is associated with performance of individuals that can be measured as well
as activities which creates a strong influence on the ways firm renders there services is referred
to as key result area. For an instance, it illustrated the specified criteria or metrics which have
been formulated for carrying out the specified assets. This can be understood by taking an
example like budget has been furnished by finance department for carrying out internal
recruitment. This do not means that the same budget can be utilised for having external
recruitments. It implies that each objective is unique and will render the different results
depending on their usability. This cannot be measured practically but up to some extent they can
be analysed. Some of the key points with respect to key result areas have been illustrated below
in the context of A.C. Gilbert. Quality: There was heavy variance in toys by A.C. Gilbert in terms of quality. For
instance, before 1961, the quality of the firm was quite effective, due to trained staff.
However, with time, during 1963, the set quality standards declined, because of usage of
monotonous designs and cardboard packaging. Sales: Variance within sales was moderate. As in 1961, the sales were $11.5 million,
whereas in 1966, the sales were $12.9 million. The highest rate of sales were in year
1965, amounting to be $14.9 million dollar, however the same saw decline the following
year, decreasing the overall level of variance (Tidd and Bessant, 2018). Profit: The profit margins of the firm declined substantially. Seeing a profit of $20,011 in
1961 to liquidation in 1967, the firm saw subsequent losses throughout. Moreover, the
variance is high as the loss in 1963 reached $5.7 million from $281,000 in previous year. Supply Chain performance: Target of Jack Wrather was to introduce 50 toy lines in 1963
which made the number to be 307. However, due to decline in preference and profits, in
1964 the firm deleted almost 20 of its new items. Moreover, its manufacturing
department lacked to supply products till Christmas due to inappropriate harmony and
management in 1965, reflecting a severe decline in performance of supply chain than
what was planned. Thus, the variance level is quite high.
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 Business Growth: Target of the firm was to enhance its sales through cutting up at its
prices and enhancing diversity. However, major variance was showcased within the same
throughout the years due to heavy replacement of top and middle level managers as well
as non coping with changes of technology and trends (Maalouf and Gammelgaard,
2016) .
Trends relevant to A.C. Gilbert Market Share: This was quite a strength of the company as prior to 1960 as it produced
effective and durable toys for kids that helped the firm in getting a competent position in
the market. Reputation: The firm's reputation was also a strength, as the company was known to
produce quality toys and had effective customer service. Stability: A.C. Gilbert was quite stable as the firm had appropriate public relations and
reliability on its toys. Moreover, the firm also had set plans for future growth with better
quality toys. Sales: Due to being one of the few firms with quality goods, its sales were surely as
strength prior to 1960 (van Breda-Verduijn and Heijboer, 2016).
 Adaptiveness: and Innovation: It was a weakness of the company as the firm did not cope
up with any change happened around them. Moreover, regular procedures, technologies
and training were provided to staff, which led to ineffectiveness in innovation.
Identification of New Technological or Electronic Commerce Opportunities
Internally, A.C. Gilbert would have opportunity to get qualified engineers who could
have guided the company regarding use of advanced and effective technology. Furthermore,
better training opportunities and methods like On The job training and simulation would have
made their production staff more valuable and competent.
Externally, the firm would be able to externally acquire marketing consultants, which
would have allowed the company to conduct campaigns that would help the firm in enhancing
the scope of advertisement effectively.
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ASSESSMENT 2
Introduction
Implementation plan refers to appropriately deliver strategy in ways which allows a
company to commence its project effectively and as per standards. Following is that strategy and
implementation for A.C. Gilbert in order to improvise its performance.
Performance Improvement Strategy
It can be defined as a formulation of organisational development that focuses upon increase
in outputs and improved efficiency for a specific procedure and process. An appropriate
performance strategy can be made to develop and introduce a new remote control car for
children. This improvement plan is developed to braincase sales and overall profitability of an
organisation. An appropriate performance improvement strategy for this organisation can be
made as follows-
Strategic goals- These are the long term vision of an organisation towards which it operates it
business activities and processes. The basic goal of A.C Gilbert is to manufacture toys that meet
up customer expectations and goals. The strategic goals of this organisation-
 To enhance the market share of this organisation up to 20%.
 To increase the overall profitability of this organisation by 10% in upcoming year.
Proposed Process- It is designed to identify the procedure of a specific project and the
process in which these goals and objectives are achieved in an organisation. This organisation
for the purpose of increasing its market share, profitability and overall productivity of an
organisation. For achieving this objective, an appropriate procedure is required to be followed by
an organisation which includes conducting an effective marketing planning, marketing research.
It includes knowing the competition prevailing in a market and analysing various strategies
followed by its competitors. An organization need to indulge in an appropriate market research
before introducing new product in target market. This enterprise needs to make sure that what the
behaviour of customers in a target market is. Moreover, the firm is required to enhance their
workforce abilities through real time simulation training and access to enhanced technologies.
This proposal helped in improving the overall performance of an organisation by increasing
its overall sales, profitability and enhancing its market share. For achieving these goals , this
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strategic proposed process is formulated. It helps in achieving business goals and objectives as
follows-
 In this proposed procedure, an appropriate market research is conducted which will help
this organisation in knowing its customer behaviour by analysing the target market in an
appropriate manner. On that basis, this organisation produce toys by keeping in mind the
desires, wants and need of customers.
 It will also help the organisation in formulating the effective strategy in achieving
business objectives by enhancing its market share and sales.
It includes knowing the competition prevailing in a market and analysing various strategies
followed by its competitors. An organisation need to indulge in an appropriate market research
before introducing new product in target market. This enterprise needs to make sure that what is
the behaviour of customers in a target market. Moreover, the firm is required to enhance their
workforce abilities through real time simulation training and access to enhanced technologies.
KRA- A key result area can be defined as an strategic factor which is wither external or
internal in an organisation in which strong positive results needed to be realised for the enterprise
in order to achieve its strategic objectives and thus it has been moved forward to realise the long
term vision of success of an organisation. A.C Gilbert can use this indicator to evaluate the
performance of this enterprise. The appropriate result areas would be quality, profit, customer
engagement. It includes knowing the competition prevailing in a market and analysing various
strategies followed by its competitors. An organisation need to indulge in an appropriate market
research before introducing new product in target market. This enterprise needs to make sure that
what is the behaviour of customers in a target market. Moreover, the firm is required to enhance
their workforce abilities through real time simulation training and access to enhanced
technologies.
KPI- A.C Gilbert can use this performance for measuring the overall performance of this
organisation. It also helps in evaluating the success of its business activities in which it is
engaged. This indicator can be utilised by this organisation in order to identify where the
organisation performance can be measured. The indicators would be quality, durability, cost and
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accordance with market trends. It includes knowing the competition prevailing in a market and
analysing various strategies followed by its competitors. An organisation need to indulge in an
appropriate market research before introducing new product in target market. This enterprise
needs to make sure that what is the behaviour of customers in a target market. Moreover, the
firm is required to enhance their workforce abilities through real time simulation training and
access to enhanced technologies.
Briefing And Consultation Session
To distribute the strategy, the key members would be head of sales, production, marketing
and R&D department. The production manager was asked to assess the strategy, within which
several aspects came into question, which were:
 Pros: The pros of the strategy is that before moving in to manufacture the product, a
detailed market and competitive research is being undertaken.
 Cons: A major focus of this strategy is on enhancing the competence of employees and
market research, rather than on technological improvements in production and packaging.
 Improvements: The improvements within the strategy could be to effectively enhance the
scope of technological use towards employees as well as the product, marketing and
logistics and supply.
It includes knowing the competition prevailing in a market and analysing various strategies
followed by its competitors. An organisation need to indulge in an appropriate market research
before introducing new product in target market. This enterprise needs to make sure that what is
the behaviour of customers in a target market. Moreover, the firm is required to enhance their
workforce abilities through real time simulation training and access to enhanced technologies.
Lead Session
In terms of functioning, to deliver the strategy appropriately several aspects were taken into
consideration which are mentioned below;
 Development of Ideas: This is an essential aspect for which, Brainstorming is a technique
which is used, that appropriately would help in creatively generate new ideas of how best
to develop better offerings and implement the strategy.
 Trial: Out of all options, innovation and Six Sigma production was used as a technique,
which was trialled appropriately through following its principles.
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 Issues Identification: The major issue that was identified was related to failure of
modification due to rigidity in design, for which, flexibility was introduced.
Summary
The results were quite effective as the strategy was implemented as per plan. A detailed
report involving performance standards and outcomes in context with KPI and KRA were
evaluated and presented as a report for group's approval.
Revising Strategy
The revised strategy due to rigidity in the previous one is to introduce lean production and
Total Quality Management along with Six sigma to work on cost and quality of the products.
Risk Strategy
There are certain area of risks which are discussed below:
RISK SEVERITY CORRECTIVE
ACTION
ASSIGNED
Equipment
Failure
HIGH Equipment testing
before usage
R&D Manager
Incompetent
Employees
MEDIUM Better training
facilities
Training
Consultant
Ineffective
Supply Chain
LOW Acquisition and
supply on contractual
basis
Supply Chain
Management
Conclusion
Hence, Implementation plan and assessing of strategy is important and allows to evaluate
and assess strategies on several criteria in order to effectively construct appropriate pathways in
order to ensure success and effective growth.
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ASSESSMENT 3
Examination of aspects of Part 1 – Implementation
There are a number of aspects pertaining to the new implementation plan launched by the
respective corporation for improvement of efficiency within the production process taking place
at A. C. Gilbert. In this regard, it has been examined that the idea of enhancing the efficiencies
emerged as an outcome of innovative ideas program. This plan is being implemented across the
whole organisational premises with a view to facilitate effective and smooth flow of business
operations so that company can stay in market place for a long duration of time (Aas, Jentoft
and Vasstrøm, 2016).
In this regard, there are a number of aspects associated with the implemented which are
critically examined as follows:-
Goals of Program
The goal of the program is to increase productivity, reduce waste, improve sustainability,
and reduce errors on production lines by 20% by allocating specialist team members to
individual lines. Further, the secondary goal pertaining to the implementation plan is to reduce
staff turnover from an average of 32% per annum to 20% per annum, thus improving the skill
levels and efficiencies of the plant and reducing costs in recruiting and training new staff. The
analysis and examination of these goals stipulate that the objectives set by the company are
accurate as the company is going through a tough phase in financial and commercial terms.
Development of Teams
In the new implementation plan, it has been devised that the production staff as well as
process workers will be divided into five different teams. Hereby also, it is decided that each
team will hold accountability for production of 5 product lines. The teams would also get
engaged in setting of goals as well as objectives for their own product lines. Each month, the
teams would be holding meetings to stipulate production as well as error rate projections for the
next, with the sole aim to constantly enhance both the rates and thereby achieving a maximum of
4% error rate and a 40% increase in productivity within 24 months whereby the present error rate
is acknowledged to be 22%. In this regard, it can be said that the decision to carry out the tasks
by dividing the personnel into teams is an effective decision as this will provide assistance to the
entity in achieving the stipulated targets within the due course of time. Through the usage of
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