Pellet Fires Tasmania: Operational and Organizational Context Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Pellet Fires Tasmania, a Tasmanian-owned business specializing in heating and ventilation products. The report begins with an introduction to the company, its mission, and its focus on three key perspectives: Knowledge Management, Logistics, and ICT Strategy. It then offers a detailed business overview, including the company's history, locations, product range, and key competitors. The organizational overview delves into both the internal and external environments, including SWOT analyses. The report explores the company's business strategies, emphasizing professional installation, expert advice, local business support, sales consultation, home service, and customer loyalty programs. The report also examines three key perspectives: Knowledge Management, focusing on the use of cloud-based systems like Retail Express for data management and customer service; Logistics, including procurement, transportation, inventory, and warehouse management; and ICT Strategy, highlighting the role of technology in the company's operations. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and a list of references.

Pellet Fires Tasmania
Organisational Context
1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................................... 3
2. BUSINESS OVERVIEW............................................................................................................................ 3
3. ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW AND OPERATING CONTEXT.....................................................................4
3.1 INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT...............................................................................................................................5

3.1.1 SWOT ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................5
3.1.2 CORE COMPETENCIES..............................................................................................................................5
3.1.3 PROCESS MAPPING................................................................................................................................5
3.2 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT............................................................................................................................6
3.2.1 SWOT ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................................6
4. BUSINESS STRATEGIES........................................................................................................................... 6
5. THREE PERSPECTIVES............................................................................................................................ 7
5.2 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT.......................................................................................................................7
5.3 LOGISTICS.................................................................................................................................................8
5.2.1 PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT.......................................................................................................................9
5.2.2 TRANSPORTATION.........................................................................................................................................9
5.2.3 INVENTORY MANAGEMENT............................................................................................................................9
5.2.4 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT..........................................................................................................................9
5.4 ICT STRATEGY.........................................................................................................................................10
6. CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................... 11
7. REFERENCE.......................................................................................................................................... 11
1. INTRODUCTION
Pellet Fires Tasmania is the Tasmanian owned business by Mr Rob Douglas who is the
Managing Director of the company. They are the major suppliers of the heating and

ventilation products all through Tasmania keep into account the life standard of Australian
people. Keeping in mind the three perspectives: Knowledge Management, Logistics and ICT
Strategy, we all three group members choose this business as it is the small business with
high visions and missions for their self and for the people of Tasmania to provide them with
the comfortable and luxurious livelihood at their home place. These are the things that made
them different from their rivals and this whole report will tell about the operational and
organisational context of the company.
2. BUSINESS OVERVIEW
Pellet Fire Tasmania is a local company in Tasmania having branches in three different
locations. Mr. Rob Douglas established the company in the year 2001 to introduce the
technology of pellet heating in Tasmania. In 2004 the organization opened the head office in
108 Gormanston Road, Moonah and in 2012 they started warehouse at 49 Derwent Park
Road, Moonah near to the head office as shown in Figure 1. The company expanded their
business to Launceston and to Ulverstone. In Launceston, the retail store is located at 16
Goodman Court, Invermay and in Ulverstone the store location is at 31A Victoria Street,
Ulverstone.
Figure 1: Head office and warehouse of Pellet Fire Tasmania, Moonah
Pellet Fire Tasmania offer all heating methods like pellets, electric heating, gas, solar and
wood to their customers. They have experienced staffs and PFTAS trained professional
contractor for the installation of all type of heating equipment. They also specialized in
renewal energy, central heating installation, hydronic heating, pellet BBQ’s & Ovens and
ventilation installation.
One of the most selling products in Pellet Fire Tasmania is pellet heating which is pellet
heating having the capacity range from 6Kw to 13Kw. In pellet heating they are having
various range of products in like pellet console, pellet insert, pellet hydronic and pellet BBQ
& smokers. Figure 2 is showing some of the best selling products in Pellet Fire Tasmania.

Figure 2: Products Range in Pellet Fire Tasmania
In the wood section, the provide products that can be used as a wood open fireplace, wood
convection, wood radiant, wood cookers, wood duel sided, wood inbuilt.
In gas, they market the products like gas log fires, gas space heaters, gas hydronic boilers,
ducted gas heating.
The main electric products are electric fan heaters, electric wall panels, electric outdoor
heating and electric heat pumps.
The main competitors of Pellet fire Tasmania are Bass pellet Heaters, Bunnings and Harvey
Norman. Pellet Fire become unique from all other competitors by providing quality products
and best customer services and loyalty cards.
3. ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW AND OPERATING CONTEXT
Being a recognized organization in the market of Pellet fires heaters and other services, Pellet
Fires Tasmania has remarkably grown since the establishing year 2001. Suitable to Chilling
Tasmanian weather the company has introduced various products such as Pellet Fire heaters,
Natural gas heating, electric heating, Solar products and many more. More than just a seller,
the organization have a specialized team that provides Tasmania wide customer service for
installation and maintenance. With a perfect blend of Business strategies and advanced
technologies, the organization tends to work efficiently.
Following are some analysis of the operating context of the business environment:

3.1 INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
The internal structure of the business has strong strategies that strengthen the customer
services and make the business more influential in the market place. After Analysing the
internal environment of the organization, here are some observed analysis on the basis of
various tools:
3.1.1 SWOT ANALYSIS
Emphasizing on the strengths and weaknesses of the business, according to Mr. Rob Douglas,
the key fact of business that make their business unique is that they are the first who
introduced pellet heaters in Tasmania and the company is using its own brand rather than just
relying on import and sale business. PFT import the product parts from various suppliers but
does not sale the imported brand into the market. As their core strategy, the products they sell
is assembled by their own expert technicians and products are labelled as their own brand
which meets the Tasmanian standards.
3.1.2 CORE COMPETENCIES
Business of heaters and ventilation products is always have been a demanding business in
Tasmanian market. Apart from Pallet Fires Tasmania (PFT), there are some other brands who
are well known in such kind of products. For instance, Harvey Norman, Bunnings are some
Australia wide companies which can be counted for competition. Moreover, some other
similar local business such as Bass pellet heaters, Launceston are competitors of similar
marketing. But according to Managing Director Mr. Douglas, not every competitor has the
similar network or expert team as PFT has. Customer oriented strategies such as home
service, installation, maintenance and many others made the business more reliable.
3.1.3 PROCESS MAPPING
A basic building block for every business is its workflow i.e. how efficiently and effectively
business processes are accomplished. With the use of advanced ICT infrastructure and
Human resource management, every order is completed in a workflow. The following are
some basic tasks accomplished during the core process of customer service:
 The customer first order for the product
 The availability of the product shows on Retail Express and order is placed
 An invoice is generated for the customer with details of delivery
 The payment made by cards goes through POS system, which is directly interfaced
with Retail Express.
 Order is then placed to warehouse, and inventory is updated simultaneously
 The product is assembled and tested before labelling for delivery
 The Job is created for technicians for product installation
 The worker accepts the job and book an appointment with customer

 Once installation is done, technician take photos of the working product as proof to
avoid future conflicts
 Customers are provided with Loyalty cards for further assistance.
3.2 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Since 2001, Pellet Fires Tasmania has grown remarkably but so does the competitive market.
As the developing state, number of businesses seek their chances to grow with attractive
marketing strategies. If opportunities are increasing for the business, then threats are also
having existence. Performing a SWOT analysis on collected data, some opportunities and
threats are measured.
3.2.1 SWOT ANALYSIS
Tasmania population has been increased significantly in last few years, and of course, the
weather is unbearable without heat. With growing rate of population, there are chances for
business to grow. Moreover, pellet fire heaters are not only suitable for homes but also
having its attraction in Restaurants, cafes, Hotels and other business. For instance, company
have installed some recent projects in Mures Restaurant in Hobart and 3 capes track.
However, Threats are always a part of a business, and as for PFT there are some advanced
and new products in heating technologies, which may give the tough competition. Moreover,
according to Mr. Douglas, most of the people in Tasmania are not aware of pellet fire
techniques as it is a European technology and is not that prevalent in Australia.
4. BUSINESS STRATEGIES
Pellet fires Tasmania has timely focused on the business strategies and efficiently accept the
changes of customer needs and trends. figure 3 shows the business strategy of PFT
To support the business PFT has following strategies:
 Professional Installation: The products are installed at customer home by the
experienced and professional technical to guarantee the best service.
 Unbiased expert advice: Before confirming the sale, company provides the expert
advice because they believe that every customer have different requirements as per their
home size and budget, thus an unbiased advice is given by experts to the customer to
worth their investment.
 Supporting local business: Apart from having numerous suppliers from China, PFT also
supports the local business of Australia.
 Sales with consultation: Customers can not directly order for the product from the store
website because the company prefer to sale the product after consultation to ensure best
service and satisfaction of customer.

 Tasmania wide Home service: Not every other business in this industry provides the
home service with delivery and installation. This service is an appealing business strategy
of Pellet Fires Tasmania.
 Customer loyalty card: The customers are provided with various privileges with the
facility of Customer loyalty card provide on every purchase.
 Selling own Brand: The company has its own brand as they assemble and modify the
imported parts on Australian standards.
Figure 3: Business Strategy of Pellet Fire Tasmania
5. THREE PERSPECTIVES
5.2 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Nowadays, managing the knowledge and information of the company is the essential part of
the company’s operations as it leads that organisation to the heights. Pellet Fires Tasmania is
the company which uses the advanced IT software to manage the knowledge of the company
and store that information in the system called Retail Express which is cloud based system
which leads the organisation to thrive. Some of the functions of this system are as follows:
making the invoice, keeping record of financial profit and loss, orders by the customers,
PFT
Strategies
Professional
Installation
Unbaised
Expert
Advice
Home
Service
Customer
Loyalty
Selling Own
Brand
Sales and
Consultation
Supporting
Local
Businesses

inventory and the retail marketing of the organisation to achieve success in their business.
This system helps them to evaluate the growth of the company and financial loss and profit to
the company. This system stores the data of their supplier as well and most of their supplier
use the cloud-based system which has redundancy of data.
As they use the cloud-based system, they are not afraid of losing data of their customers and
company. Further, the Retail Express is the system which can manage the data of all the
stores of Pellet Fires Tasmania as a person operating in the head office can get the data of
sales of Launceston, Ulverstone store and the warehouse as well. Retail Express has the
interface at the backend with MYOB which does the accounting such as the tax invoices,
financials and payslips for the employees and generating the invoices for their supplier.
Stock Control stores of the system stores all the data safely and securely at one centralised at
one place. It does the Cash Register, taking money from customers, balancing the money, and
prices to be charged to the customers. They are not like any other retail company but provide
the retails services at their stores only as you can check the information from their website
about the product, they sell but you have to walk-in to the store to get that product.
Coming towards the cash sales, they keep the database of customer of all bills and payments
by the customer which is all managed by stock control at the pint of sales. Moving towards
the benefits to the customer, they provide loyalty points and bonus to their customers.
Collection of money from customers is done by EFTPOS which is connected to the browser
connected to the cloud system and sends money to the bank.
PF Tas is the sub domain they have which is only the online interface for products, but the
products can be checked manually only in the stores.
They store every information of the customer from placing the order to installation of the
product at their home place as they provide good customer service. Furthermore, they don’t
run their customers like any other retail company but by their names and keeping the
database of every customer of when they are buying the product and what they are buying.
At last every process of the company is synchronized with each other and is centralised
which leads to redundancy of data and reduces the chances of failure.
5.3 LOGISTICS
Every retail organization requires to work well on logistics management and inventory
management for the smooth flow of their supply chain management. According to Safwan Al
(2018) logistics management is one of the important elements of all organization to provide
an excellent service for their customers by controlling the goods and services. Pellet Fire
Tasmania has a good logistics management system.
5.2.1 PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT

Procurement management enhances an organization to manage their suppliers based on the
company’s requirements of the raw materials. It helps the company to gather quality raw
materials at low cost. Pellet Fire Tasmania having more than 200 suppliers from China and
Australian – Mainland. Among that, 20 suppliers are their major suppliers. They choose their
suppliers through relationships and contract and moreover, the suppliers should meet their
quality criteria. The company make the order of raw materials based on the demands and
needs of their customers.
5.2.2 TRANSPORTATION
Transportation of an organization improves the effectiveness of moving raw materials from
suppliers to the warehouse and also the movement of finished products to the end users. PFT
always order the materials in bulk that fit in a container. They import the fine quality parts
from China. Usually, 40 feet container can fit 80 to 100 heaters. The consignment will come
to Hobart port and the container will transport to the warehouse in a truck in the midnight.
The sales manager and warehouse manager will take the consignment and store in the
warehouse in order to make new PFT branded heaters.
5.2.3 INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
The main feature of inventory management in a company is to maintain the stock to meet
their customer demands over the different seasons. Based on Wiśniewski (2018, pp. 41-48)
the inventory management makes more profit using the methodology of bulk ordering as it
enhances the customer services and reduces the cost consumption.
Pellet Fire Tasmania (PFT) takes the stock in every two-month based on the demand of
products. In the busy seasons like winter season PFT order 2 containers which has the
capacity to occupy more than 200 heaters and order in six weeks apart. But in summer season
take the order six months apart. PFT always maintain a stock of 3000 items in their
warehouse to fulfil their customer’s demands to make the products available in all seasons.
PFT always prefer the credit on products which means pay the amount after 30 days or 60
days from dispatch and cash on delivery is very rarely accepted.
5.2.4 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT
Warehouse management is a strategy to maintain and control all the raw materials and
finished products under a warehouse. Walleigh, R (1986) argued that the warehouse
management system helped the various organization in different countries to reduce cost
consumption and thereby to enhance the operations. Pellet Fire Tasmania (PFT) is also
having a big warehouse near to the head office in Moonah. PFT stores all the inward goods
and outwards goods in the warehouse. Moreover, checking and testing of products, sorting
and picking & packing is coming under warehouse management section. When the goods

arrived in the warehouse, it will be unpacked and tested. After that, the heater will be altered
and modified to Australian standards.
In the next stage, they repaint the heater and finally polish to look better. PFT has its own
workers in the warehouse to make their own brand. All the alteration activities will be held in
the PFT warehouse. When the goods are ready to deliver to the customer a message will send
to the customer and to the delivery person. Once the product is ready, then add the bar code
to each product and PFT uses the bar code system only for their own purpose.
5.4 ICT STRATEGY
The company is using various ICT devices and applications in their business. It has enabled
them to provide products to customers in wide area. For this they have developed and
effective ICT strategy which is as follows :
 Retail Express: they have implemented a cloud a based software. In that various
services are integrated into such as warehousing, POS, etc. it is a centralised cloud
service in which all stores, warehouse and head office is connected. Moreover, Pellet
Fire Tasmania is able to manage their inventory through it. However, this software
can be integrated with other ICT devices easily if company want to install new ICT
devices in future. For example- MYOB
 MYOB: the company is using MYOB accounting software for their account and
finance related work. In this salary, expenses, tax info, etc. and other is accessed and
stored by them. Furthermore, invoice, payroll, and other accounting calculations are
done in it.
 MYWORK Application: the entire IT infrastructure of organisation is maintained by
experts. The company is using MY WORK app to communicate with its staff. The
app is installed in smart phones and PC of employees. The office staff monitor app.
Through this app, it becomes easy for employees of company to quickly communicate
with one another. The staff can also interact from outside store or office.
 Cloud storage: For storing of data and information of customers, Pellet Fire
Tasmania is using a cloud storage database. It stores all type of data. The company
have collaborated with third party for using cloud storage services
 Website: Pellet Fire Tasmania is having their own official website which is accessed
by customers. In that website info of different types of products and services is
mentioned. Also, they are having official page of social platform like Facebook and
Twitter.
6. CONCLUSION
It can be summarised that ICT tools has changed the way of business operations. It has
enabled in increasing efficiency of KM and changing logistics as well. Pellet Fires Tasmania

operations include installing of heating and ventilation products within the house. The cloud-
based software, MY WORK app, etc. is used by them in storing data and communicating
with staff. Even though they have capability of technological advancement in their small
business, there are some areas where improvements can be done.
7. REFERENCE
Davis, J, Subrahmanian, E & Westerberg, A 2005, Knowledge Management: Conceptual
Foundations, Emerging Directions, Physica-Verlag HD, viewed 24th March 2019,
<https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F3-7908-1618-3_1.pdf>.
Gatautis, R., Medziausiene, A., Tarute, A. and Vaiciukynaite, E., 2015. Towards ICT impact
framework: Private and public sectors perspective. Journal of Economics, Business and
Management, vol. 3, no. 4, pp.465-469.
Pellet fire Tasmania, 2019, viewed on 15 March 2019, <https://pellet.com.au/>
Safwan Al, S, & Amjad, M 2018, 'Structuring of Logistics Management Organizational-
Technological System', Vestnik Mordovskogo Universiteta, Vol 28, Iss 2, Pp 175-180 (2018),
no. 2, p. 175.
Walleigh, R 1986, ‘What's your excuse for not using JIT?’, Harvard Business Review, vol.
64, no. 2, pp. 38-54.
Wiśniewski, T 2018, 'Simulation Study of Inventory Management in Supply Chains', Logistics
& Transport, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 41-48.