Category: Manufacturing

Introduction

Inventory can be described as the raw materials, merchandise and finished and finished products alike of a company of which have not yet been sold (Song & Zipkin 2003, p. 1).

A company’s inventory represents one of the key assets of a business because the earnings obtained from the inventory signify one of the prime sources of generating revenue and which subsequently brings earnings to the involved management. In other words, they can be considered as the company’s liquid assets that can be converted into cash anytime without any difficulty. Now the inventories of a manufacturing and a service industry are not the same at all, but rather they differ in many ways.

For example, in a manufacturing industry, there are many different inventories in between the production stages before the final product is obtained. The time taken between say the raw material processing and the time that the product is semi finished and also the time taken for the final product to be assumed may vary. It may also take quite a while after the product is on the shelves during the retail stage.

Thus for a manufacturing industry, there would be a time delay between the production and consumption of the product. On the other hand, in the services industry, there is an immediate consumption of the product once it is produced. This may be reflected in the example of a food court, where the production and consumption of the food and drinks takes place simultaneously (Deshpande, Cohen & Donohue 2003, p. 683; Hoyt 2002, p. 2).

Importance of inventory

The major importance of inventory of goods and services is that it helps a company to produce the goods and services only when needed and required. This is because the having an inventory by a company for a long duration of time can be very costly for it, due to storage, spoilage, and obsolescence costs (Gravelle & Rees 2004, p. 5; ). On the other hand, having a very minute inventory can also be risky to the company as it stands to lose potential market share and sales as well (Dale 2003, p. 5).

Inventory issues

The main issues that are involved in inventory include the costs which are included in the acquisition costs, the frequency may they be perpetual or periodic in the cost computations, the cost flow assumption, which may not really represent the physical inventory flow, used to trace cost movement and the valuation basis (Axster 2003, p. 438). These may be borne by the manufacturer, service provider or even the intermediary.

Discussion

Literature notes that inventory is very important in the production and sale of products and services. The main significance is that it helps the company to know when to produce the goods and services only when needed and to know the quantity to be produced (Schroeder 1993, p. 56). This would then help in cutting overhead costs of storage among others in case of overproduction and it would eliminate the possibility of the company missing the market share and chances.

Therefore, problems of overproduction or underproduction are taken into consideration and catered for. All companies that are in the manufacturing of goods and service providing essentially use inventory. This helps them to track the process of production up until consumption and in turn, it helps them to maximize on profits by minimizing production costs (Dong & Rudi 2004, p. 645).

Conclusion

As a conclusion, companies that use inventories, be they good, production or service providers are at a better level of maximizing on profits and cashing in on the market chances, meeting the needs and requirements of the market. With the advent of technology (Melchiors, Dekker & Kleijn 2000, p. 111), software for inventories like Just-In-Time (JIT) is available to make work easier (Frakes & Ricardo1992, p. 46).

All these should be clearly documented in order for easier referencing. At the end of the financial year, these records should be analyzed in order to project the future market requirements for better planning (Jacobs & Chase 2010, p. 43; Muhlemann & Lockyer, 1992, p. 234).

Reference List

Axster, S 2003, Evaluation of unidirectional lateral transshipments and substitutions in inventory systems, European Journal of Operational Research 149, 438–447.

Dale, B 2003, Management Quality, 4th Edn, Blackwell, Oklahoma.

Deshpande, V, Cohen, M & Donohue, K 2003, A threshold inventory rationing policy for service-differentiated demand classes, Management Science, 49, 683–703.

Dong, L & Rudi, N 2004, Who benefits from transshipment? Exogenous vs. endogenous wholesale prices, Management Science, 50, 645–657.

Frakes, W & Ricardo, B 1992, Information Retrieval: Data Structures and Algorithms, Prentice-Hall 45-50.

Gravelle, H & Rees, R 2004, Microeconomics, 3rd Edn, Prentice Hall, New York.

Hoyt, W 2002, Basics of inventory control. Prentice Hall, New York

Jacobs, R & Chase R 2010, Operations and supply chain management, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York.

Melchiors, P, Dekker, R & Kleijn, M 2000, Inventory rationing in an (s,Q) inventory model with lost sales and two demand classes, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 51, 111–122.

De V ́ricourt, F, Karaesmen, F & Dallery, Y 2002, Optimal stock allocation for a capacitated supply system, Management Science 48, 1486–1501.

Muhlemann, A & Lockyer, K 1992, Production and operations management, 6th Edn, Pitman, New York.

Schroeder, R 1993, Operations management: decision making in the operations function, 4th Edn, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York.

Song, J & Zipkin, P 2003, Supply chain operations: Assemble-to-order systems, In: A.G. de Kok, S.C. Graves (Eds.), Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science, vol. 11, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

One of the most complex issues of the modern design, the assessment of the possibilities within each project offered is a major problem, which means 5hat the design of certain products must be subject to detailed considerations and searching for the probable flaws, as well as seeking the means to eliminate the latter for the customer to be interested in the given product.

Hence, the observation of the offered scenarios will provide a sufficient food for thoughts and help to practice the evaluation of certain marketing and production issues. Hence, the analysis of the scenarios offered will provide a sufficient practice for the real-life market situation.

Speaking of the first and the second scenarios concerning the public mobile toilets and the cleaning buckets with the inclusive support for the mop, one can claim with certainty that the innovations offered in the given scenarios certainly sound in the most inspiring way and deserve being implemented.

However, it must be also admitted that the given innovations presuppose a number of limitations and constraints. To start with, the idea of public portable toilets is considerably restricted by the number of people that can wait in line for their turn.

On the one hand, portable public toilets are supposed to be used in a fast way, yet, according to the results of the researches carried out so far, the lines in front of the door to the portable toilets can reach the most enormous length. As Anthony and Dufresne (2007) say, the ordeal of waiting in lines is one of the most common features of using portable public toilets (p.268).

Moreover, according to the authors, the usage of the public portable toilets can also trigger certain discrimination issues, namely, the race or gender discrimination; as the writers assert, the cases of the issues in question have been registered and are a part and parcel of the reality: “In addition, today’s transgender population can be at a loss in deciding which public restrooms to use, because they do not fit nearly into either of the existing categories” (p.270).

Speaking of the limitations connected with the mops, one must admit that the objects in question, namely, the buckets themselves, provide enough limitations. It is essential to mark that the mops attached to the buckets can cause certain confusion and be quite uncomfortable to handle with in case the mop weighs more than an empty bucket.

In terms of the manufacturing processes concerning the issues in question, one should mark that the most reasonable steps to undertake in the course of the manufacturing procedure will be to create a portable toilet that will be lightweight and easy to transport. As Palm (1997) suggests,

The main component of the portable toilet is lightweight sheet plastic, such as polyethylene, which forms the actual toilet unit as well as the cabana in which it is contained. A pump and holding tank form the portable sewage system. (Palm).

However, it must be also kept in mind that a good portable public toilet is supposed to be firm and solid, for it not to be ruined by the storm or any other forced outer impact. Hence, the manufacturing process will involve the search for the materiel that is both light and strong enough to take the blows of the wind, storm and snow.

Therefore, the manufacturing processes involved in creating a portable public toilet will presuppose the search for a light and at the same time lasting material, its processing and the final stage of creating the toilet that will stand the coarse weather and be easy to transport to any other place.

In addition, it is important that the toilet should be resistant to chemicals. Speaking of the manufacturing processes concerning the production of the buckets with the mop attached to them, it will be necessary to search for the specific materials for both the mop and the bucket.

It will be desirable that the bucket should be made of the material that would make it heavier than the mop yet light enough for the worker to lift it, whereas the mop must be light and at the same time not fragile.

It is also essential to mark the constraints that are connected with the products developed. Once knowing the limitations that the products in question presuppose themselves, one will be able to avoid a number of mistakes when developing the concept and implementing it into the reality.

Speaking of the public toilets, one should mark that the key limitation connected with the toilet itself is the lack of space within it and the impossibility to locate more than one person at the same time comfortably. Hence, it will be desirable to make the public portable toilets as easy and fast to use as possible, thus reducing the time of waiting in line for one’s turn and helping people to feel more comfortable.

Therefore, the portable public toilets must be constructed in such a way that nothing should cluster a person’s way to the sink and the toilet. Moreover, the objects in the toilet must be located in such a way that they could take the minimum of space and be close at hand for the public to reach easily. It is also essential that the toile seats should be secured with nuts, bolts, and rivets.

Speaking of the cleaning bucket and mop creation, one must remember that the size of the mop must correspond to the size of the bucket. To be more particular, the mop attachment is supposed to be no longer than the diameter of the bucket bottom, for the mop to be easily operated with.

On the one hand, the attachment must be long enough to clean the maximum floor area; on the other hand, the mop must fit easily the cleaning bucket, which poses certain limitations to the designing and manufacturing.

The last, but not the least issue concerning the creation of the aforementioned products concerns the possible materials to make the given goods of. It is necessary mark that in the first case, the lightness and the firmness of the material is the main concern.

Therefore, it would be the most reasonable decision to make use of such materials as compressed PVC or polypropylene plastics, as Palm (1997) offers, which will contribute to the creation of the desired effect.

It is also essential to mark that, for the buckets and mops used at home, lighter constructions should be used and the sponge should be constructed in such a way that it could be removed, whereas for the professional use, the buckets should be equipped with the attached sponge and must be heavier and, thus, more stable.

Concerning the construction of the cleaning bucket and the mop, one should consider such an idea as making the buckets and the mops out of plastics. Since the material is light enough, it will not hinder the process of cleaning and will not make it overcomplicated to transform the bucket from one place to another.

Therefore, the process of the cleaning will become more comfortable and fast. In addition, it would be a good idea to make the mop adjusted to the bucket out of plastics as well, making it somewhat lighter with the help of the hollow trunk and the simple, flat design of the mop attachment.

Moreover, it seems that the attachment can be made much lighter, once the specific materials are used to make the head of the mop. Despite the fact that a piece of cloth is often used to clean the dirt off the floor, it will me more reasonable to attach a piece of sponge to the mop to make it lighter, since the cleaning facilities of a sponge are practically the same as the ones of a cloth, yet a sponge weighs less.

Another two scenarios offer a group of other products for consideration and provide considerable food for thoughts, clarifying several issues concerning the construction of golf carts and the production of the kids’ helmets. Speaking of the first issue in question, one must emphasize that the key constraints and limitations that the given problem presupposes concern the creation of the buttons on the dashboard.

It is reasonable to suggest that the plastic keyboard for such mechanism as golf carts will demand a number of controls on the panel, whereas the area that can be used for placing the buttons on is restricted by the size of the dashboard itself.

There is no doubt that, reducing the size of the buttons themselves, one can fit a considerable amount of controls on the dashboard, yet it is obvious that there are certain restrictions, since the buttons are supposed to be easily spotted and comfortable to handle with.

Making the buttons small and positioned close to each other, one will make the dashboard hard to operate with, since it will be hard to distinguish between each button and press the correct one. Therefore, there is no doubt that the modeling of the golf cart keyboard is considerably restricted by its size.

Concerning the complexities and the limitations that one is likely to come across when creating a kids’ helmet, the fact that the helmets will have to be light and at the same time provide safety for children.

In addition, the choice of the materials has to be restricted to certify that only the materials that cannot harm children’s health are used. Therefore, the production of children’s helmets is supposed to feature the helmets that are made of light non-toxic material that offers considerable protection from the outer factors, like a considerable coercion on the helmet and the probable falls on the ground.

Another important thing to focus the attention on is the possible manufacturing process. When creating the dashboard for the golf cart, it would be most reasonable to resort to the technique that presupposes heating small pieces of plastic to the liquid or near-liquid state.

It is essential to mark that, as a non-Newtonian liquid, the heated plastics will be quite easy to handle with, creating the buttons of the required shape and placing then precisely into the room where they are supposed to be located.

In terms of the procedures that the creation of kids’ helmets will presuppose, one should not that the plastic injection modeling will be the most suitable process of the helmet creation. According to what Bryce (1998) says, the given process will allow to apply the necessary corrections in the course of the moulding, which is extremely important for shaping the details of the helmet:

The primary advantage of this process is that many functions and features can be incorporated into the product design. This process will minimize, or eliminate, the amount of secondary work required to produce the same product in other ways or using other materials. (p.1)

Therefore, it cannot be argued that the creation of the given product presupposes the use of molding technique. When applying the given approach to the production, one can anticipate that the complexities mentioned above are supposed to be overcome. With the help of the molding technique, the probable obstacles concerning the firmness will be overcome and the reliability of the material can be achieved.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that there are considerable constrictions concerning the properties of the given products. Speaking of the dashboard for the golf carts creation, one must take into consideration that the development of the dashboards will involve rather tough treatment and, therefore, must be durable.

In addition, it is essential to consider the recyclability of the material used for the helmets creation. However, it is also important to mark that the elements of the dashboard are not to be made of the metal that is disposed to corrosion.

Since in certain cases, the carts can be exposed to rain and moist weather, which is likely to expose the carts to the danger of becoming rusty. Thus, it is necessary to avoid using the materials that are subject to corrosion.

When talking about the kids’ helmets, one should also note that the major constriction that is linked to the given item is its being environmentally friendly and consisting of the materials that will enhance its recyclability, enhancing the latter and, thus, contributing to the fight with the environmental pollution. Therefore, the materials that the helmet is supposed to consist of are of crucial importance.

Another issue of utter importance is the consideration of the materials that can be utilized in the course of the given products manufacturing. It is important to note that in the given case, the PP and ABS plastic would be the best choice of materials due to the latter’s high rates of recyclability.

According to the results of the analysis and the probable suggestions of solving the complexities depicted above, one can claim with certainty that the experience obtained is of utter importance.

Creating the models that will help to understand the mechanisms of the manufacturing processes and the further search for the problem solution are of considerable help for investigating the way the modern manufacturing system is structured.

Hence, with the help of the information obtained, the algorithm of the manufacturing processes can be understood and, hence, the ways to enhance and improve it can be suggested.

References

Anthony, K., & Dufresne, M., 2007. Potty party in perspective: Gender and family Issues in planning and designing public restrooms. Journal of Planning Literature, 21 (3), pp. 267-294.

Bryce, D. M., 1998. Plastic injection molding: Mold design and construction fundamentals. New York, NY: SME.

Palm, K., 1997. Portable toilet. Made How Web. Web.

Introduction

Firms in various economic sectors are increasingly considering expanding their operations beyond their local market. This has been amplified by a number of factors. For example, increase in the intensity of competition in the local market has led to a decline in their profit level. In addition, these firms are considering venturing into the international market so as to attain their profit maximization objective and diversify risk.

For a firm to operate internationally, it must have the potential to compete with the major competitors operating in the international market. This is possible if the firm formulates and implements effective global strategies. Global strategies refer to the competitive advantages necessitating a firm to compete genuinely.

Riordan Manufacturing Industry is a company located in Hangzou, China. The firm produces a variety of plastics products which are marketed in a number of Asian countries. The firm has been able to supply its products to international markets through adaption of a global strategy.

In pursuit of its global strategy, Riordan has identified Australia as one of its potential investment destination. Considering the increased incorporation of the concept o internationalization by firms, it is vital for them to adopt global strategies relevant to help them expand their business beyond the domestic boundaries. According to Inkpen, it should be the managers’ responsibility to identify how a firm should position itself strategically and market its products so as to sustain its venture in the international market Inkpen (2006, p.58).

Strategic management process

Every firm has a vision which it yearns to achieve in the course of its operation. For the firm to achieve the vision, the management must decisively and correctly plan the way forward. This is facilitated by adapting an effective strategic management process. According to Tyndall (2000, p. 1-5), strategic management process has a number of phases as outlined below.

1. Establishing a mission statement which describes the goals and the objectives of a firm. Scanning the environment to determine the risks and uncertainties the firm is exposed to.
2. Development of the strategy an action that guarantees smooth flow of the planned activities.
3. Development of the action plan that dictates the requirements so as to achieve the goals and objectives.
4. Allocation of resources to the respective areas to guarantee success of the process.
5. Measurement of performance to determine whether the desired goals and objectives have been achieved.

Domestic and international approaches

Both the domestic and international companies have different approaches in relation to strategic management process phases. When formulating a mission statement, a domestic company has narrow range of goals and objectives compared to an international company. Therefore, the international firm should approach this phase with great concern.

In scanning the environment, an international firm should conduct a comprehensive market research to identify the risks and uncertainties inherent in an international market. This arises from the fact that international market have different risk characteristic compared to domestic firms.

In the strategy development phase, international firms must develop strategies which are internationally compatible. The international firm should therefore approach this phase critically to avoid failure upon entering the market. This means that interntional firms should soberly develop their strategies.

With regard to action plan development phase, the international firm must develop an action plan that will guarantee a global competitive advantage to the firm. Local firms can capitalize on action plans developed by successful companies.

Optimal resource allocation should be conducted so as to exploit the international market effectively. In addition, continuous evaluation should be conducted to determine how the firm is performing in the market. Through performance evaluation, the firm will be able to determine whether the international market is a success.

Global comparison between the domestic and international approaches to strategic management

According to Harrison and John (2009, p.15), a multinational firm is exposed to diverse cultures, technologies and political influences. This is different with the local firms which are not so much affected by these threats. In venturing Australian market, Riodarn Manufacturing industry should analyze its strategic management to ensure that it is strategically positioned in its investment destination.

This arises from the fact that external forces such as those resulting from culture, technology and political influence can force the business out of the market. This is different from the domestic market where firms are capable of dealing with the external forces since they are locally generated.

Role of ethics and responsibility in the strategic management process phases

According to Key and Popkin (1998, p. 331-338), incorporating ethics in strategic management when making decisions guarantees effective strategies. This relates to both long term and short term strategies. In general, when the company is attending to phases of strategic management process, it should consider the ethical criteria in order to avoid contravening the rules of international trade.

The role of the entire strategic management process in the global strategy

Competitive forces are nowadays the determinants of whether an international firm will survive or not. Therefore, for the firms to operate profitably, they must accommodate the strategic management process in their daily operation. The process enables the firm to establish suitable competitive advantages necessary in a competitive environment. Therefore, strategic management process is used to design acceptable strategies.

Conclusion

In an effort to effectively incorporate the concept of internationalization, firms should adopt global strategies that will best suit their business operation. Effective global strategies contribute towards a firm positioning itself effectively in the market.

Reference List

Harrison, S. & John, H. (2009). Foundations in strategic management. Richmond: Cengage Learning.

Inkpen, C. (2006). Global strategy: creating and sustaining advantage across borders. New York, US: Oxford University Press.

Key, S. & Popkin, J. (1998). Integrating ethics into the strategic management process; doing well by doing good. Management decision. 36(5). pp.331-338.

Tyndall, R. (2000). Strategic planning and management guidelines for transportation agencies. Washington, US: Transportation Research Board.

Step 1: The most relevant facts

The Woody Manufacturing Company produces bar stools. The demand for its products has recently increased and the owner Mr. Woody has to expand the organization. In particular, one should focus on the design of management structure, the allocation of duties to employees, or compensation system.

The most important task for Mr. Woody is to decide how to organize the work of employees. Their activities should correspond to the bar stool-making process which consists of 15 steps. Moreover, Mr. Woody is concerned about the elimination of defects and late deliveries because they lead to additional costs.

Steps 2 and 3: The root problem and the main components of the problem

In this case, the main problem is the lack of a clear approach to the manufacturing process. As it has been said before, bar stool-making process includes 15 steps. However, Mr. Woody does not know how to reduce operational costs and ensure high quality of products. There are several components of this problem. There are several elements of this problem. First of all, one should speak about the increased risks of defects at the early stages of manufacturing process.Secondly, it is important to remember about the changes in demand.

Step 4: Generating Alternatives

It is possible to offer several recommendations to Mr. Woody. First of all, he can hire part-time workers who will be needed at the time when the demand for the products of the factory increases. In turn, the management team will be employed on a permanent basis.

Secondly, Mr. Woody can employ a great number of employees in order to make sure that the risk of defects or late deliveries is reduced to the minimum. Thirdly, it is possible to allocate the most skillful employees to such activities as the selection of wood, cutting, and removal of defects, because the failure to cope with these tasks leads to additional costs, late deliveries, and dissatisfaction of clients. Moreover, the compensation of workers and managers should increase provided that the organizational performance improves.

Step 5: Evaluating Alternatives

There are several strengths and weaknesses of these alternatives. The employment of part-time workers is possible if there are sharp changes in demand.

However, this strategy does not help the company to promote professional growth of employees. In turn, by hiring a greater number of workers, Mr. Woody can improve the quality of products; nevertheless, the costs will increase. In turn, the third strategy can enable Mr. Woody to achieve the most effective organization of labor and increase the motivation of both managers and workers.

Step 6: Choice of the Alternative

I would recommend the third alternative because it is helpful for maintaining the excellent quality of products and increasing the profitability of an organization.

Step 7: Implementation Plan

During the first days, the employees will be divided into the teams that will complete different stages of manufacturing process. Secondly, at the end of each month, the employees’ performance will be evaluated on the basis of the revenues derived by the company. Furthermore, at the end of every week, the managers and employees will have to identify and eliminate inefficiencies that lead to delays and defects.

Step 8: Alternative Choice

The validity of a plan will be evaluated at the end of each month. Much attention should be paid to such criteria as operational costs, the number of late deliveries, and opinions of clients. If the company does not reach expected standards, the management should adopt a different strategy. Mr. Moody may decide to employ a greater number of employees because the Woody Manufacturing Company can extend successfully if it offers high quality products to clients.

Overview of Australian Manufacturing Industry

The manufacturing industry in Australia has been recording impressive performance for many years now. The industry offers a lot of employment opportunities to Australians as well as individuals from other countries. The recent researches that have been conducted show that, Australian industry provides more than one million direct job opportunities.

The industry constitutes about 14% of private sector employments and about 10% of all Australian jobs. From these researches too, the future of the industry is quite promising. For that reason, the government has invested a lot in the industry to assist in improving it accordingly (Dick 2007, p. 291).

In addition, the effective communication between the local and the foreign manufacturers has also contributed to the success of the industry.

These foreign manufacturers provide the local ones with the necessary information regarding the conditions of the global markets. This implies that, the manufacturing industry in Australia relies mostly on foreign supplies for its achievements (Dick 2007, p. 293).

The report compiled in 2006 indicates that, the industry generated more than $448, 560 million to the Australian government. In that year, the industry was operating at a gross product of $ 94, 800 million. There are various components, which contributed to this gross product. They included enterprises with 320 units and establishments at over 460 units.

The industry provided more than 210,100 units of job opportunities. The industry also contributed more than $231,560 and $52,530 respectively, to the Australian economy from goods manufactured locally as well as those sold in the global markets (Dick 2007, p. 294).

In order to operate properly, the manufacturing industry requires workers with appropriate skills related to the industry’s activities. In other words, the industry requires individuals who have technical manufacturing know-how, mechanical proficiency and who can depict maximum loyalty to the manufacturing companies.

The industry obtains these workers locally as well as from other countries. This process of obtaining workers to help run the activities of these manufacturing companies is referred to as staffing (Cook 2009, p. 57).

There are several aspects, which affect staffing in Australian manufacturing industry. These aspects include demographic, economic, socio-cultural and political factors among others. This paper is going to discuss how these factors influence the staffing process in the Australian manufacturing industry. It will also give recommendations on how staffing in the manufacturing industry can be done to increase the productivity of the industry (Gatewood, Field & Barrick 2011, p. 31).

Change in Technology

Technology defines the process by which a manufacturing plant transforms its raw materials to final products. Therefore, technology includes aspects such as machinery, work format, employees’ know-how, tools and equipment. As the world continues to change, technology also changes.

Research has shown that technological changes impact greatly on the way manufacturers compete with one another, the way they market their products and more importantly, the way they recruit employees (Weihrich, Koontz & Cannice 2010, p. 249).

Technological improvement has been the main driving force in the creation of new markets for Australian manufactured goods.

The advancement has equally resulted in the expansion of the existing markets. Manufacturing companies, which have already incorporated modern technologies into their production processes, produce goods that compete fairly in Australian local markets as well as the foreign ones (Weihrich, Koontz & Cannice 2010, p. 251).

Following the changes in technology and the quest of manufacturing industry in Australia to keep up with the changes, the industry requires individuals with new manufacturing skills. In other words, as these manufacturing companies struggle to adopt the new technologies, the need to recruit employees with new skills also arises.

Other manufacturing companies have been training the existing employees on the new technologies. Establishing and implementing new technologies is the only way a manufacturing company in Australia can survive the current stiff competition (Ross, Verclas, Levine & Levine 2009, p. 43).

To some extent, technological advancement in Australia has resulted in under-staffing of the manufacturing companies in this country. It is a common knowledge that new technologies improve the economy of a country. Higher economic growth rates on the other hand, is a characteristic of higher rate of unemployment.

Australian manufacturing companies, which use advanced technologies, have retrenched most of their employees who do not have the necessary skills. The companies find it expensive to train and retrain these employees on the aspects of the new technology (Weihrich, Koontz & Cannice 2010, p. 256).

Social and Cultural Factors

The major social-cultural factors influencing the way manufacturing industry in Australia recruit their employees include Australian culture, discriminatory aspect and the size and composition of the Australian population (Vance & Paik 2011, p. 180).

Culture has great effects on the staffing process in the Australian manufacturing industry. It has been proved that, workers recruited into manufacturing industry with culture as one of the major bases, get assimilated faster, they record better performance, and are likely to stay longer in these companies (Vance & Paik 2011, p. 182).

Most of the Australian manufacturing companies prefer to employ individuals possessing Australian culture. The companies argue that, these kinds of workers are easy to train, are much familiar with the Australian environment and in most cases, are loyal to the rules of the companies.

Employing such individuals also helps the manufacturing industry to improve its productivity. However, some of the companies hold a different opinion they employ people from different cultures. Incorporating foreign employees into the list of workers may help a company to discover new aspects that are crucial to the manufacturing activities (Vance & Paik 2011, p. 182).

Discrimination may lead to a section of a population being denied the chance to work in certain manufacturing companies. It is a fact that some of the Australian manufacturing companies discriminate against some races, minority language group and castes among other groups of individuals. There are some companies, which specifically recruit people from a particular background (Klein 2007, p. 356).

Discrimination has also been blamed in the recruitment of a particular sex. Most companies in the industry feel that women are not fit for the manufacturing activities. For that reason, the companies have a staff consisting of more males than females.

This may be a draw back to the performance of these companies. Some women are more knowledgeable than their male counterparts and so, denying them the chance to work in the manufacturing industry is the same as preventing the knowledge they have from assisting the companies to achieve their objectives (Vance & Paik 2011, p. 185).

Demographic Factors

The major demographic factors that affect the way Australian manufacturing companies recruit workers include the level of education, age and sex (Caruth, Caruth & Pane 2009, p. 118). The level of education is known to influence greatly the way manufacturing industry in Australia staff the companies.

Most of these companies require that those interested in working for them be taken through a thorough training before being employed in the companies.

Those companies, which deal in production of highly technological products such as motor vehicles require individuals with advanced skills and experience. For that reason, such companies only recruit individuals who have specific qualifications from college (Caruth, Caruth & Pane 2009, p. 121).

Age is also a major factor that the companies consider when hiring people to work for them. Since manufacturing activities involve mostly physical work, the manufacturing companies insist on recruiting individuals who are young, energetic and willing to work for extra hours in form of overtime.

This has resulted in the companies having staffs that mainly comprise of individuals between 25 to 40 years of age. Old people are not hired since the nature of the manufacturing jobs is not suitable for them. The companies too have to follow the Australian government rules on employment and so, underage individuals are not employed to work in the companies (Caruth, Caruth & Pane 2009, p. 122).

Sex refers to either being male or female. The manufacturing companies prefer to hire male individuals to female ones. Since the government employment rules require that expectant women be given a three month-leave from work, the companies feel that, hiring a bigger number of women will interfere with their production pace.

The companies also view it as a loss since the women on leave have to be paid without working. As a consequence, the manufacturing companies have staffs constituted by bigger number of men than that of women (Brown & Swain 2009, p. 28).

Political Factors

Political and governmental forces just like other factors influence the way companies hire employees. Government rules dictate companies to follow the laid down procedures when recruiting individuals to work for them. For instance, companies have to consider aspects such as age, ethnicity and sex while recruiting employees.

Government requires that there has to be at least a third of each sex in the total number of employees in every company. It is also a criminal offence in Australia for a company to employ a minor to work for it (Gatewood, Field & Barrick 2011, p. 37).

There are some companies in Australia for which the government selects the senior staff. These are mostly public companies. In such cases, the dominant factor in the selection is politics. The individuals are purely chosen through parliament votes.

Voting in parliament is an activity that is dictated upon by the majority. In some cases, the voting process provides outcome that are not really helpful to these public companies. Still, parliament’s decision in Australia is considered final and hence, irreversible (Gatewood, Field & Barrick 2011, p. 40).

Economic Factors

Economy as a whole has great impact on the staffing of a company. The economy of Australia has been steady for the last ten years. In other words, the economy has been expanding rapidly. This has in turn compelled the manufacturing companies to find ways to maintain the expansion.

One of the ways has been to intensify the use of modern technologies in production. Technology advancement combines several stages of production thereby minimizing the number of stages that are required in the production of a particular product. As a result, companies find it necessary to retrench some of the workers.

In essence, the expansion in Australian economy has resulted in reduced staff in various manufacturing economies (Caruth, Caruth & Pane 2009, p. 127).

The State of the economy determines the amount of wages and salaries that manufacturing companies offer their employees. Manufacturing companies would not want to run at a loss by offering huge wages than what the economy can support.

This also applies to the Australian manufacturing companies. As a result, only individuals who accept the pay offered to them by the companies are employed and retained in the manufacturing industry (Cook 2009, p. 61).

Recommendations

Technology is an important factor in the manufacturing industry in Australia. It is a factor that helps a company to compete effectively in the Australian local markets as well as the markets abroad. However, advancement in technology leads to reduction in the number of staff.

In other words, it leads to unemployment. It is therefore important that change in technology is designed in such a way that it either maintains the current status of employment or if possible, it increases the number of job opportunities in the manufacturing industry (Weihrich, Koontz & Cannice 2010, p. 258).

As much as the manufacturing companies feel that employing individuals with background knowledge of the country is more important, to a greater extent it hinders the introduction of new ideas into the industry. The companies should employ individuals with different backgrounds.

This implies that the companies should not consider the place of origin during recruitment of employees. Foreigners are known to have new ideas, most of which may be quite crucial in the development of these companies (Koontz & Weihrich 2010, p. 224).

In order to allow the manufacturing industry in Australia to function independently, the Australian government needs to keep itself away from the industry. In most cases, politics have been proved to cause malfunctions in the operations of manufacturing companies especially the public ones.

Since the government may not be in the best position to determine what is really required in a particular company, entirely leaving the decision making processes to the companies’ board of directors will be the best thing to do (Koontz & Weihrich 2010, p. 227).

In conclusion, manufacturing industry in Australia plays a great role in boosting the country’s economy. Through the industry, the country has been able to create a lot of job opportunities to majority of Australians. The staffing of these companies is influenced by a number of factors. These factors include demographic, economic, change in technology, government and political influence and social-cultural forces.

References

Brown, JN & Swain, A 2009, The professional recruiter’s handbook: delivering excellence in recruitment practice, Kogan Page, London.

Caruth, DL, Caruth, GD & Pane, SS 2009, Staffing the contemporary organization: a guide to planning, recruiting, and selecting for human resource professionals, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CO.

Cook, M 2009, Personal selection: adding value through people, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, NH.

Dick, H 2007, The internationalization strategies of small-country firms: the Australia experience of globalization, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, Northampton, MA.

Gatewood, RD, Field, HS & Barrick, M 2011, Human resource selection, South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason, OH.

Klein, SS 2007, Handbook for achieving gender equity through education, Routledeg, Mahwah, NJ.

Koontz, H & Weihrich, H 2010, Essentials of management: an international perspective, Teta McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.

Ross, H, Verclas, K, Levine & Levine, A 2009, Managing technology to meet your mission, a strategic guide for nonprofit leaders, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Vance, CM & Paik, Y 2011, Managing a global workforce: challenges and opportunities in international human resource management, Sharpe, Armonk, NY.

Weihrich, H, Koontz, H & Cannice, MV 2010, management: a global and enterprenuerial perspective, Teta McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.

Management Functions

There are four main functions performed by managers in Links Manufacturing. The first function is planning. Managers in this firm set goals which the firm is supposed to achieve within a specific period. Afterwards each manager communicates to all employees working in his department about both long term and short term goals. All departments have specific plans which guide employees on how they are supposed to perform their duties.

The organising function allows the firm’s managers to put in place proper workplace structures that enable employees perform their duties effectively. They design all work responsibilities to be performed in their departments and this allows employees working under them to know what they are expected to do (Jones & George, 2006, p. 67). Managers are able to put in place effective work systems which help their workers to achieve positive results.

Managers in the firm also perform various leadership functions. They give proper guidance to their subordinates to help them achieve positive results in their duties. They communicate constantly with their subordinates to ensure they stay focused on their responsibilities. They also supervise their subordinates and give them advice to help them improve the quality of their work.

Managers are also expected to perform controlling functions in the firm. However, some employees do not like being supervised by their managers in their respective workstations. Recently, the firm organised a meeting where managers discussed with junior employees about the most effective methods to be used to monitor and supervise employees in their workstations.

These consultations allowed the firm to implement effective performance review procedures which reward workers that register positive performance in the firm. This has had a meaningful impact in the firm because workers have become more loyal. All workers recognise the essence of the firm’s mission and values which has made them more dedicated to their duties (Jones & George, 2006, p. 70).

Strong Points

Managers in this firm have good relationships with junior employees. They know workplace objectives have to be achieved within specific time limits and they encourage all employees in the firm to work harder. They are always willing to share knowledge with their employees about different work processes.

This has allowed the firm to make its internal work processes more efficient and innovative. The firm’s managers have also united all employees by encouraging them to share ideas to help them achieve positive results. As a result, employees are willing to collaborate as they perform their responsibilities in their workstations. This approach has helped the firm increase its competitiveness in the market (DuBrin, 2003, p. 52).

Need for Improvement

The firm needs to improve the way its employees communicate with each other. The firm needs to implement policies that guide employees on codes of conduct they need to observe while at work. This will help them understand the management’s expectations to enable them perform their duties more effectively (Rue & Byars, 2003, p. 79).

The firm also needs to encourage its employees to share ideas with their managers to help the firm achieve positive results. The firm needs to organise different activities to enable employees bond with each other to make them understand the value of having collective objectives. As a result, all employees will be more willing to partner with their workmates to achieve good outcomes at work.

References

DuBrin, A.J (2003). Essentials of management. Peterborough, Ontario: Thomson.

Jones, G.R., & George J.M. (2006). Contemporary management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Rue, L.W., & Byars, L.L. (2003). Management: Skills and applications. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Executive Summary

Hesketh & Brown is a company engaged in the manufacture of various products. The company has three manufacturing facilities namely, Kenyon Meaney, Marshall Fearon and Swarbrick Hattersley. There are 52 different types of products that are manufactured in these facilities. The products have different costs, sales prices and quantum of sales.

The motive of this report is to review all the products in terms of their profitability. It shall also be understood whether products that involve more labour intensive jobs are less productive or not. Another aspect to be researched is the effect of the profit margin on the overall profits. And finally, we shall discuss the benefits of conducting a survey for new products to be launched.

Assignments # 1 & 2

From the figures in the given excel sheet, it is understood that the profit margin that has been added to the net cost of products is different for each and every product. The following figures and the ensuing chart depict the profit margin of each product in the Kenyon Meaney range of products.

Table 1: Profit Margin of Kenyon Meaney

It is evident from the graph that there is no fixed criterion for profit margin being added on the net cost. The profit margin ranges from -11.69% to 45.67%. Moreover, there are three products that have been sold at a loss. These products are KM 12, KM 14 and KM 19.

From the figures in the given excel file (hb.xls), it can be understood that in these three products, the labour cost is 1.6 to 1.8 times higher than the material cost. This should imply that if the labour cost is more than the material cost of a product, then the profit margin is in the negative or is less.

But there are certain products that defy this logic. As for example in KM 15, the material cost is £5.44 whereas the labour cost is £15.56 i.e. 2.86 times more than the material cost.

But the figures show that the profit margin for this particular product is 45.67%. Similar relation can be found in products like KM 2, KM 4, KM 5, KM 7, KM 11, KM 13, KM 16, KM 17 and KM 18. So it will not be appropriate to establish that if the labour cost is more than the material cost, the profit margin will be less.

The following figures and the ensuing chart depict the profit margin of each product in the Marshall Fearon range of products.

Table 2: Profit Margin of Marshall Fearon.

In the Marshall Fearon range of products also, we see that two of the products have been sold at a loss. These are MF 4 and MF 8. The labour cost of these two products is also more than the material cost.

But again, examples where the labour cost is more than the material cost can be found here also and such products have made profit namely, MF 1, MF 2, MF 3, MF 5, MF 6, MF 7, MF 9, MF 10, MF 11, and MF 12. It is noteworthy to mention that in this group of products, MF 13 is the only one where the labour cost is less than the material cost.

The following figures and the ensuing chart depict the profit margin of each product in the Swarbrick Hattersley range of products.

Table 3: Profit Margin of Swarbrick Hattersley.

In the Swarbrick Hattersley group of products also we have two products that have been sold at a loss namely, SH 5 and SH 18. Again, the labour cost is more than the material cost. But it is alarming to note that in product SH 18, the labour cost is 20.75 times the material cost. This has obviously reflected in the sales that have been done at a loss of 83.59%.

In order to know the performance of all the three factories, it would be a better option to compare their total sales and the overall profit margin. The following chart shows the details:

To further understand the performance comparison of the three factories let us make another graph that will show us the relation between the net cost of the products and the total sales of 2011. The following two charts show us the comparison. Please note that figures (values) are the same but in both the graphs, the presentation is different.

There are certain entries in the given excel sheet that I feel are erroneous. I would like to mention these just in case they need to be edited. I have tabulated the entries to make it easy for the reader to understand.

Table 4: Errors observed.

Another major error (supposedly) that I noticed is the huge difference in the labour cost and the material cost. It is understandable if all the products of a particular factory have the same tendency. But if this feature is noticed in only a few of the products, means that there is some error in the data.

There is one such product that needs a thorough checking. In product SH 18, the material cost is £3.82 whereas, the labour cost for the same is £79.30. I am sure that due to this very reason, the product has incurred heavy losses.

Assignments # 3

It’s true that if a product has a high profit margin, it is not necessary that the product will give high profits. It all depends on the sales made for that particular product. It’s simple calculation. More the sales more will be the profits.

Moreover, even if a product has a less profit margin but the sale of this particular product is high, then the total profit from this product may be more than the one which has higher profit margin but fewer sales. We shall take two examples from each factory to understand this.

Out of the two, one will be with higher profit margin but less sales and another with less profit margin but higher sales. Then we shall see the total profit the two products have made. Let us start with Kenyon Meaney factory.

Product KM 15 has a profit margin of 45.67% but the sales for this product have been only 22 units. The annual profit earned from this product was £325. Product KM 2 has a profit margin of 9.01% but the sales for this product have been 383 units. The annual profit earned from this product was £950.

In Marshall Fearon factory, product MF 6 has a profit margin of 69.39% but the sales for this product have been only 87 units. The annual profit earned from this product was £629. Product MF 11 has a profit margin of 12.86% but the sales for this product have been 1445 units.

The annual profit earned from this product was £2579. In Swarbrick Hattersley factory, product SH 10 has a profit margin of 28.22% but the sales for this product have been only 79 units. The annual profit earned from this product was £539.

Product SH 11 has a profit margin of 17.31% but the sales for this product have been 203 units. The annual profit earned from this product was £808. Hence, we see that the total profit is not dependant on the profit margin. It is the sales that make the difference.

Assignments # 4

Doing a survey of new products or even the existing ones is always beneficial, provided it is done in a well planned and organized manner. “Companies use marketing research surveys to garner many types of information from the consumers and business customers.

Businesses gather this information prior to introducing products, but they acquire the majority of customer data after they have introduced products” (Suttle). The most important factor in a survey is the manner in which the questionnaire is formulated. What sorts of questions are included in the questionnaire?

What kinds of answers are required for the questions? Whether a simple yes or no will suffice or descriptive answers are required. Another factor is the length of the questionnaire. How much time will a person need to answer all the questions?

It is advisable to keep the questionnaire small so that within 20 to 25 minutes, all the questions can be answered. Apart from the questionnaire, the population that is to be targeted also makes a difference. Another factor is the way in which the survey is being conducted.

Whether the questionnaire is to be sent by emails or people are to be met personally. It is understood that about 75% of the company’s sales are through 20 companies alone. Taking the opinion of these companies will help only if the companies are the end users of the products.

Otherwise, there is no point in asking them for their views on any new products to be launched. If the new products are ultimately to be launched in the market, the general public will be a better judge and they only will be able to give a frank opinion.

Conclusion and Recommendations

After going through all the details and results, it is understood that out of the three factories of Hesketh & Brown, the overall performance of Kenyon Meaney factory is the best. Then comes Marshall Fearon factory and the worst performance is of Swarbrick Hattersley factory. But it doesn’t mean that the Kenyon Meaney factory’s performance is satisfactory.

There is always a scope of improvement. The management should lay more stress on the Swarbrick Hattersley factory and try to bring it at par with the Kenyon Meaney factory. The same applies to the Marshall Fearon factory. It also needs lots of changes and improvements.

There are many alarming figures in the excel sheet. If these are discrepancies, immediate editing should be done. But God forbid, if the figures mentioned are correct, the production of the related products should immediately be stopped. Also, there should be a set pattern to calculate the sales price.

The profit margin for all the products should be fixed. The present system is very confusing. As we have seen earlier in the paper, the profit margin range is to the extreme.

It seems that no qualified accountant is there to assist the management in all such works. So the first step towards improving the performance of the company is to appoint a well qualified and experienced full time accountant.

Works Cited

Suttle, Rick. 2012. The Importance of Customer Feedback. Web.

Abstract

This paper will explain the need for Large Machines Ltd to establish a manufacturing plant in Australia. This is intended to enhance business efficiency and effectiveness. This will mean that the company has to employee sufficient number of employees for its manufacturing plant.

Thus the company has to develop fair work policy. The paper will highlight the available terms and conditions for the Australian manufacturing industry employees as well as suggest possible recommendations. Furthermore the report will highlight the possible legal obligation that the company will have towards its employees.

Introduction

Large Machines Pty Ltd is an Australian company wholly owned by American Machines Company. The activities of Large Machines Ltd are restricted to sales and distributions of large industrial machines and equipment in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia.

The machines are imported from the United States of America. In the recent past, Large Machines Ltd has experienced a number of business challenges. Large Machines Pty Ltd faces a number of logistical challenges especially in the importation process. The problem is aggravated by the increasing cost of transportation and freight charges, which is affecting the company’s business efficiency.

To overcome this challenge Large Machine Ltd has developed a number of solutions, which include establishing, with approval from American Machines Company, of a manufacturing plant in New South Wales Australia. The company will therefore need to employ a minimum of ninety manufacturing employees.

Due to the fact that it is a first time venture the company has to develop employment standards manual for its new manufacturing plant. This report will thus highlight the minimum terms and conditions of employment and also suggest the most recommendable fair work policies as well as the legal obligation it will have towards the new employees.

Terms and conditions (Fair Work Standards) for manufacturing employees

The description below is the platform for setting the fair work standards awarded to Australian manufacturing employees.

A. The agreement (contract) is signed between the individual employee and the employer. The terms may be varied in function subject to prevailing needs of the employer or the employee. The variation in application is applicable in areas that cover work schedules and engagements, when employee leave is taken and the conditions for the leave, overtime work compensation rates, work related fines and penalties as well as any allowance payable to employees.

B. The company and the worker will have made contract signing in free will without any coercion. The company understand that all employees must be at least 18 years and above by the time the contract is being signed

C. That the termination of the agreement may be done by either the employer or the employee provided there at least a four week notice prior to termination. Only on special occasions can the termination of the contract be done abruptly provided there is mutual consent between the employee and the employer.

D. The agreements provide for makeshift application but this is not to be used to avoid any liability by the employee or employer in case of a dispute (Commissioner for Public Employment 2010; Fair Work Act 2009).

The following are the minimum terms and conditions available for the Australian manufacturing employees.

E. Types of employment: the Australian manufacturing industry provides employment opportunities to any person if;

1. The persons is 18 years and above
2. Has meet minimum job qualifications
3. Agrees to the job terms and conditions

Employees can apply for either permanent or part time employment upon availability of such jobs. There are also positions for cadets, trainees as well as apprentices (Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2010).

F. Working hours: the fair work standards provides the maximum working hours for permanent, part time and temporary workers. Permanent workers are expected to work at most 38 hours per week, excluding weekends and public holidays.

This provision may only be varied only when conditions warrant it and if those conditions are fair. Part time and temporary employees will work less than 38 hours per week or as priory agreed.

Employees have a right to refuse additional hours of work if the conditions are not fair, if coerced or if no sufficient prior notice is given. Any form of leave, medical or otherwise endorsed by the employer is treated as hours worked

G. Request for flexibility of working hours: an employee can request in writing for a review of flexible working hours if:

1. Is handicapped;
2. Is a parent and taking care of a school going child or if the child is handicapped.

H. Leave of work: only permanent employees qualify for leave of work, upon completion of a continuous 12 months of work since employment. The following are the leaves available for employees:

1. Parental leave (12 months unpaid)
2. Annual leave (4 to 5 weeks paid),
3. Community service leave (concurrent with the duration of the time for the service).

There is a guarantee of return to work after the leave, if the employee had fulfilled all conditions foe taking the leave before taking the leave. Under very special circumstance the employee may be allowed ten days paid compassionate leave (Fair Work Act 2009).

I. Absence from duty: if an employee is absent from duty without permission, he/she will loose payment equal to the duration of the time absent (Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2010).

J. Wages and salaries: the average permanent manufacturing employee gets an average of A$1211 per month. Part time workers get varied wages upon consideration of the nature of the job as well as the number of hours worked but must not deviate much from the $14.31 national minimum wage per hour (ILO Department of Statistics 2010).

This translates to about A$ 14000 per annum exclusive of allowances and other financial benefits and payments. Wages and salaries will be reviewed annually.

The following are the legal obligations that the Australian manufacturing companies have over their employees.

Employer should:

1. Provide a working environment for all employees void of any form of bias, prejudices or favoritism
2. Ensure that the health as well as occupational safety of worker is guaranteed at all times
3. Engage all employees according to award of contracts stipulated within the Fair Work Act
4. Submit Pay As You Earn tax installments when necessary.
5. Maintain all records of employees
6. Ensure that all superannuation requirement are met
7. Avoid any form of independent agreement arrangement with any employee
8. Compensate employees according to all compensation schemes available for the industry (Government of South Australia 2011).

The following are the recommended fair work policy for the Large Machines ltd

The company is inclined to meet all obligations towards its employees and as such the following terms and conditions are highly recommended

1. The company should observe the current waging criteria as stipulated by the ILO, while having an emphasis on annual salaries reviews for all employees.
2. The company should also fully enforce all conditions for work leave, but review the conditions under which an employee can take a study leave
3. Ensure that employee contracting process is legal compliant especially in avoiding disguising employment through independent agreement arrangement
4. Other than employing fully qualified personnel the company should also groom its own work force through an apprenticeship internship program
5. Provide opportunities for permanent employment to part time employees who meet the company’s job requirements
6. Provide equal employment opportunities in regard to gender, race and religions provide the candidates:

• Meet minimum qualification. Are 18 years and above.

References

Commissioner for Public Employment. 2010. An overview of the national industrial relations system and the role of the office of the commissioner for public employment. Web.

Fair Work Act. 2009. Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2010. Web.

Government of Australia. 2011. Workforce Planning and Practice. Web.

ILO Department of Statistics. 2010. Table 19. Average nominal wages in manufacturing employees. Web.

Manufacturing and Associated and Associated Industries and Occupations Award. 2010. Consolidated award including variations made on 2009. Web.

Introduction

Every one of us wishes to start and run a successful business regardless of the region, country in which the business enterprise is launched. There are some of the concepts that a business man has to look into before he or she can decide on the exact position where the business premises are going to be located.

Some of those issues include the proximity to the main road, availability of consumers, availability of raw materials in case the business is going to involve manufacturing process, security of the area and the nation at large and also the government commitment to provide secure environment to run a business.

For instance it is very difficult for an investor to start up a new business enterprise such as bottling of water in a very dry area because in such an environment, water is in scarcity and if the business is set up, the operating costs may be higher than the revenue and hence the company may end up closing down.

In addition one cannot set up a business enterprise in a place that hardly experience peace and stability. Some of these issues play a very vital role in determining whether one will invest in certain areas.

Having achieved these entire requirements then, the business can initiate its operations or decide to abandon the whole idea if some or all of the requirements are not met by both the state and the individual starting up the business.

Anderson (p 198) points out that the government should encourage more and more people to invest in the country as the investments contributes a very big share in the government revenue realized in terms of taxes charged on the profits that they make. Therefore, the more the investment, the more the governments realizes more revenue and thus the economy of such a country continues to grow year in year out.

In addition he points out that delocalization of business enterprises is very important for any country as this ensures that the whole country gains equally in the terms of development. He notes that some government have a tendency of encouraging investors to start their business in the already invested areas to enhance competition thus making other regions in the country lag behind in terms of infrastructure development.

He asserts that delocalization of industries and other forms of businesses helps in the springing up of other small business enterprises around the area where the investor has initiated his business. This according to him helps in improving the lives of the people around that region in way of job opportunities and improvement of infrastructure such as roads that comes hand in hand with such investments.

In this paper we will focus on the manufacturing industry in Qatar. Owing to availability of massive deposits of oil in Qatar, manufacturing industry is likely to thrive since crude oil is a raw material for many products such as plastics, petroleum jelly, as well as tar that is used for the purposes of tarmaking the roads.

Therefore, I will look at some of the positive things that make Qatar a better place for a person to invest in and not in any other country in the entire world.

Economic state of Qatar

Qatar is a country found in the Middle East. According to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Qatar is the fastest growing country with an annual economic growth of about 19 percent as at the year 2008. In Qatar petroleum is the backbone of her economy that has for a long time accounted for over seventy five percent of total government revenue.

In addition, Becker (p 278) points out that petroleum contributes more than fifty percent of the country’s gross domestic product and also holds the lion’s share of all her export income. According to him, without oil Qatar cannot be in existence.

She is currently among the world leaders in the crude oil production and also she exports the product. He points out that soon after attaining her independence from Saudi Arabia in 1971, Qatar has continued to record a continued growth in her economy except in the period between 1982 to around 1987 when her economy experienced a down turn as a result of low prices from oil sales.

For a country to continue thriving economically she needs a strong banking sector and this has been the case with Qatar. According to Meshack (p 145) the economic depression of 2008 to 2009 did not affect the Qatari banking sector.

He points out that her banking sector was among other countries of the Middle East voted the best overall in the year 2008. In 2009-2010 financial year the Qatari Investment Authority (QIA) announced that it would buy five percent stake in so that it would increase the banks strength and also increase the consumers’ confidence.

He notes that after the economic melt down in other countries, many customers lost confidence in the banking sector and therefore the government had to step in and rescue her institutions.

He adds that in order to ensure that the banks continued lending money to their customers, the government decided to buy the investment portfolios of the financial institutions and therefore this acted as measure to cushion the banks should the customers fail to repay back the loans advanced to them.

In the year 2009, World Bank valued the Doha Securities Market (DSM) at $11.5 billion. However, in the following year the value decreased by over 40 percent and as a result the government had to intervene in order to save her from decreasing further.

Oil production which as earlier stated has been the back bone of her economy, has continued to increase to a current capacity of about 85000 metric cubes. Meshack (p211) points out that expert predict that her oil reserves are going to be exhausted around the year 2023.

However, he notes that the discovery of the natural gas has boosted her export earnings by becoming the third largest producer of natural gas in the entire world after Saudi Arabia. He argues that, the government has embraced a new program dubbed Qatarization which aims at making Qatari nationals occupy the senior positions in government institution.

In order to make this program successful, the government has partnered with the United States of America government whereby Qataris get educated and then return to Qatar to assume these positions that has been for a long time been occupied by expatriates.

Anderson (p 98) has noted that the government has put up a number of industries that have played a great role in improving her economy.

He points out some of the industries that the government has started include the Industries Qatar (IQ) that are responsible for the production of petrochemicals, fertilizers and steel. According to him, industrial production constituted a significant growth in Qatar’s growth domestic product.

He has pointed out that the huge profits realized by the companies in Qatar have been used in improving the economy and also protecting it from any melt down like was the case in the United States of America and most of the European countries in 2008 to 2009.

In addition he argues that Qatar is currently creating awareness on her citizens on the importance of reducing their reliance on oil and the natural gas since they are non-renewable and instead explores other avenues that can help sustain her economy once these natural resources are exhausted.

Qatar Foundation which is the government agency to oversee how the country is improving economically has been tasked with this role so that when the oil and the natural gas are no longer there the economy would not grind to a halt.

He points out that the government is preparing itself earlier to avoid being caught unaware and thus start depending on other countries. Prior to the discovery of oil, Qatari way of life relied heavily on pearl diving, fishing and desert subsistence.

Today Qatar has now become as one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG), and envisages becoming the world’s largest producer by the year 2013. He points out that the incomes realized from the sale of oil and natural gas have taken Qatar into the ranks of the world’s richest countries.

Political state in Qatar

The modern state of Qatar was formed after she gained her independence from Saudi Arabia in 1971. Since then up to now the Al Thani family has been at the throne of leadership. The head of the government and state in Qatar is referred to as Emir.

Meshack (p 119-121) argues that Emir is not answerable to any person but has to strictly adhere to the Islamic law. In order to ensure accountability and promote transparency the Emir has to rely on the advisory council that helps him in policy formulation.

Qatar has a consultative assembly that is composed of 35 members. Ferdinand (p 23) points out that the members in the assembly are handpicked since no elections are held to put them in their offices.

He claims that in the country the country has 9 municipalities that include the Umm Salal, Ad Dawhah, Madinat ash Shamal, Al Ghuwayriyah, Jarayan al Batinah, Al Jumalyliyah, Ar Rayyan, and Al Wakrah.

However, unlike other countries that allows for elected leaders to head government and other institutions like the legislature, municipalities he points out that the citizens are only allowed to vote in the municipal elections. In addition to that he claims that the elected municipal has no powers and all that the leaders can do is to offer advice to the Minister in charge.

He points out that when the current Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani took over power on 27th June 1995 he allowed women to participate in municipal elections, he allowed media freedom and facilitated the formation of Al Jazzera some of the issues that the previous rulers had denied to their subjects.

Besides the Emir, there is a Prime Minister who is always in consultation with the Emir on how best the country should be run. Because of the enormous powers bestowed on the Emir and the ruling class he has contented that Qatar is not a democratic country. However, owing to the freedom availed by the current regime many scholars have not been able to define this kind of regime.

Geography of Qatar

Qatar as a country is found in the Middle East. According to Becker (p 204) she lays between latitudes 24 and 27N and longitudes 50 and 52 E. He notes that Qatar consists of a tiny peninsula projecting northward into the Persian Gulf from the larger Arabian Peninsula and that it has an area of 11,437 square kilometers (4,416 square miles), He has observed that Qatar is low lying nation that is all deserts.

He points out that she experiences a very cold winter that runs from November to around February and very hot summers in the period between May to around September.

However due to the advancement in technological know how, the subsequent governments have managed to irrigate some parts of the country and today she is able to produce a significant amount of fruits that her population depends on. He claims that average temperatures in June are 42C (108F), while during the cold season around December the temperature goes down to a low of about 15C (59F).

According to him rainfall is usually high during the winter period with certain periods the rain causing floods owing to the poor drainage system that cannot handle large volumes of water during such periods.

In addition he points out that during the summer period humidity along the coastal areas can go as higher as ninety percent.

According to him the highest point in Qatar is referred to as the Qurayn Abu al Bawl at 103 meters (338 ft) in the Jebel Dukhan.

This is the area that he has noted that contains majority of onshore oil deposits, while the natural gas is mined at the northwest of the peninsula which is located in the off shore areas

In addition he points out that the coastline of Qatar is part of a regional low of the Arabian Desert plain and it houses two natural harbors. The capes, Ra’s Rakan and Al-Mabakh, are also situated in Qatar and this gives the country an advantage. He says that there is an inlet known as Khr al-‘Udeid that has within its proximity large areas that have large areas covered by sanddunes.

Natural and man- made resources in Qatar

As earlier mentioned Qatar lies in the Arabian Desert where there exist a number of natural resources as well as the man made resources. However owing to the harsh weather in the region, Anderson (p 100-109) points out that she has limited natural fresh water resources and as a result the government has been forced to introduce facilities that would make salt water consumable by the people as well as the few animals in the country.

Some of the made resources in Qatar include the harbor in Doha as well as Umm Harbor that have been created by digging channel so that the shallow areas could be deepened and therefore allow big ships dock without any problems.

Population, demographics and education in Qatar

Over the years the population in Qatar has been growing in a very huge way. According to Becker (p 201) the population increase is attributed to the large number of expatriates from the developing countries of Africa and Asia.

He says that the Qatar citizens have been for a long time been known to shy away from responsibilities and therefore in order to fill up the deficit the government as well as other private companies have been forced to source for man power from other countries. He claims that as at 2008, the total number of people in Qatar stood at 1.1 million people where out of these more than three quarters were expatriates.

The total number of men has been on the rise since women have not been accorded equal opportunities compared to men. He says that Qatar is putting up modern structures now and therefore more men who can handle tough jobs are required and therefore this explains why the number of women has not matched the number of men.

With an increased investment by foreign companies, Qatar’s education sector has not been left behind and in the recent past there has been an increase in a number of foreign institutions opening up campuses in Qatar.

He says that some of the international schools in Doha include Stenden University, America School of Doha, The Gulf English School, The Cambridge School, and the International School of Choueifat. He has observed that education in Qatar is regulated and controlled by the Supreme Education Council.

He argues that the council has been mandated with controlling education from the kindergarten all the way to the University level. He points out that the regulation and control of education in Qatar is jointly shared by the Ministry of Education and the Supreme Education Council of Qatar.

He attributes this to the fact that Ministry of Education has been reducing the amount of money that they have been allocating to schools and also the fact that many schools have been put under the watchful eye of the Supreme Education Council of Qatar.

The Supreme Education Council of Qatar is endeavoring to improve the quality of secondary schools education as well as the University education by allowing Independent institutions that have been allowed to carry out their work without much interference from the government and other relevant agencies.

Infrastructure in Qatar

Owing to large deposits of oil in Qatar the government has managed to initiate a number of projects that have left many people baffled. According to Becker (p 108) Qatar Airways has for instance started constructing a floating airport in the Persian Gulf. Other projects undertaken by the government include a tunnel connecting Qatar with her neighbor Bahrain.

He says that super highways are being constructed that have helped improve the way in which people move from one place to another. Skyscrapers are coming up which have made become a trademark identifying Qatar.

Based on this analysis, determine whether a substantial foreign direct investment in this country would offer a competitive advantage to a company in the student’s chosen industry.

Having looked at all those aspects in Qatar it is then possible to say that foreign direct investment would help a business thrive and prosper at all times. This is informed by the fact that the government has provided a friendly environment for businesses to grow.

In addition, the construction of roads has facilitated the movement of goods fro the harbor and the airport to the interior.

For instance, in the manufacturing industry which I have chosen, the movement of crude oil from the fields to the factories has been made possible because of pipelines that have been lain down by the government. As a result, any investor setting up a business in Qatar will have all the necessary ingredients for his or her business to grow and expand.

Conclusion

It is a sole responsibility for any government to ensure that investors are protected from any thing that may hinder them from operating. This is because the investors have contributed a lot in the growth of the country’s economy.

Improvement of infrastructure is another very important thing that will invite more and more investors in a country or in a region. As Qatar has done, for a country to succeed economically more money has to be spent in rehabilitating and maintaining the existing infrastructure.

Works Cited

Becker, Peter. Governments in the Middle East. New York: MacMillan, 2010

Meshack, Andrew. The Evolving Qatar. London: Routledge, 2011.

Anderson, John. Business in Qatar and Bahrain: A Comparison. Oxford: Oxford

Altered documents: introduction

Documentation is one of the factors, which indirectly contributes towards production of quality products. For an organization to manufacture quality products, precise and lucid documentation must be adhered to in the areas of manufacturing, procedure & quality system elements as well as in specification and testing. Violations or failures however occur in documentation processes, thus leading to production of products of poor quality.

Following such considerations and the importance of understanding the role played by manufacture of quality products within pharmaceutical/ medical industries, an inspection was carried out on the documentation issues for Cordis medical device manufacturing company.

What follows below is thus a gap analysis report of the inspection results for the identified company’s documentation issues for the four quarters of the previous year, 2011; and which were categorized into three classes as missing information, open NPR’s and miscellaneous.

Missing information

During the previous year, 2011, a total of 1589, 1286, 932 and 358 missing information issues were reported for the four quarters of the year respectively. In other words, these quarterly figures represented 38.15%, 30.86%, 22.38% and 8.60% of the total 4165 annual figure, and having average quarterly reported issues of 1041.

This vividly depicts that there is a wide range on the number of issues reported quarterly, whereby the highest number of issues is reported during the first quarter, while the least figure is obtained at last quarter of the year.

The annual figure of 4165 of missing information issues were as contribution from area of identification, investigations and disposition matters. The difference observed in this may be contributed perhaps by several factors including personal ones like education and experience, work environment (volumes of work) among others.

Miscellaneous

For the Miscellaneous cases, it was found that there were 7, 4, 10 and 5 reported issues for the four quarters of year in ascending order. With the sum of 26 issues in this category, 18 of these were reported as overwrites while the rest of the remaining issues were either cross-outs or not assigned matters of NPR’s.

Generally, it appears that the resulting differences of each of the individual reported overwrite case for the various quarters are not quite significant.

However, violations of overwrite type were at the peak during the third quarter, but minimally experienced problem between the months comprising the second quarter of the year. This is indication on review and audits records such as production batch records and procedures of processes may be affected variably during certain time of the year

Open NPRs

Focusing on the issue of open NPR’s, quarterly deficiencies were reported as 19, 47, 105 and 177. The open NPR’s problem figures increase from the first quarter to the last one, hence giving an increasing track and trend of the problem.

Impact: what impact does the variable have on the product?

Following the results obtained from the investigative study of the three variable levels contributing towards poor documentation within the Cordis organization, we have found that much of the essential information need for manufacture and improve the quality of the organization’s products is not made available as required to right parties.

On the overall focus of the variables that were investigated for the Cordis company, one identifies that all of the three variables would affect the quality of the company’s products in one way or another.

This mainly includes the information contained or describing the product’s originality, processes and procedures followed in their manufacture which are necessary for authorization for human use, and which affect their legal authorization in marketing distribution in certain regions.