Barcelona Wire Drawing (WD) Company was established in 1960 by a businessman known as David Ortega. The company began its operations in Barcelona, Spain, with ten employees, including the owner. It previously started by repairing Tungsten Carbide Dies but later changed to fix Diamond Dies in 1975. The main reason why the company switched to diamond dies repair is because of the demand in the market. Diamond Dies repair contributed more profits to the business as compared to the previous Tungsten Carbide Dies repair. An increase in Diamond Dies repair demand made the company extend its branches in Mexico and Korea.
The market’s globalization supported its desire to open extensions to reach a larger audience (De Angelis et al., 2018). The crises started when David Ortega sold it to Dutch holdings. A new Chief Executive Officer would be required to drive the company’s activities. My primary role as the company’s new chief executive officer entails reorganizing the whole group’s operations without blocking any branch from delivering services to clients.
Production is significant in the company as it determines the operations of the entire organization. Mounting, drilling, polishing, and engraving processes can be done in either one or two locations to ensure close coordination with the top management. More concern is put at this stage as it forms the entire company’s backbone (Dolan et al., 2017). Coordination would be easy because the activities are centralized.
Centralization refers to the concentration of production management in a central department that can be local or regional (Li et al., 2020). Production decisions can easily be made at this stage, and there is better control of services (Foerstl, Schleper, & Henke, 2017). For this company, production would be done in low operation cost countries such as Slovakia and Indonesia. Mounting and drilling the diamond would be highly concentrated in these countries.
Concentrating production in two locations facilitates low operation costs. Few losses are likely to be realized from this mechanism. Many operating expenses are saved because of the cheaper labor found in these two countries (Dolan et al., 2017). Once the dies have been drilled in the two locations, they can be sent to the rest of the group located in Korea and the USA to be finished locally. Indonesia would send finished products to the United States of America, Slovakia would send them to Spain.
Purchasing organization is another essential part of the group. Purchasing procedures refer to a set of planning and activities implementation necessary to achieve the company’s supply demands in the market (Li et al., 2020). This process defines employees’ specific tasks in negotiating for the supply of raw materials. Costs of supply and quality of the raw materials are analyzed keenly at this stage. Purchasing and provisioning functions would need to be centralized for easy tracking and follow-ups by the selected supply team (De Angelis et al., 2018).
As the company’s chief executive officer, I would form a unique special department in charge of the group’s raw materials supply. The main aim of creating an individual department is to ensure minimum operation costs and full-service deliveries. Starting a team in-charge of supply would work closely with raw materials suppliers hence create maximum profit. These mechanisms promote a competitive advantage in the market (De Angelis et al., 2018).
Since the manufacturing and supply chain environment continues to grow more complex, the selected team will also need to be flexible with the market changes (Dolan et al., 2017). Purchasing organizations help the company drive innovation, bring their products to the market faster, and contribute to higher margins.
Each member of the department must know his or her role in the group. Among the functions include identifying suitable supply sources. Members must learn how to request proposals, conduct bid analysis, and perform negotiation procedures for the raw materials (Li et al., 2020). When selecting which supplier to work with, one leading supplier would be enough for the entire group. Working with a single supplier is easy in tracking the costs of supply, quality of raw materials. Consistent collaboration is achieved when working with one supplier for a longer time (Dolan et al., 2017). Collaboration creates more formal relationships as members agree to share data on production and demand over a secured mechanism.
Optimization of materials flow is another essential part of the company’s operations. Optimization refers to the company’s practical data management and services associated with the production, supply, and delivery of products to the market (De Angelis et al., 2018). For Barcelona Wire Drawing Company, optimization majors on diamond blanks purchase. Performing the proper data optimization process helps achieve a more significant competitive advantage (Foerstl et al., 2017). To ensure the efficiency of operations, assessing the relevant problem at hand is helpful. Identifying the missing data is what forms correct optimization in the group.
For Barcelona WD Company’s case, few suppliers supply diamond blanks’ required quality (Dolan et al., 2017). There is no Group policy regarding the supply of raw materials. Procurement plays an essential role in ensuring the raw materials reach the production site. Here, the top management chaired by the Chief Executive Officer selects an individual department to ensure successful delivery of quality materials to the site (Foerstl et al., 2017). Factors of production are considered in this case.
Quality raw materials ensure high production levels. The supply will be done for the two plants in Indonesia and Slovakia, where general repair is done. The supply will further help reduce the costs of operations and increase the output. For the semi-finished dies, customers’ purchasing powers would be considered (De Angelis et al., 2018). Purchasing power defines the capacity of an individual buyer to purchase goods and services in the market. Ready and available markets must be considered in this case.
Finished dies would be supplied in the nearby markets, and then the rest exported to other countries for more profits. Korea, Spain, Indonesia, Slovakia are major countries where supplies are made (Foerstl et al., 2017). When customers can purchase more of the semi-finished and finished dies in the market, more profits will be gained in the company (De Angelis et al., 2018). To facilitate the delivery of products to customers, top management must validate the orders made. It is top management’s role to ensure accurate tracking of the orders and monitor the quality of goods before delivering to the customers.
Communication and Integration is an integral part of a business organization. Communication ensures that services and activities run smoothly in an organization. Effective communication strategies lead to increased cooperation between the company officials and employees (Dolan et al., 2017). Professionals must pass meaningful and useful messages within the industry among employees and stakeholders and externally to potential customers, suppliers, and the general public. Thus, the company’s head must develop effective communication strategies to meet all the company members (Dolan et al., 2017). The company’s size must be considered and analyze what best should be done to ensure a consistent flow of information.
Barcelona WD Company is a big industry that needs comprehensive communication technology to ensure efficiency. Problems of coordination through frequent errors in outsourcing management, wrong messages to customers are common problems facing the group. Avoiding local Information Tools for passing urgent messages would be the best decision to follow as its CEO. Instead of using a local ERP tracking system to pass information, I would go for more advanced and improved communication tools (Li et al., 2020).
The most effective strategies are determining what is needed for internal communication and which one for external communication. Internal communication calls for the use of digital platforms such as online publications, videos, social media, and company websites (De Angelis et al., 2018). The use of mobile phones and face-to-face meetings is also necessary depending on the nature of the information to be communicated.
The company has been performing well in the market, and it has gained a lot of connections with customers, suppliers, and the general public. For continued survival in the market, top management must be flexible and adapt readily to market changes (De Angelis et al., 2018). Top managers must follow practical communication tools and strategies to ensure consistency in the delivery of services. It is vital to have a group of individuals set aside to monitor the supply of raw materials in and out of the company. The same scenario should apply to the delivery of products to the customers in the market.
References
De Angelis, R., Howard, M., & Miemczyk, J. (2018). Supply chain management and the circular economy: Towards the circular supply chain. Production Planning & Control, 29(6), 425-437.
Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2017). Social media: Communication strategies, engagement, and future research directions. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 1(11). Web.
Foerstl, K., Schleper, M. C., & Henke, M. (2017). Purchasing and supply management: From efficiency to effectiveness in an integrated supply chain. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 23(4). Web.
Li, J., Yang, S., Shi, V., & Zhai, S. (2020). Partial vertical centralization in competing supply chains. International Journal of Production Economics, 224, 107565.