Introduction
Quick fit is an organization that deals with the selling of furniture. Initially, the organization was small and only had one hundred employees but has recently grown to a big organization that boasts about one thousand five hundred employees. Quick fit has got a company vision and mission which ultimately gives direction and reason for the company’s existence.
Organization strategies
Organizations’ resources and efforts should always be in line with the overall company goals and objectives. For operations to run smoothly, the organization has spelled out policies and procedures which must be adhered to. Quick fit furniture has got an organizational structure that also dictates different duties and responsibilities for different departments. However, for the organizational objectives to be attained, the different departments despite having different duties and responsibilities have to work hand in hand thus the Company’s top-level management is involved in setting the organizational objectives. Whatever decision the top-level management comes to, will affect the whole company since they are usually the decision-makers in the organization (Smith and Fingar, p. 45).
The top-level management mainly consists of the managing director and other high-level managers who will generally oversee the smooth running of departments and the company as a whole. Since its growth, the quick fit has developed various departments that are designated different duties and responsibilities. The organization has got a finance department which is headed by a financial director. The finance department is mainly involved in sharing and allocating the organization’s resources and funds to ensure the smooth running of the departments. This department is in charge of doing the company’s accounts. Quick fit furniture has got an administration department whose duties are among others to help inter-phase between the company employees and the management. This department also sees that all administration duties are done.
Quick fit furniture has got a workshop where the furniture is made. Once the furniture is completed it is taken to the goods out. This department is ultimately involved in the production of the goods in this case the furniture whereby the department will work for hand in hand with other departments such as the finance department which allocates enough funds for production to take place. Any under-allocation will incapacitate the department which would mean that the production of furniture would be poor and this would, in turn, affect the company’s sales.
The goods-out department has to ensure that they produce goods that are up to standard and avoid wasting materials which may lead to hefty losses. The department should also liaise with the sales department to ensure that the supply meets the demand. In case the demand for finished products is very high, the human resource department should ensure that it has allocated enough staff to the department to handle the workload (Hall and Johnson, p. 59).
Quick fit has got a sales department which is headed by the sales and marketing manager. It is involved in looking for the actual market of the company’s products and selling these furniture products. The sales department works with sales targets where each salesman has got a target to meet. The sales department requires funds to help facilitate its marketing and sales activities and hence has to work in hand with the finance department that will, in turn, allocate enough resources to the department. The sales department has also got to work hand in hand with the goods-out department whereby the supply of the furniture has to balance with the demand of the same. This means that any breakdown of communication between these two departments may lead to the workshop producing less furniture than the demanded number.
Quick fit furniture also has a human resource department headed by the human resource manager. This department is involved in the recruitment of employees. It is also involved in overseeing the employee’s remuneration and also solves any problems that may arise between colleagues. The human resource department should also develop training and development programs for their employees to help improve their skills, for example; training employees in the workshops may reduce wastage of materials significantly. Also, a well-trained salesman will easily reach targets put out to him.
Impact of strategies
After noticing some miscommunication in various departments like the finance, sales, and goods out, the management of Quick fit furniture plc has noted that it needs to redefine its processes and procedures. The managing director would like all the departments to have a round table meeting with departmental heads together with one representative from each department. From the scenario, when making decisions, the managing director decided to involve representatives from all departments to help develop a model that included everybody’s views, and thus any policies and procedures developed would be in line with both the organizational objectives and those of the departments.
To curb miscommunication between departments, each department should come up with their respective budgets and give them to the finance department for approval and thereafter may allocate the funds accordingly. This will for instance solve the problem there was between the finance department and the goods out department which had incapacitated them. This had a ‘domino effect’ as it also affected the sales department whose demand for finished products was not met by the goods-out department and that led to low sales (Harmon, p. 121).
The sales department has a target of increasing its sales by 10%. This means that they have to do a lot of marketing and promotion activities to help attain the set target. The sales department should be able to communicate the sales projections to the goods out department so that they can in turn have the supply of the furniture in time for sale. The human resource department should also reward hardworking employees who have met their targets. This will motivate them to even work harder next time. The human resource department should always be ready to resolve any conflicts in the organization to avoid a standoff that would bring the company’s activities to a halt. It should also provide the goods-out department with modern and essential equipment and tools and this will have an impact on efficiency and also reduce wastage.
Quick-Fit Furniture is involved in the production and sales of furniture items. The company intends to increase its sales by 10%. This means that the company has to have the best furniture items around. Thus the organization has got to meet various critical success factors to help attain its goals. After doing a S.W.O.T. analysis, the company realizes its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Quick-Fit has realized that nowadays the customers are going for uniquely styled furniture which has got very fine finishing. This means that the company should look for a designer who is familiar with the new market trends, it should also develop new training programs for different departments. For instance, the staff at the workshop and goods out department should learn how to use new equipment and tools which will help them produce products that are up to standard. Training would also help them reduce wasted material. Salespeople should also undergo a training program to help improve their selling skills. Also, a beautiful remuneration package and bonuses should be given to the hard-working salesmen to motivate them and others as well. Another critical success factor is that the various departments should receive enough resources and funds so that they can execute their duties properly.
There should also be a system in which every department accounts for what resources they received and how much they spent. This will help reduce wastage. By evaluating the opportunity cost and ensuring that it is cost-effective, wastage will be immensely reduced. Another critical success factor is to place a benchmark for various departments and this will act as a challenge to the employees who will always give their all to attain the benchmark, this translates to improved employee output. The output process is very essential to the company since it results in both profitabilities of the company.
The management should ensure that they hire competent staff and ensure that they also allocate adequate funds for marketing research to help the company stay ahead of the ever-dynamic market trends. For efficiency purposes, the company should also be well equipped with modern tools and gadgets and good raw materials to help produce the very best furniture items for the customer. The company may also offer after-sale services for instance free repair if an item breaks. This will help create customer loyalty and in turn more sales for Quick Fit Furniture Plc.
The managing director of Quick fit is duly concerned about the business output processes measures that are negatively impacting the business. The business output processes in question are the quantity of waste and the number of sales. The company’s objective of increasing sales by 10% will not be achieved if the issues concerning the business output processes are not remedied. Wastage refers to inefficiencies in business processes or practices. These inefficiencies can erode business profits, negatively affect productivity as well as efficiency, and can result in the business not achieving its objectives.
The managing director should realize that there is a correlation between the quantity of waste being produced and the volume of sales. The more waste is produced implies that the volume of sales is going to below. This is because whatever is considered as waste or surplus to requirements was being processed to produce the final product before it turned out to be waste.
The manager for Quick fit furniture should consider adopting simple yet effective workplace practices that will enhance efficiency and as a result, there will be quantity of waste being produced will reduce while that of the final product will increase. This means that there will be more furniture to be sold as a result of a reduction in the amount of waste produced.
Conclusion
The manager should consider the reuse of materials. This will lessen the amount of waste being churned out by his firm. Recycling is also a very effective and efficient practice to adopt in an effort of reducing wastage and subsequently shoring up the volume of sales. The regular monitoring of processes and putting in place preventive measures can ensure that waste is avoided well before it occurs thereby leading to an increase in the volume of sales.
Works Cited
- Hall, Jones, and Johnson Mills. “When Should Process Be Art, Not Science.” Harvard Business Review, 2009: 58-65.
- Harmon, Paul. Business Process Change: 2nd Ed, A Guide for Business Managers and BPM and Six Sigma Professionals. NY: Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. Print.
- Smith, Howard, and Peter Fingar. Business Process Management. The Third Wave, MK Press, 2003. Print.