Supply chain process
Supply chain- AC Gilbert has used a well quality and crafted supply chain process, which helped the company to remain popular in the market. It involved taking of order from the customers by the sales team and secondly, it involved delivery of materials to the customers with the help of retailers.
Operational system- AC Gilbert’s operational system involved a systematic approach to planning, purchasing, manufacturing, designing and distribution. AC Gilbert’s operational system focused on manufacturing toys, which were educational and long- lasting as well.
Product/service delivery- The products and services of AC Gilbert were sold and provided directly to the end users, with the sales team receiving orders from the customers and arranging direct delivery of products to the customers by way of different transport mediums.
After the analysis of the key systems and processes, it can be said that the main focus has been given more on interaction with the customers directly by the managers of AC Gilbert and this helped the company in understanding the needs and demands of the customers.
The new manager of AC Gilbert contributed by developing 50 new toy lines and spending more on the packaging of the materials.
Performance review process is one of the main ways to improve the performance of the employees, as this process provides feedback to the administrators and staff on their performance and helps an employee to achieve established goals (Parmenter, 2015).
The terms and conditions made with the customers reflect the value of the company, as the service level agreement is made directly between the customers.
Analysis and maintenance of the profits made per year was imperative for AC Gilbert for maintaining the performance of the company. From the report it can clearly be stated that the AC Gilbert had suffered huge losses in the last few years of its existence (Tibballs, 1999). In this context it can be said that the company could have had used benchmarking, which would have helped it to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals such as Mattel and Lego. The 360 degree appraisal technique could have been used as a review strategy by the management for getting an effective feedback of every employee in the company.
Until 1966, the company had seen various changes in some of its activities, which are essential for the success of a company. For example, in one hand, where changes made in the promotional activities of the company helped the company in reaching to its customers, on the other hand, the changes also resulted in the loss of many top level managers as well. Moreover, the changes resulted in profit fluctuation every year and the company started to suffer loss (Tibballs, 1999). All these situations resulted in the shutting down of the company.
Operational system
In order to maintain a competitive advantage in the market, trends in business are important (Chen & Chan, 2014). In the late 1950s, AC Gilbert was unable to innovate and improve the quality of toys that it was manufacturing. The company’s reputation was enough for earning profits. This led to the fall in the standards of AC Gilbert. The new manager, Jack Wrather helped in changing the fortunes of the company, as his opportunistic business decisions helped the company to remain stable in the market.
A company can take right decisions only when such decisions are taken after consultation with both the internal and external shareholders (Martin, Schiuma & Healy, 2014). Specialists, those who were working with AC Gilbert, could have given advice to the company on reducing the price of the products. This advice would have helped the company in to remain competitive in the market. Advice for consultation with advertising and marketing consultants was also required, along with advice on cutting down the cost of promotional activities by using other sources like newspapers and magazines, instead of television.
In the modern times, it is necessary for AC Gilbert to delegate tasks to the employees on the basis of skills in order to improve the performance. In order to achieve and maintain the efficiency of the workers, job satisfaction is very important (Hastings, 2010). In addition, strategies such as training and development methods and adoption of a proper communication model for communication between the employees and managers can be incorporated and used in the team, by conducting meetings between managers and employees.
Meetings can be conducted, where the management team can be briefed on the performance improvement strategies along with a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of such strategies. One of the advantages of such strategies is providing the employees with suitable tasks according to their abilities, which will help in meeting the organizational goals (Modarres, Kaminskiy & Krivtsov, 2016). Communication is another advantage that can help in discussing every event and decisions taken in the company. But, on the other hand, development and training involves a lot of money and time, which can result in loss for the company. Therefore, on-job training can be helpful in making improvement in this department.
Once the analysis of the possible performance improvement strategies is done, further options can be discussed with the team. These options must be collected from the suggestions made by all members of the group and it must form ideas, which are unique. For example, the communication method can be improvised through emails, which will help both the managers and the employees to maintain records in the organization. But, issues may crop up while applying all strategies and thus, it is important for the company to have good finances.
Product/service delivery
It can be noted that at the end of the session two groups were divided in their opinions. One group was in favor of changes that were proposed to be implemented by the organization and the other group was against the implementation of such changes. It can be said that changes implemented in an organization help in its growth and expansion (Montibeller & Winterfeldt, 2015). One group suggested that encouraging employees to adapt to the change will help the organization achieve success. However, the other group suggested that traditional method of achieving organizational success is more effective than implementation of change strategy.
It can be noted that incorporating the results of lead sessions into the strategies of a company is always effective to improve the organization’s performance (Korschun & Swain, 2014). It is to be mentioned that AC. Gilbert can also improve its performance within the organization by implementing the results of the aforementioned Lead sessions. The change that was observed in such session was to disallow employee training. It is to be mentioned that the employees can be trained and taught at the same time about the art of manufacturing toys while maintaining best quality of packaging of such toys. It can be stated that if this method can be implemented and incorporated, the employees of the chosen organization will receive a real life experience of the job. By the implementation of the results of the aforementioned session it can be said that employees will perform better and their skills would be enhanced. However, managers are also required to formulate a strategy of risk analysis to deal with the unforeseen problems and errors.
It can be said that it is important to analyze the risks in a company by the managers of the company (Aven, 2015). The primary reason for developing a risk analysis strategy is to prevent the occurrence of any disaster in a company. The secondary reason is to mitigate any disaster if any disaster happens. In the aforementioned case of the AC Gilbert, it can be said that the company can reduce the risks related to the finance and stability of its employees by formulating a strategy of risk analysis. To ensure the achievement of the aforementioned objectives the managers of the company need to reduce the cost by avoiding extra production and advertisements of the company’s products. Providing financial stability helps to motivate employees and also helps the company to retain efficient employees.
Performance improvement strategies
To ensure the achievement of financial stability as discussed above it is of utmost importance to develop a cost-benefit strategy. Cost effective strategy aims to provide cheapest goods and services (Nas, 2016). The chosen company can minimize the cost of production by reducing excess of materials.
It is to be mentioned that the changes to be implemented in a company or an organization need to be identified and analyzed to assess the results (Mishan 2015). In the case of AC Gilbert, it can be said that production manager needs to increase the productivity and decrease the wastage. The sustainability of the product can be improved by reducing errors in line of production.
|
Activities |
Aims |
Key performance Indicators |
Timeframes |
Promotions |
Eliminating Negative impacts |
|
Implementation of changes by providing motivation to the employees |
Improving efficiency of employees |
Monitoring the daily performance of the employees is an effective key performance indicator. |
2 weeks |
Providing knowledge to the employees about the benefit of change can affect the promotional activities of the company. |
Implementing systematic change is important to reduce the negative impact. |
Transition Table
(Source: Created by author)
|
Activities |
Aims |
Key performance Indicators |
Timeframes |
Promotions |
Eliminating Negative impacts |
|
Implementing modern communicating devices |
The aim is to improve the relationship between employee and employer |
Allowing the employees to directly communicate with the managers can be identified as the key to success. |
One week |
Demonstration of what is to be discussed in the meeting prior to the meeting helps to achieve the benefits of free communication |
Technical expertise is needed to reduce the negative impact of free communication |
Communication Table
(Source: Created by author)
Contingency plan can include the creation of a backup plan in case of failure of primary strategies of managers (Drucker, 2017).The contingency plans that can be suggested to the company of AC Gilbert are:
- Application of theory change management
- Setting a benchmark for promotion of work of the organization
It can be noted that if new plans are implemented certain issues are likely to arise which in turn might lead to the failure of implementation of such new policies. Such issues include lack of expert training of employees. The new machines that were installed In the case of AC Gilbert were difficult to be operated by the workers as they had little training about the functioning of such machines. This resulted in the extension of the shift timings of the workers. The health of the workers might be affected in a negative way due to the long working hours. The extension of the shift timings is violation of the OHS standard (Coates, 2014).
To prevent the failure of implementing change, it is essential to amend the contingency from time to time. It is to be stated that the changes that can be applied in the contingency and action plans are regarding the employee motivation. The necessity of motivating the employees to accept the changes occurring within the organization is of utmost importance. Therefore it can be mentioned that employee training is an effective contingency plan that can be easily implemented.
Evaluating the effectiveness and improvement of changes within an organization can be conducted by monitoring the performance of employees every weekly. This activity is to be continuously repeated to assess the long term benefits of such change. Learning activities of organizations should aim to enhance the skill and productivity of such employees.
Reference List:
Aven, T. (2015). Risk analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Chen, A. P., & Chan, A. P. (2014). Key performance indicators for measuring construction success. Benchmarking: an international journal, 11(2), 203-221.
Coates IV, J. C. (2014). Cost-Benefit Analysis of Financial Regulation: Case Studies and Implications. Yale LJ, 124, 882.
Drucker, P. F. (2017). What Makes an Effective Executive (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Review Press.
Fayol, H. (2016). General and industrial management. Ravenio Books.
Hastings, N. A. (2010). Key performance indicators. Physical asset management, 319-322.
Korschun, D., & Swain, S. D. (2014). Corporate social responsibility, customer orientation, and the job performance of frontline employees. Journal of Marketing, 78(3), 20-37.
Martin, B., Schiuma, G., & Healy, A. (2014). Intellectual capital–defining key performance indicators for organizational knowledge assets. Business Process Management Journal, 10(5), 551-569.
Mishan, E. J. (2015). Elements of Cost-Benefit Analysis (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.
Modarres, M., Kaminskiy, M. P., & Krivtsov, V. (2016). Reliability engineering and risk analysis: a practical guide. CRC press.
Montibeller, G., & Winterfeldt, D. (2015). Cognitive and motivational biases in decision and risk analysis. Risk Analysis, 35(7), 1230-1251.
Nas, T. F. (2016). Cost-benefit analysis: Theory and application. Lexington Books.
Parmenter, D. (2015). Key performance indicators: developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs. John Wiley & Sons.
Tibballs, G., 1999, Business blunders, ‘A. C. Gilbert: Toy Story’, Robinson Publishing Ltd, pp. 43.
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