Martin, the director of HR at Austin Designs, is meeting with the career development team. The firm's CEO has decided that the company needs to invest the time and effort into improving the direction and development phases of the current career development program; however, development funds are limited. The CEO and most of the executive management team are self-made professionals who believe strongly in individual responsibility. The organizational structure of Austin Designs is very flat. The company has a wide variety of jobs but few levels of high responsibility. Feedback from employees suggests that they don't know when promotional opportunities are available. 1. Answer the following questions: A. What would be best directional tool for addressing the employees' complaint? Justify your answer.

How has NAFTA affected trade among the U.S., Canada and Mexico? Is NAFTA good for domestic U.S. and Mexican producers?

What would be the best organizational structure of AirAsia to support their strategic choices in the world market? Briefly explain. (Under 100 words)

Use this textbook to supplement the below scenario and answer the below questions: Hitt/Ireland/Hoskisson's Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization 13th Edition

Scenario

•Sally has spent the last six months working as part of a team that has developed a piece of software to control a widget grinding machine. The software is due to be completed within one week but Sally knows that it will take at least one month to fully test the software. Sally accompanies her boss, Liz, at a meeting with the client who commissioned the software. The client has just landed an important order, and is anxious that the software is delivered and installed on time. At the meeting, Liz says to the client, "Sally and the rest of the team have done an excellent job on this software. It has all of the functionality you asked for and it can be delivered and installed next week. Isn't that right Sally?“ Sally knows that the software may still contain bugs that could cause machine to malfunction and be dangerous to its operators. If Sally contradicts her boss in front of the client she knows it will be the end of her career with that company - a well paid job that she enjoys. What should she do?

Questions

•What are Sally's legal responsibilities?

•Does Sally have any legal protection?

•Would your analysis of the ethics of this case change if Sally had been present during her boss's conversation with the client, but had not been asked to agree with his assurances?

•What if the client had asked Sally a question, the honest answer to which would contradict her boss?

•Would your analysis of the ethics of this case change if the software was for stock management rather than the control of machinery – with no potential threat to human safety?

JL.54 Altec Lansing makes a variety of speakers for computer systems and they are looking to adopt Lean Production principles into their main production facility. This production facility operates 320 days per year one of their bestselling speaker systems has annual demand of 32,000 units. They can produce up to 950 of these systems each day. It costs $14.52 to set up a work cell to produce this system. The cost of each system is $44 and annual holding costs are $11.80 per unit. Setup labor cost is $11 per hour.

What is the optimal size of the production run for this system? (Display your answer to the nearest whole number).
   

Given your answer to the previous question, how many production runs will be required each year in order to meet the annual demand? (Round your answer UP to the next whole number.)
   

How much time (in minutes) does it take to set up a work cell? (Display your answer to the nearest whole number.)
  

The large retailers who are wholesale customers of Altec Lansing are pressing the company to sell this and other speaker systems in much smaller quantities to support their JIT distribution models. For example, for this particular speaker system wholesale customers want to purchase in lots of 170. In order to meet this requirement, what would be the required setup time (in minutes) to make this order quantity an optimal production run quantity? (Display your answer to the nearest whole number.)
  

From the real international market, select a company of your choice wishing to start its activities in Saudi Arabia. The Company hired you as Marketing Manager of Saudi Arabian Region.

You have to establish a marketing department starting from the Analysis of the market, formulate overall marketing goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics within the context of an organization's business, mission, and goals designing and planning the entire function.

Write a Marketing Plan considering the following points

1. Introduction, Goals and Objectives

To introduce this section you should include the "mission statement" of the business; an idea of what its goals are for customers, clients, employees and the consumer.

1. Introduction about the business.
2. Business vision and mission
3. Business objective.
4. Products and services offered

2. Environmental Analysis

Conduct an environmental analysis that looks at and comments on your local area and your network of business contacts, competitors and customers.

3. Target Market Analysis

Identify the target market, describing how the company will meet the needs of the consumer better than the competition does.

4. SWOT Analysis

Conduct a SWOT analysis for your chosen company based on your research.

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MGT 322

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Critical Thinking

The global marketplace has witnessed an increased pressure from customers and competitors in manufacturing as well as service sector (Basu, 2001; George, 2002). Due to the rapidly changing global marketplace only those companies will be able to survive that will deliver products of good quality at cheaper rate and to achieve their goal companies try to improve performance by focusing on cost cutting, increasing productivity levels, quality and guaranteeing deliveries in order to satisfy customers (Raouf, 1994).

Increased global competition leads the industry to increasing efficiency by means of economies of scale and internal specialization so as to meet market conditions in terms of flexibility, delivery performance and quality (Yamashina, 1995). The changes in the present competitive business environment are characterized by profound competition on the supply side and keen indecisive in customer requirements on the demand side. These changes have left their distinctive marks on the different aspect of the manufacturing organizations (Gomes et al., 2006). With this increasing global economy, cost effective manufacturing has become a requirement to remain competitive.

To meet all the challenges organizations try to introduce different manufacturing and supply techniques. Management of organizations devotes its efforts to reduce the manufacturing costs and to improve the quality of product. To achieve this goal, different manufacturing and supply techniques have been employed. The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed the adoption of world-class, lean and integrated manufacturing strategies that have drastically changed the way manufacturing firm’s leads to improvement of manufacturing performance (Fullerton and McWatters, 2002).

Consult chapter 7 of your text book or secondary available data on internet and answer the following questions.

Question:

1. Why Companies adopted Lean Thinking and JIT model?
2. Discuss major types of Waste, companies has to keep in mind during production.
3. Assess the reasons for using lean thinking (suitable examples), what are the benefits from Suppliers to end users?
4. Due to COVID 19 emergency do you think agile supply chain is the right concept in this kind of situation? Give reason with example.

The Answer should be within 4- 5 pages.

The Answer must follow the outline points below:

• Lean Thinking and JIT Concept
• Agile Supply chain
• Their Main functions
• Reasons with suitable Examples
• Reference

____________

please complete my answer to be looonnnnnnggggg answer pleaseee ..... I need new and unique answers, please. (Use your own words, don't copy and paste)

Lean Thinking is a methodological aspect of business which aims to provide innovative ways to organisations about how to organise human activities to serve the society and help indivuduals add perspective to their lives and reduce wasted. The companies adopt lean thinking to reduce the wastage of human resource and increase the productive capacity of the employees working.

JIT Model or Just-in-time Model is an inventory management model wherein the different aspects of production like labour, raw material, etc., are refiiled at the exact time when it is ultimately required. This model is used by almost all the organisations as through this model thr production is kept uninterupted and there is no wastage of time while any factor of production is exhausted.

The major types of waste that a company has to keep in mind includes mainly the wastage of raw materials, wastage of labour resource, power supply. etc.

Lean Thinking plays an intregal part in every organisation. Every organisation intends to reduce the wastage throughout the production process. Every organisation wants to keep their potential employees and a very important way is to keep the employee satisfied with the job , working conditions, pay scale, etc. Employees play the most important role as most of the production process depends on them therefore, lean thinking helps the suppliers to the end users.

Agile supply chain is a process of product distribution that is concerned with quick delivery of products, early responses to the market, cost saving, high productivity with flexibility. At this point of the emergency of COVID-19 agile supply chain is very useful as the World is under lockdown and the market is facing serious issues of scarcity of the necessity items that are demanded. As under lockdown major companies are completely shut which has resulted in the reduction in production in alot of the sectors and the Economy around the World is facing massive drop and in some countries the Economy is running negetive. This is the time to adopt agile supply chain Worldwide to save the market from reaching recession.

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ECOM 201

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Virtual Team Successes and Stresses

A Case Study

8/8/2016

As widespread as diverse and dispersed teaming is these days, leading a virtual team can be a challenge. This case study offers ideas on making the best of diverse and dispersed team structures.

Virtual teaming, that is, working on teams whose members are not present in the same location, is a fact of our modern, globalized business world. Virtual (or diverse and dispersed) teams are prevalent not only in multinational companies with offices in different countries, but also in academic and non-governmental institutions with bases across the world. In such team structures, members often have to communicate and collaborate with others who could be thousands of miles and many time zones apart.

As widespread as diverse and dispersed teaming is these days, leading a virtual team can be a challenge. Team leaders need to not only account for practical matters such as scheduling across time zones, but also technical issues such as varying rates of connectivity and access to communication platforms. However, one of the biggest factors in creating successful collaboration among diverse and dispersed teams is culture – specifically, tailoring the team’s mission, plans and procedures to the preferences of the different cultures represented on the team.

The following is a case study provided by a Cultural Navigator subject matter expert in diverse and dispersed teaming:

“A virtual team leader named Rebecca, originally from the United States, recently led a virtual project team with members from Japan, Mexico, Germany, Korea and the US. Rebecca was focused on setting the team up for success, and although she deliberately used strategies and tools made available by her company, she learned some valuable lessons along the way.

“Before initiating the project with a kick-off meeting, Rebecca made sure that everyone filled out their Cultural Orientations Indicator (COI) assessment to get to know their own work-style preferences. She then invited all members into a team message board on the Cultural Navigator, and encouraged them to share their profiles to better understand each other’s work-style preferences.

“The team was not able to have a face-to-face kick-off meeting, so during their first virtual meeting, every team member took time to introduce him or herself. The members talked about the different preferences in their team using the non-judgmental vocabulary of the Cultural Orientations Approach. At the end of the call, the team agreed on some ground rules for their upcoming teleconference and then closed the call.

“As the project continued, the team leader noticed that key team members were regularly not sharing their sales pipelines during their calls as agreed upon. Rebecca used humor during their sessions to lighten the mood, thinking some of the team members were nervous. However, she noticed the same people began to skip the calls, and were reluctant to speak when they were in attendance.”

In the above case study, the team leader Rebecca had done her due diligence in preparing the team to accommodate different cultural preferences among its members. But then she hit a snag. What had she done wrong?

The subject matter expert offered this reading of the situation: “In retrospect, Rebecca realized that even though she had set ground rules, she could have had an individual talk with each member before finalizing the team structure and processes. Perhaps in those discussions she would have understood that Woo-jin, her Korean colleague, worked in a strict hierarchical office environment and had to clear most decisions with his direct supervisor before sending anything to her. Woo-jin had hoped his team leader realized he did not have this approval, however Rebecca was not aware of this.

Similarly, the Japanese team member named Kamiko was concerned about the strict data protection laws in Japan, so she did not feel comfortable sharing her sales pipeline information. Kamiko had tried to indirectly convey this limitation to Rebecca, who wasn’t able to understand this message.

As for Rebecca’s use of humor during teleconferences, she did not realize how many cultural references she was using in her jokes, which her colleagues from outside her own culture had little understanding of.”

In essence, while Rebecca began the team’s collaboration with most of the components necessary for success, throughout the project duration, she learned the hard way that cultural mishaps often stall even the best plan.

While cultural due diligence and careful preparation are necessary components of working with a virtual team, the team leader and members need to exercise cultural awareness and cultural competence all along the way.

Though there can be challenges to working in diverse and dispersed teams, they are a fact of modern work life. The good news is that, when managed well, virtual teams can be as effective and productive as their traditional equivalents.

Questions:

1. What did the team leader notice during the team meeting (calls) and what did she tried to do to enhance the situation?
2. What should Rebeca had to do for each virtual worker and why?
3. What were the special situations with the Korean and the Japanese workers?
4. What the virtual leaders and the virtual members need to exercise?
5. How can the virtual teams be as effective and productive as their traditional equivalents?

One of the major problems facing private security administrators in retail stores is the issue of internal theft, or theft by employees. Imagine that you own a retail business. Then, think about the reasons employees become involved in theft.

Respond to the following questions: How does the motivation for internal theft differ from that of external theft? Based on your thoughts, what types of procedures would you put into place to curb internal theft? Please explain your recommendations.

You just landed a Project Manager volunteer position for a non-profit organization. As they don’t know much about project management, they want your advice with a couple of things. Some of their sponsors are giving them money for buying materials and software. They trust you because you seem to know a lot about this, help them with the following recommendations:
1. Is it worth it to buy a PM software or to get a Free/Open source/Online version? Provide two reasons to justify your answer.
2. Find two suitable paid PM software and provide the cost of their licenses.
3. List three free PM software and mention their top three features.
4. What are those three functions/features, software must-have for you to like it?
5. There is money for one manual/book, what is your recommendation? And why?

There are five career stages typical for most adults, regardless of occupation.

talk about it.

John Smith, President of Metro Motors, just returned to his office after visiting the companys newly acquired automotive dealership. It was the fourth Metro Motors dealership in a network that served a metropolitan area of 400,000 people. Beyond the metropolitan area, but within a 45- minute drive, were another 500,000 people. Each of the dealerships in the network marketed a different brand of automobile and historically had operated autonomously. What set them apart was the high volume of vehicles it stocked on the lots. With a wide variety of options, they avoided the need to special order from the manufacturer for individual clients. Mr. Smith was particularly excited about this new dealership because it was the first “auto supermarket” in the network. Auto supermarkets differ from traditional auto dealerships in that they sell multiple brands of automobiles at the same location. The new dealership sold a full line of Chevrolets, Nissans, and Volkswagens. Within the metropolitan area, outside of the Metro Group, there were 3 other major auto dealerships, one “auto supermarket” and 7 smaller auto dealers selling only “previously owned” vehicles. 2 of the used car dealers had closed over the past year due to the downturn in economic conditions. Starting 15 years ago with the purchase of a bankrupt Dodge dealership, Metro Motors had grown steadily in size to 3 domestic brand dealerships and had gained a favorable reputation. John Smith attributed this success to three highly interdependent factors. The first was volume. By maintaining a high volume of sales and turning over inventory rapidly, economies of scale could be achieved, which reduced costs and provided customers with a large selection. The second factor was a marketing approach called the “hassle-free buying experience.” Listed on each automobile was the “one price-lowest price.” Customers came in, browsed and compared prices without being approached by pushy salespeople. If they had questions or were ready to buy, a walk to a customer service desk produced a knowledgeable salesperson to assist them. Finally, and Mr. Smith thought perhaps most importantly, was the after-sale service. Metro Motors established a solid reputation for servicing, diagnosing and repairing vehicles correctly the first time. Customer feedback from online surveys indicated that customers appreciated the free, specialty coffee, located in the waiting area while they browsed, as well as the children’s activity room. The “Kid Zone” included a TV with DVD player and a selection of Disney movies, a Wii console with 3 different games and various toys and books. The room was unsupervised, however, it was located between the reception desk, where a Metro Motors employee was stationed at all times, and the customer waiting area. Feedback also indicated that customers valued the 2 work-stations available in the customer waiting area and free wifi access. Customer feedback wasn’t all glowing however; Metro Motors received regular complaints regarding the long waiting times on the sales side to set up insurance after purchase. Metro Motors used a third party mobile insurance agent (Mr. Smith’s niece) who came into the dealership on an as needed basis. When the client had the financing and purchase in place, the salesperson would call in the insurance agent to meet with the client, but if they were busy at another dealership, it could take up to an hour for them to arrive. In the service department, customers complained about waiting on parts, which might delay the service anywhere from 1 hour for non- manufacturer parts that could be obtained from local wholesalers, and up to 2 days for certified manufacturer’s parts if they were not available locally. High-quality service after the sale depended on three essential components. First was the presence of a highly qualified, well-trained staff of service technicians. Second was the use of the latest tools and technologies to support diagnosis and repair activities. Third was the availability of the full range of parts and materials necessary to complete the service and repairs without delay. Mr. Smith invested in training and equipment to ensure that the trained personnel and technology were provided. What he worried about, as Metro Motors grew, was the continued availability of the right parts and materials. This concern caused him to focus on the supplier relationship process and management of the service parts and materials flow in the supply chain. Mr. Smith thought back to the stories in the newspaper’s business pages describing the failure of companies that had not planned appropriately for growth. These companies outgrew their existing policies, procedures and control systems. Lacking a plan to update their systems, the companies experienced myriad problems that led to inefficiencies and an inability to compete effectively. He did not want that to happen to Metro Motors. Because each dealership was considered a separate business within the Metro Group, each of the dealerships had its own ERP system that kept data relating to the individual business processes, including finance, HR, inventory management and a CRM database. Each dealership also purchased and stored its own service parts and materials. Purchases were based on forecasts derived from historical demand data, which accounted for factors such as seasonality. Batteries and alternators had a high failure rate in the winter, and air-conditioner parts were in great demand during the summer. Similarly, coolant was needed in the spring to service air conditioners for the summer months, whereas antifreeze was needed in the fall to winterize automobiles. Forecasts also were adjusted for special vehicle sales and service promotions, which increased the need for materials used to prep new cars and service other cars. One thing that made the purchase of service parts and materials so difficult was the tremendous number of different parts that had to be kept on hand. Some of these parts would be used to service customer automobiles, and others would be sold over the counter. Some had to be purchased from the automobile manufacturers or their certified wholesalers, to support for example, the “guaranteed Volkswagon parts” promotion. Still other parts and materials such as oils, lubricants, and fan belts could be purchased form any number of suppliers. John Smith believed in a tidy work environment and invested in good, sturdy shelving in the storage room. Mr. Smith was known to “blow up” at the nearest employee if he saw boxes of parts piled up on the floor so the staff made sure that all inventory received was placed on a shelf right away. These parts were shelved in no particular location, usually the nearest empty space and technicians often ended up sorting through countless boxes of parts to find the ones required for the service. Because they were frustrated in their lengthy search, they often failed to “check out” the parts they took from inventory. This often led to parts that appeared to be “in stock” in the computer system, not actually being available in the stock room. This inventory discrepancy was a constant frustration for both the purchasing department and the service technicians. Mr. Smith was trying to figure out how to balance having the right inventory at the right time and not having to tie up too much cash in inventory. Given the company’s cash flow problems, he wanted to keep a close eye on the high dollar value inventory items. The purchasing department had to remember that the success of the dealership depended on (1) selling in volume, by lowering costs to support the hassle-free, one price-lowest price concept and (2) providing the right parts at the right time to support fast, reliable after-sale service. Mr. Smith looked out the window of his office and noticed his niece rushing from her car with briefcase in hand to set up a new customer’s insurance. He was proud of her for the successful business she had built in a tough industry and decided that she had inherited the “Smith smarts”. He closed the door to his office to think about what had to be done to be able to survive in this competitive economy. Regarding the purchasing of parts and materials, two things kept going through his mind: the amount of space available for parts storage and the level of financial resources available to invest in parts and materials. The acquisition of the auto supermarket dealership put an increased strain on both finances and space, with the need to support three different automobile lines at the same facility. Investment dollars were becoming scarce, and space was at a premium. Mr. Smith wondered what analysis and supply chain and operational process improvements could be done to address some of these concerns and alleviate some of the pressures.

Prepare a situation analysis?

Define and analyze the problems Metro Motors is facing?

What do you recommend Mr. Smith do to address the problems you have identified?

Case 13.2

Ralph O’Riley is a dynamic CEO of a large for-profit system. He is well known in the community. He is a brilliant businessman, and he is highly rewarded for it, enjoying various perks such as a beautifully appointed office suite, a company car, and a parking spot right outside of the hos- pital entrance.

He rarely attends employee-related functions, and he only occa- sionally visits the other facilities in the system, let alone the units on his own campus. He is a mythical figure among employees and intimidates his own leadership team. He shows up to meetings late, relies on hischief executives to “fill him in on the agenda,” and does not know all of his staff’s names and their positions. He does not participate in oper- ational discussions, but he gives orders that affect operations, some- thing that confounds his team and angers employees.

Once during a retreat, he was overheard by some of his team members boasting about his golf game and his power: “This is a waste of my time,” he complained over his cell phone. “It’s not PC to say it, but I own these people. They do what I tell them to do. I made a lot of money for this system. Now they should give me a break.”

Questions

Obviously, everything Ralph is seems to run counter with the practices that build and enhance trust.

1.          What long-term effects does Ralph’s behavior have on the team, the employees, and the organization as a whole? Are these effects irre- versible?
2.          Ralph is clearly a financial wizard and has great business instincts. How should he leverage these competencies to create a better cul- ture? To make himself even more powerful by being approachable and trustworthy?
3.          What role does power play in Ralph’s success?