Introduction of Management : Review

CHAPTER 9 : ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY

THE RESPONSIVE ORGANIZATION

The formal structure is put in place to control people, decisions, and actions. But in today’s fast-changing business environment, responsiveness-quickness, agility , the ability to adapt to changing demands-is more vital than ever to a firm’s survival. Mechanistic organization is a form of organization that seeks to maximize internal efficiently. Organic structure is an organizational form that emphasize flexibility.

STRATEGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL  AGILITY

Organizing around Core Capabilities

                A core competence gives value to customers, makes the company’s  products different from-and better than –those of competitors, and can be used in creating new products.

Strategic Alliances

                A strategic alliance is a formal relationship created with the purpose of joint pursuit of mutual goals.

The Learning Organization

                A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.

The High-Involvement Organization

                In high-involvement organization, top management ensure that there is a consensus about the direction in which the business heading.

ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE AND AGILITY

The Case for Big

                Size creates scale economics,-that is,lower costs per unit of production. And size can offer specific advantages such as lower  operating costs, greater  purchasing power,and easier access to capital.

The Case for Small

                Small size may improve speed. A salesperson learns about a customer’s new challenge.

Being Big and Small

                Small is beautiful for unleashing energy and speed. But in buying and selling, size offers market power. The challenge, then,is to be both big and small to capitalize on the advantages of each.

CUSTOMERS AND THE RESPONSIVE ORGANIZATION

Customer Relationship Management

                Customer Relationship Management is a multifaceted process, typically mediated by a set information technologies, that focuses on creating two-way exchanges with customers so that firms have an intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns.

Total Quality and Six Sigma

                Total quality management is a way of managing in which everyone is committed to continuous improvement of his or her part of the operation. In business, success depends of having high-quality products. Six sigma quality is a method of systematically analyzing work processes to identify and eliminate virtually all causes defects, standardizing the processes to reach the lowest practicable level of any cause ofcustomer dissatisfaction.

ISO 9001

                ISO 9001 is a series of quality standards developed by a committee working under the International for Stadarization to improvefe total quality in all business for the benefit of the producers  and consumers.

Reengineering

                Organizations also have embrace the notion of reengineering,the principal idea of reengineering is to revolutionize key organizational systems and processes to answer this question,”if you were the customer, how would you like us to operate ?” the answer to this question forms a vision for how the organization should run, and then decisions are made and actions are taken to make the organization operate like the vision.

TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY

                Technology systematic application of scientific knowledge to a new product, process, or service.

Types of Technology Configuratios

                These three classifications are equally useful for describing either service or manufacturing technologies.

1.       Small Batch Technlogies

2.       Large Batch Technologies

3.       Continuous Process Technologies

Organizing for Flexible Manufacturing

                Mass costomization, the production the production of varied. Individually customized products at the low cost of standardized. Mass produced products.

o   Computer Integrated Manufacturing

The use of computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing a number of production processes.

o   Flexible Factories

Manufacturing plants that have shorts production runs, are organized around products, and use decentralized scheduling.

o   Lean manufacturing

An operation that strives to achieve the highest possible productivity and total quality, cost effectively, by eliminating unnecessary steps in the production process and continually striving for improvement.

Organizing for Speed : Time Based Competition

                Time Based Competition refers to strategies aimed at reducing the total time needed to deliver the good or service.

o   Logistics

The movement of the right goods in the right amount to the right place at the right time.

o   Just In Time Operation

Just In Time Operation calls for subassemblies and components to be manufactured in very small lots and delivered to the next stage in the process precisely at the time needed, or “just in time”.

o   Concurrent Engineering

A design approach in which all relevant functions cooperate jointly and continually in a maximum effort aimed at producing high quality products that meet costumer’s needs.