Dore-Dores Business Strategy - Assignment Example

1. Dore-Dore’s business strategy was based on a real time response system that capitalised on the needs of the market. For example, the company changed its manufacturing style to maximise profits. For a company to change its focus from being a product centric to a customer centric organization, it needs to define customer needs from the customers point of view. This is because every product requires some kind of tradeoffs, which can be known only from the customers. The customer might have a set of highly unattainable and unrealistic choices to which the company must respond with a product that comes very close to the customer requirements. Since it is not possible for a company to provide all the needs of the customer, the customer will settle for a product after making his choice from many products that promises some of his many aspirations. Companies have to constantly keep track of his changing aspirations and effect changes in their product range to suit the changing wants of the customer. This requires that the company must effect a change in policy where the customer and his wants are the biggest and the foremost concern. This calls for a dynamic management that would constantly provide services and at the same time anticipate changes in customer requirements and respond accordingly. The firm actually implemented a Business Process Reengineering (BPR) strategy because it reengineered its strategy to meet customer demand as well as maximise its profits. In theory, this is a very radical and is very critical of the style of functioning that is currently in progress in a company, which has initiated steps to implement BPR. After all, BPR has to be resorted to in order to improve the processes that are already in place. BPR assumes that the current system that is in place is hopelessly useless. This approach, which encourages managers to abandon the processes that are already in place and to look for new processes, is called as the clean slate perspective. In practice, clean slate practices are very rare owing to the high cost of implementation. Managers try to reach a compromise between processes that are already in place and new processes that must be initiated. The implementation of BPR begins with the definition and scope of the new reengineering process. After that, it follows through with a learning process in real time. The learning process incorporates knowledge from customers, competitors, employees and even non-competitors. The learning phase also gives a lot of importance to technology improvements and envisages the application of technology to facilitate as well as manage change. After the lessons are learnt, a vision for the company in the changed circumstances is designed. Companies may either change their mission or modify it accordingly. It follows that what is remaining is just the implementation of the changes that were conceptually designed. The process of change is an inevitable managerial challenge within any organization, which attempts to apply BPR techniques. The change process within an organization happens when there is a genuine effort to change or improve already existing procedures or plans. Since human beings have an inherent quality to resist change, managers in charge of organizational changes have to apply tact and professionalism to effect a suitable change process within the firm. The methodologies involved in managing a change process cannot be strictly defined within the boundaries of management principles. The strategies that may be employed to manage change in an organization, depends on the environment in which the company operates, and managers often learn by experience. Once a strategy is accepted as successful, it may be made the basis on which further changes are effected in the firm. (Clemmer, 2001) 2. Cells are groups of workers which are created within an organisation Cells are used to group people by function Cells are autonomous Decisions within the cells are taken by the members within the group Cells vary according to the style of functioning and has an individuality of its own Conflicts within the cell are resolved according to the management skills of the members of the cell 3. Te decision to convert to cells was made in order to enhance productivity of the company. Profits of the company were falling and some of the products of the firm were not selling well. In addition, the firm also had some internal organisational problems that are associated with traditional manufacturing units. The key reasons for the lack of productivity were that the company was not able to produce products according to the needs of the market. It either overshot its production requirements or did not produce products that were immediately needed by customers. 4. The changes that the company made to the children’s knitwear division were positive and in response to the need of the hour. While the traditional operations increased the time lag between demand and delivery of products, the changes that were made to the manufacturing style ensured that the products were available in time to consumers. In addition, the changes ensured that productivity of employees increased. While the traditional system was dependent a lot on forecasts, the real time system was responsive to the immediate needs of the market. While the older system could cause losses to the company by way of inventory management, the new system ensured that adequate quantities of products could be produced according to demands in the market. 5. It definitely makes sense for the company to implement cells because the it is primarily a manufacturing organisation where the outcomes of the organisation are important than the means by which the outcome is reached. The company needs a process that is needed to enhance the productivity of the company and enhance the value of the firm that is strong in some departments and weak in others. The children’s wear department of the company could do with the productivity of the cells in order to enhance the variety of products so that the company could meet market requirements. 6. The cell system may not be effective for the hosiery department because of the size of operations as well as the complexities involved for each worker. Since cross training would create adverse effects, the full potential of a cell system would not be evident if it was implemented in the company. Enfert’s proposal can be given a try since it seeks to modify the production time and could reduce the number of redundant workers in the company. His assessment that production would drop if the cell system were implemented is right. It is always better to run a system that is optimally functioning as it is. 7. Some of the changes that are required to implement cellular manufacturing are A paradigm change in organisational approach and culture A focussed and accurate plan to develop the cell structure Time in order for the cell structure to settle down and start functioning productively Constant monitoring and assessment until the cell stabilises Cells may function more in some cultures than others because of the fact that people who are adaptive to change can enhance the productivity of the cell. Organisational cultures that are more adapted to incorporate changes can make the introduction of cells a success. Works Cited Clemmer, Jim. Balancing Top-Down and Bottom-Up Change Processes. Practical Leadership: From Inspiration to Application. 2001. 29 May. 2007 . Read More