E-Commerce Management: JLR Manufacturer - Essay Example

? 253SAM Management of E-Commerce 253SAM Management of E-Commerce JLR is an international manufacturer of motor vehicles and it is widely known for its efficiency in its products. Changes in technology have made most businesses to engage in inventions that they never intended to. It has brought the issues that are related to innovations that were not in the market before. The company needs to utilize the e-commerce concept in its operations so that it can sustain the new model or vehicle in the market. Internet showcasing is the methodology of directing business through the web and it has been proved to be cheap, durable and reliable. Lately, everything is build around the concept of internet and most businesses, JLR included, are earning a fortune from the use of the internet. Almost all operations are conducted via the internet among various entities in order to satisfy the objectives of a given entity and ensuring that the desired profit has been earned from the operations. A key ingredient of e-commerce is the concept that involves electronic trading, the advertisement of goods and procurement of raw materials, goods and services over the internet. The success and volume of online marketing has been evidenced on the internet and more and more businesses and other activities have been conducted via the internet. With success in establishing such an environment on the internet, it is evident that every computer has become a window opportunity to all businesses and individuals that are involved in the businesses (Schniederjans & Cao, 2002). An electronic media that is known as internet has the potential to diminish transaction times and transforming time incredibly, while in the meantime making qualified data accessible all around and through this, most consumers and producers are able to access information about their various products that they need or are searching for. Internet electronic commerce has been embraced by most business people and consumers as a means of reducing operational costs to an organization and as a high potential of earning revenue from the various operations in an organization. Different departments in an organization are able to use and apply the medium so that efficiency can be achieved. The marketing department for example it is able to advertise the product as in our case, JLR will easily place the product in the market and more consumers are able to access it. It involves the placing of the product specifications and the major changes that have transformed it for consumers to value and make the right choice. To the production and manufacturing department, it enables provision of the raw materials to produce the new model to be availed and requested for. To the finance and accounting departments, JLR will be able to utilize the systems of revenue accountability and be able to track the production, marketing and delivery costs of the entire products (Aka?li, 2005). The omnipresence of the web and the accessibility of browsers over different platforms provide a common base or platform upon which the system has been able to maximally function, and this has increased the business potential of doing businesses. The platform has reduced incidents of software distribution and software installation, thus improving and encouraging the expansion of the electronic commerce. In order to understand how the company will benefit from the ecommerce, it is vital to be able to explain the importance that it brings as far as the business scenario is concerned. JLR has been in the market for a longer period, and this has been a major boost to its production and marketing departments. It is also important that we clearly understand the cost effectiveness and time saving that it has brought to most of the related businesses (Aka?li, 2005). Electronic commerce can be defined from four major perspectives; communication, as a communication aspect, businesses are able to minimize communication costs and also increase the reliability and durability of the information that is delivered to the consumers. It is also the deliverer of information, products and other payments over the telephone or any other medium that involves use of an electronic medium; business process perspective; it involves the use of electronic medium via application of technology to reduce the tedious process that is involved in the automation of the various businesses perspective; service dimension, it addresses and fully satisfies the desires of the organizations as far as service delivery is concerned and reduces the costs that are incurred and lastly, it can be defined from the perspective of online perspective where it offers the different individuals and businesses the opportunity and capacity of buying and selling goods and services as per the information that is provided by the internet as well as other online services. The information that is freely and readily available is used to make and improve all the dimensions of operations as it is related to profit making dimension (Feridun et al., 2002). Electronic commerce can be defined in many ways, but there is the main definition that is relevant as far as the trading aspect is concerned. E-commerce therefore is the process that businesses trade over the internet and which encompasses all aspects of the operations in a business. It incorporates all parts of bartering that incorporate business creation, requesting, inventory network administration and the exchange of cash. The latter has made businesses to be effective in service delivery and more entrepreneurs have embraced the concept. The most common type of applications that are employed include telephone, fax, electronic mail, electronic money transfer and the most commonly used, the internet. Consumer behavior should also be the major focus and the right e-commerce aspects should be used to solve their concerns. Consumers are always inquisitive about knowing the price, the brand of the vehicle or rather the commodity and above all, the location of the product. To satisfy their needs, the internet mode that should be used must be in accordance with the consumers needs. Consumers are able to purchase goods online by using a variety of methods, something that the consumers benefit from. Internet based ecommerce has so many advantages as far as the vehicle manufacturing concept is concerned. The concept will enable the business to shorten procurement procedures through the use of online cycles, ordering and payment. This will increase the performance of the production department as raw materials ordering will ease the sales department work since the payment modes will be automated and efficient. The concept will also reduce the development cycles and accelerate time to showcase through shared designing, item and process outline, paying little respect to the area of the clients; this will give the company a higher edge as far as competition is concerned (Feridun et al., 2002). JLR as a company that deals with production of vehicles will increase its awareness and process design. It will also be motivated, thus increasing the economic performance that will boost most of its operations. As a communication tool and system, it will be responsible of reducing the communication directly by use of electronic mail as compared to postage stamps, which will speed up the rate of delivering information, and this will reduce inventory and related purchasing costs and the overhead costs that are involved in communication will be redirected to other uses. E-commerce will also promote relationship among the customers and suppliers, for example, websites enable companies to maintain customers and suppliers appraised of developments that concern them and practice effective relationship marketing. Challenges of ecommerce E-commerce can be easy to manage but it has also its challenges that make most businesses to practice other modes that will be cheaper. Online retailing which is most rampant is faced with several challenges too. E-commerce requires sufficient and substantial infrastructure planning to be able to be successful. Improper planning, under powered equipment furnished with deficient data transmission, not well acknowledged programming and no reasonable information administration are recipes for disaster in an organization. A system which is poorly designed works bad in enhancing performance in the business (Schniederjans & Cao, 2002). Personnel that are required to enhance the performance of the entire organization are also another challenge that the management will face. Most organizations are not able to get the right trained and professional employees to deal or to implement the concept that has turned most businesses into success. High costs of implementing or changing the whole system will tamper with the efficient functioning of the e-commerce aspect. Obtaining the right infrastructure to be functional is always an uphill task and this will be factored as a major challenge that should be considered by the JLR management, hence internet should be established and maximally used (Feridun et al., 2002). The other challenge is all about fraud over the internet. Various individuals with bad and harmful intentions have always found a way on how to steal and conduct transactions online that are targeted at withdrawing a given organization’s funds or copying a given organizations’ ways of conducting their production and other strategies that should be limited to the manufacturing department only. Fraudsters should be controlled in order to be able to attain the necessary e-commerce advantages that have been discussed above. Web hoax has been enormously aided by offenders getting charge card account numbers from online benefits like Credit Wizard and Credit Master, which usually generate large volumes of card digits that can be used to pay for goods or services ordered online. The transactions are taken by the fraudsters posing as the owners of the cards. This can be controlled through various systems to be developed in order to enable merchants, banks and customers communicate securely. To secure electronic stores exchanges, information is usually encrypted utilizing calculations which encode notes. The aforementioned are then decoded utilizing electronic keys known to the sender and the beneficiaries (Schniederjans & Cao, 2002). 251SAM Business Decision Management Introduction Business decision management refers to a framework for implementation of business rule, bringing together of data and predictive analysis of the information and allowing for continuous flow of information through ongoing improvement of the information, through adaptive control and optimization of the information. As a discipline, business decision management refers to a technology stack that builds ups on the existing enterprise application and information technology. It also involves leveraging of data to manage uncertainty, increase uncertainty and give business control to all the existing systems. Sources of information Business information and informative content claims roots in different sources and the business has the challenge of capturing and using information that is relevant and reliable. The sources of information can be primary, referring to information obtained from one’s personal company also known as internal information. Information is also obtained from outside the organization and is commonly referred to as external information. The sources of information from the two main sources are also divided into three levels: operational level, which is the information obtained from day to day activities and feeds into the tactical level. Tactical level of information contains information on weekly and monthly meetings and the asset management function of performance review. Strategic management involves management steering committee and long term planning with the last level being budgeting, which involves the release and planning of resources. Financial information refers to data in relation with profit and loss position in an organization. Financial information is mainly acquired from accounting records which provide a detail of the organization’s business transactions in the past and budget forecasts for future planning. Manufacturing information is a source of internal decision-making and helps in determining the cost of manufacturing products within the company. Through the information obtained at this point, it becomes possible for the organization to maintain its costs of manufacturing at reasonable levels both presently and in future. Personnel information is an internal information source that provides information on the organization employees and is useful in staff monitoring for the purpose of performance appraisal or incentives such as salary increments. Personnel information is also useful in measurement of staff productivity and therefore the organization human resource is able to assign tasks on the basis of an employee potential, thus ensuring particular employees contributes their best in increasing the organization’s productivity. Marketing information is also a source of organization decision making. Information comes from three main sources. The first source is the internal company information such as information from sales, orders, customer profiles and customer service profiles. Information on marketing may also be obtained through marketing research and marketing intelligence. Marketing information is a critical to an organization and is mainly obtained externally for gaining a better understanding of the consumers and therefore ensuring their needs and expectations are sufficiently met by the designed products. Through sufficient marketing research, an organization is in a good state to better know the risks and strengths in their line of production and therefore reduce the risk of business failure. Accurate and up to date information by using appropriate research mechanisms also ensures that a business is able to focus on the future by providing an avenue through which a particular organization is able to compare its products with that of other competitors who may be doing better, and thus improve on their future offering. Purchasing and sales information is useful to an organization as it reviews the prices of the products and ensures they are distributed at profitable levels. Through purchasing and sales information, an organization is able to plan on the products that need to be taken to new levels through mechanisms such as campaigns. These sources of information that are available both internally and externally will help me in understanding the position of JLR and reflect on its ability to produce a new model of a car (Baker, 2011). Business Decision making models The importance of decision-making in an organization makes it a very complex phase in any given organization, which has resulted to development of several business models to make it more clearly in understanding. The rational –economic model also known as the classical model takes a perspective of the decisions that ought to be made. This model seeks at maximizing the payoff and utilizes the search process, thus ensuring that it is consistent, hence assuming the decision maker to be completely irrational. The rational model also assumes the decision maker, as all available information and more so all alternatives are considered. The decision maker therefore takes the best choice through following the process of identifying the problem, generation of alternative solutions, selecting the solution and implementation, and evaluation of the solution. Rational decision making model can therefore be useful to JLR especially if the decision makers are mainly motivated by maximization of their interests. The admistrative model is also commonly referred to as the behavioral model and it’s descriptive in the sense that it describes how the decisions are actually made. Decision makers are characterized by individual capabilities and therefore seek at making the problem less complex. The model assumes decision makers operate with limited rationality and therefore identify the limited range of alternatives available. The decision makers in this case always goes for the alternative that satisfactorily meets the minimum criteria established for the desired decision. Decision making always involves a sequential analysis with the first satisfactorily decision being selected. The implicit favorite model takes a descriptive approach when explaining the actual process of decision making. The real decision maker is neither irrationally objective nor unbiased. This mode involves choice of an alternative that is favorite to the decision making and is normally intuitive. The political model is descriptive in approach and describes the way in which decisions are made. The process mainly involves a cycle of bargaining among decision makers through negotiations which are normally characterized by favor and power. The political model sometimes leads to reaching of unsuitable decisions with detrimental effects as a result of the withholding of information and the social pressure involved (Monahan, 2000). Conclusion The best model for the JLR Company to use in this case is the classical model since it gives a chance to review all the available alternatives and eliminates the likelihood of favors and decision deficit. Communicating the results of decision making to managers Communication in any organization takes a wider perspective than information and is critical for the organization’s crucial development in all of its avenues. Through proper communication, the decision made will be through a reflection of the sources of information and the classical model for the purpose policy building within the organization, and a shared understanding within the organization. Communication of the decisions to the management will start by first establishing objectives for the decision making. This will help in communicating to the management the reason behind the decision arrived at and make them familiarize themselves with the knowledge involved. Communication will also take into perspective the alternatives that are available in view of the management and therefore encourage the management in the functional areas of the management. Communication of the decision to the managers will start with structuring a face to face conversation, where I will make sure I communicate to the managers three main issues regarding the need of acting on the particular decisions of introducing a new sports car, the information that we must select, exchange and compare as a way of having a shared knowledge of the action to be taken, and an analysis of the steps required for the implementation of the alternative that I have chosen. In my communication with the managers, I will also ensure that there is an objective argument in the way I present my points to the managers. As a decision maker, I will have a strong and assertive stand for and against the real good position that I have solely taken in view of production of a new car model. I will also ensure that there is deference in my decision as a way of ensuring that I put the interest of the organization before my personal preferences. By so doing, I will give room for taking in the decision of the majority in case it doesn’t confer with my personal presentation (Yates, 2003). Tools and techniques for understanding managerial decision making Decision making involves both qualitative and quantitative tools. Quantitative decision making techniques involve the use of tools to help an administrator enhance the most critical part nature of choice making. These are tools that are used in rational and logical decision making and are manifested in decision trees, payback analysis and use of simulations. Other techniques that may help in understanding decisions made by managers include market research through gathering information about a particular market and establishing the best market decisions. Cost benefit analysis is a review of accusing the costs and benefits associated with the different courses of action. SWOT analysis is a decision making technique that involves the review of the opportunities, weaknesses, strengths and the real threats associated with the different courses of action and the most favorable on this review is taken. Feasibility study is a tool that involves whether a certain project can be taken and whether by taking it, profit will be made by an organization. Through feasibility studies, managements are able to focus on profit making enterprises for the overall benefit of the organization (Baker, 2011). 238SAM Contemporary Supply Chain Management Different types of manufacturing companies employ different methods or procedures of manufacturing their products. Processes that are cheap but innovative should be applied in the production process so that high profits and better designs will be produced to the market. The JLR company will apply the virtual production method of producing cars where the manufacturing is controlled using the internet and all defects detected during the production process are easily rectified. The designs of the cars will involve a high level of technology and most of the materials that will be used must be of the latest technology (Wisner, Tan & Leong, 2011).  The entire supply chain management system should be effectively monitored by the right personnel. This will improve the quality of the finished product. Ordering of the spare parts and the vehicle assembling as earlier indicated will be done professionally and the rest of the painting will be also inspected by professionals. Before the vehicles and any other products are brought into the market, it is important that there should be a proper testing and for the vehicles, there should be a road test that will enable the defects to be detected in the early stages so that they can be rectified prior to their release into the market (Hugos, 2011). Quality products are always desired in the market but this will also be achieved by utilizing the right inputs. Apart from utilizing the right inputs, it is important that qualified employees are given the opportunity to perform the production of the new machine/vehicle. It’s also critical that the whole process is free from any defects so that quality products are produced. Quantity of the production is also another factor that would be considered. It is economical that the company starts producing less quantity of the cars so that it would be increased when the demand for the vehicles will increase but at the entry level, few products will be encouraged to be brought into the market (Ackerman & Van, 2007). . Cost analysis is also the process that involves establishing the costs of the entire process and the way they should be minimized. It is important and advisable that cost is minimized as possible, but the quality of the product should still remains high. Quantity should go hand in hand with the cost as the more quality a good is; the more it will be demanded by the rest of the consumers. The product being new in the market, the quality should be of the highest priority as most consumers are only interested in quality and unique designs. In choosing the best design, it is important that the best architectural designers be sort to offer the best advice that will improve the functioning of the entire process to achieve what it requires out of the process. Proper supervision should be accorded during the manufacturing process as this would improve definitely the entire process and at the end, the best quality and quantity will be achieved. Supply chain management is the process of controlling all the processes of material ordering, payment, usage and also the introduction of the product into the market. The entire management should be organized in such a way that all the levels of management or all the employees are responsible for their action. It is better that each employee be assigned a duty that is directly related to him or her. This would ease the method of error correction and thus achieve the best quality that the organization intended to. Above all, continuous training should be employed in the organization to enable quality and efficiency in using the raw materials. Wastage of the raw materials should be minimized as possible (Ackerman & Van, 2007).  Tools and techniques for decision making in supply chain management In every area of business today including the supply chain, tools, techniques, technologies and methodologies have been developed for the purpose of promoting efficiency in decision making. Strategic model for supply chain is a model that concentrates on analysis of the supply chain process through structure, process and relationships. The structure in the strategic supply model deals with the development of structural dimensions, choosing viable partners and the cost structures. Process basically means a sequence of activities, and a path that makes it possible for information and material to flow efficiently. Relationships in the strategic supply chain model refer to the connections between organizations, and therefore help in illuminating power relations and the ability and willingness to cooperate in the supply chain process. The three components of the supply chain strategic model are closely related and help in describing and analyzing the effective management of the supply chain management. Some of the techniques applied in supply chain decision making management include the Pareto optimization which involves finding a vector for the decision by use of mathematical models. Pareto-optimization involves techniques such as sequential optimization, constraint method, goal attainment and programming (Ackerman & Van, 2007). Tradeoffs are a technique that is used in supply chain decision making and are mainly involved in price delivery decisions. This technique takes into account three delivery options for the customers who are specified as normal delivery, next day delivery and long day delivery. Supply chain is a network of facilities and a distribution of options that perform the function of procurement of materials, transformation of the materials into either intermediate and finished products and distribution of the products to customers. GIS as a computer system helps in a better understanding of the operating environment for the corporate and is therefore an important tool for supply chain management decision making. For GIS to support decision making in an organization, there is a great need for it to be viewed as spatial decisions support systems. Spatial decision support systems are simply interactive computer systems that help a decision maker to utilize data and models in the solution of the unstructured problem to challenge in an organization. On the decision making, a GIS that has the purpose of decision making must therefore incorporate decision making models, interface, analysis model and database management system in its system as a way of promoting efficiency in decisions concerned with the supply chain. The Multiple Criterion Decision Making model is an important technique that helps in supply chain management. The MCDM is divided into two distinct levels: one part with the characteristic of multiple objective decisions programming. Multiple attribute decision analysis is applicable in a supply chain to help in solving problems that have a limited number of viable alternatives in an environment characterized by significant uncertainty. The multiple decision making model has also been used in production planning as a way of enhancing continuity in flow of the supply chain (Akani, 2005). The Multiple Linear Programming method is also a useful tool for decision making in the supply chain management as it has the purpose of enhancing a coordinated production of products and putting in place a viable logistics planning. Decision making in the multiple linear programming technique is aimed at several objectives: maximization of total sales for a specific customer in a particular location, minimization of the total cost of production and the associated costs of distribution (Hugos, 2011). Choice making in inventory network administration additionally makes utilization of inventory network setup devices that are functional in key choice making, by verifying the number, capacities and the location of facilities in an organization. Demand tools on the other hand assist the managers in understanding key drivers that project demand and are always supplemented by external data. Supply chain planning tools help in making decisions on the products, how to make them and the source of materials to make the products from. Transportation and distribution tools on the other hand help in making decisions on how items can be moved and to where, and the best mode of transport that can be put in place. Enterprise Data Planning as a tool of supply chain decision making is useful in handling of data and therefore promotes open communication of the data sources both internally and externally (Nieuwenhuizen, Rossouw, & Badenhorst, 2008). References Ackerman, K. B., & Van, B. A., 2007. Fundamentals of supply chain management: An essential guide for 21st century managers. North Attleboro, MA: DC Velocity Books. Aka?li, E., 2005. Applications of Supply Chain Management and E-Commerce Research. New York: Springer Science Business Media, Inc. Baker, A. J., 2011. Business decision making. London: Croom Helm. Feridun, M., Kropf, P., & Babin, G., 2002. Management technologies for E-commerce and E- business applications: 13th IFIP/IEEE international workshop on distributed systems: operations and management, DSOM 2002, Montreal, Canada, October 21-23, 2002: proceedings. Berlin: Springer Link. Hugos, M. H., 2011. Essentials of supply chain management. Hoboken: Wiley. Monahan, G. E., 2000. Management decision making: Spreadsheet modeling, analysis, and application. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr. Nieuwenhuizen, C., Rossouw, D., & Badenhorst, J. A., 2008. Business management: A contemporary approach. Cape Town: Juta. Schniederjans, M. J., & Cao, Q., 2002. E-Commerce operations management. Singapore: World Scientific. Wisner, J. D., Tan, K.-C., & Leong, G. K., 2011. Principles of supply chain management: A balanced approach. Mason, OH: South-Western. Yates, J. F., 2003. Decision management: How to assure better decisions in your company. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass. Read More