Business Information System in Through Thick and Thin Sauce Company - Case Study Example

Business information system al Affiliation: Introduction Management information system (MIS) refers to a system that provides facts that organization require to administrate their daily operations effectively. These information systems are basically computer systems that are used for process of administrating five major components. These five components in which the Business Information System is used for administration include: Hardware Software Data- this involves the information required for decision making Procedures- this involves the designing, developing and documenting stuff in an organization to help in effective decision making. People- this involves information on the individuals that are in an organization including all the staffs that is managerial, employees and the subordinate staff that would help in decision making. Academically, the management information systems is used to refer to the study of how organizations carry out evaluation, designing, implementation and management of utilization systems for generation of information needed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of decision making. The management Information System is what my team and i will use make decisions on how to help an organization known as Through Thick & Thin Sauces. As a member of the management Consultancy team my team and i use Information Systems to help in decision making. In this case, we have been assigned to help in decision making process to determine what is it that has made the organization undergo various problems (Vermeulen and Curseu, 2008, 138). The Through Thick & Thin Sauces is an organization which has worked for up to 40 years now. It is a business that specialises with food products mainly sauces meant for the catering industry. Some of the products distributed by this commercial organization include; chilli, curry and various pasta sauces. This means that the organization deals with types of sauces that basically all the restaurants would use. This company has over the years grown to a large commercial body from a small family run operation. It was initially an entrepreneurship that was run by a family run by only two people. It is currently based in a much larger premises meaning it has developed a lot. Currently the individuals that are taken in form work in this company are 80-110. The fact that it is in a position to employee up to 110 individuals, clearly shows that it has developed and is able to handle distribution of large quantity products. The company has been experiencing various problems recently as the managing director has pointed out that profits are reducing. The managing director also says that the board meetings spend a lot of time trying to deal with problems that can be avoided. Other problems stated include late payments to suppliers, getting fines from the offices of the HMRC as a result of late filing of NIC and the VAT returns. These are some of the problems that are faced by the organization making it difficult for them to carry on with their daily undertakings effectively and efficiently. The managing director is in this case not sure as to why these problems are not being solved effectively as expected. This is the reason why he is asking us to help him out so that he can make effective decision makings for his organization. Looking at the arrangement of staffs in this commercial body, every department has members who are assigned to work and carry out tasks allocated to them to completion. Every department in the organization is allocated suitable number of workers that make it possible for all the tasks assigned to be done to completion. This means that they are well designed to make sure that all the manufacturing processes are carried out well and effectively. To Start with we will provide the organization with information on all the necessary issues that should be taken into consideration including all the stages and processes for proper decision making. Thereafter we will analyse the problems faced with the company, have it discussed and provides the managerial staff which will eventually help them in making effective decisions to bring the organization back to its feet and make it run its operations as usual making profits as expected. The issues that should be considered when making decisions include: Objectives should be established first. These objectives should be classified then placed in order of significance. Substitute actions have to be developed. The substitute has to be appraised against all the objectives. The substitute that is in a position to achieve all set objectives is the tentative decision. The tentative decision made is appraised to see all the possible consequences associated with it. The decisive actions are then taken for prevention of any adverse consequences to avoid starting off the whole process of seeking help from experts on effective decision making. There are stages in the process of decision making. These stages are: Orientation stage: This is where members meet for the very first time, introduce themselves and have the pleasure of knowing each other. Conflict Stage: Once they are familiar with one another, little fights and arguments occur but they eventually work it out. Emergency stage: This is the third stage where the members talks about vague options to clear them up. Reinforcement stage: This is the final stage where the members end up making the decision as they justify themselves that it was the perfect one. Finally there are steps in decision making process. They are: 1. Establishing community: creating and fostering the associations, norms, and measures that will control how problems are comprehended and communicated. 2. Perception: knowing that a problem exists 3. Interpretation: spotting contending explanations for the predicament, and carrying out evaluation on the drivers behind those elucidations. 4. Judgment: sifting through the various possible proceedings or reactions and determining which one of them is more permissible 5. Motivation: examining the contending commitments which may absorb from a more ethical course of deed and then prioritizing and entrusting to ethical values over other individual, organizational or societal principles. 6. Action: it includes following through with an action that gives support to the more defensible decision. 7. Reflection in act 8. Reflection on act These are the steps we will take in order to help in making effective for the organization. In this case, some of the problems noted in the company include: Over ordering of stock from suppliers; who in turn seem to be constantly sending poor quality goods. Far too often the manufacturing team is either over staffed or understaffed and there seems to be little reflection of the staff levels being relevant to the amount of work being undertaken. The pipeline from the recipe team is poor, with many recipes repeatedly being failed despite having being tried and failed before. There seems to be lack of direction from the sales force and any customer order that they bring in seems a “surprise” to manufacturing which has led to some large orders causing a panic. The company is unsure of customer feedback, and therefore marketing has gone ahead and created campaigns which have been overshadowed by their competition. Whilst there is a vast amount of knowledge and skills in HR and Finance, the company still fails to submit required tasks on time, with staff complaining that they are not gaining the required information or advice from colleagues and line management. Dispatch often has to hire vehicles and drivers at short notice which is expensive and stressful, when they have decided to take a longer lease the vehicles and drivers are either sitting around or running with small payloads. With the issue of over ordering stock from suppliers, we will take a look at the peak seasons and the times when there is low demand in the market. We will therefore analyze how the trends in the market are most of the times, to make sure that the organization is able to have just enough stock being supplied. In this case, it means that if the organization is able to have enough stock then there will be no surplus. The surplus products are those that end up being excess stock and the organization is not able to get it all into the market. Here the decision made is to have a substitute action done. The substitute action is to change the quantity supplied at different times meaning the company will not be receiving the same quantity as before. In this case, the organization will be in a position to get products to the market, that are enough and in accordance with the demands of the clients. The organization will therefore, have no burden of paying for surplus products which will eventually make it earn profits as it expects. With the manufacturing team it is in this case overstaffed, the organization was initially a commercial undertaking that was run by a family. This gives a clear impression that it is difficult for the managerial staff at this point to effectively control the increasing number of employees because it was initially used to handling few employees (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2008, 140). We are therefore, going to offer the managerial staff with data on how to manage large businesses so that they can effectively control the incresing number effectively and efficiently. The pipeline from the recipe team seems to be poor. This is the other reason as to why the company is not doing well in its undertakings. With this problem, we intend to make the managerial staff make sure that before any employee is taken in it has to be made certain that they are fit for this type of work by ensuring that they perform a test before they are let into the business. This will make sure that those who provide the best recipes are taken in making it possible for the organization to produce the best products that will make it maintain and even attract more customers. There is also the issue of lack of direction within the sales department leading to large orders causing panic. For this problem to be solved, we will make sure that all the sales people are trained well enough to deal with demands in the market making sure that every demand report is submitted. This will make it easier for those who are involved in the manufacturing sector to produce in sufficient quantities to avoid shortage. The act of submitting the report on demands in the market will do away with surprises as the manufacturers will have in mind what amount they are supposed to produce long before he customers collect their products (Miller and Jentz, 2009, 3).The individuals in the sales department will as well be required to monitor the trends of demands. This will make them have an ample time when giving out orders because after some time the records kept will help them know of clients who usually take specific amount so that their production can always be made ready. The organization is at the same time not sure of the clients’ feedback. This means that even if there are complaints from the customers they are not able to recognize their weaknesses. This is the reason why the organization has faced many challenges including high competition. They are not able to gather information on how the clients view their products. This makes many clients end up moving away from this organization to another one. This gives a clear impression that the organization is facing stiff competition as it is not able to maintain its customers. In this case my team and i will discuss on the appropriate moves to take in dealing with competition by helping the firm make its products quite different from the others in terms of branding, naming and other characteristics making them attract the clients. We hereby aim at making the organization have many clients so as to make more sales and earn more profits. It is clear that the HR and the Finance departments in the organization have individuals that are well equipped in that they know how to deal with all the issues in these sectors. The problem is that they even with the knowledge they are not able to submit all the required tasks on time. The staff is generally complaining that they are not gaining the required advice from colleagues and the line management. In this case it is hard for the organization to have effective and committed employees because of the failure of the HR and the finance departments. At this point we will decide on something that will help those in the finance and the HR department to be provided with information on how to handle issues in these departments ensuring that they keep time. We will also sit with them to make sure that we have a talk with them to see where the problem is. With the talk will be able to trace where the problems originates and help them by making them have knowledge on how to work and submit all the reports without delay to avoid further discrepancies. The company is at times forced to hire vehicles for dispatching goods. At this point, when they make very short notices, the transportation of products becomes expensive and this brings loss to the organization as it uses large amounts of money to pay the drivers. This means that a lot of money is used for the undertakings in the business than the returns. Here we will make the managerial staff make a decision of purchasing a vehicle that may be used for transportation of products to various places. This is the best idea that will make them do away with the burden of paying for transportation. The amount used will be reduced because the only expense will be servicing and fueling the vehicle which will be less. This will help the organization realize more profits than it has been for many years now. The other issue is on the relationship between the employees and between the employees and the managerial staff. For the organization to realize more profits there should exist a good relationship among all the departments to avoid many discrepancies that may lead to losses. We will thereby discuss this will all the staffs to make sure that they all agree to work together in harmony for effective production. These are the processes we will follow so that at the end we make effective decisions that will eventually help the Through Thick & Thin Sauces Company to help them do away with their problems and make them have high sales that will help them to make more profit. Generally we intend to help them solve their problems and make their commercial undertaking beneficial. Conclusion It conclusion, the Through Thick and Thin Sauce company is an organization associated with food production especially the sauces. It has been active for up to 40 years after which it started experiencing many challenges. The company is at the moment facing many challenges including stiff competition, fines due to late submission of reports and filings, low profits due to low sales and other problems that are faced by commercial organizations. As a result the managerial staff has requested has to help them out with their decision making process in order to make effective decisions that will help the organization get back to its feet and make more profits. The main aim of any commercial organization is to make high sales and ear more profits. Since the organization is not experiencing this at the moment, they opted to seek help from us as a management consultancy team. Recommendation For any commercial organization to have effective production and make profits as expected, there are some issues that should be taken into consideration and implemented. It starts with the managerial staff and the employees where they are supposed to have good working relationship. This is to help them work effectively and efficiently. The managers in this case should make certain that all the facilities required for production are made available and that all undertakings are monitored. The relationship status then extends t the employees and the clients where the employees have to treat the clients in a good manner and ensuring that all their complaints are responded to appropriately. This will build up a good relationship for the organization and it will be able to attract maintain the clients it has and even attract others. With all these implementations, an organization is able to world perfectly well, ensuring that all the customers are served well to satisfaction making the commercial undertaking a success and all the goals of the organization can be achieved. Bibliography Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., McDaniel, C.D. (2008). Essentials of Marketing. Asia: Cengage Learning. Miller, R.L., Jentz, G. A. (2009). Fundamentals of Business Law: Excerpted Cases. Asia: Cengage Learning. Vermeulen, P. A., Curseu, P. L. (2008). Entrepreneurial Strategic Decision- Making. Edward Elgar Publishing. Read More