Marlston Assessment - Case Study Example

Marlston Assesment Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Section one This section will address the issue of the information requirement in an inventory system.It will focus on the hotel sector using the Marlstone Lodge as the case study. There are different types inventory system.Every business organization requires a working and an efficient inventory system. The success of an inventory system is achieved through an interaction of a number of factors. Analysis of the scenario The case presented to us is that of a hotel, the marlstone lodge located about 28 km from the Manchester city. It is operating at a time of economic hardship, the recession. The information given shows that the hotel is at a very strategic place to attract different customers .We are presented with the strength of the lodge which includes the skilled and experienced personnel and the strategic position of the business. On the other hand, there are a number of weak points like the poor coordination of workers, poor facilities. In the present time, an ICT project has been proposed and about to kick off Unlike the cases of some manufacturing industries where the inventories involve some imperishable goods, inventories we have in a set up will include some perishable food staffs and durable ones like room inventories .The management of the hotel inventories is very important and a sound inventory management has to be put to place As Michalski (2009,30) observes,the management of every inventory system has two important roles; to tell how much of the inventory need to be ordered at a particular time, and keeping track of each and every inventory item in a business organization. The operation of an inventory management system requires one to be having a good knowledge about a number of things as summarised in the zero level diagram(fig 2). The workability of an inventory system is dependent on a combination of factors. Key among this is the information. As Edward put it, the inventory system works with a number of systems to achieve the desired end. The figure below shows how the inventory system work with these systems The zero level diagrams below illustrate some details needed in any inventory management system. Fig 2 As the diagram illustrate, the inventory management system is a product of a combination of a number of factors: The warehouse size is a key factor that needs to be considered. When the business has a spacious warehouse, then it can go ahead and order as much inventory as can be handled by the warehouse. This factor does not work on its own. The other factors like whether the goods are durable or perishable is a key determinant of inventory to stock. There are other factors about the warehouse have to be considered. Some facilities like refrigerator are very important in determining how much to keep in the stock Details about the suppliers are needed in the inventory managementsystem. If there are few suppliers and more buyers of the input, the business will opt to get more inventories at any given time. This will help to deal with the problems of price shooting and shortages in the production process which may result to wasteful delays, The sales order system details provide some important details about the demand level of the company. The demand that is in existence at a particular time is determined here. Inventory is progressively converted into finished goods in every business. The demand for the amount of goods ordered by the customers at a given time is very important in decision making about the ordering the inventory. If you are ordering too much of the inventory than needed you will end up in complications relating to the demand and they quality problems. The financial complications occur when there is too much money being held up in shelves. The quality get compromised when the business purchase too much of a substance that perishable. As time progresses, the perishable inventory will go to waste. In the case of our Marston Lodge, the business need to be aware of the amount of the food demanded on a higher scale. This will help the chefs to determine the amount of the inventory to order. Excess inventory will lead to wastage while purchase of the lower inventories than the demand will lead to shortages. Inthe case of the rooms, the lodge should be in a position to tell the maximum number of the customer’s t5hat they receive on a pick season. If the demand is higher than what it has, it needs to go ahead and come up with new infrastructure in terms of rooms(chua & Sheng,2009,30) The lead time information is another key thing that one has to consider.This is the time gap between the times of the placing of an order to the time of delivery of the goods. If the lead time happens to be too long, the hotel needs to adjust itself in line with the business convenience. The department dealing with the inventory management is highly linked to the account department. This is because the finances needed by this department are apportioned by the account department. The various costs associated with the accounts department are considered as part of the expenses involved in the production process. Costs associated with the inventories. Many costs are associated with different types of the costs. This information is very vital for an efficient inventory management system.The two common types of the inventory costs are the holding costs and the ordering costs. The holding costs refer to the costs associated with the storage of the inventory. Such costs will revolve about some important aspects of a business like the warehouse costs and the security involved. On the other hand, ordering costs refers to the costs involved in placing the orders. There are those times when few orders are made in bulk the cost of ordering goes down. The costs associated with the placement of the orders will include; the cost of the labour involved, the fuel involved, the material costs and the time resource costs. Section two Analysis of the information in the Scenario According to the scenario given, the hotel seems to enjoy a lot of competitive advantages. To start with, the hotel has been located in a very strategic position. It is described as one that is enjoying an ample natural beauty. It has a spacious compound for expansion, we are told that it stand on a 1oo acre piece of land which is marked with gardens that is very attractive. Marlstone hotel is strategic in its position in a number of ways. One; it is just 28 Kms from the Manchestertown, giving it proximity to the city market. We are also told that it is near the area much visited by the historians and mostly used for wedding purposes, that is the English heritage castle. The hotel still seems to enjoy a number of facilities in its compound. It has a Roo Dee, a horse racing course that can be used by the visitors who come. The paper goes father to explain the current market occurences.It touches on the external and internal reasons for the fall in the rate of hotel bookings. This unfortunate economic trend has been attributed to the recent recession and also poor delivery of services to the customers like dirty rooms and long queues.Thi has made the hotel owner to demand increase in profit and it is agreed that ICT status will be improved in the hotel. The hotel seems to have well skilled and experienced personnel from the top management to the juniorofficers. They range from well-educated managers, chefs, receptionists, the facilities manager head, thesecurity officers and the maintenance management official’s .There are still others like the head cleaners, Ict manager and head ground officers who play crucial roles. They all work together towards achieving the hotel goals. The comments made by the staff direct us to the reason for the fall of bookings. There seem to be poor coordination of the workers. Thecleaners complain that there are times when one worker is directed to work in more than one place at the same time. This happen mostly when they are directed by the receptionists to be preparing the rooms for guests when the lot is saying otherwise. The laundry staffs tell of how the facilities in his department are in poor state. Thereceptionists complain that the poor computer state is one of the causes of the long queus.Time wastage is another thing that delay of the projects is another problem as the manager put it. The paper scenario finally asserts the position that the government has in the running of the hotel industry. Itcomes in to protect the welfare of the consumers. The various customers that are fed the hotel industry are also mentioned. And they include such people like the lawyers and the ordinary citizens. The Role of Work breakdown Structure in the project success The work breakdown structure is an important aspect of control to any project development and management. It represents the project tasks in graphical manner. Its use in the ICT i improvement project will enable the customers and the business owners to keep monitoring the tasks and the activities .This enable the project to be completed in a sequential way and since the project has many activities, the WBS help the management to do their work more efficiently. The project cost will be well factored to the work breakdown structure. This allows the project to be gained at a minimum cost. The managers are able to tell of the efficiency of the project at different stages. There are different methods that are used to represent the work breakdown structure. One of the most common methods is the tree format. Use of the WBS in this ICT project will enable the management to assign the various responsibilities to different workers in the project. This will help in the allocation of the resources to different individuals and also in the monitoring The specific objectives and stages of the project will be broken down into levels that can be achievable. These stages are such that the various implementing agents can easily identify with their positions. It provides a responsibility matrix which will show the various tasks to be accomplished by various people and the place each take in the project.WBS will also be crucial when it comes to communication of the project activities. Ithelps mark the information flow to various people. Importance of the risk matrix A risk matrix will assist the Marlston Lodge achieve its goals in the project through a number of ways: It helps the Lodge to manage the risks associated with an ICT project. It will address the people’s risk, the technology skill, the technology skill and the management skill as well as the external risks. Risk management enables the business to deal with the any future risks. It will help the hotel to achieve the target despite the hardship that may come on its way. It will help the business to trace the likelihood of the various business risks and deal with them as early as it can. The risk matrix will help to evaluate the degree of risk and allow the management to take the necessary step to avoid it. It does this by enabling the management have a clear understanding whether the risk is controlled sufficiently or not. Risk matrix A risk matrix a scheme that is very useful in the risk assessment in the case of the project management. It expresses different levels associated with the risks of a project. It is a scheme greatly used by the businesses managers in decision making. A risk on the other hand is a likelihood of an occurrence of a risk. A number of risks are very can be identified with any ICT project. The technological risk is very common in this kind of a project. This comes through lock in the performance as well as the scalability problems. In the security risks, the intrusion to the data system is a big challenge. There exists a case where information may fall in the wrong hands. There aresome details like the human resource information that are very sensitive. According to Mishacki(2009,20), different people respond in different ways in execution of a new project. Some will support it while others will be opposed to the new project. One of the easiest ways to avoid this kind of risks is involving people in decision making. Management risk on the other hand comes about due to incompetent management .The success risk happens when the business organization has so much success that it has no room for expansion. The risk matrix below will be applied in the Lodge ICT Bproject The work breakdown structure for the CT project As Tempelmeier(2011,15) observes,the work breakdown structure is an important aspect of a project management and control. The following activities will be the backbone of the framework of the project. Iniative takes the earliest part of the breakdown structure. This stage will entail some important aspects like the evaluation and the charter of the project. Theproject funding also takes a central part which comes closely after the project charter has been signed. The next important stage is the planning. At this stage, the team to be involved in the project are well outlined. In the case of this hospital.Once the project team is determined, the first meeting of the team is convened. The project plan is well outlined and submitted. Execution of the plans is the next in line. This start with the meeting that involve all the team members thesystem design is also looked at in this stage. This will come shortly after the project requirements are approved. All the hardware’s andsoftware’s are the next to be procured at this point. Theinstallation of the new system takes place at this stage. The testing of the new system takes place shortly after the installation. This will help to tell whether the new It system is operating as expected and is ready for use. After the training if the personnel on the new system, thenew system is put to work. Control will be the next thing in the project. The control will involve such things as status meetings as well as the management of the risks. The project management planning is stressed strongly in this stage. The closeout is the final stage. Intensive auditing is done at this point. The lessons learnt are also well outlined in this stage. There is frequent updating of the project progress. The work breakdown structure below summarizes the information above in a sequential manner. 1 The ICT development system for the hospital 1.1 The initiative stage 1.1.1 Recommendations 1.1.2 The project charter 1.1.3 Submission of the project charter 1.1.4 Funding agreement 1.1.5 The Approval of the project charter 1.2 Planning stage 1.2.1 Selection of the project team 1.2.2 The first kick-off meeting is adjourned. 1.2.3 .Submission of the project plan 1.3 Execution 1.3.1 First kick-off meeting 1.3.2 The design of the system 1.3.3 Procurement of the hardware’s and software’s 1.3.4 Testing of the new system 1.3.5 Installation of the new system 1.3.6 Training of the personnel 1.3.7 The operation of the new System 1.5 Closeout 1.5.1Auditing work 1.5.2 Updating the e files The following team from the hospital side will make a substantial contribution to the installation of a new ICT project. The owner-MrMuslim The hotel manager The head of the facilities management The ICT manager The contract manager All these will work well to the good of the ICT project. The final impact of the Risk matrix and WBS on the customers The risk matrix and the work breakdown structure will facilitate the success of the new ICT project. The risk matrix will help in identifying the risk problem while the work breakdown structure will help to arrange the project work sequentially. A number of benefits will come down to the customers through the success of the project. The new ICT system will be efficient and help to improve the services delivery to the customers. The long queues that the customers have been experiencing will come to an end as the computers will be improved Operations management in the hotel The operation management is running of the business activities to ensure that there is maximum efficiency in the business organization. It involves the conversion of the available inputs into finished goods and services. The operation management of a hotel is very crucial as it determines how the hotel is able to manage the scarce resource that it has as well as utilization of the scarce resources that it has. It will involve some important aspect of management like, rigorous kind of training, the implementation of an advance technology and the running the hotel at maximum levels. (Tempelmeier, 2011,35) A good working environment is very important for every worker to deliver. We do not have any case of harassment in the Marston Lodge although very little is said about the salaries of the workers. Therefore workers are expected to give their best in their fields. This they can do through the creativeness and commitment to their work. It is the role of e very manager to ensure that the workers working in their departments have an ample working environment The hotel seems to have a number of experienced managers who can give it big success if well utilised. They range from the hotel manager to It managerand operational manager. The evaluation of the important personnel is very key in the operation management. In our context, there is a big gap that needs to be filled. There seem to be poor supervision and coordination of the junior officers. In the case of the cleaners, there is a very poor coordination . They are complaining that they are receiving orders from more than one quarter. They do not know whether to follow the receptionist or the duty lota that is in place. Whoever prepared the duty lotseems not to be very comprehensive as there are areas where there are complain from the customers that some areas are not clean. Still in the line of the operation management, there are areas that need to be addressed. The fall in the bookings are as a result of the poor service delivery to the customers. The hotel is characterised with very long queues .The receptionist says that this can be attributed to poor compute system. The current plans to install and advance the ICT system will make it easier for the operation of the hotel. With this project completion, the problem of long queues will be dealt with. Challenges facing the hotel The hotel faces quite a number of challenges : The hotel is operating at a time of economic recession. It is at a time of financial crisis. This affects the hotel in a number of ways. The tourists are not able to move freely due to economic hardship. In these times, these people start diverting money into other areas like saving. What become key in such seasons are the basic things like the family necessities. The reduction in the number of the tourists means that no customers for the hotel industry. This season is characterised with slowdown in the hotel industry. It greatly affects the profitability of many firms. In the case of this hotel, we are told that it has been experiencing a slowdown in the number of bookings. The economic recession has been cited as one of the reasons for this unfortunate trend. Despite the fact that this has not been fully mentioned, we expect that the current financial crises have affected the borrowing rate adversely from the financial institutions, not sparing the hotel industry. Another challenge that the hotel is facing is the problem of uncleanliness in the hotel and poor facilities. These two have worked together in scaring away the customers. The dual has lowered the quality of services that the hotel has been rendering to the customers. The receptionist seem to be complaining that there is a poor state of computers leading to very long queues .On the laundry area there are complains that there are poor facilities in the department. Time unconsciousness is another challenge that the firm is yet to overcome. The manager is hinting that the new ICT project may take very long time just looking for some minor details about it. The receptionist on the other hand seems to be pointing at the same problem. He say that the cleaners take nearly half of their time chatting. If this is true, the cleaners must be working very hard to see the hotel fall Despite all these challenges, the hotel seems to have some good plans, which will help counter some of these challenges. The new ICT project will improve the services delivery to the customers. In conclusion i can say, if all the workers are able to work together as one team in Marston Lodge, from the senior managers to the subordinate members of the team, then the Lodge will be able to utilize the competitive advantages that the firm has. References Michalski, G 2009 Inventory management optimization as part of operational risk management Economic Computation and Economic Cybernetics Studies and Research, 213-222 Hua, G, Cheng, T C E, & Wang, S 2011 Managing carbon footprints in inventory management International Journal of Production Economics, 1322, 178-185 Tempelmeier, H 2011 Inventory management in supply networks: problems, models, solutions Norderstedt: Books on Demand Read More