Product Process of a Brand or Product - Example

Part 1 Organizations often focus on product process as a strategy to market and develop their products. This step in introducing a new product in the market mainly focuses on improving an already existing product or introducing features to that product that will enable it thrive in the market. According to Kamen & Su (1999) this process provides companies with background and contextual information about the development, marketing and positioning of a product or a brand in the market place. As a result the process will identify the necessary resources required for brand growth and development of a new brand. For instance, during the introduction of IPhone 6 from Apple Company, the company outsourced advanced technological resources that would act as raw materials. During the product process of the IPhone 6, the company committed itself in using the latest software in order to deliver a product that met the consumer needs and expectations. Product process of a brand or product mainly requires a manufacturer to evaluate the material requirement planning process. This means that the manufacturer needs to identify what features, raw materials will be relevant in the growth and development of the product. Yeoman et al. (2001) argues that material requirement planning enables an organization to prepare for future outcomes or responses from the market. This is because a company will design a product depending on future demands of the consumers. Therefore in the production process a company will include feature that will serve current and future consumer demands. Thus the engineering, material planning, inventory transactions processes as well as the consumer demands, aggregate the production plan of a brand. It is important for manufacturers and an organization to understand the importance of introducing products that actually meet the future demands of consumers. This is because forecasting of a brand plays an important role of managing the success of a product in an industry as it influences the process of decision making within the management of a product. Nonetheless, forecasting enables a company or organization to effectively plan its financial costs in the process of budgeting and cost management. Moreover the production and marketing of a given product relies on the future trends that may affect the success of the product in the market place. Thus forecasting plays a vital role in the process of decision making, hiring and inventory. Different products and marketing strategies dictate which forecasting plans a company can implement (Yeoman et al. 2001). Predicting future consumer demands in an industry follows four steps. They include; Qualitative, Time series analysis, Causal relationships and Simulation. All these can be applicable depending on the industry patterns of a given product or brand. For example time series analysis is deemed to be most effective as it enables organizations to analyses past events and use them in improving a product or introducing a new product in the market. During the production of the IPhone 6, Apple Company aimed at giving consumers a mobile phone that will not only facilitate their communication activities as well as allow them perform work related activities on it. The company included features such as a small key pad, a large screen and the latest windows feature windows 9, which would allow consumers to work from anywhere on their phones. Evidently Apple Company evaluated past consumer needs and equated them in the manufacturing process of their new product so as meet future consumer needs. It is however essential for an organization to be able to coordinate all their activities effectively. This means that a company must ensure that it is able to intertwine the manufacturing, planning and sales process. Therefore an organization should implement a strategic management plan that will ensure their product reaches consumers, serves their needs and expectations. Through the integration of the implemented strategy, a company is likely to improve the performance of a new product in the market. Consequently, strategic management facilitates a company in maximizing its profits and gain a competitive advantage over its rivals (Chandler et al. 2000). Therefore companies are keen to formulate strategies that are tailored to exploit an organization’s internal and external environment. This process requires an organization to constantly assess the productivity of its strategies (Hansen et al. 2011). Sales and operation planning in the case of product process of a brand is very effective to ensure that a company is able to manage product stability, competition, product inventory and consumer demands. The process of operation planning entails an effective sales and supply plan and an aggregative operations plans. The process may follow three steps, which include: long-range planning which takes place annually, intermediate- range planning that takes place weekly, monthly or quarterly and short-range planning which may occur on a weekly basis or immediate (Yeoman et al. 2001). Throughout the planning process, most organizations mainly focus on inventory management. Inventory management is the process of evaluating how an organization uses its assets, raw materials and money in the production and manufacturing process of a product. Inventory management is important for controlling the sales and supply chain as well as minimizing the costs associated with marketing and production. Despite the fact that all the processes of manufacturing, production, design, quality and sales and supplies are intertwined, inventory management ensures that all these activities within a company act independently. Thus ensuring that there is variability and flexibility in production, so as to meet the demands in the market as well as providing security of raw materials delivery time. In determining what amount of inventory a company needs for the purpose of production and manufacturing, the company uses forecasting as a measuring technique. In managing inventory, organizations are certain to have a top quality management in the production of and delivery of services to consumers. During production process, to quality management is essential as it ensure that the manufacturers are keen in designing the products aligning them to consumer demands and specifications. Additionally, this will ensure that the company is consistent and committed in producing and improving a product. Malcom Baldridge National Quality Standards evaluate the level of quality management of an organizations following these steps; Leadership, Strategic Planning, Customer and Market Focus, Information and Analysis, Human Resource Focus, Process Management (Yeoman et al. 2001). According to these standards, if a company remains consistent and performs well in these areas of management, then it is effective in achieving top quality management. Nonetheless Top quality management can be evident on customer appreciation of a product. For instance the quality of the IPhone product by Apple Company, can be measured in terms of its service to consumers, reliability, durability, performance and its features. The ability of these product to maintain its standards in the market place, vividly reflects on the customer satisfaction as presented. The six sigma methodology has been implemented in most organizations, to ensure that the product introduced into the market has no or minimal defects. This process allows an organization to closely test and analyze the disadvantages that a product may present to consumers as they use it. As a result, the company tries to eliminate any issues presented by the product through constant improvements and product growth before reaching consumers. Six sigma methodology can be implemented through the use of the flow chart, pareto chart or the run chart, which all explain any shortcomings that a product may be presenting. Part 2 Learning activity 2 lecture 10 Sales and operation planning for the dairy farm mainly focuses on the rate of milk production. In planning on the sales and operation costs, feeds costs, labor costs and the expenses incurred during production are calculated. Feed costs are equated against the money spent on forage analysis and ratio balancing. This enables the farm in analyzing how much is spent on animal food and the production of milk from these animals. This acts as an inventory management strategy to ensure that the animals are properly fed and receive all nutrition required for maximum production. Labour costs are effectively equated and use of equipment and resources that will reduce the amount of human labor required thus reducing labour costs and increasing the chances of profit maximization. Yield management plan seeks to implement a debt reduction strategy through the reduction of production costs and ensure that the farm pays its suppliers on time. The installation of modern technology in the farm will assist in cutting of the excess human labour thus reducing labour costs. Additionally, the farm is going to develop and adopt a waste management plan. The waste from the animals will be converted to fertilizer and re-used or sold to other vegetable farms around thus increasing revenue income. Tutorial topic 11 The dairy farm being in the processing and supplies industry, will implement the distribution inventory model. The normal distribution technique will be used in sampling independent orders place by customers and meet the demand of dairy products supplied by the farm. The distribution inventory costs will be summed up by calculating the mean standard deviation of demand of a specified period of time. This way the dairy farm will be able to successfully track the safety stock of the inventory control system. The dairy farm is in most instances overspending on distribution and supplies costs. According to Yeomen et al (2001) purchasing decisions by customers will influence the revenue income of a company due to the price deviations incurred in terms of the discounts, promotions and the after sale services. By introducing an effective and more specialized techniques will assist the farm in evaluating the tradeoff services that take place between the purchasing and transporting costs, inventory costs carrying costs and fixed costs on products. Since the farm will be using the normal distribution technique the specialized techniques and distribution mechanisms will be needed for low volume purchases and orders by consumers. This is because the normal distribution inventory model will not be applicable for low volume orders as may contribute to incur losses and increased costs on distribution and supplies. In this case inventory management will be achieved by reducing the costs of distribution and transport, therefore implementing a specialized technique of distribution will increase revenue by reducing costs of distribution and labor costs by introducing advanced technology to replace human labor. Tutorial topic 12 The most alarming issue of the raspberry case is the fact that the produce are likely to spoil and become contaminated thus putting consumer health at risk. In recent cases of quality management on farm produce, critics argue that producers need to trade in fresh or frozen fruits to avoid contamination and poor quality. As a result to maintain a high quality management strategy, producers need to implement a variety of marketing and distribution channels that will ensure the produce remains fresh and reaches consumers in good condition. Therefore for the producers of the raspberry to effectively increase quality, production and profitability, it is important that they invest in a cooperative system. This means that the producers are required to maximize on cooperation between them, the suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. The distribution inventory model as discussed above can be intergrated in this fruit marketing case as a means to integrate the suppliers and the consumers directly and avoid poor quality management of the raspberries. References Chandler, A., Hagstrom, P. & Solvell, O. (2000). The dynamic firm, Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA. Hanson, D, Hitt,M, Ireland,D & Hoskisson, R. (2011). Strategic management: competitiveness and globalisation, Melbourne: Cengage. Kamen, E. W. & Su, K. J. (1999). Introduction to Optimal Estimation. (Advanced Textbooks in Control and Signal Processing). New York: Springer. Yeoman, I., McMahon, U. & Ingold, A. (2001). Yield Management: Strategies for the Service Industries. Cengage Learning. Read More