What is Organization Management?

Organization management refers to the art of getting people together on a common platform to make them work towards a common predefined goal.

Organization management enables the optimum use of resources through meticulous planning and control at the workplace.

Organization management gives a sense of direction to the employees. The individuals are well aware of their roles and responsibilities and know what they are supposed to do in the organization.

Organizational management is a common management style for modern small businesses. The organizational method allows managers to break down the entire operation of a department into several phases. Dividing operational functions into sections allows management to obtain a clear picture of what the goals of a department are and how to implement the goals most effectively. It also allows managers to respond rapidly to factors that affect the internal or external expectations of company.

An effective management ensures profitability for the organization. In a layman’s language organization management refers to efficient handling of the organization as well as its employees.

Need for Organization Management

Organization management gives a sense of security and oneness to the employees.

An effective management is required for better coordination among various departments.

Employees accomplish tasks within the stipulated time frame as a result of effective organization management.

Employees stay loyal towards their job and do not treat work as a burden.

Effective organization management leads to a peaceful and positive ambience at the workplace.

Essential Features of Organization Management:

1. Planning

Prepare an effective business plan. It is essential to decide on the future course of action to avoid confusions later on.

Plan out how you intend to do things. 2. Organizing

Organizing refers to the judicious use of resources to achieve the best out of the employees.

Prepare a monthly budget for smooth cash flow. 3. Staffing

Poor organization management leads to unhappy employees who eventually create problems for themselves as well as the organization.

Recruit the right talent for the organization. 4. Leading

The managers or superiors must set clear targets for the team members.

A leader must make sure his team members work in unison towards a common objective. He is the one who decides what would be right in a particular situation.

5. Control The superiors must be aware of what is happening

around them. Hierarchies should be well defined for an effective

management.

The reporting bosses must review the performance and progress of their subordinates and guide them whenever required.

6. Time Management An effective time management helps the employees to do

the right thing at the right time. Managing time effectively always pays in the long run.

7. Motivation Motivation goes a long way in binding the employees

together. Appreciating the employees for their good work or

lucrative incentive schemes go a long way in motivating

the employees and make them work for a longer span of time.

8. Resource Control

The control process is the final stage of the organizational management system. In this step, managers set controls to analyze the progress and effectiveness of each plan made during the planning phase.

A control is a system that uses data compilations to determine if goals are met. If results are inefficient or show over-achievement based on initial plans, adjustments can be made to the organization process to ensure resources are used in the most effective manner. Data for the control process may be delivered in company financial statements, labor reports, internal and external complaint systems or regulatory agencies.

The importance of a good organization and management team:

One of the most important parts of running a successful business is that you have to have a good management team. Not only that but you have to have your business organized in a way that your management team can be most effective. Making sure of this can be tricky but it has to happen if your business is going to be successful.

The reason that you need to make sure that you have a good organization and management team for your business is that it will keep things running smoothly. It will ensure that everybody knows what they are supposed to be doing and what the goals of the business are. This will keep everyone on the same page and working towards the same goals. Most companies know that they have to have a good management team and organization, the problem is that they don't know how to create it.

Creating the organizational structure of your company should be fairly straightforward. What you need to make sure of is that you have clear lines of both communication and responsibility.

Everybody has to know who is responsible for what, this is the only way to ensure that things get done properly. It is also important that information get passed in an efficient manner which is why you need to have a clear line of communication. This has to be a two way street, it can't just be about management telling employees what to do, there has to be a way for employees to bring issues to the attention of management.

There are all kinds of ways that a business can be organized but most of them use a pyramid structure with senior management on top each supervising a group of middle managers and each of these managers leading a group of employees. Of course for larger companies the pyramid will be much larger. This is the way that most companies do things but it can be altered to meet your needs and there are many examples of successful companies that have used different approaches

Creating a good management team can be a bit more of a challenge, there is no doubt that good managers are critical to your business. They are the ones who will make the important decisions so they have to have the experience and the judgement to make good ones. Determining whether they do or not can be a challenge and the truth is that you may find that you do hire managers who are not up to the job. If that is the case you have to get rid of them, bad managers can do an enormous amount of damage to your business. A bad manager will make bad decisions, will hurt the morale of the employees and your relationship with customers, you can't afford to keep them around.

Personnel Administration

Though relevant information can be found throughout the human resources site, the following links will guide you directly to that which is geared toward personnel administrators.

Administration, better known as human resources (HR) management, is the coordination and regulation of employees in a company. It involves organizing, recruiting, hiring, training, and assessing workers.

Conflict resolution and legal compliance also are important aspects. With a good HR team doing their jobs well, a company will often be ultimately more efficient and competitive, generating additional revenue.

Organization In most businesses, a well-organized workforce translates to greater

efficiency, productivity, and revenue. The first goal of personnel administration, therefore, is to organize all employees in such a way that allows them to cooperate and complete tasks in the best way possible. Examples of issues in this area include how many departments are necessary, how many individuals should be in each department, what the manager to employee ratio should be, and what alternate chains of command should be used when managers cannot be contacted. Organization also deals with how to assign individuals to specific projects, as well as keeping the employees healthy and safe in the work environment. Recruitment and Hiring Once those in a company’s personnel administration team

know how to organize workers and their projects, they begin to recruit and hire employees actively.

They post notices about positions available, organize or take part in events such as job fairs, and conduct initial interviews to find the most qualified and experienced candidates.

They then pass on information about the final candidates to department managers, who often conduct the last interviews and make the call about whom to hire.

Social equity guarantees that groups that can not compete fairly are given preferences in job selection and promotion decisions.

Public personnel administration consists of three general systems.

The first, civil service, helps to protect employee rights and safeguard efficiency.

What is personnel administration? Personnel administration is that part of administration which is

concerned with people at work and with an organization. It refers to the entire spectrum of an organization's interaction

with its human resources from recruitment activity to retirement process.

It involves personnel planning and forecasting, appraising human performance, selection and staffing, training and development and maintenance and improvement of performance and productivity.

personnel administration is closely related to an organization's overall effectiveness.

personnel administration aims at: effective utilization of human resources. desirable working relations among all members of the

organization Maximum development Meeting the organization's social and legal responsibilities. Personnel function is concerned with the procurement,

development, compensation, integration and maintenance of the personnel of an organization for the purpose of contributing towards the accomplishment of that organization's major goals and objectives. Recruitment

Job analysis

In situations such as where one or more new jobs are to be created and recruited to for the first time, a job analysis and/or in some cases a task analysis might be undertaken to document the actual or intended requirements of the job. From these the relevant information is captured in such documents as job descriptions and job specifications. Often a company will already have job descriptions that represent a historical collection of tasks performed. Where already drawn up, these documents need to be reviewed or updated to reflect present day requirements. Prior to initiating the recruitment stages a person specification should be finalised to provide the recruiters commissioned with the requirements and objectives of the project.[1]

Sourcing:-

Sourcing is the use of one or more strategies to attract or identify candidates to fill job vacancies. It may involve internal and/or external advertising, using appropriate media, such as local or national newspapers, specialist recruitment media, professional publications, window advertisements, job centers, or in a variety of ways via the internet. Alternatively, employers may use recruitment consultancies or agencies to find otherwise scarce candidates who may be content in their current positions and are not actively looking to move companies may be proactively identified. This initial research for so-called passive candidates, also called name generation, results in a contact information of potential candidates who can then be contacted discreetly to be screened and approached.

Screening and selection:-

Suitability for a job is typically assessed by looking for relevant skills, knowledge, aptitude, qualifications and educational or job related

experience. These can be determined via: screening résumés (also known as CVs); job applications; interviews. More proactive identification methods include performance assessments, psychological, aptitude, numeracy, physical and literacy testing. Many recruiters and agencies use applicant tracking systems to perform the filtering process, along with software tools for psychometric testing and performance based assessment. [2] Performance based assessment is a process to find out if job applicants perform the responsibilities for which they are applying. [3] In many countries, employers are legally mandated to ensure their screening and selection processes meet equal opportunity and ethical standards.

In addition to the above selection assessment criteria, employers are likely to recognize the value of candidates who also have the so-called 'soft skills', such as interpersonal or team leadership and have the ability to reinforce the company brand through their behavior in front of customers and suppliers. Multinational organizations and those that recruit from a range of nationalities are also concerned candidates will fit into the prevailing company 'culture'.[4]

A British Armed Forces recruitment centre in Oxford.

Lateral hiring:-

"Lateral hiring" refers to a form of recruiting; the term is used with two different, almost opposite meanings. In one meaning, the hiring organization targets employees of another, similar organization, possibly luring them with a better salary and the promise of better career opportunities. An example is the recruiting of a partner of a law firm by another law firm. The new lateral hire then has specific applicable expertise and can make a running start in the new job. In some professional branches such lateral hiring was traditionally frowned upon, but the practice has become increasingly more

common. An employee's contract may have a non-compete clause preventing such lateral hiring.

In another meaning, a lateral hire is a newly hired employee who has no prior specific applicable expertise for the new job, and for whom this job move is a radical change of career. An example is the recruiting of a university professor to become chairman of the board of a company.

On boarding

For more details on this topic, see on boarding."On boarding" is a term which describes the process of helping new employees become productive members of an organization. A well-planned introduction helps new employees become fully operational quickly and is often integrated with a new company and environment. On-boarding is included in the recruitment process for retention purposes. Many companies have on boarding campaigns in hopes to retain top talent that is new to the company; campaigns may last anywhere from 1 week to 6 months.

Recruitment approaches

There are a variety of recruitment approaches and most organizations will utilize a combination of two or more of these as part of a recruitment exercise or to deliver their overall recruitment strategy. In summary five basic models more commonly found are:-

An in-house personnel or human resources function may in some case still conduct all stages of the recruitment process. In the smallest organizations recruitment may be left to individual managers. More frequently whilst managing the overall recruitment exercise and the decision-making at the final stages of the selection

process external service providers may undertake the more specialized aspects of the recruitment process.

Outsourcing of recruitment to an external provider may be the solution for some small businesses and at the other extreme very large organizations.

Employment agencies are established as both publicly funded services and as commercial private sector operations. Services may support permanent, temporary, or casual worker recruitment. They may be generic agencies that deal with providing unskilled workers through to highly skilled managerial or technical staff or so-called niche agencies that specialize in a particular industrial sector or professional group.

Executive search firms for executive and professional positions. These firms operate across a range of models such as contingency or retained approaches and also hybrid models where advertising is also used to ensure a flow of candidates alongside relying on networking as their main source of candidates.

Internet recruitment services including recruitment websites and job search engines used to gather as many candidates as possible by advertising a position over a wide geographic area. In addition social network sourced recruitment has emerged as a major method of sourcing candidates.

Recruitment: Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, selecting, and on boarding a qualified person for a job. At the strategic level it may involve the development of an employer brand which includes an 'employee offering'.

Recruitment process

Job analysis In situations such as where one or more new jobs are to be created and recruited to for the first time, a job analysis and/or in some cases

a task analysis might be undertaken to document the actual or intended requirements of the job. From these the relevant information is captured in such documents as job descriptions and job specifications. Often a company will already have job descriptions that represent a historical collection of tasks performed. Where already drawn up, these documents need to be reviewed or updated to reflect present day requirements. Prior to initiating the recruitment stages a person specification should be finalized to provide the recruiters commissioned with the requirements and objectives of the project.

Sourcing Sourcing is the use of one or more strategies to attract or identify candidates to fill job vacancies. It may involve internal and/or external advertising, using appropriate media, such as local or national newspapers, specialist recruitment media, professional publications, window advertisements, job centres, or in a variety of ways via the internet. Alternatively, employers may use recruitment consultancies or agencies to find otherwise scarce candidates who may be content in their current positions and are not actively looking to move companies may be proactively identified. This initial research for so-called passive candidates, also called name generation, results in a contact information of potential candidates who can then be contacted discreetly to be screened and approached.

Screening and selection Suitability for a job is typically assessed by looking for relevant skills, knowledge, aptitude, qualifications and educational or job related experience. These can be determined via: screening résumés (also known as CVs); job applications; interviews. More proactive identification methods include performance assessments, psychological, aptitude, numeracy, physical and literacy testing. Many recruiters and agencies use applicant tracking systems to perform the filtering process, along with software tools for psychometric testing and performance based

assessment. [2] Performance based assessment is a process to find out if job applicants perform the responsibilities for which they are applying. In many countries, employers are legally mandated to ensure their screening and selection processes meet equal opportunity and ethical standards.

In addition to the above selection assessment criteria, employers are likely to recognize the value of candidates who also have the so-called 'soft skills', such as interpersonal or team leadership and have the ability to reinforce the company brand through their behavior in front of customers and suppliers. Multinational organizations and those that recruit from a range of nationalities are also concerned candidates will fit into the prevailing company 'culture'.

Lateral hiring "Lateral hiring" refers to a form of recruiting; the term is used with two different, almost opposite meanings. In one meaning, the hiring organization targets employees of another, similar organization, possibly luring them with a better salary and the promise of better career opportunities. An example is the recruiting of a partner of a law firmly another law firm. The new lateral hire then has specific applicable expertise and can make a running start in the new job. In some professional branches such lateral hiring was traditionally frowned upon, but the practice has become increasingly more common. An employee's contract may have a non-compete clause preventing such lateral hiring.

In another meaning, a lateral hire is a newly hired employee who has no prior specific applicable expertise for the new job, and for whom this job move is a radical change of career. An example is the recruiting of a university professor to become chairman of the board of a company.

On boarding "On boarding" is a term which describes the process of helping new employees become productive members of an organization. A well-

planned introduction helps new employees become fully operational quickly and is often integrated with a new company and environment. On-boarding is included in the recruitment process for retention purposes. Many companies have on boarding campaigns in hopes to retain top talent that is new to the company; campaigns may last anywhere from 1 week to 6 months.

METHODS OF RECRUITMENT: The following are the most commonly used methods of recruiting people. INTERNAL METHODS: 1. Promotions and Transfers This is a method of filling vacancies from within through transfers and Promotions. A transfer is a lateral movement within the same grade, from one job to another. It may lead to changes in duties and responsibilities, working conditions, etc., but not necessarily salary. Promotion, on the other hand, involves movement of employee from a lower level position to a higher level position accompanied by (usually) changes in duties, responsibilities, status and value. Organizations generally prepare badly lists or a central pool of persons from which v acanc ies can be f i l l ed fo r manua l j obs . Such per sons ar e usua l l y passed on t o v ar i ous departments, depending on internal requirements. If a person remains on such rolls for 240days or more, he gets the status of a permanent employee as per the Industrial Disputes act and i s ther ef or e en t i t led t o a l l r e lev ant bene f i ts , i nc lud ing pr ov ident fund, gr a tu i t y , retrenchment compensation. 2. Job Posting: Job posting is another way of hiring people from within. In this method, the organization publicizes job opening on bulletin boards, electronic method and similar outlets. One of the important advantages of this method is that it offers a chance to highly qualified applicants working within the company to look for growth

opportunities within the company to look for growth opportunities within the company without looking for greener pastures outside. 3. Employee Referrals: Emp loyee r e fer r a l means us i ng per sona l con tac ts to loca te j ob oppor t un i t i es . I t i s a r ecomm enda t ion f r om a cu r r en t em ployee r egar d ing a j ob app l i can t . T he log i c beh ind employee referral is that “it takes one to know one”. Employees working in the organization, in this case, are encouraged to recommend the names of their friends, working in other organizations for a possible vacancy in the near future. In fact, this has become a popular way of recruiting people in the highly competitive Information Technology industry nowadays. Companies offer rich rewards also to employees whose recommendations are accepted – after the r ou t i ne scr een ing and exami n ing pr ocess i s ov er and j ob o f f e r s ex t ended to thes u g g e s t e d c a n d i d at e s . A s a g o o d w i l l g e s t u r e s , c o m p a n i e s a l s o c o ns i d e r t h e n a m e s recommended by unions from time to time. External Methods: Direct methods: 1. Campus Recruitment It is a method of recruiting by visiting and participating in college campuses and their placement centers. Here the recruiters visit reputed educational institutions such as IITs, IIMs, colleges and universities with a view to pick up job aspirants having requisite technical or professional skills. Job seekers are provided information about the jobs and the recruiters, in turn, get a snapshot of job seekers through constant interchange of information with respective institutions. A preliminary screening is done within the campus and the short listed students are then subjected to the remainder of the selection process. In view of the growing demand for young managers, most reputed organizations (such as Hindustan Lever Ltd., Proctor & Cable, Citibank, State Bank of India, Tata and Birla group companies) visit IIMs and IITs regularly and even sponsor certain popular campus activities with a view to earn goodwill in the job market.

Advantages of this method include: the placement centre helps locate applicants and provides resumes to organizations; applicants can be prescreened; applicants will not have to be lured away from a current job and lower salary expectations. On the negative front, campus recruiting means hiring people with little or no work experience .The organizations will have to offer some kind of training to the applicants, almost immediately after hiring. It demands careful advance planning, looking into the placement weeks of various institutions in different parts of the country. Further, campus recruiting can be costly for organizations situated in another city (airfare, boarding and lodging expenses of recruiters, site visit of applicants if allowed, etc.). If campus recruitment is used, steps should be taken by human resource department to ensure that recruiters are knowledgeable concerning the jobs that are to be filled and the organizations and understand and employ effective interviewing skills.

Guidelines for campus recruiting: companies using college campuses as recruitment source should consider the following guidelines: Identify the potential candidates early: The earlier that candidate with top potential can be

Identified, the more likely the organization will be in a position to attract them. Employ various means to attract candidates: These may include providing research grants;

Consulting opportunities to faculty members, funding university

infrastructural requirements internships to students, etc. in the long run these will enhance the prestige of the company in the eyes of potential job seekers.

Use effective recruitment material: Attractive brochures, films, computer diskettes,

Followed by enthusiastic and effective presentations by company officials, correspondence with placement offices in respective campus in a friendly way – will help booting the company image in the eyes of the applicants. The company must provide detailed information about the characteristics of entry – level positions, especially those that have had a major positive impact on prior applicants’ decisions to join the company.

Offer training to campus interviews: It’s better to devote more time and resources to train on campus interviewers to answer specific job related questions of applicants.

Come out with a competitive offer: Keep the key job attributes that influence the decisions

of applicants such as promotional avenues, challenging assignments, long term income potential, etc., while talking to candidates. Indirect methods: 1. Advertisements: These include advertisements in newspapers; trade, professional and technical journals; radio and television; etc. in recent times, this medium has become just as colorful, lively and imaginative as consumer advertising. The ads generally give a brief outline of the job responsibilities, compensation package, prospects in organizations, etc. this method is appropriate when (a) the organization intends to reach a large target group and (b) the organizations wants a fairly good number of talented people – who are geographically spread out. To apply for advertised vacancies let’s briefly examine the wide variety of alternatives available to a company - as far as ads are concerned:

Newspaper Ads:

Here it is easy to place job ads without much of a lead time. It has flexibility in terms of information and can conveniently target a specific geographic location. On the negative side, newspaper ads tend to attract only those who are actively seeking employment at that point of time, while some of the best candidates who are well paid and challenged by their current jobs may not be aware of such openings. As a result, the company may be bombarded with applications from a large number of candidates who are marginally qualified for the job-adding to its administrative burden.

Television and radio ads: These ads are more likely to each individual who are not actively seeking employment; they are more likely to stand out distinctly, they help the organization to target the audience more selectively and they offer considerable scope for designing ads

creatively .However, these ads are expensive. Also, because the television or radio is simply seen or heard, potential candidates may have a tough time remembering the details, making application difficult.

2. Third Party Methods:

Private Employment Search Firms: As search firm is a private employment agency that maintains computerized lists of qualified applicants and supplies these to employers willing to hire people from the list for a fee. Firms like Arthur Anderson, Boble and Hewitt, ABC consultants, SB Billimoria, KPMG; Ferguson Associates offers specialized employment-related services to corporate houses for a fee, especially for top and middle level executive vacancies. AT the lower end, a number of search firms operate – providing multifarious services to both recruiters and the recruitees.

Employment Exchanges: AS a statutory requirement, companies are also expected to notify(wherever the Employment Exchanges Act, 1959, applies) their vacancies through the respective Employment Exchanges, created all over India for helping unemployed youth, displaced persons, ex-military personnel, physically handicapped, etc. AS per the Act all employers are supposed to notify the vacancies arising in their establishments form time to time – with certain exemptions – to the prescribed employment exchanges before they are filled. The Act covers all establishments in public sector and nonagricultural establishments employing 25 or more workers in the private sector. However, in view of the practical difficulties involved in implementing the provisions of the Act (such as filing a quarterly return in respect of their staff strength, vacancies and shortages, returns showing occupational distribution of their employees, etc.) many organizations have successfully fought court battles when they were asked to pick up candidates from among those sponsored by the employment exchanges. Factors affecting recruitment ---

1. Internal Factors For the internal mechanism of the organization, some of internal factors that affect recruitment are as follows: i. Size of the organization Recruitment process is affected by the size of the organization to a large extent. Experience suggests that larger organizations recruit more candidates than small ones. Large organizations find recruitment less problematic than small organizations. ii. Recruiting Policy The recruitment policy of the firm also affects the recruitment process. This policy is concerned with candidates from outside the organization, whereas others want to recruit from internal sources. iii. Image of the organization Image or goodwill of the organization also affects the recruitment. Organizations having good image can attract potential and competent

candidates to a large extent. Good public relation, rendering public services, etc. help to enhance the image and reputation of the organization. iv. Image of job Jobs having good image in terms of better remuneration, working condition, promotion, career development opportunities etc can attract the potential and qualified candidates to a large extent. 2. External Factors External factors are concerned with the environmental changes that will take place in the external environment of organization. Some of the external factors that affect recruitment policy are as follows:

i. Demographic factors Demography is the study of human population in terms of age, sex, occupation, religion, composition, ethnicity etc. The demographic factors have profound influence on recruitment process. ii. Labor market Labor market constitutes the force of demand and supply of labor of particular importance. For instance, if demand for a particular skill is high relative to its supply, the recruitment process evolves more efforts. Contrary to it, if supply is more than demand, the recruitment process will be easier. iii. Unemployment situations Unemployment rate of particular area is yet another influencing factor of recruitment process. If the unemployment rate is high, the recruitment process will be simpler and vice versa. iv. Social and political environment The forces of social and political environment also influence recruitment policy. For instance, the change in government can have a direct impact upon recruitment policy of the company due to change in government rules and regulations. vi. Legal considerations Legal considerations with regard to employment provision for under-privileged castes etc. will have a positive impact on recruitment policy of the organization. Purpose & Importance of Recruitment

Attract and encourage more and more candidates to apply in the organization.

Create a talent pool of candidates to enable the selection of best candidates for the organization.

Determine present and future requirements of the organization in conjunction with its personnel planning and job analysis activities.

Recruitment is the process which links the employers with the employees.

Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.

Help increase the success rate of selection process by decreasing number of visibly under qualified or overqualified job applicants.

Help reduce the probability that job applicants once recruited and selected will leave the organization only after a short period of time.

Meet the organizations legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce.

Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates.

Increase organization and individual effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants.

PERSONAL DEVLOPEMENT :

" it is the method of developing potentialities of employees so that they can max satisfaction out of their work and give their best efforts "

* it is an extension of general management, that of prompting and simulating every employee to make his fullest contribution to the purpose of a business.

* it is a function concerned with developing and utilizing the manpower resources of the business to the optimum extent in achieving the objectives of that business.

* first, personnel management is connected with managing people to rank and the file employees at work. Such people or personnel do not simply refer to rank of the file employees. The shape and form that personnel administrative activity takes , however may differ greatly from company and to be effective, it is tailored to fit the individual needs of each organization.

* second, it is concerned with employees , both as individuals as well as a group, the aim being to get better result with their collaboration and active involvement in the organizations activities.

e.x. : it is a function or process or activity adding and directing individual in maximizing their personal contribution.

* third, personnel management is connected with helping the employees to develop their potentialities and capacities to the max possible extent, so that they may derive great satisfaction from their job. this task takes into contribution four basics element namely ,

* personality

* opportunities

* interests

* capacities

* personality : the sum total of workers reaction to his experience and environment, personality is manifest by an individual reception by others.

* opportunities : not only opportunities for advancement, but opportunities to exercise his capacities and safely his interests.

* interests : not only an individual desire and ambitions but also his instinctive impulsive tendencies, vague earning and ill defined cravings that may or not stir him to his fullest action in performing his duties.

* capacities : referring to those abilities or attainments, inherited or acquired, that a worker has, is capable of and must to an certain degree at lease exercise in his work

Since the employee is both the social and economy entity, processing different type of various work situation; there can be perfect adjustment of the workers in this work unit if the workers process the exact capacity require for the work. The best or ideal personnel management therefore recognize the individual difference involving this element and tries to eliminate. Or reduce them. Forth, since recruitment, selection development and utilization of and accomodation to people are an integral [art of any organize effort, personnel management is inherent in all organize.

Therefore it is rightly the centre pervassive system of all organization . these point has been summerized by pigors and myers in this world: “ personnel administration permits all types of function management ,

such as production management, financial management sales management research management in short every member of the management group from the top to bottom , must be effective personnel administrator because he depends on co operative effort of his subordinates”

Fifth, personnel management is a continuous nature in the words of george r terry “it cannot be turned on and off water from the faucet ”it cannot be practiced only one hour each day or one day of week. personnel management are requires a constant alertness and awareness of human relation and their importance in everyday operations.

Finally, personnel management attempts at getting the willing co operations of the people for the attainment of the device goals , for work cannot be effective performed in isolation without promotion and development of an a spirit de crops. Personnel management can be of full valve to an organized only when it is consistency throughout and applied at all levels and to all management functions in corporate policy in the system procedures and in employment practice, etc. this integrative aspect of personnel management is , therefore of vital importance.

Time Management

Definition : Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Time management may be aided by a range of skills,

tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals complying with a due date.

Main themes of time management :

The major themes arising from the literature on time management include the following:

Creating an environment conducive to effectiveness Setting of priorities Carrying out activity around those priorities

The related process of reduction of time spent on non-priorities.

More about time management:

Time management is the art of arranging, organizing, scheduling, and budgeting one’s time for the purpose of generating more effective work and productivity. There are an abundance of books, classes, workshops, day-planners, and seminars on time management, which teach individuals and corporations how to be more organized and more productive. Time management has become crucial in recent years thanks to the 24/7, busy world in which we live.

Time management is important for everyone. While time management books and seminars often place their focus on business leaders and corporations, time management is also crucial for students, teachers, factory workers, professionals, and home makers. Time management is perhaps most essential for the person who owns his or her own business or who runs a business out of the home. Managing work and home responsibilities under the same roof takes a special type of time management.

An important aspect of time management is planning ahead. Sometimes, successful time management involves putting in more time at the outset in order to reorganize one’s life. Though many time management books and teachings differ in their suggestions, most agree that the first step in efficient time management is to organize the workspace or home. Even if one's schedule is well-ordered, but the office and filing system are a disaster, time will be wasted trying to work efficiently in a disorderly place.

After cleaning, purging, and reorganizing the home or office, the next step in time management is to look at all the activities one participates in during a week. Every last detail should be written down, including the time it takes to shower, dress, commute, attend meetings, make phone calls, clean the house, cook dinner, pick up the children from school, take them to after-school activities, and eat meals. Also include time for entertainment or exercise, such as driving to the gym, going for a walk, watching television, or surfing the Internet.

Often, when individuals write down every last activity, they find that there is very little time left for sleeping. The end result is that many activities must be pared down, eliminated, consolidated, or delegated. Prioritizing activities on a scale of one to three – one being the most important and three being the least – can help with this task.

Lastly, good time management involves keeping a schedule of the tasks and activities that have been deemed important. Keeping a calendar or daily planner is helpful to stay on task, but self-discipline is also required. The most efficient to-do list in the world will not help someone who does not look at or follow his own daily planner.

Of course, the other side of the argument is to remember to live Get on top of your time management, get organized, and stay on task, but live your life. Schedule some time off every day and at least one day off each week. Be organized, but do not be a slave to time management.

Training and Event Management

:::: Training Management

“Training is a temporary endeavor to create unique service in relation to capacity building.” Training shares two critical features with a project. Training has a definite beginning and end and the service created by training is distinguishable from other activities. Of course, this definition does not necessarily apply to some training programs. For example, in on-the-job training (OJT), the period of the training is unclear and created service is not necessary distinguishable from other activities. Thus this definition has limits in applicability. Nevertheless, it is still useful for examining the meaning of training in view of management. When do we start considering training? When we must solve a difficult situation in the organization, we may start considering training as a countermeasure. Before concluding that training is the best or most practical solution, it is recommendable to examine whether training is a solution for the difficult situation we face. The point of this examination is to measure the possible impact of the training on the situation. In other words, is training able to contribute to improving the present difficult situation? A simple exercise is to identify five major causes of the present difficult situation. If the person in charge is not sure whether he or she knows the causes well, it is better to hold a meeting with people who

are familiar with the present situation. Here are the steps in this exercise: First, try identifying more than five causes that bring about the present difficult situation. Second, once you cannot find any more causes, choose the most influential five causes. Third, rank the selected five causes from more influential to less. If possible, give the percentage to show the degree of influence of each cause. The total percentage is to be adjusted to 100%. Fourth, check whether there are any causes closely related to the quality of human resources. Any cause related to quantitative issues such as inadequate manpower is not relevant. When the most influential cause is closely related to the quality of human resources, we can go to the next step. If none of the causes are related to the quality of human resources, it would be recommendable to reconsider the training. In practice, however, the result is not always clear. Sometimes the third or fourth cause may be related to the quality of human resources but the relationship is not very clear. In another instance, the fifth cause is closely related but the influence from it seems very limited. Unfortunately, there is no general rule on when you can go to the next step in practice. If the causes are ranked as third or fourth, it would be better to inquire the degree of the impact from the training to the improvement of the situation. If the cause is fifth, you are recommended to consider whether there is an alternative countermeasure besides the training before going to the next steps. Training Preparation Training preparation is often not seen as substantial because it is considered the accumulation of various tiresome tasks. However, it is one of the crucial pitfalls that may lead to a poor result. It is fair to say

that a well-organized work plan is indispensible. Thus useful tools such as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and the Gantt chart are available. The knowledge on how to use those tools is very important to make a well-organized work plan.

Human Capital Management

Human capital management is an approach to employee staffing that perceives people as assets whose current value can be measured and whose future value can be enhanced through investment.

An organization that supports human capital management provides employees with clearly defined and consistently communicated performance expectations. Managers are responsible for rating, rewarding, and holding employees accountable for achieving specific business goals, creating innovation and supporting.

In the back office, human capital management is the part of enterprise resource planning that deals with employee records. The records provide managers with the information they need to make decisions that are based on data. Human capital management software streamlines and automates many of the day-to-day record-keeping processes and provides a framework for HR staff to manage benefits administration and payroll, create map out succession planning and document such things as personnel actions and compliance with industry and government regulations.

Importance of Human Capital Management

The concept of Human capital has relatively more importance in labor-surplus countries. These countries are naturally endowed with more of labor due to high birth rate under the given climatic conditions. The surplus labor in these countries is the human

resource available in more abundance than the tangible capital resource. This human resource can be transformed into Human capital with effective inputs of education, health and moral values. The transformation of raw human resource into highly productive human resource with these inputs is the process of human capital formation. The problem of scarcity of tangible capital in the labor surplus countries can be resolved by accelerating the rate of human capital formation with both private and public investment in education and health sectors of their National economies. The tangible financial capital is an effective instrument of promoting economic growth of the nation. The intangible human capital, on the other hand, is an instrument of promoting comprehensive development of the nation because human capital is directly related to human development, and when there is human development, the qualitative and quantitative progress of the nation is inevitable.

Services definition

• Reflecting the physical nature of their activities, manufacturing, mining and agriculture are easier to describe and define then are services ,which embrace a huge diversity of activities and involve many intangible inputs and outputs.

• Consider the following attempts to define services:-

A service is an act or performance offered by one party to another. Although the process may be tied to a physical

II. A service is an economical activity that creates value and provides benefits for customers at specific times and places by bringing about a desired change in, or on behalf of, the recipient of the service.

III. .A service is consumed at the point of sale. Services are one of the two key components of economics, the other being goods. Examples of services include the transfer of goods, such as the

postal service delivering mail, and the use of expertise or experience, such as a person visiting a doctor.

IV. .In marketing, Services is a sub field of marketing, which can be split into the two main areas of goods marketing (which includes the marketing of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and durables) and the marketing of services.

V. .Services are economic activities offered by one party to another. Often time-based, performances bring about desired results to recipients, objects, or other assets for which purchasers have responsibility.

VI. .Service is a valuable action, deed, or effort performed to satisfy a need or to full-fill a demand.

VII. More amusingly services have also been described as something that can be bought and sold, but which cannot be dropped on your foot.

TYPES OF SERVICES

• A service type is a category of related services that share the same schemas.

• It defines the schema attributes that are common across a set of similar managed resources.

• Service types are used to create services for specific instances of managed resources. For example, you might have several Lotus Domino servers that users need access to; you might create one service for each Lotus Domino server using the Lotus Domino service type.

That is, service types are created from adapters that define how Tivoli Identity Manager Express communicates with the managed resources.

A service type is defined in the service definition file of an adapter, which is a file that contains the profile. For example, a service type is defined in the WinLocalProfile.jar file.

• Types of service-learning activities include direct service, indirect service, advocacy, and how they are served, distinguishes the different types.

• community-based research. Who is served, and Direct Service Direct service activities are those that require personal contact with people in need. This type of service is generally the most rewarding for students because they receive immediate positive feedback during the process of helping others.

Different types of services that are offered in the community:

• Household services include the services such as household repairs or maintenance. These include the services offered by the electricians, carpenters, masons, plumber, house painters, appliance repair shops, and several others.

• There are many types of services that are offered in the community by different organizations either by companies, private agencies or by the government sector. Some of these services are;

• Education

• Communication

• Transportation

• Trade

• Healthcare

• Real State

• Food Service

• Utilities

• Legal Services,

• Beauty Care

• Household Services

• Professional Services

• Medical Care.

• Education is among of the basic needs of society; the reason why there are lots and growing numbers of schools that offer educational services in pre-school, in elementary, in secondary and in college levels. They all serve the needs of our community in the field of education. * Communication services are very much evident in our community today. These services includes the use of telephones, cell phones, computers and the internet, fax machines, telegrams, post office, post office, news papers, radio, magazines, televisions and other communication media. * Transportation is among the basic needs of the people in the community. These services include the transportation by the land, by the air and by the sea. Transportation by lands includes the services of public utility vehicles, taxi’s and buses. Transportation by air includes the services offered by several air lines.

* Trade services are very much evident; the establishments that offer these services are the malls, department stores, shopping stores, groceries stores as well as others. * Healthcare and medical are a service which is concerned for the public’s health. These are the services that are offered by the hospitals, the clinics, nursing homes, maternity homes, health insurance companies and the like.

* Real State involves the services that are related to the sale of property such as lots, houses, and many else.

* Utility services include the services that are needed inside the house. These services include the electricity, the water, garbage collections and several others.

SSeerrvviiccee PPrroocceesssseess::

Numerous proposals have been made for services. A particularly significant classification is based on the nature of the processes by which services are created and delivered. Marketers don’t usually need to know the Specifics of how physical goods are manufactured; that’s the responsibility of the people who run the factory. However, the situation is different in services. Because customers are often involved in service production, marketers do need to understand the nature of the processes to which their customers may be exposed; process is a particular method of operation or a series of actions, typically involving multiple steps that often need to take place in adefi.ied sequence. Service processes range from relatively simple procedures involving only a few steps, such as filling a car's tank with fuel, to highly complex activities, such as transporting passengers on an international flight. Later, we show how these processes can be represented in flowcharts, diagrams that help us to understand what is going on and perhaps how a specific process might be improved.

A process implies taking an input and transforming it into output, but if that's the case. What is each service organization .actually processing, and how does it perform this task? Two broad categories of things get processed in services: people and objects. In many cases, ranging from passenger transportation to education, customers themselves are the principal input to the service process. In other instances, the key input is an object, such as a malfunctioning computer that needs repair or a piece of financial data that needs to be associated with a particular account. In some services, the process is physical and something tangible takes place. In information-based services, however, the process can be intangible.

By looking at service processes from a purely operational perspective, we see that they can be categorized into four broad groups. Figure shows a four-way classification scheme based on tangible actions to either people's bodies or customers-physical possessions and intangible actions to either people's minds or their intangible assets.

Each category involves fundamentally different processes, with vital implications for marketing, operations, and human resource managers. We refer to the categories as people processing, possession processing, mental stimulus- processing and information processing. Although the industries within each category may appear to be very different, analysis will show that they do, in fact, share important process-related characteristics. As a result, managers from different industries within the same category may obtain useful insights from studying one another and then create valued innovations for their own organization.

Let's examine why these four different types of processes often have distinctive implications for marketing, operations and human resource strategies.

People Processing:

People Processing Since ancient times, people have sought out services directed at themselves; being transported, fed, lodged, restored to health, or made to look more beautiful. To receive these types of services, customers must physically enter the service system. Because they are an integral part of the process, they cannot obtain the benefits they desire by dealing at arm’s length with service suppliers; instead, they must be prepared to spend time interacting and actively cooperating with service providers. The level of involvement required of customers may entail anything from boarding a city bus for a five-minute ride to undergoing a lengthy course of treatments at a hospital. The output from these services is a customer who has reached his or her destination or is now sporting clean and stylishly cut hair or is now in physically better health.

It's important for managers to think about process and output in terms of what happens to the customer because it helps them to identify what benefits are being created. Reflecting on the service process itself helps to identify some of the nonfinancial costs, such as time and mental and physical effort that customers incur in obtaining these benefits.

Possession Processing:

Possession Processing Often customers ask a service organization to provide treatment to a physical possession, which could be anything from a house to a computer or even a dog.

Customers are less physically involved with this type of service than with people-processing services. Consider the differences in your role between using passenger and freight transportation. In the first instance, you have 10 go along for the ride in order to obtain the benefit of getting from one location to another. With freight service,

however, you can request that the firm go to your home or office to pick up the shipment and then wait for confirmation that it has been delivered.

In most possession -processing services, the customer's involvement is usually limited to dropping off the item that needs treatment, requesting the service, explaining the problem, and later returning to pick up the item and pay the bill. If the object to be processed is something that is difficult or impossible to move, such as landscaping, heavy equipment, or part of a building, the "service factory" must come to the customer, with service personnel bringing the tools and materials necessary to complete the job on site. In all instances, the output should be a satisfactory solution to a customer's problem or some tangible enhancement of the item ill question.

Mental Stimulus Processing:

Mental Stimulus Processing Services that interact with people’s minds include education, news and information, professional advice, psychotherapy, entertainment, and certain religious practices. Anything touching people's minds has the power to shape attitudes and influence behaviour. Thus, if customers are in a position of dependency or if there is potential for manipulation, strong ethical standards and careful monitoring are required. Receiving these services requires an investment of time on the customer's part. However, recipients do not necessarily have to be physically present in a service factory. They simply have to be mentally in communication with the information being presented. There is an interesting contrast here with people-processing services. Although passengers can sleep through a flight and still obtain the benefit of arriving at their desired destination a student who falls asleep in class will not be any wiser at the end than at the beginning!

Services such as entertainment and education are often created in one place and transmitted by TV or radio to individual customers in distant locations. However, these services can also be delivered "live and in person" to groups of customers from such locations as theatres or lecture halls. We need to recognize mat watching a live concert on TV in one's home is not the same experience us watching the concert in a concert hall in the company of hundreds or even thousands of other people. In the latter instance, managers of concert halls find themselves facing many of the same challenges as their colleagues in people-processing services.

The core content of all services in this category is information based-whether it's music, voice, or visual images. Therefore, such services can easily be converted to digital format, recorded, and made available for subsequent replay through electronic channels or transformed into a manufactured product, such as a disk or a tape.

Information Processing:

Information Processing Information is the most intangible form of service output, but it may be transformed into the more enduring, tangible forms, represented by letters, reports, boots, tapes, or disks. Among the services that are highly dependent on effective collection and processing of information are financial and professional services, such as accounting, law, Market -research, management consulting, and medical diagnosis.

The extent of customer" involvement in both information and mental stimulus- processing services is often determined more by tradition and a personal desire to .meet the supplier face-to-face than by the needs of the operational process, Strictly speaking, personal contact is quite unnecessary

in such industries as banking or insurance. Why should managers subject their firms to all the complexities of managing a people-processing service when they could deliver the same core product at arm's length? As a customer, why go to the service factory when there's no compelling need to do so?

Habit and tradition often lie at the root of existing service delivery systems and service use patterns. Professionals and their clients may, say they prefer to meet face to face because they feel they learn more about each other's needs, capabilities and personalities that way. However, experience shows that successful personal relationships, built on trust, can be created and maintained purely through telephone, Web sites, or e-mail contact. As technology improves and people continue to become more comfortable with videophones or the Internet, we can expect to see a continuing shift to arm's-length transactions.

Effects of Services

Service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. Service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.

7 Rules for Good Service: Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.

Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy - happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.

I know this verge on the kind of statement that's often seen on a sampler, but providing good customer service IS a simple thing. If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things:

1) Answer your phone.

Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. Hire staff if you need to. But make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business.

2) Don't make promises unless you will keep them.

Not plan to keep them. Will keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception.

If you say, “Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday”, make sure it is delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don't say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think before you give any promise - because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.

3) Listen to your customers.

Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn't been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer's point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.

4) Deal with complaints.

No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, "You can't please all the people all the time". Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.

5) Be helpful - even if there's no immediate profit in it.

The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band – and charged me nothing! Where do you think I'll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think I've told this story to?

6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be always helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.

Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn't) regularly. Most importantly,

give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don't know, but so-and-so will be back at..."

7) Throw in something extra.

Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A small thing, but so appreciated.

Effects of Good Service:

The customer service has a huge impact on your overall business. This is the only way through which you can keep in touch with your clients and make sure that they are happy with your services and products. Dubai Customer Service has evolved in the past decade and it is still showing great progress. However, the small companies and organizations got more benefits from better customer service than any international or large scale company.

1) Client Loyalty and Retention:

Retaining clients is the biggest challenge in the online business world. A company must have some loyal and trustworthy clients who will keep coming back for more. Attracting customer is easier than retaining them. That is why, most of the small businesses in the UAE are spending more money on their current clients rather than on advertisements to get new clients. More than that, these companies are investing their time and marketing budget on their existing clients. This simple process helps these companies to manage their clients and make them loyal with their company.

2) New Business and Referrals:

This is actually an understood effect. If you keep your existing customers happy then they will bring their business to you. These small-scale companies show that you need not to spend thousands of

dollars on advertisement to keep your business going. If your customer care system is good then your retained clients will do enough advertisement for you. You should believe in word of mouth advertisement. Several small-scale companies have become brands in their respective fields because of their clients.

3) Sales Increase:

This is perhaps the best and most important benefit of customer care systems. Every company wants to succeed and make more money; and a good service to the customers can do that for you. If you can amaze your clients and visitors with efficient and organized services then they will definitely do business with you. If your operators can handle the service then your prospective clients can become your regular clients. All you have to do is make your clients feel good and they will spend their money on your products and services.

Effects of Poor Service:

If a company provides poor customer service, it will have many disgruntled customers. Many companies have gone out of business because of poor customer service. More than ever, customers want to be treated with respect.

1) Lost Market Share

When you provide poor customer service, you will lose market share. Your competitors will begin to take over your customers. A disgruntled customer will quickly spread the word about the poor service he received from your company.

2) Decreased Profits

Bad customer service can lead to decreased company profits. When profits tumble, stock value can decrease as well. This will adversely affect shareholders.

3) Low Morale

Your customer service department will become inefficient and ineffective. They will spend the majority of their time on the phone arguing with customers. This can lead to low morale and high turnover. No one wants to work for a company that is not top-notch.

4) Change in Management

Poor customer service can lead to a change in management. Sometimes a new leader can exercise a certain amount of discipline, which will turn things around.

5) Increased Training Expenses

If a company provides poor customer service, it will incur expenses to train employees on new techniques and procedures for customer service. The company will also have to train new employees as a result of the turnover. Expenses will increase, and sales will decrease.

Software As a Service: -

What is SaaS?

Software as a service (or SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management. SaaS is a new model of how software is delivered. SaaS refers to software that is accessed via a web browser and is paid on a subscription basis (monthly or yearly). Different from the traditional model where a customer buys a license to software and assumes ownership for its maintenance and installation, SaaS presents significant advantages to the customer. SaaS is faster and a cost effective way to getting implemented. There are no hardware, implementation or acquisition costs involved to run the application from the customer's side. It's the responsibility of the SaaS vendor (us) to manage and run the application with utmost security, performance and reliability.

Since customers pay a subscription, they have immediate access to the new features and functionality. Unlike traditional software where upgrades would happen once a year or once in 6 months (with the vendor coming to your office with a CD), the SaaS vendor continuously pushes new updates, fixes to the application, which is immediately accessible by the customer. This reduces the length of time it takes a customer to recognize value from the software.

Since the software application is delivered as a service, its important for the vendor to focus on customer service and experience. Since this is on a subscription model, the vendor is judged on a month-month basis and the pressure to innovate or risk losing business is greater. SaaS can be used by Windows, Linux, or Mac users, providing true platform independence over the Internet.

SaaS applications are sometimes called Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Whatever the name, SaaS applications run on a SaaS provider’s servers. The provider manages access to the application, including security, availability, and performance.

SaaS: The Payoff

SaaS customers have no hardware or software to buy, install, maintain, or update. Access to applications is easy: You just need an Internet connection.

New to SaaS? Welcome!

If you’re just starting to explore the concept of SaaS, this is the place to find out what SaaS can do for you, see how SaaS is different, identify questions about SaaS, and learn more about developing SaaS applications.

SaaS Characteristics : A good way to understand the SaaS model is by thinking of a bank, which protects the privacy of each customer while providing service that is reliable and secure—on a massive scale. A bank’s customers all use the same financial systems and technology without worrying about anyone accessing their personal information without authorization.

A “bank” meets the key characteristics of the SaaS model:

Multitenant Architecture

A multitenant architecture, in which all users and applications share a single, common infrastructure and code base that is centrally maintained. Because SaaS vendor clients are all on the same infrastructure and code base, vendors can innovate more quickly and save the valuable development time previously spent on maintaining numerous versions of outdated code.

Easy Customization

The ability for each user to easily customize applications to fit their business processes without affecting the common infrastructure. Because of the way SaaS is architected, these customizations are unique to each company or user and are always preserved through upgrades. That means SaaS providers can make upgrades more often, with less customer risk and much lower adoption cost.

Better Access

Improved access to data from any networked device while making it easier to manage privileges, monitor data use, and ensure everyone sees the same information at the same time.

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE

INTRODUCTION

Software as a service is a model of software delivery where the software company provides maintenance, daily technical operation, and support for the software provided to their client.

Software delivered to home consumers, small business, medium and large business. It assumes the software is delivered over the internet.

The SaaS vendor assumes all the support, training, infrastructure and security risks in exchange for the recurring subscription fees. The SaaS service model is designed to deliver business applications anywhere, anytime which in turn requires the SaaS vendor to employ dedicated support teams and staff that make themselves available to customers on short notice.

Along with the personnel comes reserve capacity to handle any spikes in usage, outages or network mishaps and to do this continuously, globally and securely.

A typical SaaS deployment does not require any hardware and can run over the existing Internet access infrastructure. Sometimes, changes to firewall rules and settings may be required to allow the

SOFTWARE

INTERNET

SERVICE

SERVICE

SaaS application to run smoothly. A SaaS application can be configured using APIs but multi-tenant SaaS applications cannot be completely customized.

Architecturally, the preferred SaaS model is multi-tenant. What Are the Requirements that Drive the Acquisition of a New

Software Application?

i. End-User Requirements ii. Business Requirements iii. Company/Corporate Requirements iv. Operational and IT Requirements

In summary the key characteristics of a SaaS application are: 1. No difference between the license fee and the hosting fee. 2. The application is delivered over a web browser or other thin client. 3. The application is configurable, but not customizable. What are the cost drivers companies need to look at when

completing a TCO analysis?

1. Capital Expenses

With SaaS, there are no perpetual software licenses to buy. The nature of SaaS is that you pay for what you use. Most SaaS models have a recurring cost structure. You pay a monthly or annual service fee for as long as you use the service. This service fee typically includes maintenance, support, training and upgrades and is

inclusive of all hardware, networking, storage, database, administration and other costs associated with SaaS delivery.

2. Design and Deployment Costs

Most SaaS applications can be deployed and put into production much faster and for a fraction of the cost compared to a traditional software solution. This is very important when the opportunity costs of getting the application out are high. On the flip side, because a SaaS application is a multi-tenant application, there are less ways to customize the application to fit the business process.

3. Ongoing Infrastructure Costs

Other than additional Internet bandwidth needs, there are almost no incremental infrastructure costs to handle the growth of a SaaS application. Depending on the SaaS application, the IT organization may also have to deploy a desktop application to allow the end-user to communicate with the application. 4. Ongoing Operations, Training and Support Costs

SaaS vendors are responsible for the end-to-end delivery of the

application. The only responsibility of the IT organization is to make sure that the necessary ports on the firewall are open and that there is enough Internet access capacity available to allow the end-user base to communicate with the application.

SaaS is a recurring service, so for a SaaS vendor the sale does

not end when the initial contract is signed. If a customer does not use the application, they can simply choose not to renew the contract at the end of the contract term. This is called churn.

A traditional software vendor does not have to worry about

churn, since customers buy upfront perpetual user licenses. As a result, SaaS vendors have a vested interest in seeing customers widely adopt and use the application. It is for this reason that almost all SaaS vendors focus on making their products easy to use and offer initial and ongoing end-user training, and this training is in most

cases included in the service fees. This is for the same reasons they offer ongoing 19training services; if customers churn because of training or support issues, it will have an immediate impact to the SaaS vendor’s bottom line.

PAYROLL SYSTEM

Payroll Definition:

Payroll is defined as a method of administrating employees’ salaries in the organizations. The process consists of calculation of salaries and tax deductions of the employees, administrating the retirement benefits and disbursements(payment) of salaries to employees. It can also be called as an accounts activity which undertakes the salary administration of employees in the organization. Administrating the employees’ salaries is not an easy task, the HR and accounts department work together to calculate and disburse the salary to the employees. Thus, payroll management can be further subdivided into two sub processes, i.e. Payroll accounting and payroll administration.

Payroll accounting calculates the payment of work done by an employee. Payroll function does the following:

1. Compute employees gross salary 2. Make necessary deductions 3. Calculate Net salary 4. Generate Cheques or direct deposits.

Payroll Accounting: Payroll accounting involves calculations of employees’ salaries and tax deductions. It also undertakes the activities such as preparation of tax returns, maintaining the payroll records, etc. Payroll Administration: Payroll Administration involves managerial activities such as maintaining employees’ records, referring employment laws. Here, the HR comes into

picture which maintains the daily record if employees attendance.

Database of employees is maintained. Employee’s details such as name, employee ID, basic salary, daily attendance, etc are recorded. Gross Salary is calculated after adding the allowances and incentives to the basic salary of the employees. Net salary is calculated by deducting the tax and other calculated deductions (loan installments, etc).

Payroll refers to the administration of employees' salaries, wages, bonuses, net pay, and deductions. It consist of the employee ID, employee name, date of joining, daily attendance record, basic salary, allowances, overtime pay, bonus, commissions, incentives, pay for holidays, vacations and sickness, value of meals and lodging etc. There are some deductions such as PF, taxes, loan installments or advances taken by employee. Payroll is administered on monthly basis and annual basis. While administrating the monthly payroll basic salary, HRA, conveyance, and other special allowances such mobile, etc are considered. There are some deductions which are provident fund (12%) of the salary, taxes and other deductions. Deductions such as tax and loan/advances taken by the employee from organizations are deducted only where applicable. Dearness Allowance and House rent allowance is provided at a fixed rate stated by the employment law. Provident fund is deducted from the gross salary of employee on the monthly basis as per the employment law, which is provided later to the employee. Organizations also contribute the same amount to the provident fund of the employee. Annual payroll consists of leave travel allowances, incentives, annual

bonuses, meal vouchers/reimbursements, and medical reimbursements(compensations for loss). Allowances, incentives, bonuses and reimbursements are based on organizational policies. Some organizations provided the allowances on a fixed rate say 10% or 12% of the basic salary. Some organizations go for performance based incentives.

Calculation of gross salaries and deductible amounts is a tedious task which involves risk. Some of the organizations use the traditional manual method of payroll processing and some go for the advanced payroll processing software. An organization opts for any of the following payroll processing methods available:: Manual System: Manual payroll system is the traditional payroll system which involves pen and ink, adding machine, spreadsheet, etc instead of computers, software and other computerized aids. The process was very popular when there were no computerized means for payroll processing. Now-a-days it is only few small scale organizations in the remote(far) areas that use the manual payroll. Sometimes the construction industry and manufacturing industry also use the manual payroll systems for the contractual labour, as theses contracts are on daily/weekly basis. There is full control in the hands of owner. But the process is tedious, time consuming and risky as it is more prone to errors. Accountant: Accountant is a professional having a degree/diploma course in finance/accountancy. He/she is responsible for all the activities related to payroll accounting. He/she has the sound knowledge of accounting principles and globally accepted standards. The process adds costs to the organization. It involves paying someone who is responsible for calculating the salaries of others. The financial control regarding salary goes in the hand of accountant.

Payroll Software: In today’s computerized environment, payroll system has also developed itself into automated software that performs every action needed by the payroll process. It helps in calculating the payable amounts and deductions very easily. It also helps in generating the pay slips in lesser time. Automated calculations result in no errors. Data is validated automatically by the software. It needs professionals to make use of the software for its efficient working. Payroll Outsourcing: Payroll outsourcing involves a third party (an outsourcing company) in the calculations of salaries and deductions. The outsourcing organization is responsible for all the activities of the payroll accounting. It saves time and cost for the organization. If there is more number of employees (say more than 900-1000) in the organization, payroll outsourcing would be very much beneficial. The data is provided to the consultants/outsourcing firms. The various payroll functions undertaken by the outsourcing organizations are as follows:

1. Analysis of Payroll records, payroll taxes 2. Medical claim processing 3. Employee Insurance & Provident fund processing 4. Quality Audit procedures & planning

Introduction to logistics

The key components of distribution have been an important feature of industrial and economic life for countless years, but it is only in the relatively recent past that distribution has been recognized as a major function in its own right. The main reason for this has probably been

the nature of distribution itself. If is a function made up of many sub-system, each of which has been, and may still be, treated as a distinct management operation.

Both the academic and the business world now accept that there is a need to adopt a more holistic view of these different operations in order to take into account how they interrelate and interact with one another.

The appreciation of the scope and important of distribution and logistics has led to a more scientific approach being adopted towards the subject. This approach has been aimed at the overall concept of the logistics function as a whole and also at the individual sub-system. Much of this approach had addressed the need for, and means of, planning distribution and logistics, but has also considered some of the major operational issues.

This first chapter of the book provides an introduction of some of the very basic aspects of distribution and logistics. It begins with a consideration of the scope and definition of distribution and logistics, and then looks at some of the main elements that are keys to the function itself. A review of the historical growth of distribution and logistics is followed by an assessment of its importance throughout the world. Finally, a typical distribution and logistics structure is described and discussed.

Scope and definition

Parallel to the growth in the importance of distribution and logistics has been the growth in the number of associated names and different definitions that are used. Some of the different names that have been applied to distribution and logistics include:

Physical distribution;

Logistics;

Business logistics;

Materials management;

Procurement and supply;

Product flow;

Marketing logistics;

Supply chain management;

Demand chain management;

And there are several more.

There is, realistically, no “true” name or “true” definition that should be pedantically applied, because products differ, companies differ system differ. Logistics is a diverse and dynamic function that has to be flexible and has to change according to the various constraints and demand imposed upon it and with respect to the environment in which it works.

So these many terms are used, often interchangeably, in literature and in literature and in the business world. One quite widely accepted view shows the relationship as follows:

Logistics = Supply + Materials management + Distribution

As well as this, logistics is concerned with physical and information flow and storage from raw material through to the final distribution of the finished product. Thus, supply and materials management represents the storage and flows into and through the production process, while distribution represents the storage and flows from the final production point through to the customer or end user. Major emphasis is now placed on the importance of information as well as physical flows and storage and an additional and very relevant factor is that of reverse logistics –the flow of used products and returnable packaging back through the system.

Importance of logistics and distribution

It is useful at this point to consider logistics in the context of business and the economy as a whole. Logistics is an important activity making extensive use of the human and material resources that affect a national economy. Several investigations have been undertaken to try to estimate the extent of the impact o logistics on the economy.

One such study indicated that about 30 per cent of the working population in the UK are associated with work that is related to logistics. A recent study undertaken in the USA indicated that logistics alone represented between 10 and 15 per cent of the gross domestic product of most major. North American, European and Asia/Pacific economics. The two lowest-cost countries are the UK and the United states, probably because there has been a greater recognition of the importance of logistics in these two particular countries for many years now. The average for all countries is only about 2.5 percentage point higher, relatively low, because in recent years the importance of logistics has been recognized in many more countries.

LOGISTIC PROCESSES

INTRODUCTION:

These processes are the methods used to ensure that the business operates effectively so that all the major objectives are achieved. The aim is for a streamlined operation that works across the various functional boundaries existing within any company. Thus, processes need to be supply-chain oriented. One of the main problems with

logistic processes is that they are very often tied in with a number of different functional elements of the business and so it is difficult for them to operate efficiently.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LOGISTIC PROCESSES:

The reason that the concept of logistics process has been highlighted in recent years is a development of the move away from the functional view of logistics. The chief beneficiary of this has been the final customer.The aim of any supply-chain is to ensure that cross-company and cross-supply-chain activities are directed at achieving customer satisfaction for the end user.

Processes have generally been derived to enable each separate function within an organization to undertake its particular role, but they are not streamlined to act across all company functions as a united whole. The aim of order fulfillment should be to ensure that a customer’s order is received, checked, selected and delivered according to the customer’s requirements, with no disruption and with complete accuracy.

Typical functional errors might be:

Incorrect transcription of the original order requirements;

Incorrect notification of availability;

Damage to the goods;

Late delivery;

Delivery to an incorrect address;

Invoicing to the incorrect address;

To avoid problems such as these, some companies now seek to redesign their key logistics processes. There are three essential elements. Properly designed processes should be

customer-facing, that is, they should aim specifically to satisfy customer demands and expectations. They should also be cross-functional or indeed where possible they should be supply-chain-oriented in that they cross not just company functions but also the boundary between companies. Finally, they should be time-based in that they need to reflect the importance of time as a key element in the logistics offering.

KEY LOGISTICS PROCESSES:

Typical examples are:

Order fulfillment: It is concerned with the ability to turn a customer’s specified requirements into an actual delivered order. Thus, it embraces many of the traditional functions usually recognized as being a part of the logistics operation. It will involve the information elements of receiving and documenting an order through to the physical means of selecting and delivering the goods. This is reasonable first step in process redesign, but ultimately there should ideally be a seamless process for the operation as a whole.

New product introduction: This is an area where many companies find they have problems. There are many logistics issues related to the introduction of new products into the marketplace. The consequence of introducing new products using existing processes is usually existing processes is usually one of two possibilities.

New product development: In this example, the idea is to design the product so that it can reach the market as quickly as possible from the initial design plan through to availability. The aim is to link the development of the product with the logistical requirements so that all secondary developments can be identified and re-engineered in the shortest possible time.

Product returns: There is a growing requirement in many businesses to provide an effective process for the return of products. This may be for returns that come back through the existing distribution network or through a new one that is specifically set up. It may also be for product returns that will be reworked or repackaged to go into stock, product returns for subsequent disposal or packaging returns that may be reused or scrapped.

Provision of spaces: For many companies the supply of a product or series of products is inextricably linked to the subsequent provision of space parts to support the continuous use of the initial products .For many logistic operations, neither the physical structure nor the associated processes are really capable of providing a suitable support mechanism for space parts as well as for original equipment.

Information management: Advances in information technology have enabled a vast amount of detailed data and manipulated very easily. This has led some companies to recognize the need to devise suitable processes to ensure that data are collected and used in a positive and organized way. This enables a much more positive, proactive approach to be adopted when considering particular customer relationship.

There are other associated processes that could also be relevant, such as:

Supplier integration;

Quality;

Strategic management;

Maintenance

Human resource management

Environmental management

A number of different concepts have been proposed to try to help differentiate the type and importance of the various processed that might be relevant to any given company as it tries to position itself with its customers. Perhaps the most useful of these is known as the

process triangle. The process triangle is based on three different process categories are as follows:

Basic processes: Those processes that are not really recognized as essential to a business but are nevertheless a prerequisite.

Benchmark processes: Those processes that are seen to be important to the customer and must be of at least an acceptable standard even to begin to complete satisfactorily in a given market.

Procurement

Definition:

In this narrow sense the term ‘Purchasing’ refers merely to the act of buying an item at a price. This very narrow conception of purchasing has been gradually widened during the last 70 years.

A broader meaning of purchasing makes it a managerial activity, which goes beyond the simple act of buying and includes the planning and policy activities covering a wide range of related and complementary activities. included in such activities are the research and development strategies required for the proper selection of materials and sources from which those materials may be bought, the follow-up to insure proper delivery, the development of proper procedures, methods, and forms to enable the purchasing department to carry out the established policies; the co-ordination of activities of the purchasing department with such other internal division of the concern as traffic, receiving, store-keeping, and accounting, so as to facilitate smooth operations; and the development of a technique of effective communication with the top management of the company so that, a true picture of the performance of the purchasing function is presented.

Some writers use the term ‘Procurement’ instead of purchasing. The term procurement is broad in its meaning and covers the duties performed by purchasing as well as such additional function of materials supervision and management as inventory control, receiving, incoming inspection and salvage operations.

The term procurement is too broad and hence is not used by many writers on the subject and by people who practice the profession. The term purchasing is most appropriate and hence in popular usage.

The buyer or purchasing officers are the people responsible for discharging purchasing functions. They are the full time staff of the company. The head of the section or the department is purchasing agent also variously known as the purchasing officer, purchasing manager or simply buyer. The department where all the purchases operate is called the purchasing department.

The purchasing department is often called the supply department when the former is also responsible for storing things bought and stock control of what is stored.

We prefer to use the term purchasing department to supply department. For us, storing and stock or inventory control is independent functions to be handled by separate staff. They cannot, be attached to purchasing department.

Importance of Purchasing:

1. Purchasing function provide materials to the factory without which wheels of machines cannot move.

2. A one percent saving in materials cost is equivalent to a 10 percent increase in turnover. Efficient buying can archive this.

3. Purchasing manager is the custodian of his/her firm’s purse as he/she spends more than 50 per cent of his/her company’s earning on purchases.

4. Increasing proportion of one’s requirements is now bought instead of being made as was the practice in the earlier days. Buying, therefore, assumes significance.

5. Purchasing can contribute to import substitution and save foreign exchange.

6. Purchasing is the main factor in timely execution of industrial projects.

7. Materials management organizations that exist now have evolved out of purchasing departments.

8. The stream of salesmen and direct mail advertisement entering the purchasing department day-in and day-out brings

information about new products, materials and new ways of doing old jobs.

9. Other factors like : (i) Post-war shortages,(ii) cyclical swimming of surpluses and shortages and the first rising materials costs,(iii) heavy competition, and

(iv) Growing world- wide markets have contributed to the importance of purchasing.

Setting the Procurement objectives:

When using Procurement objectives, consideration should be given to the following:

- Ensuring the supply of raw materials and other supplies.

- Vendors- managed inventory (VMI)

- The quality of supplies

- Product specification

- The price

- The origin of the supplies

- The method of supply, e.g. IIT-style deliveries

- The method of transport used

- A hierarchy of importance, e.g. Key raw materials would have precedence over office stationary

- Whether to make yourself or buy from a supplier

Functions of purchasing department:

The definition given for purchasing at the beginning of this topic should give us an idea about the function of purchasing department. For greater clarity we list the functions below. It may be emphasized that some of the functions are sole responsibility of the purchasing department, some are shard with other departments, and the remaining are the responsibilities in which the purchasing department has considerable interest.

1. Responsibilities often fully delegated to the purchasing function :

(a) Obtaining prices

(b) Selecting vendors.

(c) Awarding purchase orders.

(d) Following up on delivery promises.

(e) Adjusting and settling complaints.

(f) Selecting and training of purchasing personnel.

(g) Vendor relations.

Supply Chain Management

The term Supply Chain Managementis now commonly used. The total logistics concept advocates the benefits of viewing the various elements of logistics as an integrated whole.Supply chain management is similar, but also includes the supplier and the end user in the process, the upstream (supply side) and downstream (demand side) partners in the supply chain. This is the major difference between supply chain management and traditional logistics.

There are four distinct differences claimed for supply chain management over the more classic view of logistics, although some

of these elements have also been recognized as key to the successful planning of logistics operations. These four are:

1. The supply chain is viewed as a single entity rather than a series of fragmented elements such as procurement, manufacturing distribution etc. This is also how logistics is viewed in most forward-looking companies. The real change is that both the suppliers and the end users are included in the planning process, thus going outside the boundaries of a single organization in an attempt to plan for the supply chain as a whole.

2. Supply chain management is very much a strategic planning process, with a particular emphasis on the strategic decision making rather than on the operational systems.

3. Supply chain management provides for a very difficult approach to dealing with inventory. Traditionally inventory has been used as a safety value between separate components within the pipeline – thus leading to large and expensive stocks of products. Supply chain management aims to alter this perspective so that inventory is used as a last resort to balance the integrated flow of product through the pipeline.

4. Central to the success of effective supply chain management is the use of integrated information systems that are a part of whole supply chain rather than merely acting in isolation for each of the separate components. This enables visibility of product demand and stock levels through the full length of the pipeline. This has only become a possibility with the recent advances in information systems technology.

The move towards integration within different supply chain has been relatively slow, indeed, most companies have fairly limited

integration within their own organizations. Full external integration is thus still a ‘Hoil Grail’ that many organizations are striving to achieve. Many companies have moved to functional integration, with some achieving an element of full internal integration.

Logistic

Logistics is the management of the flow of resources between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet some requirements, for example, of customers or corporations. The resources managed in logistics can include physical items, such as food, materials, equipment, liquids, and staff, as well as abstract items, such as time, information, particles, and energy. The logistics of physical items usually involves the integration of information flow, material handling, production, packaging, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and often security. The complexity of logistics can be modeled, analyzed, visualized, and optimized by dedicated simulation software. The minimization of the use of resources is a common motivation. It is essentially a planning process and an information activity,So A integrative process that optimizes the flow of material and supplies through the organization and its operations to the customer.

Logistic recognizes that all the activities of material movement across the business process are interdependent and needs close coordination and these are to be maintained as a system and not the functional Silos.

Logistics is the process ofplanning, implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of raw materials, in- process inventory, finished goods and related information from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirementsThe mission of logistics is to get the right goods or services to the right place, at the right time, and in the desired condition and quantity in relation to customers order

Logistic Mix including following functional Areas

Materials Management: The materials management component is the foundation for the logistics functions of a company. The component includes purchasing functionality, inventory movements, accounts payable and the material master file, which contains the information on all materials and services used at a company.

Sales and Distribution: The sales and distribution component incorporates the processes from customer order to the delivery of the product to the customer. The component includes the sales functions, pricing, picking, packing and shipping.

Quality Management: The quality management component is used to ensure and improve on the quality of your company’s products. The functions of this component include the planning and execution of quality inspections of purchased and finished products.

Plant Maintenance: The plant maintenance component is used to maintain the equipment that is used in the production of your company’s finished products. The component focuses on the planning and execution of preventive maintenance on equipment and tools used in the production process.

Production Planning:

The production planning component manages a company’s production process. The functions of this component include capacity planning of a company’s production, master production scheduling (MPS), material requirements planning (MRP) and the shop floor functions of producing a company’s finished products.

Customer Service: The customer service component manages a company’s service that it provides to customers for repairs and warranties. Items can be sent back for repair or visits made by staff to customer facilities. If a company makes finished products that are sold with warranties, then the SAP customer service component will help a company to service and repair those items with maximum efficiency.

WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

“A Warehouse Management System(WMS) is a key part of the supply chain and primarily aims to control the movement and storage of materials within a warehouse and process the associated transactions, including shipping, receiving, put ways and packing.”

To meet the increasingly stringent demands retailers are placing on their vendors to meet specific delivery times for floor ready merchandise, many vendors must store merchandise close to their retail customers.

Rather than owning these warehouses themselves, vendors typically use public warehouses that are owned and operated by a third party, By using public warehouses, vendors can provide their retailers with the level of services demanded without having to invest in warehousing facilities.

The system also direct and optimize stock put way based on real time information about the status of bin utilization.

A WMS monitors the progress of products through the warehouse; it involves the physical warehouse infrastructure, tracking system, and communication between product stations.

“Warehouse is referred as transportation at zero miles per hour.”

Warehousing provides time and place utility for raw materials industrial goods and finished products allowing firm to use customers service a dynamic value adding competitive too.

The warehouse is where the supply chain holds or stores goods function of warehousing includes transportation consolidation product mixing docking service protection against contingencies.

Warehouse Management Systems often utilize automatic identification and data capture technology, such as barcode scanners, mobile captures, wireless LANs and potentially radio-frequency identification (RFID) to efficiently monitor the flow of products.

Once a data has been collected, there is either batch synchronization with or a real time wireless transmission to a central database.

The database can then provide useful reports about the status of goods in the warehouse.

Warehouse design and process design within the warehouse is also part of warehouse management.

Warehouse Management is an aspect of logistics and supply chain management.

More precisely, warehouse management involves the receipt storage and movement of goods (normally finished goods), to intermediate storage location or to a final customer.

In the multi-echelon model for distribution, there may be multiple levels of warehouses.

This includes central warehouse (serviced by the central warehouse) a regional warehouses potentially retail warehouses.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of a warehouse management system is to provide a set of computerized procedures for management of warehouse inventory with the goal of minimizing cost and fulfillment times.

This includes:

A standard receiving process to properly handle a shipment when it arrives. This process can be individualized to each warehouse or product type.

This receipt of stock and returns in to a warehouse facility.

An effective warehouse management system helps companies cut expresses by minimizing the amount of unnecessary parts and product in storage.

It also helps companies keep lost sales to minimize by having enough stock on hand to meet demand.

Modeling and Managing the logical representation of the physical storage facilities.

Alone warehouse management cannot automate the process. It also involves the combination of business process to be followed along with system to achieve 100% productivity and accuracy.

Warehouse management

Introduction:

Warehouses are crucial components of most modern supply chains.

They are likely to be involved in various stages of sourcing, production and distribution of goods, from the handling of raw-material and work-in-progress through to finished products.

Warehouses are an integral part of supply chains in which they are operates and therefore recent trends, such as increasing market volatility, product range and proliferation, shortening customer lead times, all have an impact on the roles that warehouses are required to performed.

Warehouses need to be designed and operated in line with the specific requirements of the supply chain as a whole.

The nature of warehouses within supply chains may vary tremendously, and they are many different types of classification that can be adopted.

For example:

By the stage in the supply chain:

Materials, work in progress or finished goods.

By geographic area :

A parts warehouse may serve the whole world, a regional warehouse may serve a number of countries, a national warehouse may serve just one country, or a local warehouse may serve a specific region of a country.

By product type:

Small parts, large assemblies, frozen foods, perishables, security items and hazardous goods.

By function:

Inventory holding or sortation.

By ownership:

Owned by the user or by the third party logistics company.

By area:

Ranging from 100 square meters or less to well over 100,000 square meters.

By equipment:

From a largely manual operation to a highly automated warehouses.

Benefits:

Warehouse management increases quality and efficiency.

Organized warehouses provide the foundation for quality and efficiencyin an environment that is often fast-paced and chaotic.

Warehouse management improves overall business operations and profitability.

Improved warehouse organization and accuracy enabled by a warehouse management solution allow businesses to optimize resources.

Improves decision-making

Accurate inventory and warehousing information enables every member of the organization to gain the knowledge they need to make better decisions– whether dealing with vendors, prospects, customers or employees.

Increases customer satisfaction

Having the right products in stock for customers, properly identified an available to quickly ship to customers is the key to customer satisfaction.

WarehouseOperators:

Every warehouse should be designed to meets the specific requirements of the supply chain of which it is a part.

These tend to apply whether the warehouse is manual in nature with fairly basic equipment or whether it is highly automated with sophisticated storage and handling system.

These functions are as follows:

I. Receiving:

This involves the physical unloading of incoming transport and recording of receipts. It can also include such activities as unpacking and repackaging in a format suitable for the subsequent warehouse operations.

II. Reserve storage:

Goods are normally taken to the reserve or back-up storage areas, which is the largest space user in many warehouses. This area holds the bulk of warehouse inventory in identifiable locations. When required, the goods are taken from reserve storage either directly to marshaling or to replenish a picking location.

III. Order picking:

Goods are selected from order picking stock in the required quantities and at the required time to meet customerorders. Picking often involves break-bulk operations, when goods are received from suppliers in, say, whole pallet quantities, but are concerned by customers in less than pallet quantities. The goods design and management of picking systems and operations are consequently vital to effective warehouse performance.

IV. Sortation:

For small size of order, it is sometimes appropriate to batch a number of orders together and treat them as ‘one’ order for picking purposes.

V. Collation and added value services:

After picking, goods are brought together and consolidated as complete orders made ready for dispatch to customers. It may also involve final production postponement

Activities and value added services, such as kitting and labeling.

THE ROLE OF WAREHOUSES:

The prime objective of most warehouses is to facilitate the movement of goods through the supply chain to the end consumer.

There many techniques used to reduce the need to hold inventory, such as flexible manufacturing system, supply chain visibility and express delivery, and many of these have been encompassed in a range of supply chain initiatives

For example: Just-in-time, efficient consumer response etc.

Freight Transport:

The changing nature of logistics and the supply chain, particularly the more by many companies towards global operations, has had an obvious impact on the relative importance of the different modes of

transport. In a global context, more products are moved far greater distances because companies have developed concepts such as focus factories, with a single global manufacturing point for certain products, and because of the concentration of production facilities in low-cost manufacturing locations. Long distance modes of transport have thus become much more important to the development of efficient logistics operations that have a global perspective.Thus,the need to understand the relative merits of,say,sea freight as against air freight is crucial although,for many localized final delivery operations, it is still road freight transport that offers the only real option. All of these developments serve to emphasize the need to appreciate the many different facts of transport modal choice for international logistics.

In Europe, road freight transport continues to be the dominant mode of transport, together with coastal transport for bulk movements. A look at recent European statistics confirms this. The upward trend in the use of road transport has continued for many years, and it seems unlikely that the importance of road freight transport will diminish in near future. Rail freight has declined for many years, but is now holding its decline. Inland waterways are still important. The use of pipelines has continued for certain specialized movements. Figure below, based on statistics for the 15 longest standing members of the EU indicates the relative importance of the different modes for freight transportation within Euope.Deep-sea and air freight transport are not represented in these particular statistics because they are mainly concerned with intercontinental freight movements.

The importance of road freight transport is also emphasized when the modal split is compared for freight transport movements within individual countries, as figure below illustrates.However,it is also clear from this figure that for some countries rail freight transport does still play a major role. This applies particularly to the USA, Switzerland, Hungary and Austria. Rail freight transport tends to be more prevalent in countries with a large geographical spread or where there are significant environmental issues and restrictions.

All of the major modes of transport can be considered for the movement of goods internationally. The selection of the most appropriate transport mode is thus a fundamental decision for international distribution and logistics, the main criterion being the need to balance costs with customer service. There are very significant trade-offs to be made when examining the alternatives available between the different logistics factors and the different transport modes.

CONVENTIONAL SEA FREIGHT

Of the main alternative types of sea freight, both the conventional load and the unit load are relevant. The unit load (container) is considered later. For conventional sea freight, the main points to note are:

Cost economics. For some products, the most economic means of carriage remains that of conventional sea freight. This particularly applies to bulk goods and to large packaged consignments that are going long distances. Where speed of service is completely unimportant, then the cheapness of sea freight makes it very competitive.

Availability. Services are widely available, and most types of cargo can be accommodated.

Speed. Sea freight tends to be very slow for several reasons. These include the fact that the turnaround time in port is still quite slow, as is the actual voyage time.

Need for double handling. Conventional sea freight is disadvantaged by the slow handling methods still used. This is especially true when compared with the more competitive ‘through transport’ systems with which sea freight must compete. The problem is particularly apparent on some of the short sea routes.

Delay problems. There are three major delay factors that can lead to bad and irregular services, as well as helping to slow up the transport time itself. These are over and above the journey time. They are pre-shipment delays, delays due to bad weather, missed tides, etc.

Damage. The need to double-handle cargo on conventional ships tends to make this mode more prone to damage for both products and packaging.

INTERNATIONAL ROAD FREIGHT

Compared with the other forms of international freight transport, the major advantages and disadvantages of road freight transport services are as follows:

They can provide a very quick service (ferry and tunnel schedules can be carefully timed into route plans if they are a necessary part of the journey).

For complete unit loads with single origin and destination points, they can be very competitive from the cost viewpoint.

There is a greatly reduced need to double-handle and trans-ship goods and packages, and for direct, full-load deliveries this is completely eliminated. This saves time and minimizes the likelihood of damage.

Packaging cost can be kept to a minimum because loads are less susceptible to the extreme transit ‘shocks’ that other modes can cause.

The system can provide regular, scheduled services due to the flexibility of road vehicle scheduling.

Road freight transport can lose its speed advantage when used for less than lorry-sized loads. These entail group age and so involve double-handling (at both ends of the journey), additional packaging and time delay.

RAIL FREIGHT

This is particularly true for bulky and heavy consignments that require movement over medium to long distances and where speed is not vital. The principal disadvantages of conventional rail freight are as follows:

Rail wagons are prone to some very severe shocks as they are shunted around goods yards. Shunting shocks can cause

damage to products. To overcome this, costly packaging needs to be used.

There is a need to double-handle many loads because the first and last leg of a ‘through’ journey often needs to be by road transport.

There are a limited number of railheads available at factories and depots, making direct origin-to-destination journeys very rare. In recent years, many companies with railway sidings on their premises have closed them down due to their high cost of upkeep and operation.

In general, rail transport is a very slow means of carriage-particularly. When the whole journey is taken into account. Many freight trains have to fit their schedules around passenger trains, which take priority. This can cause significant time delays to the rail freight.

Rail freight transport can be very unreliable. Batches of wagons may arrive at irregular intervals. This can cause further delays for international traffic if a complete shipment is on a single customs document.

For international movements, there are significant compatibility issues (especially across Europe). These include variations in track gauge sizes, bridge heights and (lack of) electrification.

Material Management

Materials management is an important and integral part of logistics management. Material management has emerged as a new and complex science evolving rapidly. For moving the material in and out of warehouse, various kinds of equipments and systems are used depending on the type of products and volumes to be handled. These

equipments are used for the movement of goods over a short distance for the purpose of loading and unloading operations. Material management in warehouse is restricted to unitized form, which requires smaller size equipment. However, for bulk handling material at logistics nodes, such as shipyards, ports and airports, different types of equipments are used. In warehouse, the material handling operation is performed at the following stages:

1) Unloading the incoming material from transport vehicles; 2) Moving the unloaded material to the assigned storage place in

the warehouse; 3) Lifting the material from its storage place during order picking; 4) Moving the material for inspection and packing; 5) Loading the packages, boxes or cartons on to the transport

vehicles. Efficiency of the material handling equipment adds to the performance level of the warehouse. The internal movement of goods has a direct bearing on the order picking and fulfillment cycle. The warehouse is considered more labor intensive, if the material handling equipments are more sensitive to labor productivity than the manufacturing. There is much scope to reduce the labor and enhance the productivity by using the emerging technologies in material handling. A good material handling system will definitely enhance the speed and throughput of the material movement through the supply chain.

Material Management Guidelines:-

Material management function has an effect on the efficiency and the speed of the warehousing operations, which ultimately result in either elongated or compressed order completion cycle. Hence, investment in material management system is strategic in nature and is always based on the long-term requirements, considering the product volumes and varieties. Normally, the following guidelines are being followed for designing an effective and efficient material management system:

Design the system for continuous flow of material, that is idle time should be zero.

Go in for standard equipments that ensure low investment and flexibility in case of changes in material management requirements in future, if any

Incorporate gravity flow in the material flow system, if possible Ensure that ratio of deadweight to pay load of the material management

equipment is minimum.

There are various material handling systems in use, right from fully manuals to the fully automatic ones. However, the selection of a particular system depends on the factors such as:

Volumes to be handled Speed in handling Productivity Product characteristics( weight, size, shape) Nature of the product( hazardous, perishable, crushable)

Recent trends show the preference for designers’ system with higher logistical productivity. However, the investment cost goes up for such material management system using sophisticated equipments. Hence, in majority of the cases the usage of both manual and mechanized systems in combination is quite common.

Material Management Equipments And Systems:-

Material management system is classified on the basis of its degree of sophistication. The most preferred way of material management is doing manually where the volumes handled are less and the investment in handling equipment do not ensure more benefits. In such cases, the idle time of the equipment will be more and equipments are underutilized.

The classification the handling system can be done as follows:

Manual Mechanized Semiautomatic Automatic Guided information

The major criteria for selection of the right system are units moved per hour and the distance of the movement covered. Higher volumes moved over large distance call for more sophisticated systems, which attract higher investment. These sophisticated systems enhance speed for material management ensuring reliability and productivity.

Introduction to retailing:-

What is retailing?

Retailing is the set of business activities that adds value to the products and services sold to consumers for their personal or family use.

People think of retailing only as the sale of products in stores,but retailing also involves the sale of services:-overnight loading in a motel,

A doctor’s exam,

A haircut,

A home delivered pizza.

The world retail has its origin in French word retailliex & means to cut a piece or “to break bulk”.

Retailing is the sale of goods & services to the ultimate consumer for personal family or household use.

According to kotler:-“ Retailing includes all the activites involved in selling goods or services to the final consumers for personal non business use”.

Retailing is such a common part of our everyday lives that it’s often taken for granted.Retail managers make complex decisions in selecting their target markets and retail locations;determinding what merchandise and services to offer,negotiating with suppliers,distributing merchandise to stores ,training and motivating sales associates and deciding how to price,promote,and present merchandise.

Function performed by retailers:-

[1] Providing an assortment of products and services.

Supermarkets typically carry 20,000 to 30,000 different items made by over 500 companies.offering an assortment enables their customers to choose from a wide selection of brands,size,designs,colors and prices at one location.manufacturers specialize in producing specific types of products.

Example:-Campbell’s makes soup,kraft makes dairy products,kellogg makes breakfast cereals and McCormick makes spices.

[2] Breaking bulk.

To reduce transportation costs,manufacturers and wholesalers typically ship cases of frozen dinners or cartons of blouses to retailers.retailers then offer the products in smaller quantities

tailored to individual consumer’s and households’ consumption patterns.This is called breaking bulk.

[3] Holding inventory.

A major function of retailers is to keep inventory that is already broken into user-friendly sizes so that products will be available when consumers want them.thus consumers can keep a smaller inventory of products at home because they know local retailers will have the products available when they need more.By maintaining an inventory,retailers provide a benefit to consumers ,they reduce the consumers’ cost of storing products.this is particularly important to consumers with limited storage space and who want to purchase perishable merchandise like meat and produse.

[4] Providing services.

Retailers provide services that make it easier for consumers to buy and use products.thet offer credit so consumers can have a product now and pay for it later. They display products so consumers can see and test them before buying.some retailers have salespeople in stores or use their web-sites to answer questions and provide additional information about products.

[5] Form.

First is utility regarding the form of a product that is acceptable to the customer.the retailer does not supply raw material but rather offers finished goods & services in a form that the customers want.the retailers performs the function of sorting the goods and providing us with an assortment of product in various categories.

[6] Promotional support

Small manufacturers can use retailers to provide assistance with transport,storage,advertising and pre-payment of merchandise.

[7] Place.

By being available at a convenient location ,he creates place utility.apart from these functions retailer performes.

Retailing in India:-

Retail is the new buzzword in india.

The global retail development index has ranked india first,among the top 30 emerging market in the world.

India retail trade increased from rs- 2200 billion in 2000 to rs-3300 billion by the year 2005.

India’s first true shopping mall complete with food courts,recreation facilities & large car parking space-recreation war inaugurated as lately as in 1999 in mumbai(This mall is called “gossroades”).

Social and economic significance of retailing:-

[1] Support for community.

[2] Retail sales.

[3] Employment.

Opportunities in retailing:-

Management opportunities

To cope with highly competitive and challenging environment,retailers are hiring and promoting people with a wide range of skills and

interests.

Students often view retailing is a part of marketing because of management of distribution channels is part of a manufacturer’s marketing function.

Entrepreneurial opportunities

Retailing also provides opportunities for people who wish to start their own business.

Some of the world’s richest people are retailing entrepreneurs.

Many are well known because their names appear over the store’s door;others we may not recognize.

The marketing retail equation:-

AIR FREIGHT

Manufacturer

Wholesaler

Retailer

Consumer

Manufacturer

Consumer

Retailer

Manufacturer

Consumer

The use of air freight as an alternative transport mode has grown rapidly in recent years. Major developments in the areas of integrated unit loads, improved handling systems and additional cargo space, together with the proliferation of scheduled cargo flights, have increased the competitiveness and service capability of air freight.

The major attributes of air freight are as follows:

Air freight compares very well with other transport modes over longer international movements. This is because it has very rapid airport-to-airport transit times over these longer distances.

Although air freight is very quick from airport-to-airport, there can be a tendency for this speed factor to become less of an advantage because time can be lost due to airport congestion and handling, paperwork and customs delays.

One particular advantage is known as ‘lead-time economy’. This is where the ability to move goods very quickly over long distances means that it is unnecessary to hold stocks of these items in the countries in question (spare parts, etc).The short lead time required between the ordering and receiving of goods, and the resultant saving in inventory holding costs give this benefit its name of ‘lead-time economy’.

The air freighting of products allows for a great deal of market flexibility, because any number of countries and markets can be reached very quickly and easily. This is particularly advantageous for a company that wishes either to test a product in a given area or to launch a new product. The flexibility of air freight means that a company need not necessarily set up extensive stock-holding networks in these areas.

The movement of goods by air freight can result in a marked reduction in packaging requirements. The air freight mode is not one that experiences severe physical conditions, and so its consignments are not prone to damage and breakages.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Customer relationship management is a business philosophy and set of strategies programs and systems that focues on identifying and building loyalty with a retailer’s most valued cutomers.

Based on the philosophy that retailers can increase their profitability by building relationships with their better customers , the goal of CRM is to develop a base of loyal customers who partronize the retailers frequently.

The CRM Process

Traditionally retailers have focused their attention on encouraging customers to visit their stores, look through their catalogs, and visit their websites.

To accomplish this objectives, they have used media advertising and promotions, treating all of their customers the same.

Now, retailers are beginning to concentrate on providing more value to their best customers using targeted promotions and services to increase their share of wallet-the percentage of the customers’ purchase made from the retailer-from these customers.

This change in perspective is supported by research indicating that it costs three to six times more to sell products and services to new customers than to existing customers and that small increases in customer retention can lead to dramatic increases in profits.

For instance , at the furniture retailer domain , the typical first-time purchase by a customer is about $1500. Repeat purchasers with domain spend 3.5 times what a one – time. Only customer purchase. Their “most valuable“ customers have spent over $1,40,000.

What is Customer Loyalty?

Customer loyalty, the objective of CRM is more than having customers make repeat visits to a retailer and being satisfied with their experiences.

Customer loyalty to a retailer means that customers are committed to purchasing merchandise and services from the retailer and will resist the activities of competitors attempting to attract their patronage.

They have a bond with the retailer, and the bond is based on more than a positive feeling about the retailer.

Loyal customers have an emotional connection with the retailer. Their reasons for continuing to patronize a retailer go beyond the low prices and specific brands offered by the retailer.

Programs that encourage repeat buying by simply offering price discounts can be easily copied by competitors.

In addition , these types of price-promotion programs encourage customers to always look for the best deal rather than develop a relationship with one retailer.

However , when a retailer develops an emotional connection with a customer , it is difficult for a competitor to attract that customer.

Overview of the CRM process cycle :

CRM is an iterative process that customer data into customer loyalty through four activities :

i. Collecting customer data.

ii. Analyzing the customer data & identifying target customers.

iii. Developing CRM programs.

iv. Implementing CRM programs.

The process begins with the collection and analysis of data about a retailer’s customers and the identification of target customers.

The always translate the customer information into activites that offer value to the targeted customers.

Then these activities are executed through communication programs undertake by the marketing department and customer service programs implemented by customer contact employees , typically sales associates.

Collecting Customer data :

The first step in the CRM process is to construct a customer database is part of the data warehouse.

It contains all of the data the firm has collected about its customers and is the foundation for subsequent CRM activities.

Customer Database :

Transactions :

o A complete history of the purchase made by the customer , including the purchase date , the price paid , the SKUs , purchased and whether the merchandise was special promotion or marketing activity.

Customer Contacts :

o A record of the interactions that the customer has had with the retailer , including digits to the retailer’s web – site , inquiries made through in – store kiosks , telephone calls made to the retailer’s call center , plus information about contacts initiated by the retailer , such as catalogs and direct mail sent to the customer.

Customer Preferences :

o What the customer likes , such as favorite colors , brands , fabrics and flavors as well as apparel sizes.

Descriptive Information :

o Demographic & psychographic data describing the customer that can be used in developing market segments.

Responses to marketing activities :

o The analysis of transaction and contact data provides information about the customer’s responsiveness to marketing activities.

Different members of the same house – hold also might also have interactions with a retailer.

Identifying Information :

Constructing a database for catalog and internet shoppers and customers who use the retailer’s credit-card when buying merchandise in stores is relatively easy.

Customers buying merchandise through non-store channels must provide their contact information name and address so that the purchase can be sent to them.

When retailers issue their own credit-cards, they can collect the contact information for billing when customers apply for the card.

In these cases, the identification of the customer is linked to the transaction.

However, identifying most customers who are difficult in-store transactions more difficult because they often pay for the merchandise with a check , or a third-party credit-card such as visa & master card.

Three approaches that store-based retailers use to overcomes this problem are :

Asking customers for their identifying information.

Offering frequent shopper cards.

Connecting internet purchasing data with the stores.

Privacy Concerns :

The degree to which consumers feel their privacy has been violated depends on.

Their control over their personal information when engaging in market place transactions.

Their knowledge about the collection and use of personal information.

These concerns are particularly acute for customers because many of them do not realize the extensive amount of information that can be collected without their knowledge.

In addition to collecting transaction data , electronic cookies on visitor’s hard drives.

Cookies are text files that identifying visitors when they return to a websites.

Due to the data in the cookies customers do not have to identifying themselves or use passwords every time they visit a site.

However, the cookies also collect information about other sites the person has visited and what pages they have downloaded.

The fedral trade commission has developed the following set of principles for fair information practices :

Notice and Awareness :

o Covers the disclosure of information practices including a comprehensive statement of information use such as information storage, manipulation and dissemination.

Choice / Consent :

o Includes both opt out and opt in options and allows consumers the opportunity to trade information for benefits.

Access / Participation :

o Allows for the confirmation of information accuracy by consumers.

Integrity / Security :

o Controls for the theft of and tampering with personal information.

Enforcement / Redress :

o Provides a mechanism to ensure compliance by participating companies.

Analyzing customer data and identifying target customers.

The next step in CRM process is to analyze the customer database and convert the data into information that will help retailers develop programs for building customer loyalty.

Data mining, one approach commonly used to develop this information identifies patterns in data , unaware of prior to searching through the data.

Market Basket Analysis :

o Market Basket Analysis is a specific type of data analysis that focuses on the composition of the basket, or bundle of products purchased by a household during a single shopping occasion.

This analysis is often useful for suggesting where to place merchandise in a store.

Uses :

o Adjacencies for displaying merchandise.

Joint promotions :

o Bananas in the cereal aisle as well as in the produce section.

o Beer with baby dippers.

o Tissues with cold medicine.

Identifying Best Customers:

Using information in the customer database retailers can develop a score pr number indication how valuable customers are to the firm.

This score can then be used to determine which customer to target determine which customer to target.

Lifetime Value:

A commonly used measure to score each customer is called lifetime customer value. Lifetime customer value (LIV) is the expected contribution from the over his or her entire relationship with the retailer.

To estimate LTV, retailers use past behaviors to forecast future purchases the gross margin from these purchases and the costs associated with servicing the customers.

Some of the costs associated with a customer include the costs of advertising used to acquire the customer, and processing merchandise that the customer has returned.

A customer who buys apparel only when it is sale in a department

Store would have a lower LTV than a customer who typically pays full price and buys the same amount of merchandise.

Customer Pyramid:

Most retailers realize that their customer differ in terms of their profitability or LTV.

They know that a relatively small number of customers account for the majority of their profits.

This retailer is often called the 80-20 rule-80 percent of the sales or profits come from 20 percent of the customers.

Thus, retailers could group their customers into two groups om the basis of the LTV scores.

One group would be the 20 percent of the customers with the highest LTV scores, and the other group would be the rest.

There is four segments is described below.

o Platinum segment :

This segment is composed of the retailer’s customers with the top 25 percent LTVs. Typically, these are the most loyal customers who are not overly concerned about merchandise price and place more value on customer service.

o Gold segment :

The next 25 percent of customers in terms of their LTV make up the gold segment. These customers have a lower LTV than platinum customers because they are more price sensitive.

o Iron segment :

Customers in this third tier probably do no t deserve much special attention from the retailer due to their modest LTV.

o Lead segment :

Customer in the lowest segment can cost the company money. They often demand a lot of attention but do not buy much from the retailer.

Most Profitable customers

Platinum

Gold

Customer retention:

Four approaches that retailers use to retain their best customers are :

o Frequent Shopper Programs :

Frequent shopper programs are used to both build a customer database by identifying customers by their transactions and encourage repeat purchase behavior and retailer loyalty.

Retailers provide incentives to encourage customers to enroll in the programs and use the card.

These incentives are either discount on purchase made from the retailer or points for every dollar of merchandise purchased.

o Special Customer Services :

Retailers provide unusually high-quality customer service to build and maintain the loyalty of their best customers.

At mitchells / Richards in Connecticut, it is not unusual for a salesperson to open the store after hours or bring an item to a customer home.

It is this type of special attention that facilitates success in a detail sector that has seen difficult times in recent years.

Personalization:

Least Profitable Customers

Iron

Lead

The personalized rewards or benefits that customers receive are based on unique information processed by the retailer and its sales associates.

This information in the retailer’s customers database, can not be accessed or used by competitiors .

Thus, it provides an opportunity to develop a sustainable ampetitive advantage.

Personalization:

The personalized rewards or benefits that customers receive are based on unique information processed by the retailer and its sales associates.

This information in the retailer’s customer database, can not be accessed or used by competitors.

Thus, it provides an opportunity to develop a sustainable competitive advantage.

Community:

A fourth approach for building customer retention and loyalty is to develop a sense of community among customers.

The internet channel offers an opportunity for customers to exchange information using bulletin boards and develop more personal relationships with one another the retailer.

By participating in such a community, sutomers are more reluctant to leave the “ family” of other people patronizing the retailer.

Implementing CRM programs:

Increasing sales and profits through CRM programs is a challenge.

For example, according to a study, 52 percent of retailers indicated that they were engaged in some type of data mining, but 76 percent of those retailers undertaking data mining indicated that the activity had made no contribution to their bottom line.

This experience of retailers emphasizes that effective CRM requires more than appointing a CRM manager, installing a computer system to database and analyze a customer database and making speeches about the importance of customers.

The effective implementation of CR programs requires the close co-ordination of activity by different function in a retailer’s organization.

The MIS department needs to collect, analyze make the relevant information readily accessible to the employees implementing the programs.

Store operations and human resource management needs to hire train & motivate the employees who will be using the information to deliver personalized services.

Merchandising and Inventory Management

What is merchandising?

Merchandising can be termed as the planning, buying and the selling of merchandise.

The American Marketing Association has defined merchandising is “planning involved in marketing the right merchandise at the right place at the right time in the right quantities at the right price”.

The Merchandise challenges of consistently having the right product in the right quantity, available at the right place, at the right price becomes increasingly difficult as more selling and fulfilling orders for multiple sales channels- including stores, e-commerce and catalogue operations, increase the likelihood and magnitude of errors and sub-optimal allocations.

Merchandise management can be termed as the analysis, planning, acquisition, handling and control of the merchandise investments of a retail operation.

Analysis: Because retailers must be able to correctly identify their customers before the can ascertain consumer desires and their needs/requirements to make a good buying decision.

Planning: Is important because merchandise to be sold in the future must be bought now!

Acquisition: Because the merchandise need to be procures from other-either distributors or manufacturers.

Handling: Involves seeing that the merchandise is where it is needed and in the proper condition to be sold.

Control: As the function of merchandising involves spending money for acquiring products, it is necessary to control the amount of money spent on buying.

The process of merchandise management includes developing strategies to ensure that the right product is bought at the right price and is available at the right place at the right time in the right amount to satisfy the needs of the target customer. no one in retail can completely avoid contact with merchandising activities. Merchandise is day to day business of all retailers. As inventory is sold, new stock needs to be purchased, displayed and sold. Hence, merchandising is often said to be the core of retail.

The evolution of Merchandising

This function traces its growth to the rise of organized retail in the world. Initially, as the retailers operated one or two stores, the function of buying the merchandise, pricing it, etc. was much simpler. In many cases, the retailer himself did it. However, when retailers started adding stores and categories, the workload on the buyers increased significantly. Often, buyers had little information or time and they ended up using approximations based on sales volumes to allocate merchandise between stores. This sometimes resulted in stores exchanging merchandise among them!

In order to overcome this limitation, the function of a planner came into being; the planner’s job was to act as a link between stores and the buyer. The de-linking of functions allowed better interaction with the stores. Planners were able to devote more time to collecting and studying store level data, the buyers on the other hand, were

Able to spend more time with the vendors.

The concept of Merchandise Planning

The retailer’s reason for existence or his vision and mission for being, largely dictates the business strategy adopted. A part of this strategy

is also the retail model that he chooses to operate in, which in turn determines the type of product, the price, etc., that is retailed in the store. Therefore, while the retailer’s business mission dictates merchandise planning, the starting point of merchandise planning is in analysis. Merchandise planning can therefore, be defined as the planning and control of the merchandise inventory of the retail firm, in a manner which balances the expectations of the target customers and the strategy of the firm.

Merchandise planning is beneficial to the customer and to the retailer. It benefits the retailer as it enhances the possibility of the right assortment of goods, with the adequate amount of depth, to be available at the stores where it is needed. The process of merchandise planning further enhances the possibilities of increased stock turns, thereby releasing important working capital. From the point of view of the customer, it is beneficial as it increases the choice available to him and reduces the possibility of facing a situation when the store is out of the merchandise needed.

Types of Merchandise

Staple/ Basic Merchandise Fashion Merchandise Seasonal Merchandise Fad Merchandise

Staple / Basic Merchandise

Staple merchandise is those products which are always in demand. They may be the basic necessities of life like sugar, salt, dal, etc. Alternately, they may be products for which there is always a steady demand. Depending on the type of the retail model, the retailer has to determine the staple products for the store. In many cases, these products may also be termed as Classics.

Example of products that may be classified as staples are: men’s While shirts, socks, handkerchiefs, stationery, etc.

Fashion Merchandise

Merchandise that has high demand for a relatively short period of time is referred to as fashion merchandise. Buying the right quantities at the right time is of great importance for this category of products as the demand for the product is for a limited time. Excess buying may result in heavy markdowns at the end of the season or when the product goes out of style. Example of such products includes various cuts in jeans, which may be in style for a season, short lengths in kurtas, etcs.

Seasonal Merchandise

Seasonal products include products that sell well over nonconsecutive time periods. Examples of such products include rainwear like umbrellas and raincoats, winter wear, thermal clothing etc.

Fad Merchandise

Fads, in contrast to fashions, enjoy popularity for a limited period of time and usually generate a high level of sales for a short time.

Inventory Management

Meaning of Inventory

Inventory cannot the value of raw materials, consumables, spares, work-in- progress, finished goods and scrap in which a company’s funds have been invested. Inventory management is a science based on the art of ensuring that enough inventory is held by an enterprise to meet both its internal and external demand commitment economically!

“Inventory connotes the value of raw materials, stores, spares, consumables, components, work-in-progress, finished goods and scrap”.

Concept of Inventory Management Inventory management is an important area of production management and plays a vital role in the economic operation of a business firm. Different authorities have defined the concept of inventory management in a variety of ways and most of the definitions lay stress on the importance of control element in achieving cost effectiveness, irrespective of the range of particular discipline to be applied within this functional field in meeting the needs of an individual concern.

Inventory management can be defined as the sum total of those activities necessary for the acquisition, storage, sale, disposal or use of inventories.

It can also be said that inventory management is that branch of business management concerned with the development of policies to which the firm’s inventory is meant to concern.

The above definitions of inventory management reveal that there are two guiding principles of inventory management. These are:

1. Adequate inventory has to be maintained to avoid stock out and causing consequent production hold up and customer dissatisfaction; and

2. Excessive investment in inventory items must be avoided as it increases carrying cost and result in loss of profit.

Importance of Inventory Management

Inventory constitutes the largest proportion of current assets in a business organization. In India, inventories are generally approximately 60 percent of current assets in public limited companies. Hence, it calls for efficient management of inventory. Good inventory management is good financial management. One must agree with the observation that “When you need money, look at your inventories before you look to your banks.”

A company should maintain an adequate stock of materials of right quality at the minimum cost so that are issue to production when needed in order to have an uninterrupted flow of production.

Inventory management is the basic function of any organization that produces a product or services of economic value. It is essential not only in manufacturing concerns and service industries but it is also prevalent in public and private sector undertakings whether there is profit or not.

Inventory management is more important because inventory cost is the only area which can afford an easy scope for

cost reduction and cost control. Inventory management can go a long way in improving the productivity and production of a manufacturing organization and raising its volume of profit. In the words of toy O.M “It may permit a better utilization of visible stocks by facilitating interdepartmental transfer within a company and provide a check against losses of materials through carelessness or pilferage.”

Problems of Inventory Management

There are internal as well as external problems so far as inventory management is concerned.

Internal problems

i. Delay in lead-time; ii. Improper specifications of material leading to surplus

or obsolescence of materials; iii. Lack of coordination among departments dealing

with materials, production, sales, maintenance and finance;

iv. Overstocking; v. Overbuying on account of quantity discounts; and vi. Improper storage facilities.

External Problems

i. Lack of full knowledge of demand, risk and uncertainly;

ii. Difficulties in obtaining a commodity because of sellers’ market;

iii. Delay by suppliers; iv. Improper market research; and v. Higher consumption due to poor quality materials.

Inventory Management in Retail Industry - Need and Important Terminologies:

What is Inventory Management ?

“Inventory refers to the goods stocked for future use. Every retail chain has its own warehouse to stock the merchandise to be used when the existing stock replenishes.”

Inventory management is upleep ans department maintainance assignment are frequently made on the basis of the prochid assortment.

Retail management is a process & methods used to keep

tracks of the stock in retail business.It controls ordering,receiving etc…

Function of inventory management:

1.track &manage all the inventory for business. 2.Keep up with for comparison shopping with competition. 3.Provide analysis for comparison. 4.Evalutr how well some groups of products do in sales.

Role of inventory in service:

1.Decoupling inventory:

Inventory accumulated between 2 inter dependent operations as a bubber against break downs .

2. Seasonal Inventory: This inventory is kept in certain seasons for example if rainy season is running with rain are kept in inventory. 3.Specalative inventory:

An inventory acquired for the purpose of resale to any willing buyers. 4.safety stock:

Safety stock is a term used by inventory specialist to describe a level id main trained below the cycle stock to buffer against.

Inventory management refers to the storage of products to be used at the time of crisis. The retailer keeps a track of the stocked goods and makes sure there is surplus inventory to avoid being “out of stock”. Such a process is called as inventory

Production process

Product are good and service produced and process are the facilities skills and technologies

Used to produced them.

1.manufacturing operation and services operation

Manufacturing operation convent input like material, and capital into some tangible output.

1.forming process Include casting , forging , stamping , embossing, etc.

2.machining process Involved basically metal ranoval by turning ,drilling , milling , etc.

3.assembly process Involved the joining of component or piece part to produce a signal component that has a specific function.

Forming process

1.casting

2.forging

3.stamping

4.spinning

Machining process

Machining process removes the metal the work piece during the cutting operation performed by a cutting tool

1.turning

2.drilling and boring

3.milling

4.shapping and planning

5.chemical milling

Assembly process

1.welding processes

2.brazing

3.soldering

4.riveting

5.fasting by bolts and nuts

6.assembly using adherives

Processing having two types

1.heavy processing

2.light processing

1. heavy processing

industries include processing industries for material metal such as steel and copper and also heavy chemical industries manufacturing sulphuric acid and heavy alkalies

2. light processing

Industries include processing that produced chemical component , drugs and some metal. e.g boron and titanium it also include industries manufacturing plastic.

CAPCITY PLANNING

It is very common for an IT organization to manage system performance in a reactionary fashion ,analyzing &correcting performance problems as user report them.When problems occur ,hopefully system administrators have tools necessary to quickly analyze & remedy the situation.

THREE STEPS FOR CAPACITY PLANNING

1.Service level requirement

The first step in the capacity planning process is to categorize the work done by system & to quantify users expectations for how that work gets done.

2.Analayze Current capacity

The current capacity of system must be analyzed to determine how it is meeting the needs of the users.

3.Planning for the future

finally using forecasts of future business activity ,future system requirements are determined . Implementing the required changes is system configuration will ensure the sufficient capacity will be available to maintain service levels,even as circumstances change in the future.

TYPES OF CAPACITY PLANNING

1.PRODUCTION CAPACITY::

It is the maximum rate of production for output of an organisation .for e.g 100 cars per day or 200 refrigerator per day etc. But several factors underlying the concept of capacity makes its understanding & use somewhat complex . variation in employee absenteeism ,equipment breakdowns, vacation, holidays,delay in material etc. Must be taken into account when estimating the production capacity .

2.DESIGN CAPACITY::

Design capacity refers to the maximum output that can possibly be attained . It is the maximum rate of output achieved under ideal conditions.

3.EFFECTIVE CAPACITY::

Effective capacity is the maximum possible output given a productmix, scheduling difficulties ,machine maintenance ,quality factors, absenteeism etc. Effective capacity is usually less than design capacity .

4.MAXIMUM CAPACITY::

Also known as peak capacity .it is the maximum output that a facility can achieve under ideal condition. Where capacity is measured relative to equipment alone, it is known as rated capacity.

5.MEASURES OF CAPACITY::

Different measures of capacity are applicable in different situation . capacity of a facility can either measured in terms of output or in terms of inputs.

Capacity planning is long term strategic decision that establishes a firm’s overall level of resources. capacity mzy be defined as the amount of resource inputs available relative to output requirement over a particular period of time.

The objective of strategic capacity planning is to provide an approach for determining the overall level of capacity intensive resources facility ,machinery, equipment & overall size of labour force that best support the firm’s long-range competitive strategy. The level of capacity selected has a critical impact on the firm’s ability to respond to customer demand.

Capacity decisions effect product lead time, customer responsiveness, operating costs & a firm ability to complete .

Major capacity decision involved are::

1. How much capacity to be installed.

2. when to increase capacity .

3. How much to increase .

Shop Floor :-

A shop floor management system plays a key role in managing the flow of materials inside the plant.

An effectively implemented shop floor management system serves as a mediator between production control and the shop floor.

The PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne Shop Floor Management system provides an effective way to maintain and communicate information that the system requires to complete production requests.

An effectively-implemented Shop Floor Management system serves as a mediator between production control and the shop floor.

It allows you to manage and track manufacturing work orders.

It uses data from the shop floor to maintain and communicate status information regarding materials, work centers, routing instructions, and end operations that are required to complete the production requests.

A traditional shop floor uses dispatch lists, capacity requirements, finite scheduling, capacity planning, capacity simulation, and optimization. Some companies might also use bar coding, kanban, and just-in-time manufacturing processes on the shop floor.

This section provides overview information about shop floor management in the manufacturing industry, as well as information about how the EnterpriseOne Shop Floor Management system

integrates with other EnterpriseOne systems.

Shop Floor Process

The process of scheduling production begins with managing the release of orders to the shop floor.

Scheduling production involves setting realistic priorities and adjusting schedules based on required dates and actual dates.

The next step is to manage production by controlling work that is in progress on the shop floor.

This means that you must track production on the shop floor to update the system.

Updating your system entails tracking the status of jobs and obtaining the most up-to-date information about production activity.

After a company is set up to monitor the shop floor, the system reports information that is required by various departments.

Shop Floor System Integration

Shop Floor Management is one of many systems that is used for Supply Chain Management.

Supply Chain Management enables you to coordinate your inventory, raw material, and labor resources to deliver products according to a managed schedule.

The systems within Supply Chain Management are fully-integrated, which ensures that information is current and accurate throughout all of your business operations.

It is a manufacturing system that formalizes the activities of company and operations planning, as well as the execution of those plans.

The Shop Floor Management system integrates with other PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne systems to take advantage of single entries, information sharing, and data consistency between systems.

Evolution of ERP:-

* ERP stands for :

* Enterprise Resource Planning

The three inpportant factors for any successful business venture are

1. An enterprise

2. Its Resources

3. planning the management of the resources of the enterprise.

1.An enterprise :

An enterprice is a group of people with a common goal , which has certain resources at its disposal to achive the goal.

2.Resources :

It include money , manpower , materials and all other thing that are required to run the enterprise.

3.Planning:

Planning is done to ensure that all necessary function are performed in the right manner at the right time.

Thus Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP is a method of effective planning of all the resources in an enterprise or organisation

Enterprise Resources Planning includes the technique and concepts employed for an integrated management of business as a whole , from the view point of the effective use of resources , to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an enterprise.

ERP is software package that organiser and manages a company’ s business processes by sharing information across all functional area in the organisation.

It encompasses all business areas such as sales , disrtibution accounting , costing , maintenance etc. It includes all from suppliers to coustemer . it transforms transactional data likes sales into useful information that supports business process suh as invoicing , distribution and accounting . in addtion ERP information both inside and outside the enterprices . In this way , ERP serves as the backbone for an organisation ‘ s information needs , as well as its e-business initiatives.

Evolution of ERP

Prior to the development of ERP , most companies employed program developers who developed program for their business application from scratch or developed complicated interfaces to allow pre – packaged applications from several venders for flow of data back and forth as necessary to complete business transaction throughout the enterprises.

The drawbacks of this process were :

1 . Costly :

Time cosuming and error prone.

2 . communication among various areas of business was difficult and.

3 . managers could not get a comprehensive view of how the business was doing at any point of time.

SAP AG a german software company created generic ERP software package to integrate all business processes together for use by any business in the world . The software was updated to client server architecture in the 1990s and wih essentially one product ,SAP became the third largest software company in the world.

An ERP system is a set of integrated business applications or modules which carryout common business funcation such as :

- General ledger accounting

- Accounts payble

- Account receivable

- Material requirment planning

- Order management

- Inventary control

- Human resource management

Usually these modules are purchased from a software vender . In same cases ,a company chooes to buy any only a subset of these modules from a particular venderas.

In one sentence ,ERP is a combination of business , management prectice and technology where information technology integrates with your company’s core business

processes to enable the achivement of specific business objective.

* Key components

- Business management practices

- Information technology

-Specific business objective

* Qulifying an ERP

- flexiblity

- Modular and open

- comprehensive

- Best business practices

- world wide cus

* ERP building blocks

- financials

AR | AP

GL

Fixed assets

Billing contracts

Definition of ERP(enterprising resources planning) A process of which a company manages and integrates the important part of its business. An ERP system

managements information system integrates areas such as planning ,purchasing,inventory,sales,marketing,finance,human resources ,etc.

ERP most frequently used in the context of software. As the methodology has become more popular, large software applications have been developed to help companies implement ERP into their organization.

ERP is an acronym or enterprise resources planning , a term that is used for business management system which are design to integrates the data sources and process of entire organization into a unified system.

“ERP”, a coined by gartner that covered a growing range of rebuts database application with relevance as world economic evolved from manufacturing to what we call from manufacturing to what we call a knowledge – base economy. Global business become not only a reality but also the need of hours.

Enter resources planning ERP is a “framework for organizing , defining , and standardizing the business process necessary to effectively plan and control an organization so the organization can use it internal the knowledge to speak external advantages .

Accounting oriented,relational database based. Multi-module but integrated software system for identifying and planning the resources needs of an enterprises. ERP provides one user-interface.for entire organization to manage product planning , materials and parts purchasing , inventory control , distribution , production scheduling , capacity utilization , order tracking ,as well as planning for finance and human resources. It is an extension of the manufacturing resources planning also called enterprises requirement planning.

advantages of ERP 1. ERP system help companies manages their resources

efficiently and at the same time , better serve their customers.

2. ERP simplifies customers interaction and speeds production with its configure to-order capabilities. Customer ordering on-line or through a sales persons can quickly choose from a variety of options, for which bill of materials is automatically generated and send to production.

3. Data entered once into an ERP system , say from manufacturing, need not be reconciled with accounting or warehouses records because the records are all the same.

4. With broader more timely access to operating and financial data. ERP system encourage flatter organizational structures and more decentralized decision making.

5. ERP system also centralized control over information and standardized process standardized transaction make business more efficient and shared data makes them more creative.

6. The direct advantages of ERP include improved efficiently. Integration of information for better decision making faster response time to customer queries etc.,

7. The indirect benefits includes better corporate images , improved customer good-will , customer satisfaction etc.,

disadvantages of ERP:- 1. Implementation of an ERP system is extremely difficult because

the company must change its way of doing business. 2. ERP systems are very expensive. A typical .several crore of

rupees and takes a year or more. These implementation costs include not only the software licenses but also hardware and network investment and consulting costs.

3. Choosing the right ERP software is a difficult task. The leading vendors are SAP, bann,TD Edwards , oracle and people soft several small companies also after ERP software .for ERP purchases , choosing a single . vendors may provides the

advantages of light integration of applications and standardization of process but it will reduce flexibility for adopting company “A” best of breed or mix and match approach with multiple vendors may enable the company. To meet more of its unique needs and reduce reliance on a single vendor, but such an approach typically makes implementation more than consuming and complicates system maintenance.

4. For multi devotional firm, implementing. An ERP system is a very complex, challenging tasks that needs the best minds and careful attention of internal information system specialists, internal business managers and external consultant.

Visuals of ERP system

ERP:-

o ERP (enterprise resource planning) is an industry term for the broad set of activities supported by multi-module application software that help a manufacturer or other business manage the important parts of its business, including product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service, and tracking orders.

o ERP can also include application modules for the finance and human resources aspects of a business.

o An ERP system uses or is integrated with a relational databasesystem.

o The deployment of an ERP system can involve considerable business process analysis, employee retraining, and new work procedures.

Visuals of ERP system

VISUAL DASHBOARDS

o It’s completely customizable and YOU decide what live data is displayed on your dashboard.

o You can drag-and-drop pre-configured widgets or build your own custom displays such as:

Top Selling Products, inventory levels, and most active customers

Competitive information and industry news feeds Dashboards for HR, Accounts Receivable, Finance and

more Social media, videos, and just about any business data

you need, internal or external to the company

VISUAL PROCESS FLOWS

o Visual Processes provide you with a glimpse of the “big picture” and help you navigate through it step-by-step.

o With this graphical user interface, you can create a flow chart of every process in your company along with its role within your ERP application.

o Visual Processes provide you with a clear view of tasks to accomplish and a direct interface to every point in your Sage X3system.

o Dashboards and Visual Processes provide you with more than just a pretty picture. They help you navigate ERP functionality with typical ERP complexity.

Visual Jobshop

o Visual Jobshop is a streamlined, lighter version of its larger brother Infor VISUAL and is designed specifically to handle tasks for the smallest manufacturers.

o With its intuitive design, Infor ERP Visual Jobshop puts smaller manufacturers on the cutting edge by offering complete control over operations, eliminating redundant data entry, and ensuring consistency and accuracy across the shop floor.

o It contains rich functionality to help you manage your operations from quoting though manufacturing to invoicing.

o Tailored precisely to the needs of engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturers, job shop offers fully integrated tools for quoting, order entry, inventory control, production, labor collection, shipping, and invoicing.

Sales Management Inventory Management Procurement Engineering Management Shop Floor Control Barcode Data Collection Scheduling & Planning Financial Management User Management

o In order to be an end-to-end ERP solution, the "E" in ERP states that the application should encompass the entire business enterprise.

o It is for this reason that Visual Jobshop is not, and will never be a full ERP solution in the true sense of the word, as it would need to provide integrated functionality that includes Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Cash Book, Budgeting and all of the other features which are required by the company's Account Department.

o It allows these users to enjoy the same flexible and powerful manufacturing features of Infor ERP Express, whilst continuing to use the existing software for the company's financial accounting.

o Jobshop has built-in integration with popular accounting software such as Quickbooks and Peachtree accounting and can also be adapted to integrate with most other accounting packages.

o Effective resource planning is often more important to small manufacturers than to larger ones.

o When you gain the ability to manage your internal resources at peak efficiency, you can adapt effectively to business conditions, serve customers effectively, and keep your small manufacturing operation on track for future growth.

Function and feature

o Infor ERP Visual Jobshop helps you manage important business functions, streamlines workflow and eliminates redundant data entry by integrating quoting, order entry, inventory control, production, shipping, and invoicing.

o functional area from the module map below are:

Module Map Sales Management Inventory Management Purchase Management Engineering Management Shop Floor Control Scheduling & Planning Financial Management User Management

Quoting & Estimating

o Develop cost estimates quickly and accurately from scratch, established parts, or "the same thing only different" requirements.

o Account for supplier price breaks and your economies of scale automatically when developing quotes for multiple quantities.

o Mark-up your material, labor, burden, and service costs at their own rates.

o Quickly add lines to a quote by selecting multiple parts from a list and adding them in one step Sales Order Management.

Sales Order Management

o Create a sales order from a quote, then generate an acknowledgment with a few clicks of the mouse.

o Accept and track orders for identical parts with multiple delivery dates.

o Create SOP orders automatically from, and link them to, individual sales order lines.

o Generate pack lists automatically.

o Quickly add lines to a sales order by selecting multiple parts from a list and adding them in one step.

o Add or edit notes based on authority control. o Define sales commissions, designate whether individual sales

lines are commissionable, and use the sales rep commission report to track sales commissions based on invoiced sales order lines.

Info visual

o Infor VISUAL quickly converts customer requirements into manufacturing requirements and then executes them efficiently.

o Lean concepts eliminate redundant or wasteful steps that you are often forced to go through with other manufacturing software.

o True to its name, Infor VISUAL provides a compelling visual presentation that shows how each part of the manufacturing process relates to the others—helping to resolve bottlenecks, schedule effectively, and price jobs accurately.

o Infor VISUAL supports mixed-mode production strategies, including engineer-to-order, make-to-order, assemble-to-order, and make-to-stock.

o Infor VISUAL's core capabilities include:

Manufacturing visibility

Create an engineering plan or bill of material (BOM) quickly and easily with a full-color, graphical interface, and then use the design to automatically create a quote and/or work order.

Quoting and estimating

Create professional and comprehensive quotations, determine realistic delivery dates based on material and resource availability, and turn quotes into sales orders.

Material requirements planning (MRP)

Manage the balance between supply and demand using a comprehensive analysis of your material situation.

Shop floor control

Take complete control over production operations, eliminating redundant data entry and ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout the shop floor.

Business intelligence

Allow decision makers to view and analyze key factors and performance trends in the areas of sales, purchasing, production, and finance.

Inventory control

Improve accuracy and gain immediate access to inventory information throughout the company.

Workflow

Allow information to pass from one person or department to another through an automated process cycle, integrating policies and procedures with information flow according to predefined conditions and rules.

Data import utility

Generate properly formatted files with a BOM and part-import interface for 3PL applications.

Messages

Ensure important information is transmitted to appropriate persons within or outside the company using familiar email features.

Management reporting

Analyze and manages enterprise and accounting data, build customized queries and forms, define business graphics, and create complex cross-tabular reports.

Lot and serial traceability

Create trace records for each lot number, serial number, or other grouping of a part, and automatically track each part as it flows through your plant.

What is the reason for ERP market growth in India? ERP market in India steadily growing for the last few years and the main reason for this enormous growth can be attributed to the inability of order system to manage the conversion to year 2000. There are also other factors such as industry best practices, easy and faster implementation and good cost predictions. Another factor behind the growth is that already existing clients acquire more licenses and modules. The number of employees using the ERP system is increasing and the ERP clients who have started with the basic modules are going for subsequent applications. There is also a trend to replace customized system with standard application packages, like an ERP system. India is expected to present ERP suppliers an important marketplace as manufacturing companies are significantly investing in technology solutions to improve their manufacturing operations. According to observation made by some experts in the field, the ERP market started showing solid organic growth since 2004 as IT spending improved. The Indian ERP market experienced CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 25.2 during the period of 2004-2009. The market was $83 million in 2004, and is projected to be over $250 million in 2009, according to a research report. The report further clarifies that manufacturers in India are increasingly implementing ERP solutions to ensure that decision makers have the required information visibility across the value chain.

Majority of Indian manufacturers are small by global standards, requiring easy-to-use ERP solutions to meet their specific process requirements, including localization needs to address the continually evolving tax and statutory requirements. Small and medium enterprises across industry verticals and micro verticals, such as automotive, pharmaceuticals, and textiles, are leveraging ERP solutions to gain sustainable competitive advantages. Disadvantage: Startup Cost

1 . Costly :

A major disadvantage of ERP is its overall startup cost. The implementation requires new hardware, training and consultants to give instruction in addition to the software itself. This creates a high price tag that may not be acceptable to a company, especially for a system that cannot guarantee profit. Time cosuming and error prone.

2 .communication among various areas of business was difficult. 3 . managers could not get a comprehensive view of how the business was doing at any point of time.

The ERP scenario in India

There are several positive and negative factors as far as the ERP scenario in India is concerned. Though having ERP in companies of India mostly provides a profitable source of income and quality customer service, there are several challenges to the introduction of ERP in India. This includes change management, organizational intervention, replacing outdated software, shifting from function view to process view, hiring ERP-literate staff and faith in package software in the place of custom-built software.

Certain concerns that have never used ERP software are intimidated whereas some view ERP as a takeover to there IS professionals. Most of the Indian corporations have large in-house IS shops and they consider ERP as a threat to their very existence. Moreover, ERP places more value on the domain knowledge of functions rather than IT skills. The communication infrastructure needed to implement ERP are lacking in some of the indigenous companies.

In spite of all these, the growth of ERP in India is quite promising. Several well-known business houses in India like Cadbury India, Mercedes Benz India, Siemens, Haldia Petrochemicals, L&T, TISCO, and UTI use SAP while Kellogg’s India Ltd., Maruti Udyog Ltd., Sony India Pvt Ltd. and CESC are Oracle users. India’s most valuable contribution to ERP came in 1980s when the country launched the world class ERP product Marshall from Ramco Systems, by using the technology of the 80’s. Marshall is the first successful large scale software from India and several companies like HDFC Bank, Hyundai, Nestle Limited and Standard Chartered Bank use this ERP package.

Actually, this product is a formative ERP called virtual splat. A virtual splat enables merging of accounting and manufacturing practices in an easy-to-use, implemented package and is used by small start-up companies.

Various types of ERP Modules:

SAP R/3 is a integrated system consisting of several modules under the following categories:

1) Supply chain management category

2) Product life-management category

3) Human capital management caytegory

4) Financials category

5) Customer relationship management

6) Business intelligence category

7) Electronic commerce

Supply chain management category

The strength of the sap system originated with supply chain management .The logistics subcategory of the supply chain management area includes eight major modules. Five modules relate primarily to manufacturing. Production planning ,project system ,materials management quality management and plant maintenance. Two other modules in the logistics category relates largely to sales and distribution and product data management.

The final module logistics information system provides reports Relevant to both manufacturing and sales. These modules provide a complete set of components to monitor and report on the entire logistics process from sourcing of materials and manufacturing through sales and service

Human capital management: The modules in the human capital management category provide the full set of capabilities needed to hire, manage schedule and pay company to employees . The modules under this category are: organizational management ,Personal management ,employee self-

service, recruitment, personal development, training and event management, compensation management , benefits administration, personnel cost planning , time management ,pay roll and travel management.

The HR management module is a component covering many other HR aspects from application to retirement. The system records basic demographic and address data, selection, training and development, capabilities and skills management, compensation planning records and other related activities.

Product life –cycle management category: Product life-cycle management includes modules such as program management, life cycle data management ,change and configuration management ,life cycle collaboration and environmental, health and safety management

Production plan for machines with optimum utilization of all available resources like raw materials and machines

Option to revoke production plan to change input parameters/ production priority/ quantity using fresh production advice

Generation of production schedule for machines detailing inputs and outputs

Business intelligence category:

Business intelligence category includes modules such as business information warehouse, knowledge management and strategic enterprise management.

Electronic commerce: Electronic commerce category includes modules such as buying, selling and open catalog interface.

Companies may choose to implement some or all of the SAP R/3 modules. ERP implementation is such a challenging task that most companies employ a consulting firm to assist them.

· Financials category: The module in the financial category are designed to permit managers to interpret and work with company financial data- effectively. The remaining categories include product life cycle management, customer relationship management, business intelligence and electronic commerce.

Advantages of ERP:- Installing an ERP system has many advantages—both direct

and indirect.

1->The direct advantages include improved efficiency, information for better decision-making, faster response time to customer queries,etc.

2->the indirect benefits include better corporate image, improved customer goodwill, customer satisfaction and so on.

The benefits—both tangible and intangible-of the ERP

System. They are:

Tangible benefits of ERP

1. Inventory reduction

2. Personnel Red

3. Productivity improvements

4. Other management improvements

5.Financial close cycle Reduction

6.It cost Reduction

7.cash management improvements

8.Revenue /profit increases

9.Transportation /logistics cost reduction

10.Maintenance Reduction

11.On-time delivery improvements

Intangible Benefits of ERP

1.Information visibility

2.New improved process

3.Customer Responsiveness

4.Cost Reduction

5.Integration

6.Standardization

7.Flexibility

8.Globalization

9.Technology

10.Business Performance

11.Supply demand chain

Visuals of ERP

o ERP (enterprise resource planning) is an industry term for the broad set of activities supported by multi-module application software that help a manufacturer or other business manage the important parts of its business, including product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service, and tracking orders.

o ERP can also include application modules for the finance and human resources aspects of a business.

o An ERP system uses or is integrated with a relational databasesystem.

o The deployment of an ERP system can involve considerable business process analysis, employee retraining, and new work procedures.

Visuals of ERP system:-

VISUAL DASHBOARDS

o It’s completely customizable and YOU decide what live data is displayed on your dashboard.

o You can drag-and-drop pre-configured widgets or build your own custom displays such as:

Top Selling Products, inventory levels, and most active customers

Competitive information and industry news feeds Dashboards for HR, Accounts Receivable, Finance and

more Social media, videos, and just about any business data

you need, internal or external to the company

VISUAL PROCESS FLOWS

o Visual Processes provide you with a glimpse of the “big picture” and help you navigate through it step-by-step.

o With this graphical user interface, you can create a flow chart of every process in your company along with its role within your ERP application.

o Visual Processes provide you with a clear view of tasks to accomplish and a direct interface to every point in your Sage X3system.

o Dashboards and Visual Processes provide you with more than just a pretty picture. They help you navigate ERP functionality with typical ERP complexity.

Visual Jobshop

o Visual Jobshop is a streamlined, lighter version of its larger brother Infor VISUAL and is designed specifically to handle tasks for the smallest manufacturers.

o With its intuitive design, Infor ERP Visual Jobshop puts smaller manufacturers on the cutting edge by offering complete control

over operations, eliminating redundant data entry, and ensuring consistency and accuracy across the shop floor.

o It contains rich functionality to help you manage your operations from quoting though manufacturing to invoicing.

o Tailored precisely to the needs of engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturers, job shop offers fully integrated tools for quoting, order entry, inventory control, production, labor collection, shipping, and invoicing.

Sales Management Inventory Management Procurement Engineering Management Shop Floor Control Barcode Data Collection Scheduling & Planning Financial Management User Management

o In order to be an end-to-end ERP solution, the "E" in ERP states that the application should encompass the entire business enterprise.

o It is for this reason that Visual Jobshop is not, and will never be a full ERP solution in the true sense of the word, as it would need to provide integrated functionality that includes Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Cash Book, Budgeting and all of the other features which are required by the company's Account Department.

o It allows these users to enjoy the same flexible and powerful manufacturing features of Infor ERP Express, whilst continuing to use the existing software for the company's financial accounting.

o Jobshop has built-in integration with popular accounting software such as Quickbooks and Peachtree accounting and can also be adapted to integrate with most other accounting packages.

o Effective resource planning is often more important to small manufacturers than to larger ones.

o When you gain the ability to manage your internal resources at peak efficiency, you can adapt effectively to business

conditions, serve customers effectively, and keep your small manufacturing operation on track for future growth.

Function and feature

o Infor ERP Visual Jobshop helps you manage important business functions, streamlines workflow and eliminates redundant data entry by integrating quoting, order entry, inventory control, production, shipping, and invoicing.

o functional area from the module map below are:

Module Map Sales Management Inventory Management Purchase Management Engineering Management Shop Floor Control Scheduling & Planning Financial Management User Management

Quoting & Estimating

o Develop cost estimates quickly and accurately from scratch, established parts, or "the same thing only different" requirements.

o Account for supplier price breaks and your economies of scale automatically when developing quotes for multiple quantities.

o Mark-up your material, labor, burden, and service costs at their own rates.

o Quickly add lines to a quote by selecting multiple parts from a list and adding them in one step Sales Order Management.

Sales Order Management

o Create a sales order from a quote, then generate an acknowledgment with a few clicks of the mouse.

o Accept and track orders for identical parts with multiple delivery dates.

o Create SOP orders automatically from, and link them to, individual sales order lines.

o Generate pack lists automatically. o Quickly add lines to a sales order by selecting multiple parts

from a list and adding them in one step. o Add or edit notes based on authority control. o Define sales commissions, designate whether individual sales

lines are commissionable, and use the sales rep commission report to track sales commissions based on invoiced sales order lines.

Info visual

o Info VISUAL quickly converts customer requirements into manufacturing requirements and then executes them efficiently.

o Lean concepts eliminate redundant or wasteful steps that you are often forced to go through with other manufacturing software.

o True to its name, Infor VISUAL provides a compelling visual presentation that shows how each part of the manufacturing process relates to the others—helping to resolve bottlenecks, schedule effectively, and price jobs accurately.

o Infor VISUAL supports mixed-mode production strategies, including engineer-to-order, make-to-order, assemble-to-order, and make-to-stock.

o Infor VISUAL's core capabilities include

Manufacturing visibility

Create an engineering plan or bill of material (BOM) quickly and easily with a full-color, graphical interface, and then use the design to automatically create a quote and/or work order.

Quoting and estimating

Create professional and comprehensive quotations, determine realistic delivery dates based on material and resource availability, and turn quotes into sales orders.

Material requirements planning (MRP)

Manage the balance between supply and demand using a comprehensive analysis of your material situation.

Shop floor control

Take complete control over production operations, eliminating redundant data entry and ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout the shop floor.

Business intelligence

Allow decision makers to view and analyze key factors and performance trends in the areas of sales, purchasing, production, and finance.

Inventory control

Improve accuracy and gain immediate access to inventory information throughout the company.

Workflow

Allow information to pass from one person or department to another through an automated process cycle, integrating policies and procedures with information flow according to predefined conditions and rules.

Data import utility

Generate properly formatted files with a BOM and part-import interface for 3PL applications.

Messages

Ensure important information is transmitted to appropriate persons within or outside the company using familiar email features.

Management reporting

Analyze and manages enterprise and accounting data, build customized queries and forms, define business graphics, and create complex cross-tabular reports.

Lot and serial traceability

Create trace records for each lot number, serial number, or other grouping of a part, and automatically track each part as it flows through your plant.