Business Analysis of Gulf States Metals Inc. Gulf States Metals Inc. (GSM) is a large nickel refinery plant that has suffered poor financial performance and is under the threat of being shut down by its parent company International Metals Inc. This paper aims to, firstly, analyse the issues that are contributing to the low performance, secondly, to provide some options for moving forward and thirdly, to present a set of substantiated recommendations. The analysis will be tackled through …show more content…
Within these directorial areas there is a structure based around process and time. There are supervisors that oversee one of each the processes of material handling, copper extraction, cobalt extraction, ammonia sulphate extraction, and nickel extraction. There are also supervisors who manage production for swing, graveyard and weekend shifts. In the case of GSM, there is an absence of integration to bridge the division between the operations and maintenance. The two areas are at odds and compete for access to machines. Production requires the machines to continue running and producing nickel, while Maintenance requires windows of time to perform maintenance of those machines. This systemic conflict between Maintenance and Operations is a classic example of allocation leading to sub-optimisation. Rather than focusing on goals of the business, each division is narrowly focussed on their own goals. The structure within the Operations Division may also be contributing poor performance. The structure consists of two types of supervisors: those who supervise a part of the production process and those who supervise particular shifts. As a result, operators are essentially reporting to both an Operations Area Manager and a Shift Supervisor. There is a similar structure within the Engineering Division. This
To analyze The Goal, Part 2, I have chosen the second option to analyze a complex value creation system using management concepts. Management is being able to prioritize, making decision and coordinate the entire process effectively and efficiently through others, while utilizing all the resources to achieve the organization objectives and goals. The novel continues as Mr. Rogo seeks for more suggestion from his colleague Jonah to keep the plant operating producing revenue. Mr. Rogo is having some personal issues at the moment, he is having a difficult time managing his family which is probably affecting his professional life and the decision he tries to make regarding in managing Bearington Manufacturing Plant. I would suggest that Mr. Rogo take into consideration the Theory of Constraints (TOC) to assist him in evaluating the production of enhancing the performance of the Plant. According to, Dalton, M. A. (2009). “This is a tool that has been used to help manufacturing operations identify and eliminate bottlenecks. This approach enables innovators to rapidly improve their growth results while gradually creating a culture of continuous innovation improvement.” (p.52).
The novel, “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement”, by Eliyahu Goldratt focuses on a production plant that has a failing system which can potentially shut down if the system that it operates under does not right itself and show improvements. The book is structured like a business textbook but is written as a novel. “The Goal” uses a scenario in the production world that can occur to any production manager. Eliyahu Goldratt uses the main character, Alex Rogo a plant manager with UniCo Company for the past 15 years, puts him in the students seat. It helps business students learn with Alex and makes it very relative.
Production line workers are the employees who are usually doing their work by hand or in this day and age, running the machine or equipment to make the products. In this particular case, Canada Chemicals Corporation utilizes their production employees by producing industrial chemicals. These production worker’s jobs are a lot more complete then other production level workers employees as they usually have plenty of skill, knowledge and experience, and have high educational background. In order to reverse recent challenges with production and sales, I have composed a compensation package for these employees that will motivate them intrinsically, and focus on rewards that are extrinsic.
Victoria Heavy Equipment’s most recent organization has been lacking effective communication practices amongst all of its divisions. The company has been suffering from lack of clear goals in measurable terms, for its divisions. The idea of each division functioning as an independent unit, whether it being cost or profit center, is a remarkable beginning. However, clear goals and key measurable need to be set for each center, which in our case have been overlooked. As a result, many of these centers have over spent, resulting in over expenditures, something we can definitely not afford with anticipated slower market.
In this executive summary, The Goal by Goldratt will be analyzed in detail. First, 10 operations management decisions as found on page 7 of the Heizer and Render textbook will be listed in column 1. Next, for each OM decision, examples from The Goal textbook that exemplify the type of problem or solution relevant to the OM area will be summarized in column 2. Finally, a scenario from my work life will be exemplified in column 3.
Operations Management in an organisation is repsonsible for managing and in making decisions concerning the activities that convert inputs into outputs , that is goods and services. This covers both short term actvities as well as longer term activities to meet strategic goals. Inputs can be the raw materaials need to manufacture goods such as furniture or the computers needed to create a service like online shopping site. Operation management’s role is to make decisions to improve how operation activities function, for example, to improve the final quality of the output or to change production methods to be more efficient in terms of cost and in time.
1. What is the competitive situation faced by Wilkerson? The critical product in term of market competition is the pumps of Wilkerson Company. The pumps are Wilkersons major product line with a production of about 12,500 units per month. Pumps currently have the lowest gross margin among all products, because competitors had been reducing prices on pumps and Wilkerson adopted its prices in order to remain competitive and to maintain the volume. 2. Given some apparent problems with Wilkersons cost system, should executives abandon overhead assignment to products entirely by adopting a contribution margin approach in which manufacturing overhead is treated as a period expense? Our conclusion is, that they should not adopt
3.) Strong presence in high margin health services business. In addition to UnitedHealth Group’s leadership position in the health benefits market segment, UnitedHealth Group has strong information and technology based health services platform through its business segments which is Ingenix, OptumHealth and PrescriptionSolutions. The “CNN MONEY” (2012) website states Ingenix is one of the largest health information, technology and consulting companies in the world. The UnitedHealth Group derived $2.3 billion of revenues from Ingenix which contributed $284 million (excluding $200 million in goodwill impairment and business line deposition charges) of operating profit, and an operating margin of 12.1% during FY2010.
The world of finance in today’s market is one of numerous ups and downs. With the global economy in constant flux, it is more important than every for companies to examine their financial status and compare their position to that of the relative market as well as their fellow competitors. In order to better understand the ways in which today’s managers examine their position on the market and evaluate their current value as a company we will examine the financial data of Lockheed Martin Corporation and perform a detailed financial analysis on the company. In this
Being able to increase productivity and revenues has always been the greatest challenge of any manager, and the manager of RL Wolfe, a plastic pipe manufacturer, was not an exception. Because of the low-efficiency percentage RL Wolfe had in comparison to their its competitors, John Amasi, director of Production and Engineering , had no other choice then came up with a new way of improving RL Wolfe production methods.
Eliyahu M Goldratt purpose of writing this book is to introduce individuals to how to manage and measure effectively. Goldratt illustrates how the accounting cost figures and productivity per machine can actually be problematic for it misleads individuals into thinking they’re achieving the goal. Rather all attention should be focused on strategy planning and managing the bottlenecks because they are the true driving metric of production. One major takeaway message from this novel is that there is always room for improvement. This philosophy of ongoing improvement originated in a Toyotas production system and is better know as the Kaizen theory. The Novel, stresses the Kaizen theory, which starts with an indication, then an in-depth analysis, followed by a diagnosis, eventually arrive ate a hypothesis and ending with
Before investing in any business it’s important to conduct a business analysis. This analysis would cover in detail the strengths; weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of a business. This analysis will assist a fund manager with the decision of whether to invest or not. Reynolds is a very dominant company in the tobacco industry. The have various subsidiaries that keeps them on pace with their competitors.
In their empirical study, Hill and Westbrook (1997), the group members of operations management academics, analyzed 20 UK manufacturing companies in 1993-1994 on
In this case study of Berkshire Industries PLC, we will be focusing on the evaluation of their new incentive system and address their potential options. This new system focuses on economic profits instead of accounting profits. To better understand the implications of the economic profit-focused system, we will perform a data analysis on the companies Snack Division. Furthermore, we will assess the negative effect this system had on their underperforming division, Spirits.
In 2010, Halliburton produced revenue of $17,973 billion and operating income of $3,009 billion, reflecting an operating margin of approximately 17%. Revenue increased by $3,298 billion, or 22% from 2009, while operating income increased $1,015 billion, or 51% from 2009. According to Halliburton’s 2010 Annual Report, “these increases were due to its customers’ higher capital spending throughout 2010, led by increased drilling activity and pricing improvements in North America” (Hal 2010 annual report). However, Halliburton remains cautious because of the shifts in oil and natural gas prices and supply/demand factors. These “shifts” are important for equipment and services providers in the oil and gas industry because it affects the