SMU MBA ASSIGNMENTS

Answer :  Strategy implementation is the translation of chosen strategy into organizational action so as to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Strategy implementation is also defined as the manner in which an organization should develop, utilize, and amalgamate organizational structure, control systems, and culture to follow strategies that lead to competitive advantage and a better performance. Organizational structure allocates special value developing tasks and roles to the employees and states how these tasks and roles can be correlated so as maximize efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction-the pillars of competitive advantage. But, organizational structure is not sufficient in itself to motivate the employees. (more…)

Answer :  Strategy

Strategy is the method by which an organisation systematically achieves its future objectives. A business cannot progress for a long term without a reliable strategy. In this unit, you will learn meaning of business strategies, its conceptual evolution, scope and its importance, distinction between goals and objectives, analysing strategic intent through vision and mission statements and finding out the significance of core competencies of business and critical success factors (more…)

Answer :   Observation techniques

Direct observation produces more reliable information than interviews on actual behaviour. The researcher can see which medicines are being sold, prescribed or used, or are available in medicine cabinets; what information on their use the seller or doctor provides; whether drugs are purchased on prescription, etc. The most common observational techniques to study drug use are: (more…)

Answer  :  OBJECTIVE:

A poor location or a poorly negotiated lease can cripple a wonderful business. Every business has its own location criteria. In this session you will define your criteria, learn how to select the right location, create a site model, and recognize the important aspects of a lease agreement.

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Answer  :   1. Purpose

a. This publication sets forth planning policies and procedures to govern the joint activities and performance of the Armed Forces of the United States. It provides military guidance for the exercise of authority by combatant commanders and other joint force commanders and prescribes doctrine and selected joint tactics, techniques, and procedures for joint operations and training. It provides military guidance for use by the Armed Forces in preparing their appropriate plans. (more…)

Answer :    Property, Plant, and Equipment is a separate category on a classified balance sheet. It typically follows Long-term Investments and is oftentimes referred to as “PP&E.” Items appropriately included in this section are the physical assets deployed in the productive operation of the business, like land, buildings, and equipment. Note that idle facilities and land held for speculation are more appropriately listed in some other category on the balance sheet, like Long-term Investments. Within the PP&E section, items are customarily listed according to expected life. Land comes first, followed by buildings, then equipment. For some businesses, the amount of Property, Plant, and Equipment can be substantial. This is the case for firms that have large investments in manufacturing operations or significant real estate holdings. Other service or intellectual-based businesses may actually have very little to show within this balance sheet category. (more…)

Answer  :   In some ways the very term ‘operation strategy’ sounds like a contradiction in terms. Operations is, after all, about the day-to-day creation and delivery of products and services. So how can it be strategic? In fact, the issue is one of distinguishing between two words which are similar but have different meanings. These are operations and operational. Operations refers to those parts of the business which are concerned with producing products and services. (more…)

Answer  :  A System is a group of interrelated items in which no item studied in isolation will act in the same way as it would in the system. A system is divided into a series of parts or subsystems, and any system is a part of a larger system. The system’s boundary defines what is inside the system and what is outside. A system’s environment is everything outside the system boundary that may have an impact on the behaviour of the system. A system’s inputs are the physical objects of information that enter it from the environment and its outputs are the same which leave it for the environment. (more…)

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Answer : No doubt about it, emerging technology has a drastic impact on society and business. Whether people realize it or not, the way we conduct business and live our lives would be much different if it weren’t for the continually changing technology. (more…)

Answer : ORWARD AND BACKWARDS SCHEDULING

 MIE Solutions offers a made to order job shop ERP system designed for the manufacturer of goods and products.  Most accounting systems are designed for the basic AR, AP and GL side of financials where a manufacturing software product deals with the actual production of the goods and services.   MIE Trak is a full featured ERP system for the made to order and engineer to order manufacturer. (more…)

Answer : Production planning is an activity that is performed before the actual production process takes place. It involves determining the schedule of production, sequence of operations, economic batch quantities, and also the dispatching priorities for sequencing of jobs. (more…)

Answer : The principle behind Quality Audit

The principles of Quality Audit, in the sense we mean it here, are based on the style of quality standards used in several formal national and international standards such as the ISO-900x international quality standards. These standards do not in themselves create quality. The logic is as follows. (more…)

Answer : Quality as a Business Strategy

QBS is a leadership framework and set of activities to help your organization prepare to

effectively participate in system transformation and continuous quality improvement.

Why QBS? (more…)

Answer:   The ABC analysis is a business term used to define an inventory categorization technique often used in materials management. It is also known as Selective Inventory Control. Policies based on ABC analysis: (more…)

Answer :   The irrigation network is perhaps the most costly element of an irrigation scheme and is designed to last a long time. However, all too often one finds that irrigation schemes not long constructed bear little resemblance to the original construction and design. Silt deposition, weed infestation, malfunctioning of structures and other undesirable situations make it practically impossible to control the flow in these canals. As a result, the system is unable to deliver the necessary water and distribute it equitably. It is not surprising that farmers working in those irrigation schemes sometimes feel frustrated because they know the potential benefits of irrigation and yet cannot realize their expectations. (more…)

Answer  : Performance analysis is an assessment of process, equipment, employee, or any other factor to gauge progress towards predetermined goals. It is guided and assessed by effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. Front-end performance analysis is one of the most important investments that the organizations should make to achieve maximum return on all other investments in human performance. (more…)

Answer  : Supplier development is the process of working with certain suppliers/subcontractors on a one-to-one basis to improve their performance for the benefit of the buying organization. (more…)

Answer  : The ISO/TS16949 standard specifies eight different Clauses which have to be followed by the organization to meet the objectives and confirm customer requirements as follows.

Table 5.1: The eight clauses of ISO/TS 16979 (more…)

Answer  : Quality Management System, in the simplest of terms, is defined as

“The process of Management of the Systems of an organization, with regard to its Quality related activities, for ‘meeting and enhancing customer satisfaction’ and also taking care of all other interested parties such as legislative and regulatory bodies, shareholders, suppliers, employees, etc.” (more…)

Answer  : Mission statements

Mission statement is a formal, short written statement for the purpose of the current functioning of the company or an organisation. The actions of the organisation are guided by the mission statement. Mission statement should spell out the overall goal, provide a sense of direction and guide in decision making. Critical components that clarify each organisation’s purpose are common in case of all effective mission statements. (more…)

Answer  : PDCA is described as (plan-do-check-act). This is typically used in business process improvement and is an iterative four-step problem-solving process. This is also called as the Deming circle or plan-do-study-act.  (more…)

Answer  : The organisation must make sure that the handling, storage and delivery of the product is done in an efficient manner. There must be a well documented procedure and methods of handling that prevents the damage and the deterioration of the product. In the case of software industry, handling refers to necessary action that the organisation must take to protect the software from unauthorised changes, software alterations and virus infections.  (more…)

Answer  : The eight quality management principles are defined in ISO 9000, Quality management systems Fundamentals and vocabulary, and in ISO 9004, quality management systems guidelines for performance improvements (more…)

Answer : Activity : It is physically identifiable part of a project which require time and resources for its execution. An activity is represented by an arrow, the tail of which represents the start and the head, finish of the activity. (more…)

Answer :  Project Management Information System (PMIS)

An information system is mainly aimed at providing the management at different levels with information related to the system of the organisation. It helps in maintaining discipline in the system. (more…)

Answer :  Some key points about PERT are as follows:

1. PERT was developed in connection with an R&D work. Therefore, it had to cope with the uncertainties that are associated with R&D activities. In PERT, the total project duration is regarded as a random variable. Therefore, associated probabilities are calculated so as to characterise it. (more…)

Hardware support for MIS

Generally hardware in the form of personal computers and peripherals like printers, fax machines, copier, scanners etc are used in organization to support various MIS activities of the organization. (more…)

The industrial revolution has slowly replaced man power with machines. There emerged the use of computer for data processing. The digital computer was mainly designed to handle scientific calculations. During 1940 to 1960 computers were used commercially for census and payroll work which involved large amount of data processing. Since then the commercial application exceeded the scientific applications. (more…)

Answer : Distribution is one of the classic “4 Ps” of marketing (product, promotion, price, placement a.k.a. “distribution”). It’s a key element in your entire marketing strategy – it helps you expand your reach and grow revenue.

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Answer :  Customer satisfaction refers to the extent to which customers are happy with the products and services provided by a business. Customer satisfaction levels can be measured using survey techniques and questionnaires. Gaining high levels of customer satisfaction is very important to a business because satisfied customers are most likely to be loyal and to make repeated orders and to use a wide range of services offered by a business. (more…)

Answer : Whether a business is in retailing or manufacturing, there are several cogent reasons for holding inventory. Businesses may hold stocks of raw materials, spare parts for machinery, work in progress or finished goods. Given that there are costs involved with purchases, orders and carriage inwards, a firm might want to minimize its order costs and utilize storage space efficiently. While a business would incur holding costs when storing inventory, these costs can be offset if there are good business reasons for so doing. (more…)

Details of the Company

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Answer :  Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is a family of business models in which the buyer of a product provides certain information to a supplier of that product and the supplier takes full responsibility for maintaining an agreed inventory of the material, usually at the buyer’s consumption location (usually a store). A third-party logistics provider can also be involved to make sure that the buyer has the required level of inventory by adjusting the demand and supply gaps. (more…)

Answer :  The main objectives of plant layout is to optimising the process of production process within the plant. such an optimizing results in : (more…)

Answer :  Value engineering (VE) is a systematic method to improve the “value” of goods or products and services by using an examination of function. Value, as defined, is the ratio of function to cost. Value can therefore be increased by either improving the function or reducing the cost. It is a primary tenet of value engineering that basic functions be preserved and not be reduced as a consequence of pursuing value improvements.[ (more…)

Answer :  In order thoroughly to examine costs and benefits of schemes aimed at differentiating products and processes on the basis of quality criteria, it is important to define the concept of

Answer : Scheduling strategies

A typical scheduling strategy used in Argentinian radio and television is called “pase” (Spanish for a “pass” as in a player passing the ball to another player of the same team). A few minutes before the end of a live broadcast show, followed by another live broadcast show, people from both programmes will share some air time together.  (more…)