Avie Products Inc. is planning to add a third shift to its production schedule. It currently has 450 workers involved in all aspects of its fertilizer business, best done in Canada. A recent surge in demand from its global customers is driving the need for more workers; however, Simi Meher, the CEO, is concerned that the surge may be temporary, especially in light of the recent economic downturns in the global environment where Avie does business.
Questions
1. Which approach would be the best for Avie use to forecast demand for its products?
Forecasting should include the use of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to forecast demand for its products.
If Avie Products Inc. were to use the quantitative method, they would do
…show more content…
3. Assume that Avie goes ahead with the third shift. What can the company use to evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy in a year’s time?
Avie can assess the effectiveness of this strategy by using the benchmarking. Benchmarking involves comparing Avie Products’ processes and practices with the competition. This will allow Avie to measure how fast and how far they have progressed with their strategic plan. The metrics used are human capital metrics which assesses aspects of the workforce and HR metrics which assesses the performance of the HR function.
4. If the demand for Avie’s product should drop in the future and the company is required to lay off some of the staff on the third shift, what would be the best way to determine who, on this shift, should be laid off? (Note that Avie is not unionized.)
If Avie is required to lay off some employees hired for the third shift, the best way to determine who should be laid off is based on seniority and/or ability. The ability of employees to change jobs and learn new skills, along with their performance is heavily weighed when making layoff decisions. Since Avie is not unionized, layoffs to senior employees can still occur. The practice of using seniority as the basis for layoffs may have an impact on women and minority groups who often have less seniority than others.
Also under the category of layoffs
* Forecasting is an impartial strategic ingredient that will ensure apt base for reputable planning. Our forecast is always the first step in developing plans in running the business along with our future plans of growth strategies. With this tool, we are able to anticipate our sales within reason that then can allow for us to control our costs in conjunction with inventory which will then help us to enhance our customer service. Sales forecasting is a vital strategic tactic in our company’s methodology.
Most stores have been in existence for 10 or more years, and were indirectly managed by either Emerson or Wood when they were first established. Because of this stability, the estimate for the coming year‟s labor requirements is identical to the current year. So, for example, they currently have 1,200 individuals working as shift leader, and expect to need 1,200 individuals to work as shift leaders for the coming year as well.
Each of Janet’s approaches offers advantages and disadvantages. If cost is the principal criterion, all three plans can be improved. For example, rather than paying overtime wages to permanent employees during the busiest months, Janet could hire “temporary” workers (who will work for at most a few months but earn regular wages and
3. Market Share: forecasting will help in identifying the size of the market share and market potential will aid in the manufacturing and distribution process. Will also aid in proper utilization and eliminate waste.
In 2013, J.C. Penney color-coded employees into categories based on their abilities and performance (Bhasin, 2013). It was a way to prepare them for subsequent job cutbacks (Bhasin, 2013). Employees were categorized into one of three groups: Green (satisfactory performance and unlikely to be dismissed), Yellow (employees need to improve performance to avoid termination), and Red (a candidate to be laid off). Unfortunately, the retail industry suffered during the year, which prompt J.C. Penney to cut two thousand jobs from January to May 2014 (O’Toole, 2014). These job losses were part of a cost saving measure that closed thirty-three underperforming retail stores (O’Toole, 2014).
Analytic is heavily used in customers demand. We used data mainly statistical progrrams to help us predict what and how much to stock in inventory within the warehouse. We call this forecasting. Forecasting is greatly used during the back to school time frame. That is when we have the highest volume in sales. Marketing and advertisement plays a major role here too. A good example is stocking more Office Depot red top copy papers as compare to Hammermill copy papers. We know that the Office Depot brand is cheaper and sells much faster. The term here is optimizing our space within the warehouse. This saves us tons of money and allows us to stock different products. The goal is here to receive the material from the supplier and
As a XXXX for XXXX and other small XXXX style products, the increase in technology and electronic forms of XXXX products has resulted in significant decline in volumes and sales orders from the major customer. Statistical decline in the vicinity of XXXX on pagination and total order value over the period Aug 10 – Aug 11 has already provided the business case to reduce XXXX production from a 12 hour, 6 day a week operation to an 8 hour, 6 day a week cycle resulting in redundancies across all areas of the operation. The projection from the customer, and internal commercial projections have forecast that a similar decline over the next 2 – 4 years will result in further downsizing within the business, with a focus on retaining the skilled trades’ positions within the organisation due to the specialist nature of the product. The organisation currently plans the workforce around the Enterprise Agreement (EBA) in operation which has manning levels mandated for minimum requirements to run. At the present moment it is allowing continuous operation without the presence of observable shortages; however a more in depth review of the workforce has uncovered a predicted shortage which will impact the business’ ability to meet production demands in the future. Analysis has shown that the workforce is currently populated by almost a third of its workers being over 55 years of age
The current demand forecasting method is based on qualitative techniques more than quantitative ones. If the forecast is not accurate, the company would carry both inventory and stock out costs. It might lose customers due to shortage of supply or carry additional holding costs due to excess production. If the actual demand doesn’t match the forecast ones, and the forecast was too high, this will result in high inventories, obsolescence, asset disposals, and increased carrying costs. When a forecast is too low, the customer resorts to a competitive product or retailer. A supplier could lose both sales and shelf space at that retail location forever if their predictions continue to be inaccurate. The tolerance level of the average consumer
Eligibility Class: for those terminated employees who were eligible but left us in the middle , how they should be classified?
The concept of demand forecasting more accurately measures and predicts the changes and opportunities in the supply chain.
Forecasting demand is the art and science of predicting future demand. There are several different techniques that can be employed alone or in combination with each other, depending upon the firm’s particular situation and the point in the product’s life cycle, and they are further classified as to the time horizon they represent. Forecasts are generally quantitative (relying on historical data) or qualitative (such as variable personal experiences).
Suppose you are the Marketing Manager of Bayer & Company, Ahmedabad, which are the techniques you will apply in forecasting demand of a product yet to be manufactured.
One vital method applied is exponential smoothing, which uses weights to the values observed. Due to its high-end spectrum of time convenience and its quick application, exponential smoothing creates a huge advantage of the reliability of forecasts for multitudes of industries. The most important utilization of this methodology is when the mean square error is the lowest value possible between the actual and the predicted data. Demand forecasting can be used in multitudes of businesses whether they are start-ups, medical facilities, or supermarkets; the importance of demand forecasting is vital in any company that sells a product or service to consumers. The importance of this technique improves
Probing into the methodology of sales forecasting adopted by different experts, Looking into definition and scope of the terms used in the
But even this is not possible in case of a new product or innovation. A forecast of sales, demand, cash, requirements and several such business valuables are extremely essential for a business in order to be able to appropriately plan and conduct its operations in an effective and efficient manner. Yet, forecasts cannot be made accurately as there are several factors and changes in the current environment that leads to variations in forecasts and impacts or causes a manager to make changes in the forecasts.