Managers are the professionals who are assigned the role of overseeing the duties of every employee in an organization towards achieving mission statements. They are the people who work closely with the employees and quite often they are consulted by administrators when decisions are being made in an organization.
They come up with strategies that are thought to improve performance in the organization. In this case Canbide Corporation has been experiencing serious problems in its production lines. This paper focuses on the individual problems and the measures that can be taken to solve the underlying issues. Emphasis is placed on the need to have managers who are experienced to use analysis tools efficiently.
In the issue concerning customers’ satisfaction the managers should make appropriate arrangements with the administration of the organization to have the products contained in a central location. This will make it convenient for customers because they won’t have to wonder around the company premises (Nersian, 2000).
In addition, the managers should incorporate the right tools in their department in order to boost the output of those departments. But for the tools to work efficiently the manager must ensure that the employees who are using these tools have relevant skills with regard to using such tools.
If the current work force does not have the required skills it’s advisable to train them for some time but most employers don’t like this option because it comes with expenses attached. The other alternative is to outsource employees who know how to use these tools.
Of all the available options training internal workers is the best option because they will remain in the organization for a longer period and by the time they would be leaving the organization would have utilized their skills.
Analysis tools such as spreadsheet applications help to improve the quality and quantity of productivity because they perform tasks that are in bulk compared to humans who get tired and torn easily when they handle huge tasks. In today’s world where human employees are being replaced by machines it is important to note that the machines are not intelligent like humans hence they cannot customize their performance or productivity.
Furthermore, when mistakes happen in machine based environments there is no guarantee that the same mistakes won’t recur in future because systems are not like humans who learn from mistakes.
It is therefore important to integrate human intervention into automated tasks. Ahoy (2008) argues that although machines are preferred because they help in reducing the expenses that a company incurs when paying employees they have their short comings owing to the fact that they can only perform in a specific manner hence they cannot be manipulated to produce different results.
When an inexperienced manager is assigned to a department, it is advisable for him/her to pay attention to how operations are being conducted and ask him/herself why they are being carried out in that manner before making any changes.
Employees can be manipulated by motivation to work harder. This is achieved by rewarding employees who perform their tasks accordingly. The reward here implies that the efforts made by that employee are recognized by the manager and the company at large.
Failure to motivate employees kills creativity while acknowledgements encourage it because there is nothing that is more disgusting than working under a manager who does not recognize your efforts. It is really demoralizing and it makes employees perform their tasks for the sake of being obedient to their seniors.
When new systems are incepted into a company’s work force, in this case Canbide Corporation, the manager needs to be patient with the employees before they get used to working with the new equipments. This should be easy when there is good working relationship between the manager and the employees.
The good thing about human employees over machines is that they are able to adapt to the changes in their environment hence can work while under pressure and with minimal supervision. Kumar (2006) explains that the lack of supervision comes when employees are aware of their duties unlike their counterparts who have to be monitored because they are prone to external invasions such as hacking. What makes it worse is that they require human intervention to be cautioned from these external attacks.
In production units, waste management is important because it reduces the output since after materials are refined to make finished products there is a considerate amount that is turned into waste. Such waste should be recycled or used in other beneficial ways such as fuel generation. This implies that managers should develop systems that retrieve waste from the customers by establishing collection centers within close reach by customers.
Most companies use the profit margins from various departments to gauge the performance of a manager but this strategy can be misleading because the managers do not affect the sales because most of their time is spent supervising the production processes.
Automated systems can only replace employees partially because they don’t know how to implement new ideas and can not provide feedback to the managers regarding the short comings of the new ideas. Feedback is vital to both the manager and his/her employees because it enables them to bring ideas that are compatible with their skills and etcetera.
This is because a manager can bring a system that does not match with the employees’ skills. In such a case, new systems will not be efficient in solving the current problems. Criticism is good as seen in the case of the above mentioned company because it helps a company make the necessary changes to satisfy its customers.
This feedback can be channeled through suggestion boxes that are strategically located in a place where the customers can access it. When a manager is puzzled by problems he/she should consider engaging his/her juniors in a brainstorming session in order to come up with workable solutions.
Alternatively feedback can be obtained directly through verbal statements. At times the criticism could be delivered in a rude language to the employees such as the cashiers. According to Brennan (2010), the manager must caution his/her employees not to take the remarks personally because the customer is always right hence when the customer complains about something it must have bothered him/her for some time.
For instance, the company mentioned above must have encountered such cases but this does not permit them to fight back but should rather make the required adjustments in meeting customer needs because if customers complain about something for a long time they may look for alternative seller. Managers can not be eliminated by automated machines because when problems occur the machines can not address and solve them because they don’t have brains like the managers do.
The manager should allocate time to the various operations according to their urgency and the minor ones can be merged for easier planning. The tasks should be further broken down into smaller tasks that can be handled by several people.
In conclusion the problems that may be experienced by a new manager should serve as eye openers in future. Therefore, the manager should have skilled workers besides the proper tools. In addition to that the employees should be updated on the emerging trends to cope with the changes. This means that training sessions have to be held on a regular basis.
References
Ahoy, K. C. (2008). Customer-Driven Operations Management: Aligning Business Processes and Quality Tools to Create Operational Effectiveness in your Company. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Brennan, L. (2010). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Operations Management. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kumar, S. A. (2006). Production and Operations Management. New Delhi: New Age International.
Nersian, L. R. (2000).Trends and Tools for Operations Management: An Updated Guide for Executives and Managers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.