Sem 2 Assignment

NAME:

Miyani vinod B.

ROLL NUMBER :

520780168

LEARNING CENTRE:

Digital computer.

SUBJECT:

All

ASSIGNMENT NO. :-

2

DATE OF SUBMISSION AT THE LEARNING CENTER. :-

30/05/08

ASSIGNMENTS

MB0028

PRODDUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Q: 1 Differentiate dynamic scheduling and dynamic inventory. How would you integrate them to enhance productivity? Ans:1 A common blunder which most manufacturing companies tend to commit is in the right judgment regarding classification of various components which make up their products & more importantly , items, spare parts , maintenance products & even simple items like stationery. Some of these organizations tend to focus more on “product” & “service” items & ignore the others. this approach would tend to push their overheads up & reflect poorly in their balance sheets. ABC analysis involves classification of every single item of the company long lead time high value items as “A” , medium value, medium lead time items as “B”& low value but high volume items as “C”. after this process, many organizations tend to classify items based on total inventory values which could lead to build up of costs. Classification should purely be based on value & lead of single pieces or unit quantities like per kg. or liter etc.

(1)

Dynamic scheduling:

A similar dilemma occurs when planning departments try to address pressures from marketing or finance or even purchase departments & more often even from the very manufacturing units which they are supposed to control. The most common blunder committed is to plan on a first in first out approach & later, unscientifically after under such pressures. While many tend to take shelter behind enterprise resource planning systems & fail to exploit the power & potential of ERP, best business practices demand a dynamic

approach –for e.g. if a then the system should be configured to “find” another process or activity to fit into the gap created. Similarly such an approach is necessary when breakdowns occur & capacities are blacked out. This would ensure balanced utilization of capital resources. It is for this reason that planners plan for 80 to 90% of capacity keeping a cushion for such contingencies & also creating distributed slack times which could be closed without affecting overall targets. Such approach can be automated in modern ERP systems.

(2)

Dynamic control:

Most organization tend to treat inventory as an appendage & Emphasise just minimization of inventory at any point of time- worse, maximize at the start of the financial year & minimize towards the end of every quarter with a focus on the balance sheets. Little do they realize the loss due to ignoring the aspects of inventory values in between & more importantly, shortages caused in operations leading to unfathomable losses. Dynamic control involves values at every key transactional turn to optimize rather than maximize or minimize. → System productivity: With rapid technological advancement & futuristic manufacturing equipment & process, networked systems tend to slow down & tend to drag down the efficiency of manufacturing along with. This has necessitated organization to revisit their systems & procedures as to how effective & efficient they prove to be. We look at certain key aspects of system productivity.

Organizations today have to grapple with complex issues of excess supply & ultimately profitability. This is perhaps one area of management where we can not expect a plus & minus to balance out since excess & shortage are both negative contributors to value. A detailed approach to this subject would be dealt in one of the later chapters. To reduce in –process inventories improved material control is needed. Material control includes not only traditional inventory control, but also the location of material in process storage and its orientation. For the automatic factory to become a reality all three dimensions of material control must be addressed. As was noted previously, in batch manufacturing 95 percent of the manufacturing cycle a part spends as in-process inventory. As such it must be stored. Apple and Strahan note “parts that comprise these inventories are typically stored in a manner that makes poor use of building space, provides limited accessibility to individual part numbers, and represents a low level of location control. Proper planning of the location control. Proper planning of the storage and control is the key to an effective manufacturing system.” In-process inventories can be reduced by doing a better job of the system. Integration and control are the keys. In many instances, increased integration and control will occur by placing greater reliance on computing systems.

Q.2: List out five important management skills associated with operation Management. Ans.2: Different skills will be different stages, and the skill mix will vary from project. In essence you need to demonstrate →) management skills: 1)

Market experience:-

Experience particular to the market sector to reduce the learning curve. If you have a new innovation like a catalyst for the petrochemical sector, the chances of success are greatly increased if you have someone in your team with experience of that market sector. 2)

Marketing skills:-

An ability to create an appropriate identity and effectively communicate with the target market and other important communities such as the investor community. 3)

Sales skills:-

No matter how good the product, it will not sell itself. Strong sales skills are an integral part of success once products are ready to go to market

4)

Financial management skills:-

Their Requirement to have someone with financial management skills to actively consider the financial dimension of the business, keep a tight reign on cash and be

pro active in terms of the current and future financial needs of the project.

5)

Production & operation management skills:-

If you have a product that requires to be made, or a service delivered, then the skills to develop an efficient, appropriate and effective production system is required. Even if you decide to you use a production partner, you need the knowledge to ensure that the system and process being developed are appropriate for your needs. Management skills are one thing capacity another. You may find all the above skills within one or two individuals but you need to ensure they have the time to apply those skills and effectively address the requirements of the project. They may have sufficient capacity to do this at pre market stage, but may not be able to deal with sheer number of issues that arise at market stage. You need to factor this in your plan and increase capacity as the project requires ensuring effectiveness. You must be realistic about what each individual can physically do. If the one team member has great skills in sales and in marketing, but only has the time to deal with sales, then you need someone else ordeal with marketing. You may well support them by using a marketing agency which has experience of managing the entire marketing function – which can direct.

Q.3: what are the key drivers for process improvement? Ans.3:Rough estimate & thumb methods have always tended to be poor reflections of the decision making ability in management. It is becoming increasingly difficult to sell ideas without quantification or back up calculations. Quantitative decision making process are being given greater emphasis by modern global enterprises. The reactive, real- time management of mobile workforce is a challenge to any organization of today. Most managements today would consider work force management as far more difficult in comparison with other functional areas. ►Important factor for process improvement are given below Flexibility & responsiveness: ● resource pooling ● it professionalism ● common process

1

2 Demonstrate competitiveness: ► certification ► tickit-iso9000-3 ► cmm ► spice ► benchmarking ► gartner

3 process improvement: research has shown that major factor that positively influences all the key drivers is the ability to: ▪ Observe ▪ Improve

4

Process standards and metrics: • Cell established to documenting organization process. • Individual process improvement projects set up and managed like any other • Project • Process improvements defined by practitioners • Existing best practice to be incorporated in the new standards. • Cell to prove that it “added value” to the organization.

Problems encountered:  process documentation not standard  large, poorly index documents  no ownership  comments on structure not content A)

B) what was done: object- oriented documents were introduce with POSITIVE RESULTS  user friendly document  easy to follow  generated interest in the technique  review of direction was incorporated

further steps introduced towards improving workforce performance:  further process documents written  concentrated on process  training opened up and in-house course established  second rethink- how to be more effective  measurement  review of course  repackage  investigation online  integration with human computer interface principlesThere are above factors are responsible for success of process improvements. C)

Q.4: Distinguish personnel productivity from labour Productivity. Ans.4: Production management was & even now, very much misunderstood as restricted to technically competent supervisory management of various production process starting with production engineering, followed by industrial engineering & ending with fire fighting. Modern engineering industries have realized that while effort towards these archaic practices have shrunk to a great extent due to technological advancement in some organizations to less than 10% several new problems have surfaced resulting in serious doubts as to the probability of sustenance of such a highly limited approach towards achieving business goals.in the late eighties & early nineties, the production departments turned into hot beds of controversies & misconceptions mainly driven by world wide recessionary trends. This periods in the history of the

modern global enterprise, driven more by the “spare time” that production engineering was rechristened. 1. labour productivity : This is perhaps the most difficult aspects it addresses involvement of labour force, which is aware & wary of the benefits accrued by managements through their efforts. Organizations have learnt to avoid confrontation & focus on how easy they can make the workstations & environment to reduce the strain & stress levels of operators & gain both in worker confidence as well as capital productivity as an added advantage. While such a vast subject has relevance in this book, it would suffice to understand the following prime aspects.

1)

Balancing of operation in assembly line:

This ensure uniformity in load on workers to a great extent & also balances work in process inventory. 2)

Reallocation of workers in tune with balancing aspects :

Job rotation is considered a universal cure for monetary & therefore this is used to rotate workers synchronous with balancing of production operations. 3)

Evaluation of production operation operations and introduction of productivity norms :

This is to ensure transparency in expectation from workers in terms of production outputs to avoid disputes & conflicts. Every operation is scientifically evaluated & standards are set for time values & volumes expected from workers at a

100% level. This also helps in evaluation of compensation to workers as incentives for performance in excess of such expectations. 4)

Standards for individual accountability and targets :

This would serve as additional clear information to help workers & supervisors maintain self – driven targets & responsibilities. 2. Personnel productivity: While directs workers connected with manufacture of products are pampered with incentives, indirect staff tend to get frustrated & it becomes a challenge for managements to maintain motivation levels of these employees while cash incentives for performance are common, more often than not, such rewards are misplaced with some undeserving employees gaining more than the meek quiet hard workers, resulting in shift in frustration but not elimination. Managements now turn to other techniques to help reverse these trends & look at non monetary approaches towards motivation of these large positive contributing employees – also to help reduce attrition.     

Motivation through a scientific system to help change mindset. Targets accountability of individuals through quantified. System driven follow up to help enhance effectiveness. Team work and continuous improvement through CFT’s & quality circles. Motivation through training in self – driven targets.

Q.5: Explain the stages in strategy formulation and implementation.

Ans.5: The crux of the strategic management process could be outlined as follows:

     

1.

Strategy refers to the course of action desired to achieve the objectives. Formulation & implementation form an integral part of management. Strategies cover purpose such as competition sales, production, motivation & so on. Implementation is a crucial task as formulation It is necessary to be very tactful the members in the formulation of strategy to Facilitate implementation.

Stages in strategy formulation & implementation :        

Identification of mission & objectives Environment scanning Generic strategy alternatives Strategy variation Strategic choice Allocation of resources & formulation of organizational structure Formulation of plans, policies, programmes & administration Evaluation & control

When companies find themselves at a dead – end as to many options to grow, particularly when the market opportunities are enormous, they have to look beyond their enterprises. Product and service alliance: companies may got together to synergies operations seeking alliance for their products and services promotional alliance: companies come together to promote their products & service-to carry out a promotion campaign during a given period for the products and services of another company. Expansion strategy can be adopted in highly competitive & volatile industries if they are in the introduction stage of product service life cycle . stability strategy is a better choice when the firm is doing well, & the product service has reached the stability or maturity staged of the life cycle. Retrenchment strategy is the obvious choice when the firm is not doing well in terms of sales & revenue. Conventional management has been and still is the bane of the global enterprise of today. Even companies with presence in several major countries & globally accepted products & service lag behind to various extent in management skills. Ironically, firms with outstanding technical skills are those that ignore the needs for best practices. Over the years, experts have advocated several theories of management, most notably management by objectives or MBO, which sustained for several years until a wave if new technologies in products, manufacturing & more importantly in information technology, resulting in widening of the gap.

When a comprehensive approach to OPERATION MANAGEMENT took over with a totally localized, customized & integrated approach where no packaged rules are written, where a self styled self structured customized set up principle tok over the gap got a lot closer. Overall cost leadership strategy when products or service are offered at the lowest price among competitors, thus maintaining the largest market share. Companies have to focus cost effective strategies in engineering, purchases, manufacturing & physical distribution. Mergers & take reflect the common route for companies their resources & costs. HLL emerged stronger with the acquisition of brook bond. Differentiation company should demonstrate superiority of products & services. Focus a company may concentrate on a market segment & obtain full information. It may pursue either cost leadership or differentiation strategy within that segment.such companies which pursue the same strategy to the same target market are called a strategic group of companies. If the relentlessly pursue it leads to benchmarking of strategies. Danger of copying can be avoided by performing activities innovatively quickly, which competitors cannot catch up with.

Q.6 : Explain the importance of project management information system.

Ans 6: Any activity starts with a description of a mission and ends with the completion of a delivered or product. This is how most organizations understand a project. Project management is therefore defined as the technique or practice of controlling the use of resources, such as cost, time, manpower, materials, etc. bringing the above definitions together project management can be defined as the practice of controlling the cost, time, manpower, and resources involved in the development activities that start with a problem statement and end with delivery of a complete software product. Need for project management is emphasized by the fact that many products fail due to poor management & consequences of failure in the project management are far more serious. Project management knowledge and practice in terms of their component processes.

►Creating order in chaotic system require information, which is an organization’s primary source of nourishment. To make good allocation decisions, the project managers team needs to know resources capabilities and availabilities. They need a database of time commitments. A project management information system also holds schedule, scope changes, risk assessment and actual results. Usual information system are not designed for projects. Normal

information system tell managers if they are on budget. This is after the fact. It is not good for real what if analysis. The first question is who is to be served. Upper managers need to know information on all projects regarding progress, problems, resource usage, costs and projects goals. This is information helps them judge the portfolio of projects. They should review the projects at each milestone and produce a go decision. Project manager and department managers need to see each project schedule, priority and use of resources to determine the most efficient use across the organization. Project team members need to see schedule, task lists, and specification so that they know what needs to be done next.

•

THE FOUR MAJOR SECTIONS OF A PROJECT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SCHEDLE SHOULD:-

1. Answer question of the major stakeholders-the right information at the right time. 2. Facilitate communication among team members, between team members and other stakeholders among all project managers and between project managers and upper managers. 3. Help what if type analyses about project staffing proposed staffing changes, and total allocation of resources. 4. Help organizational learning by helping the members of the organization learn about project management.

Strangely enough, the first effective & result-oriented responsibility for creation, administration & maintenance of a PMIS has emerged from the team members & not from the system administrators of the company. Organization tend to allocate such responsibility by rotation among members with a well designed & structured data entry & Analytical format. A project is a program of non routine work bringing about a beneficial change guided by at least one well-engaged sponsor who has both adequate authorities and resources to charter the project effort has a start and an end date with disciplinary team brought together for the project- with a scope of work that is well defined but constrained by cost, time and quality. Project manager’ duties start before development and continue after delivery of the product. A good project management methodology provides a framework, process guidelines and techniques to greatly increase the odds of being successful and therefore provides value to the project. Key stakeholders are management level personnel who are critical to the success of the project. Purpose of estimation is to define the project functional requirements not to have surprise on various fronts- effort, schedule, cost and ultimately success of the endeavor. Reasonable estimates tend to become a self fulfilling prophecy. The goals of reviews are to improve quality by finding defects in a cost effective manner. The group review process includes several stages: planning preparation and overview, a group review meeting, and rework recommendations and follow up.

MB0030

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Q.1:

Explain the different marketing concepts.

Ans.1: Marketing management is one of the key areas of management. The marketing philosophy of business of business assumes that an organization can best service, prosper and profit by identifying and satisfying the needs of its customers. Organization today strongly believe that profit goals will be reached though satisfied customers. The twenty first century marketing professional will need to have the analytical capacity to handle increasing amounts of data, possess creative talents to define products and develop strategies to compete in global markets.

 Marketing concepts:Studies have revealed that different organization have different perception of marketing. And these perception have led to the formation of different concepts of marketing such as the following: 1. The exchange concept 2. The production concept 3. The product concept 4. The selling concept 5. The marketing concept 6. The societal marketing concept

1. The exchange concept:The exchange concept of marketing, as the very name indicates, holds that the exchange of a product between the seller and the buyer is the central idea of marketing. While exchange does from a significant part of marketing, to view marketing as a mere exchange process would amount to a gross undermining of the essence of marketing. A proper scrutiny of the marketing process would readily reveal that marketing is much broader than exchange. Exchange covers the distribution aspect and the price mechanism involved in marketing.

2. The production concept:This philosophy holds that customers favour those products with low offer price and easy aaailibiity. Thus this concept holds that high production efficiency and wide distribution coverage would sell the product offered to the market. Organization voting for this concept are impelled by a drive to produce all that they can. Naturally, they get focused on production and put all their efforts towards that aspect of the organization. They do achieve efficiency in production. But their thinking is guided by the assumption that the steep decline in unit costs arising from the maximization of output would automatically bring them all the customers and all the profits that they need. But they do not get the best of the customer patronage.

3. The product concept:-

This philosophy holds that customer favours quality, performance, innovative features etc. the buyer will admire such products. Therefore firms following this philosophy believe that by making superior products and improving their quality overtime, they will be able to attract customers. The product concept is somewhat different from the production concept. Whereas the production concept seeks to win markets and profits via high volume of production and low unit costs, the product concept seeks to achieve the same result via product excellence- improved products new products and ideally designed and engineered products. It also places the emphasis on quality assurance. They spend considerable energy, time and money on research and development and bring in a variety of new products.

Organization which follow this concept concentrate on achieving product excellence. They do not bother to study the market and the consumer in depth. They get totally engrossed with the product and almost forget the consumer for whom the product is actually made. They fail to find out what the product is actually made. They fail to find out what the consumers actually need and what they would gladly accept. When organizations fall in love with the product, it leads to marketing myopia because the focus is on the product rather than on the customer needs.

4. The selling concept:-

This philosophy holds that customer, if left alone, would not buy enough of the company’s products. The organization must, therefore undertake an aggressive selling and promotion effort. As more and more markets became buyers markets and the entrepreneurial problem became one of solving the shortage of customers rather than that of goods, the sales concept became the dominant idea guiding marketing. Most firms practice this concept when they have overcapacity. This concept maintains that a company cannot expect its product to get picked up automatically by the customers. The company has to consciously push its products. Aggressive advertising high power personal selling, large scale sales promotion, heavy price discounts and strong publicity and public relation are the tools used by organization that rely on this concept. As a result the public often identifies marketing with hard selling and advertising. But marketing based on hard selling carries high risks. It assumes that customers who are coaxed into buying a product will like it and if they don’t they won’t badmouth about it or complain to consumer organizations, and will forget their disappointment soon and buy it again. These assumption do not have base. One study showed that dissatisfied customers may badmouth the product to 10 or more acquaintances and bad news travels fast. Selling concept is practiced more aggressively with unsought goods, goods that buyers normally do not think of buying such as insurance, encyclopedias etc.

5. The marketing concept:-

The marketing concept holds hat the key to achieving its organizational goals consists of the company being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering and communicating customers value to its chosen target markets. This concept was born out of the awareness that marketing starts with the determination of consumer wants and ends with the satisfaction of those wants. The concept puts the customer both t at the beginning and at the end. It says that any business should be organized around the marketing function anticipating, stimulating and meeting customers requirements. The customer has to be the center of the business universe and not to the organization. A business cannot succeed by supplying products and services that are not properly designed to serve the needs of customers. The marketing concept rests on four pillars. They are target market:-A market has to define the market to which it will direct its efforts. The specification and identification of market would enable the marketer to design specific marketing strategies. A target market is defined as a set of actual and potential buyers of a product, service or idea. A buyer, who has interest in the product , income and willingness to buy can broadly be called as potential buyer. However, it might not be possible for the marketer to target all of them. There might be geographical barriers, unsuitability of product to certain climatic conditions or inability of the marketer to reach certain hilly or remote areas. Thus a small portion of the potential market might become part of the target marke

a)

Customer needs:-

A company can define its market but fail to correctly understanding the customer needs. Understanding customer needs and wants is not always simple. Some customers have needs of which they use words that require some interpretation. There are five types of needs. They are stated needs, real needs, unstated needs, delight needs and secret needs. Responding only to the stated need may shortchange the customer. A responsiveness marketer finds a stated need and fills it .he is going to lose the consumer in the near future. An anticipative marketers looks ahead into what needs customers may have in the near future. A creative marketers discovers and produces solutions customers did not ask for but to which they enthusiastically respond. Therefore companies must go beyond just asking consumers what they want. This is necessary because a company’s sales come from two groups, new customers and repeat customers. One estimate shows that attracting a new customers can cost five times as much as pleasing an existing one and it might cost sixteen times as much to bring the new customers to the same level of profitability as the lost customer. Customer retention is thus more important than customer attraction.

b)

Integrated marketing:-

when all the company’s departments work together for serving the customers, the result is integrated marketing. integrated marketing takes place on two levels; first the various marketing functions- sales force, advertising, customer service, product management, marketing research must work together. Second, marketing must be embraced

by the other departments, they must also think of the customer. According to david Packard of hewlet- packrd, “marketing is far too important to be left only to the marketing department.” To foster team work among all departments, the company carries out internal marketing as well as external marketing internal marketing is the task of hiring, training and motivating able employees who want to serve customers well. External marketing is marketing directed at people out side the company c) profitability:The ultimate purpose of the marketing concept is to help organization achieve their objectives. In the case of non profit and public organizations, it is surviving and attracting enough funds to perform useful work. Private firms should not aim for profits as such but to achieve profits as a consequences of money by satisfying customer needs better than its competitors. The societal marketing concept:- this concept holds that the organizations task is to determine the needs, wants and interests of target markets and do deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that or enhances the consumers and the society’s well being. The societal marketing concept calls upon marketers to build social and ethical consideration into their marketing practices. they must balance the often conflicting criteria of company profits, consumer want, satisfaction and public interest.

Q.2: Describe the stages involved in market research process. Ans.2: It refers to a set of sequential steps to be followed to complete the task of research. Each steps is independent but is closely related to other steps. It is independent in the sense that each steps has a unique and decisive role. It is inter dependent because the result of the preceding steps is the basis for the succeeding step. 1. Defining the problem:a) identifying and defining the problem:Problem well defined is half solved. Therefore defining correctly the problem is the most important part of any marketing research. Researchers have to identify, define conceptualise the real problem. Real issues may not be apparent issues may be deceptive. Care has not be taken while defining the problem. b)

Setting up specific research objectives:-

Once the problem has been defined, the researcher has to time the specific research objectives. The are a broad frame within which research has to be conducted. To this, the researchers have to address themselves to the why aspect to the study. 2.

Research design:-

It the blue print of the research project and when implemented must bring out the information required for solving the identified marketing problem. It calls for the following decisions.

a)

Decision on data sources :-

The researcher has to decide which data sources to use. There are two data sources available. They are: Primary data or data collected for specific purpose. 2) Secondary data which are collected for some other purpose. 1)

Secondary data has an advantage over primary data in terms of cost, availability and time. It has the drawback of relevance to specific situation. The decision regarding data sources depends upon the usefulness of the data and its cost. b)

Decision on research approaches: there are 5 types of research approaches. They are

1)

Bbservational research:-

Fresh data is being collected by observing the situation and the people in the situation and the people in the situation. 2.) Focus group research:Collecting information from few people who are invited to discuss the matters.

3.) Survey research :Collecting information by conducting elaborate survey regarding people knowledge, beliefs, tastes and preferences. 4.) Behavioural research:Information collected by learning the behaviour of the consumer. 5.) experimental research:Collecting information by conducting experiment In a controlled environment where one or two elements are left two operate and other factors are being controlled. c)

Decision regarding research instruments: there are mainly two types of research instruments. They are:

1)

Questionnaire:-

A set of questions logically arranged presented to the respondents to answer. 2) mechanical devices:Mechanical devices such as galvanometer to measure interest and emotions, eye cameras to study eye movement etc. can be used

d)

Decision on sampling plan:-

The preparation of the sampling plan calls for the following questions: 1)

2)

3)

4)

sampling unit:- The researcher has to define the universe in which he is conducting research. He has to answer who is to be surveyed. Sample size:- he has to decide what should be the size of the sample or answer the question how many people need to be surveyed. Sampling procedure:- further, he has to decide what should be the method for selecting the samples Sample size:- he has to decide what should be the size of the sample or answer the question how many people need to be surveyed.

3. collection of information:For eliciting the required information, the researcher has to pre[are the form which contains questions to be asked to the respondents. The form should be designed in such a way that the information can be collected with speed and accuracy. The form of the questionnaire depends upon the nature of the information sought, the kind of respondents and data collection methods. The researcher have to appoint well trained people to collect the information from samples selected for the research. They must be properly trained, directed and motivated.

4.

Analyze the information.:-

Editing: It is done in two stages. The first stage is the field editing which is done to detect the glaring omission and inaccuracies, immediately after collection because the interviewers have fresh memory about the lapses and wrong statements. The second stage editing is office editing to evaluate completed return. This is done by a complete through scrutiny of the questionnaire. b) Coding: it consist of assigning symbols and numericals to each answer. It is a technical procedure for categorizing the data. It transforms the raw data into symbols and numetals. c) Tabulation: - it is the process of arrangement of data in rows and columns to identify what is the number of cases in each category. d) Data analysis:- the tabulated data has to be analyzed, appropriate technique of analysis should be utilized to analyzed the data. It is a process of converting the data into information which helps in decision making by eliminating useless data and making the useful data comparable. e) Drawing conclusion:- it is converting data into information. This is requires a high interpretations. They are: Induction method- in this method, a statement is drawn from observed data to specific conclusions. It is from observation Deduction method- it starts from general to particular. It is towards observation. a)

5.

Presentation of the report:- the effectiveness of the report depends upon the methods of

communication and presentation of the research report. A very useful research, if not presented properly, may not serve the purpose. a)

Preparation of the report: the user of the data is not the researcher him self. The managers use those findings which are properly understood. Therefore the report has to be prepared in such a manner which helps the manager in understanding data and the conclusion drawn. It should be contain the title page, table of contents, executive synopsis, methodology, objectives, limitations, findings, conclusions and recommendations, appendix and bibliography.

b)Recommendation and follow up:recommendation given in the report should be practicable and implementable. The efficacy of the researcher report can be maintained by follow up activities. The principle researcher has to take a careful review of the facts found in the research report. He must try to find out the inefficiencies in the report and make it a clear report. This process includes control, quality appropriateness and acceptability.

Q.3: Explain the different types of buying behavior Ans.3: consumer decision making varies with the type of buying decision, there are great difference between buying toothpaste, a tennis racket, a personal computer, and a new car. Complex and expensive purchases are likely to involve more buyer deliberation and more participants. Assael distinguished four types of consumer buying behavior based on the degree of buyer involvement and the degree of differences among brands. There are four types of buying behavior. 1)

complex buying behavior:-

consumers go through complex buying behavior when they are highly involved in a purchase and aware of significant differences among brands. Consumers are highly involved when the product is expensive, bought infrequently, risky and highly self expressive. Typically the consumer does not know much about the product category and has much to learn. For example, a person buying a personal computer may not know what attributes to look for. Many of the product features carry no meaning: “ 16k memory”, disc storage, screen resolution and so on. This buyer will pass through a learning process characterized by first developing beliefs about the product, then attitudes, and then making a thoughtful purchases choice. The marketer of a high involvement product must understand the

information- gathering and evaluation behavior of high involvement consumers. The marketers needs to develop strategies that assist the buyer in learning about the attributes of the product class, their relative importance, and the high standing of the company’s brands features, use mainly print media and long copy to describe the brands benefits, and motivate store sales personnel and the buyers acquaintances to influence the final brand choice. 2) dissonance- reducing buying behavior:sometimes the consumer is highly involved in a purchases but sees little difference in the brands. The high involvement is again based on the fact that the purchases is expensive, infrequent and risky. In this case, the buyer will shop around to learn what is available but will buy fairly quickly because brand differences are not pronounced. The buyer may respond primarily to a good price or to purchase convenience. After the purchases, the consumer might experience dissonance that stems from noticing certain disquieting features of the product or hearing favorable things about other brands. The consumer will be alert to information that might justify his or her decision. The consumer will first act, than acquire new beliefs, and end up with a set of attitudes. Here marketing communication should aim to supply beliefs and evaluation that help the consumer feel good about his or her brand choice.

3)

Habitual buying behavior:-

Many products are bought under condition of low consumer involvement and the absence of significant of significant brand differences. Consider the purchases of salt. Consumer have little involvement in this product category. They go to the store and reach for the brand. If they keep reaching for the same brand, it is out of habit, not strong brand, it is out of habit not strong brand loyalty. There is good evidence that consumers have involvement with most low- cost. Frequently purchased products. Consumer behavior in these cases does not pass through the normal attitude sequence. Consumer does not search extensively for information about the brands, evaluate their characteristic, and make a weighty decision on which brand to buy. Instead they are passive recipients of information as they watch television or see print ads. Ad repetition creates brand familiarity rather than brand conviction. Consumer do not form a strong attitude towards a brand select it because it is familiar. After purchases, they may not even evaluate the choice because they are not highly involved with the product. So the buying process is brand beliefs formed by passive learning, followed by purchases behavior, which may be follow by evaluation. Marketers of low involvement products with few brand differences find it effective to use price and sales promotion to stimulate product trial, since buyers are not highly committed to any brand. In advertising, a low involvement product, a number of things should be observed. The ad copy should stress only a few key points. Visual symbols and imagery are important because they can easily be remembered and associated with the brand. The ad campaigns should go for high repetition with short duration involvement medium

that is suitable for passive learning. Advertising planning should be certain product by a symbol that is repeatedly attached to it.

4) variety seeking buying behavior:some buying situation are characterized by low consumer involvement but significant brand differences. Here consumers are often observed to do a lot of brand switching. An example occurs in purchasing cookies. The consumer has some beliefs, chooses a brand of cookies without much evaluation, and evaluates it during consumption. But next time, the consumer may reach for another brand out of boredom or a wish for a different taste. Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather than dissatisfaction. The marketing strategy is different for the market leader and the minor brands in this product category. The market leader will try to encourage habitual buying behavior by dominating the self space, avoiding out of stock conditions, and sponsoring frequent reminder advertising. Challenger firms will encourage variety seeking by offering lower prices, deals, coupons, free samples, and advertising that presents reasons for trying something new.

Q.4:-what are the bases segmentation? Explain.

for

consumer

market

Ans.4:Two broad group of variables are used to segment consumer markets. They are consumer characteristics and consumer response or behavior. Under consumer characteristics are three main bases for segmentation they are: 1)

2)

Geographic:- This calls for dividing the market into different geographical units such as nations, states, regions, countries, cities or neighborhoods. The company can operate in one or a few geographical areas or operates in all but pay attention to local variations. Demographic segmentation:in demographic segmentation the market is divide into group on the basis of variables such as age, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality and social class. Demographic variables are the most popular bases for distinguished customer groups. One reason is that consumers wants, preferences and usage rates are often associated are easier to measure. Even when the target market is described in non demographic terms, the link back to demographic characteristic is needed in order to estimate the size of the target market and the media that should be used to reach it efficiently. Some of the demographic variables used are:

a)

Age and life cycle stage:-

Consumers wants and abilities change with age. On the basis if age, a market can be divided into four parts viz. different children, young, adults and old. For consumer of different age groups, different types of products are produced. For instance, different types of ready made garments are produced for consumers of different age groups. A successful marketing managers should understand the age group for which the product would be most suited and determine his marketing policy, pricing policy, advertising policy etc. accordingly. b)

Gender:-

Gender segmentation has long been applied in clothing, hair styling cosmetics and magazines. Occasionally, other marketers notice an opportunity for gender segmentation. c)

Income :-

Income segmentation is a long standing practice in such product and service categories as automobiles, clothing, cosmetics and travel. However, income does not always predict the best customers for a given product. d)

Generation:-

Many researchers are now turning to generation segmentation. Each generation is profoundly influenced by times in which it grow up the music, movies, politics and events of that period.

e)

Social class:-

It has a strong influence on preference in cars, clothing, home furnishings, leisure activities, reading habits etc. many companies design products and services for specific social classes. Psychographic segmentation:In psychographic segmentation, buyer are classified into different groups on the basis of lifestyle or personality and vales. People within the same demographic group can exhibit very different psychographic profiles. a) Life style:People exhibit different life style and goods they consume express their lifestyles. Many companies seek opportunities in life style segmentation. But lifestyle segmentation does not always work. b) Personality:Marketers have used personality variables to segment market. They endow their products with brand personality that corresponds to consumer personalities. c)

Values:-

Some marketers segment by core values, i.e. beliefs systems that underlie consumer attitudes and behavior. Core values go mach deeper than behavior or attitude determine, at a basic level, peoples choices and desire over the long term. Marketers who segment by values believe that by appealing to peoples inner selves, it is possible to influence their outer selves their purchase behaviour.

MB0031

MANAGEMENT INFORMATIOIN SYSTEM

Q.1:- Explain the importance of MIS in the present scenario. Ans.1:- Since the MIS plays a very important role in the organization, it crates an impact on the organizations functions, performance and productivity. The impact of MIS on the functions is in its management. With a good MIS support, the management of marketing, finance, production and personnel becomes more efficient. The tracking and monitoring of the functional targets becomes easy. The functional managers are informed about the targets. The managers is kept alert by providing certain information indicating and probable trends in the various aspect of business. This helps in forecasting and long term perspective planning. The managers attention is brought to a situation which is exceptional in nature, inducing him to take an action or a decision in the matter. A disciplined information reporting system create a structured database and a knowledge base for all the people in the organization. The information is available in such a from that it can be used straight away or by blending and analysis, saving the manages valuable time.

The MIS creates another impact in the organization which relates to the understanding of the business itself. The MIS begins with the definition if a data entity and its attributes. It uses a dictionary of data, entity and attributes, respectively, designed for information systems use the dictionary, there is common understanding of terms and terminology bringing clarity in the communication and a similar understanding of an event in the organization.

The MIS calls for a systemization of the business operations for an effective system design. This leads to streamlining if the operation which complicates the system design. It improves the administration of the business by bringing a discipline in its operation as everybody is required to follow and use system and procedures. This process brigs a high degree of professionalism in the business operations. Since the goals and objectives of the MIS are the products of business goals and objectives, it helps indirectly to pull the entire organization in one direction towards the corporate goals and objectives by providing the relevant information to the people in the organization. A well designed system with a focus on the manager makes an impact on the managerial efficiency. The funds of information motivates an enlightened manager to use a variety of tools of the management. It helps him to resort to such exercises as experimentation and modeling. The use of computers enables him to use the tools and techniques which are impossible to use manually. The ready made packages make this task simpler. The impact is on the managerial ability to perform. It improves the decision making ability considerably. Since the MIS works on the basic system such as transaction processing and databases, the drudgery of the clerical work is transferred to the computerized system, relieving the human mind for better work. It will be observed that a lot of manpower is engaged in this activity in the organization. If you study the individuals time utilization and its application.. you will find that seventy per cent of the time is spent in recording, searching, processing and communicating. This is has a direct impact on this overhead. It creates an information based work culture in the organization.

Q.2:- “ The selection of information technology is a strategic decision in MIS development”. Explain Ans.2:- The development of modern information system is a complex process. It needs knowledge; know how, skills and technology in almost all the disciplines. The developer, the designer and the user must be knowledgeable in their respective area of functions and responsibilities. As information system are being demanded for online real time usage in business management, its development requires through understanding of the business and the manner in which it is executed. Further, different technologies, other than the information technologies, other than information technology, are used in the business for providing input to the information systems. In the seventies, the information system were of a stand alone type outside the mainstream of the business. In the eighties, the information systems were looked upon as a resources for information to support the decision making. Still, its use was off line and was largely dependent on the user manager in the organization. In the nineties, the information technology developed multifold and the business became global, strategic and competitive, with the business focus shifting from supply management to customer service management. In short, the nature, type and the quality of information system has undergone an overwhelming change. The several systems operating in isolation as stand alone legacy systems are rejected in favour of the enterprise wide integrated information systems. The off line batch processing of data bringing out reports at the end of the period has been rejected in favour of the on line real time

systems for an access to know the current status of the business. The business management process has changed from function management to process management. The organization culture also changed from centralized, bureaucratic, authority structure work groups were trained and empowered to make decisions. This is called upon the information system availability at the work place. The nature of business is such that a lot of initiative of the user is expected to decided his information needs at a given point of time. Due to this, a change in the architecture of information system is required, where by the user requirements are made independent of data giving him the freedom to manipulate the data using his own methods. With such complex requirement, all around information system development is becoming an art where a lot of technology inputs are required. To be a successful designer of information systems, one needs to have core understanding of different kinds of processing. Q.3:- Describe processing of data, application and information for MIS.

transaction,

Ans.3:- In any information system application, the method generally followed is to design modular or hierarchical steps of processing leading to an output in a report form or information having certain value specific or perceived as seen by the user. The steps involved are data processing, transaction processing, application processing and system processing.

Data is the smallest atomic entity in the information system which is basic to build the information system. The character of data decides the quality of information it offers to the user. If the data is taken care of properly, its usage will ensure quality output. Hence in any information system significant care is taken in building the data as a first level input to the system the data is built through the data design and modeling process which provides specification and character to the data. These specifications and characters are used throughout the information system of a variety of applications. Data processing is handling raw data in a systematic manner to confirm to the data quality standards as determined by the designer of the information system. The atomic data entity is defined as a attached to an attribute which has a character, meaning and presentation providing specific message and understanding to its viewer or user. Let us take a simple example of a data used extensively in every application. Though the data is a universal entity in nature, it still requires determination of specification, character and presentation. A date in isolation conveys the position of the day in a calendar. In the information system however, it may convey a number of things to the user. First, therefore, it needs specification. It is necessary to specify how the data will be specified, whether in the form of DD-MM-YY or MM-DD-YY or YY-MM-DD. So the data date has a specific order of positioning and presenting. It interpretation also changes beyond its generic meaning as a day in the calendar. A date on cash receipt means the cash received date. A date on a fixed deposit receipt indicates the maturity date. A date with its associated context derives its meaning for the application in information processing. Such data

specification determination exercise leads the data design further. The specification of data means determining its manner of presentation its value, specific or in limits, its validity whenever possible. The character is numeric or alphabetical or both. Unless the data is defined in this manner, it cannot be used effectively. Hence to summarise, data processing to confirm its specification, character and validity. The system support the user through checks and controls by responding and communicating errors of wrong specification, errors of value, errors in validity. The designer and developer needs to have vision and understanding of the data to implement such processing in handling the data. If due attention is not given in this area of design, disastrous errors would occur during its usage in a variety of applications. A systematic approach calls for determining definition, model, character, value, and its aspects, its purpose and then making use of this knowledge in processing to control its acceptance for further use. To ensure the quality of information considerable effort is spent on this data control aspect. Whenever such efforts are missing, serious mistakes have occurred. Once the data is accepted in the system then its use becomes unabated and hence by instituting proper data processing methods, with due regard to data definition, character and structure, the quality of the information is protected and assured. 2.) Transaction processing :After the data has been processed, the next steps is to process transaction itself on certain lines. A transaction is processed with reference to business rules, i.e. a transaction is scrutinized for conformation to the rules, policy or guidelines before it is taken up for further

processing. The rules may be directly related to the transaction or it may have some relation and association with other transactions. In case the transaction does not conform the set of specified conditions governed by the rules, the errors is displayed for user to take corrective action. The transaction is processed for adherence to business rules, correctness and consistency of data vales and for validity of transaction. It should be noted that these three aspects are applicable to all the transactions across the business management functions. ▪ such other condition that may be applicable. One can add more business rules if necessary. However, if the receipt transaction is to be processed, it will first be processed for confirmation and conformance of these rules before it is taken to the next stage. The rules are checked at the entry level processing after the individual data fields are checked. If any one rule is not possible, the receipt transaction is rejected. The persons designing transaction processing system must have or acquire the knowledge of business rules for introducing them in the transaction processing system. In the absence of this knowledge or by not incorporating them, the transaction would be accepted for further usage violating the business rules. The next check in transaction processing is to confirm internal consistency, correctness and completeness of the data. In our example of receipt transaction, a consistency should be confirmed between the quantity sent, the quantity received, the quantity accepted, and the quantity rejected.

Another example is of the goods receipt transaction which is in order by all dimensions but needs to be authorized by the higher authority for excess delivery. Unless such check is imposed all the excess delivery transaction would get rejected. Though the transaction is invalid on the basis of the internal consideration it is made valid by imposing external conditions where transaction is approved by the higher authority. It is important to note that the data at its element level may be correct but at the transaction level it may go wrong. The third check after confirming the data quality and observance of the business rules is for validity of the transaction is checked against and system processing. •

Application processing:-

After data and transaction processing, the data finished in these stages gets posted on the affected files. Application processing is designed to process more than one type of the transaction to bring out the specific business result in one or more business functions. This processing is carried out once the transaction is processed for its validity. Let us take an inventory application which requires the receipt and issue transactions duly validated for inventory processing. When these two transactions are processed, the inventory is updated and issues giving the net balance at the end of the processing for each item in the inventory. The inventory application is designed to bring out inventory status affected by material transactions. In application processing, certain terminal files get updated. In the above mentioned case, file will be updated for changes in the stock.

The application processing means the use of transaction data bringing out a particular status. The application could be designed to change the number of different files holding a variety of information. In our example, besides the stock file updation, the store ledger will change. It might trigger certain actions based on the inventory status. For example, of the stock level is below reorder level, it would raise a purchase requisition. If the below the safety level, it would raise purchase reminder on the supplier. The application can be designed for status updation and the status triggered actions in the related field of the application. For example, if the number of work order is on hold for no material to process, then on receipt of the material the affected work orders wick be released for processing. Then the production schedules would also undergo a change. A number of such examples can illustrate that the application process can be designed for a variety or functionalities and features which are essential in running the business. The scope of application processing can be made diverse by incorporating different transactions from the same application area or associated areas. For example, the inventory and purchases application be processed together for vendor evaluation, item valuation and payable accounting. The scope of the application can be made diverse, if it is foreseen at the design stage. At this stage necessary inputs are provided in the transaction which can be used at a later date in the other applications. 

Information system processing:-

The system is at a higher level, over the application processing. The system is defined as a product made up of several application set in orderly manner to produce a higher level information output different than the output of the application processing. For example, the financial system is a product of finance, sales and purchases accounting applications. Normally the system processing addresses the management issues of the business. In the financial system, processing is done for cash management, asset and liability management, working capita: management, etc. applications which are used for system processing are the finance transaction accounting, the fixed asset processing, the receivables and payables processing, the sales and purchases accounting. On the platform of these applications, the system is processed for the analysis of number of aspects of the finance management. It provides an insight into the funds flow, the source: and the uses of funds, profitability and productivity of the business. It throws light on growth, through the analysis of various trends. The system outputs are generally by the top management responsible for the strategic management of the business. The nature, role and the type of the system is such that its design is very complex and sensitive to the business needs. The system designer, therefore, must have a good insight into the business for which the system is being designed. The understanding of the business in terms of its orientation focus, critical success factors and knowledge of mission critical application is absolutely essential for effective system design. The basic management functions are same, i.e. finance, materials production or service, personnel and sales, etc. in all the business.

Hence at the lower level transaction processing and application processing may look similar but when it comes to the system design, it is influenced by the factors mentioned above. In all business organizations, the basic application deck may be the same but its input process output would be the different. The third technology consideration is on communication. A wide range of technology on communication are available for choice between the electronic data interchange to fax modem data transfer. System engineering handles the total scope as covers processing design it application. The information system engineering methodologies which are capable of dealing with the data acquisition technologies, processing technologies, processing technology and architecture, networking technologies and communication. The system processing Is efficient and effective provided an appropriate choice of technologies is used and they are blended together properly to produce the necessary information output. Using the system engineering methodologies, when all the information system in the organization are covered, a stage is reached where the system are integrated for a still higher level information output required by all the levels of the management. The system so design through an integration process are called enterprise resource planning systems the business as a whole by way of functions and process management as also by providing support through the DSS. It is a total solution to meet the business information needs, irrespective of the function, process, location, for all the level of management and people. The total realistic is possible if the system design in information system processing is all real time system. The

real time system are open in nature having a relational exchange with external world realities. The real time system integrated the hardware, human and database to capture data, validate transaction process, application and execute the system to produce a business result.

Q.4:- Distinguish between closed decision making system and open decision Making system. Ans.4:- The decision making system can be classified in a number of ways. There are two types based on the managers on the managers knowledge about the environment. If the managers operates in a known environment then It is a closed decision making system. The conditions of the closed decision making system are: a) the manager has a known set of decision alternatives and known their outcomes fully in terms value, if implemented. b) The managers has a model, a method or a rule where by the decision alternatives can be generated, tasted, and ranked for selection. c) The managers can choose one of them, based on some goal or objective criterion. Few examples are a product mix problem, an examination system to declare pass or fail, or an acceptance of the fixed deposits. If the manager operates in an environment not known to him, then the decision making system is termed as an open decision making system. The conditions of this system in contrast closed decision making system are: a) the managers does not known all the decision alternatives. b) The outcome of the decision is also not known fully. The knowledge of the outcome may be probabilistic one. c) No method, rule or model is available to study and finalise one decision among the set of decision alternatives.

d)

It is difficult to decide an objective or a goal and, therefore, the manager resort to that decision, where his aspirations or desire are met best.

Deciding on the possible product diversification lines, the pricing of a new product, and the plant location, are some decision making situations which fall in the category of the open decision making systems. The MIS tries to convert every system to a closed decision making system by providing information support for the best decision the MIS gives the information support, whereby the manager knows more and more about environment and the outcomes, he is able to generate the decision alternatives, test them and select one of them. A good MIS achieve this. The types of decision are based on the degree of knowledge about the outcomes or the events yet to take place. If the manager has full and precise knowledge of the event or outcome which is to occur, then the decision making is not a problem. If the manager has full knowledge, then it is a situation of certainty. If he has partial knowledge, then it is decision making under risk. If the managers does not have any knowledge whatsoever then it is decision making under uncertainty.

Q.5:-

Explain the impact of IT on quality of life.

Ans.5:- Use of information technology is now being experienced at home, in public institutions, business organizations, education, health care, transportation, manufacturing and services. It has not only touched our personal life but also affected social life of everybody. Following four main areas are seen as affected by impact of information technology: 

People are empowered with information and knowledge. It has changed the decision making hierarchy structure in the organization. Many operational decisions are passed on to lower level in the organization. Only high risk strategic decisions are in the hands of senior and top management.

 Internet and web technologies affected individuals in terms of job and the manner in which the job is executed. The work and workplace location became separate.  Business dynamics and competition is changing so fast that response time to a change has to be much less than before. It is capable of giving strength to respond quickly, smartly and on time. In such scenario people affected by impact have to adjust very fast to faster pace of working. Those who can not adjust suffer from work stress. 

The concept of houses, family and life is slowly getting vanished because technology exposes you to work any time anywhere in single mode or in virtual mode. This means your home could be your office. When you are in family gathering you can still pay

divided attention to the family and office work. The result is relation with family members, friends and colleagues will be strained and may become weak over a period of time. You may beisolated from family and friends. 

Information technology has given birth to new crime, called as internet crime or cyber crime, a result of widespread abuse of information technology. The list of abuses is as given below Spamming: sending unsolicited mail.  Jamming: disabling the site so that authorized viewers cannot use website.  Hacking: obtain illegal access to personal, commercial data.  Sending viruses: inserting and sending viruses through internet to disable the computers and networks.  Sniffing: intercepting and collecting personal or key information using software in communication network. 

Impact on social or on society is large due to ease of access to information technology. The society is divided broadly into two parts: having access to technology and the other with no access enjoy its benefits, and those who so not have are left behind. The digital divided is similar to divided known as have and have nots causing social tension.

Q.6:- Write a short note on A E- business Ans.6:- The scope of E-business is limited to executing core business process of the organization. These process would have external interface like suppliers, customer, contractors, consultants and so on. The core business process of the organization are procurement, manufacturing, selling, distribution, delivery and accounting. These core processes are best run by application packages like enterprise resources planning. If enterprise definition is made wider including customer, suppliers and distributors, application packages like supply chain management is best suited for planning and execution of entire business process. Transaction processing, workflow, work group and process control application are the backend system to main ERP enterprise management systems. For example, when a supplier sends goods, it is received in the warehouse. This event is processed E-way using Ebusiness system are suite. The receipt, documents and packages are read by bar coding system or RFID. Then receipt processing is done to confirm the validity of dispatch by the inventory, communication of receipt to manufacturing, updating the purchases order, effecting material accounts and supplier accounts, creating a liability in payables and posting it into cash flow projections. You will observe that receipt processing is first done at locations like warehouse, and “procurement” module of ERP takes over to effect seamlessly all updates and changes. In this event processing, workflow, system is used where quality of goods is checked, confirmed and certified in stages by three agencies in the organization, this event is

processed by a work group, which includes receiver at the warehouse, QA inspector, and warehouse manager playing their respective role in the receipt processing as specified in the workgroup application. Having accepted the goods, automated and process controlled goods movement, warehouse system takes over, and reads the receipt record o move the goods physically to assigned bin in rack. E-business system use internet capabilities to process an event in seamless manner covering all technical, commercial, business aspects and implications of an event. Hey perform internal business operations and interface with external agencies. E-business system scope manages cross functional application system as a single business process. It integrates cross functions seamlessly, automates the tasks, and updates the information in real time. The ERP and now customer relation management system is a family of software solution packages dedicated to core management functions of business. They are supported by front end and back end system and applications designed transaction processing, workflow management, work group processing control. E-business system lay foundation for other enterprise applications, namely Ecommerce, E-communications, and E-collaboration. The current E-business system scope is built through ERP dedicated to manufacturing resources management for effective use of capacity and enhancing productivity. SCM is dedicated to logistic and distribution management and CRM is dedicated to customer relation management for customer satisfaction. E- business essentially concentrates on functional business information system and their integration. Traditionally,

five business system are recognized as marketing, production, procurement, of human resource, and accounting & finance. These functional system in Ebusiness have become more intelligent and knowledge driven as against information driven in traditional way of doing business. In marketing system, it helps to reach customer directly and is in the position to understand customer behaviour, customers demographic psychographic profile; it then helps to segment market by customer for advertising, promotion, and contract. In manufacturing system, it helps to automate number of management process relating to resource, capacity, engineering & design, maintenance, and support. The application of it is so strong that is termed as computer integrated manufacturing or computer added manufacturing. CIM adds value in the manufacturing by way of simplification of processes in production and design. Automation of simplified processes using process control devices, numerically controlled machines and robots and lastly integration of all core and support processes contributes to manufacturing excellence. In human resource management system extensive use of internet is made to automate of HR planning, scheduling, requirement analysis, training and development. The entire chain of HR planning, advertising, recruitment and selection is an automated one. HR administration is a huge area of application which is wholly it enabled. It handles payroll, leave planning, document, career planning and succession.

The architecture of these process enables to receive inputs from other functional systems like marketing, manufacturing, and HR, and process the same account and analyze the impact on the business performance, be it cost, profit or productivity. An integrated E-business system is capable of forecasting resources requirement managing resources, budgeting capital, sales and manpower, and measuring financial performance.

B.

E- Communication.

Ans.6(B):- In E- business world, E-communication system is a back bone of all processes whose role is to share information by messages or store information to download on access by the customer. This is done through many applications and systems. Most popular and widely used messaging system are E-mail & voice mail. Through these system both parties communicate on ongoing basis. It provides provides facilities to store delete and search mails supporting the reference needs of the user. This system is popular when one to one communication is needed. When there is need for communication in real time, system available are voice conferencing, video conferencing and electronic meeting. Voice conferencing is conducted on telephone network using speaker phones or networked PCs with internet telephone connectivity. Video conferencing provides capabilities of video and audio for participants situated at different locations. Video conferencing also becomes an interacting and effective communication system when it has a feature of white boarding and document sharing. In electronic meeting system, participate sit in a meeting room with networked PCs and online screen projector to discuss the meeting agenda. PC network is chosen for communication, and access the databases and processing and projecting on the screen for common viewing. This system is useful to solve some problems, and communication within small groups. Another E-communication system which is a kind of offline is known ass web publishing, web publishing uses website and portals for storing documents, catalogues, drawings, pictures and so on for sharing. Such information is stored on documents. In this is system, a user searches, navigates, selects and downloads document for self use.

Web publishing is popular amongst research organizations, educational bodies, government organizations have large information set and document to share with the community. E-communication system are capable of sending messages, documents, and files in any format over internet. The communication could be online in offline mode and online in real time mode. All E-communication systems have sufficient safeguards, which make them secured for use. Internet and web technologies are used for forming different interest groups to communicates and share the information. These groups are popularly known as ‘user groups’ who have common interest in subject, technology or tool, and come together with the objective of improving the quality of subject of interest by sharing the experience. Enterprise information portal is another tool used for information posting and communication to user or customers. Portal is a web based interface on an integrated market platform allowing customers to use application and other services. It provides secured access to all user consumer to search information analyses the situation and communicate.

MB0033

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Q.1 Briefly explain the project management process and principles A.1 Project management is composed of interacting processes organized in groups. ▪ Project processes ▪ Process groups ▪ Process interactions ▪ Customization 1. Project processes A project processes is a series of action to achieve a result. Project process is classified into 2 main categories: 

Project management processes

 Product oriented processes Project management processes:  Describing and organizing the work project  Defined by the organization. Product- oriented processes:  Specifying and creating the project product and related work products  Defined by the life cycle. 2. Process groups

 Initiating processes: Recognition to start and establishing commitment  Planning processes: Devising and maintaining workable scheme to accomplish the business need

a

 Executing processes: Co-ordinating people to carry out the plan  Controlling process: Monitoring and measuring progress and taking remedial action  Closing processes: Formalizing acceptance and bringing project to an orderly end  The process groups are linked by the result they produce. The result or the outcome of one becomes input to another often with overlaps in terms of time & content. 3. Process interaction The individuals processes are linked by their inputs and outputs.  → Inputs: client documentations converted to action plans to be acted upon  → Tools and techniques: mechanisms applied to inputs to create outputs  Output: documentables that are a result of the process  Intiating processes- management group decision to begin the next phase of the project.  Planning processes

 planning has a major importance  Plans are nothing planning is everything 

Panning processes are highly interdependent

 If the cost is unacceptable, scope and time may need to be redefined Core processes  Have clear dependencies  Facilitating processes  Interaction depends on the nature of the work  They are dynamic & dependent on team innovations. Controlling processes  Measuring project performance(time, cost, quality) 

Identifying variances from the plan

 Updating project plans  Taking corrective action

5. Customization:● Larger projects may need relatively more details ○ A configuration management plan might be necessary

● Smaller projects may need relatively less details ○ Communication plan is not required if there are only 4 stakeholders. ● process detail might change for other reasons. ○ Resources identification might be required for scope definition ○ Some process outputs may be predefined as constraints ● Project management team should identify and manage all the processes required Project management principles: Five dimensions that must be managed on a project:  Features  Quality  Cost  Schedule  Staff These dimensions are dependent on one another- if you add staff, the schedule may shorten and the cost will increase. The trade offs among these five dimensions are not linear. For each project, we need to decide which dimensions are critical and how to balance the others so as to key project objectives. Each of these five dimensions can take one of three roles on any given project: A driver, a constraint, or a degree of freedom. An important aspects of this model is not which of the five dimensions turn out to be drivers or constraints on any

given project, but that the relative priorities of the dimensions be negotiated in advance by the project team, the customers, and the management. A graphical way to depict these points to use a diagram which allows us to plot several values as an irregularly shaped polygon on a set of normalized axes. The position of each point on its axis indicates the relative degree of flexibility of that dimensions for a particular project, on an arbitrary scale of zero to ten.

Q.3:- Explain the PERT model with the suitable example A.3:- Purpose ○ boxes or nodes containing essential information about the project represent activities ● critical path planning and scheduling. ○ Inter dependencies between the activities are represented by arrows to show the flow of the project through its various paths in the logic diagram.

EFT

EST 12

10

22 Activity

LST 16

4

LFT 26

So we conclude that the earliest time small project can finish in14 units of time. The world process is now reversed

► Look at each box in turn and identify those where the difference between the time figure in the upper and lower LH corner is EQUAL to the difference between the time figures in the UPPER and LOWER RH corners. ►These boxes in your diagram are the critical elements and from the critical path of the logic diagram.

11 14

13 DIFFERENCE=0

40

● Finally enter the above calculated DIFFERNCE in the MIDDLE part of the box. This is the spare time or FLOAT TIME. 11 14

3

40

→ Then calculate the times for all the boxes in the diagram. → The logic diagram analysis is now complete. Record the data in tabular format.

TERMINOLOGY

Duration Earliest

finish

time 11

3

14

Earliest start time

40 Latest finish time Latest start time Total float

Q.3:- Enumerate the 3S of six sigma strategy A.3:- A sort label for the list of prerequisites for achieving world class quality. Use began in the last half of the twentieth century. Although there is no agreement on what were is no agreement on what were the essential elements of TQM, many use the criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. A conceptual and a philosophical context management and human resources commitement

requires

● to adopt a perpetual improvement philosophy, through succinct management of all processes, practices and systems throughout the organization ● To achieve effectiveness in the organizational performance and fulfilling or exceeding the community expectations. Six sigma:The goal of six sigma is to increase profits by eliminating variability defects and waste that underline customer loyalty. Six sigma can be understood at three levels: Metric:-Defects per million opportunities. DPMO allows you to take complexity of product into account. Rule of thumb is to consider atleast three opportunities physical part- one for form, also you want to be six sigma in the critical to quality characteristics and not the whole unit/ characteristics. 1.

2. Philosophy:- Reduce variation in your business and take customer focused data driven decisions. Six sigma is a methodology that provides business processes. This increases in performance and decreases in process return variation leads

to defect reduction and vast improvement in profits, employee moral and quality. Six sigma is a rigorous and a systematic methodology that utilizes information and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company’s operational performance, practices and system by identifying and preventing defects in manufacturing and service related processes in order to anticipate and exceed expectations of all stakeholders to accomplish effectiveness. 3. Methodology:- DMAIC / DFSS structured problem solving roadmap and tools. Six Sigma Strategy:Strategy of improvements through six sigma can be summed up as any one or combination of the following 3 S. 

Shift:- if the central tendency of the process is outside the specification limits and spread is well within these limits, we need to shift the process within these limits.

 Shrink:- if the central tendency of the process is within limits but the spread of the process is beyond the limits, shrink the process within the limits  Stabilise:- If both central tendency and spread are as desired, stabilize the process by monitoring, standardizing and documenting the process. However, it is common knowledge that many organizations which plan their projects exceedingly well fail miserably during the implementation process. Experience shows the company or the organizations is fundamentally good enough to handle such projects or not.

Q.4:- Describe the recent revolutions in project management. A.4:- Evolutionary companies always valued their people, as indicated by their high investment in education & training. Teamwork was fostered in those companies some decades before the concept became fashionable. Quick-fix revolutionary companies tend to view technology & the concept of self directed teams with an entirely different motivation. They are usually both seen as providing the opportunity to get rid of people & reduce costs. Using technology to redesign processes & to enable creation of selfdirected teams is the principle elements in reengineering & downsizing. Revolutionary companies generally succeeded in their short team objectives, but the concept of using team work over an extended period failed & the long term success of those companies was put peril. In one sense, this is an obvious conclusion that should have been clear from the outset. In that environment, asking people to work together for the greater good of the company is like asking turkeys to thanks giving & Christmas. Self directed teams succeed If the environment or organizational values system are conducive to success: if not, they fail. The reasons identified for why teams don’t work have a direct relationship to the values of evolutionary companies. Lack of vision, confused objectives, personality conflicts, weak leadership & lack of team trust are directed opposites to or more accurately the result of lack of the evolutionary values & a clear focus in customers & processes. Six evolution to watch:There are six distinct but linked evolutions that influence the nature of business the organizational structure, the behavior, attitude of managers and employees. Understanding the nature & effects of these evolutions helps companies anticipate & make decisions.

1. Demographic Evolution:Substantial changes are taking place in the composition of people across the world. These changes are likely to affect the nature work & the migration of companies across continents. Though the movement differs from nation to nation, it can be broadly summarized as a major changes in population numbers & balance between young & old. 2. Competitive evolution:The evolution is inextricably intertwined with the collapse of collectivism & intellectual acceptance of a market led economy or society. This combination clearly influences the thinking of managers. 3. Evolution of rising expectations:Rising expectations are not confined to the stronger economies or the third world but in all societies. With some, it may be confined to lifting their heads above mere survival: with others, it is expressed in terms of quality of life or a desire in terms of quality of life. This evolution is most powerful in modifying the structure & managerial principles while planning country specific projects. 4. The technology evolution:The pace of technology changes has been unimaginable. The evident truth is that we have to adapt to changes and the changes themselves provides the ability to handle its pace and enormity. 5. The educational evolution:-

The rise in standards of evolution is obvious from the very fact that the young ones of the present know far more than those of the same age in the past generations. Opportunities to learn are far more than mere formal education. Any approach to project management requires congnisance of this fact. 6. Knowledge evolution:Enhanced by technology evolution, it is also linked to education evolution. Making a golden cultural triangle. This acts as a driver to meet rising expectations & practical experimenting to meet challenges. Six key trends in a revolutionary workplace: Automation of physical work  Elimination of traditional jobs & work structure  Empowered knowledge holders  Domination of knowledge work teams  Workplace flexibility- no work is location specific any more  Virtual knowledge teams: resources any time anywhere

Q.5:- Elucidate the organizational issues in project management A.5:- This is issue assumes greater significance during implementation when a large number of participants are required to work within a complex matrix. Coercion, personal relationships, cross functional teams & the most modern HR concept can yield no result unless every employee understands where he or she stands in relation to the project management processes. A processual approach to an organization is known as yield better results. Various sections & subsections of this issue cover as part of organizational issue in project management. The following key aspects.  Organizational change- a processual approach  Traits of the professional manager in changing scenario 

Projectized technology based organizations in the century of changes and challenges

 Project & programme management for enterprise innovation  Enterprise project management capability development objectives 

Technology substitution & guidelines for development of high.

nario

These managers lead by example i.e. they practice what they preach. besides they are clear about their vision both from individual and organizational point of view. it is this vision that comes out as their mission and objectives at the workplace. another related quality is that of conviction and courage to fight the obstacle and work with single minded dedication towards the goal. b) People relationship:Any leader without followers is not a successful leader. hence the second quality of professional managers is their human relationship skills. this managers builds up his team based on the core values of sincerity, objective and dedication. he ensures that his subordinates are provided opportunity for growth based on performance. he ensures their participation in decision making and its implementation. he delegates effectively and supports it with both praise and reprimanded as a feedback for work done. thus, his subordinates work clarity of purpose and direction. c) Integrity:This quality is a must for a professional manager which can not be done away with. highest levels of trust. fairness and honestly are expected while dealing with people both within and outside the organization. this includes the customers, shareholders, dealers, employees, the government and the society at large. the professional managers of the company should ensure that their organization functioning is so clean that it cold be

transparent to any one such that ethical standards become a reality and not a myth. d) Quality :The watchword of every professional managers should be quality. this quality philosophy should not only encompass product quality but quality as a way of organization life. highest levels of quality of work done, of all processes in the organization, a continuous and constant monitoring of all such practices would ensure the quality culture in the orgnisation. the focus would be on everything. from the quality of stationary used right up to the quality of manpower hired in the organization. e) Customer orientation:Every professional manager has two sets of customer whom he must try to satisfy to the fullest possible extent namely: the external customer and the internal customer. it is often observed that an organization goes to any length to satisfy the former and regularly ignores the latter. the professional manager ensure that the internal customers are given their due and takes care of he needs, desire and problems. thus, he builds up a customer orientation within the organization too. which is quite infectious and provides the entire organization. f) Innovation management:The professional manager not only ensures that his performance is at peak but motivates his entire team to do the same. this is done by ensuring a consistent quality of hard work & sincerity. besides they are encouraged to undergo training, updating as necessary so as to have their skills & develop conducive attitudes at work. besides he provides objective performance appraisal criteria by work.

g) Performance & creativity:Professional managers think beyond the obvious and encourage their people to do the same. they ensures that employee have a keenness for exploration and keep and open mind. as a good old quote goes “ the human mind is like a parachute, it is useful only if it is open.” such a work culture is very conducive since there exists a minimal resistance to change & people look at innovation as a way of life. this ensure that the organization is always ready to look at practices, new products and new ways of doing things goes on continuously. h) Identification with the organization:Professional managers need to develop a sense of pride with their organizations as a whole. the tendency seen is most managers strongly identify with their own departments. units or divisions and they lack a sense of identify with the organization per se. in the sight of increased competition and ever changing strategies to develop a business orientation which in effect means every manager should be aware of the company’s plans, products, policies, and such. an obvious corollary to this is that the organizations communication policy too should be conductive for such information sharing. I) Empowering employees:The professional manager should possess the ability to empower his employee down the line. many managers are not even ready to delegate their authority to subordinates and end up only delegating responsibility. empowerment is the process by which employees are encouraged to take decisions pertaining to their area of work. empowerments ensures in execution of his duties. this leads to employee developing a

sense of pride in their jobs. but managers often hesitate to empower their subordinates as they feel insecure and show a sense of uncertainity. J) Coping with changes :It is often said “ the only constant in this world is change.” a professional manger has the ability and capacity to cope with change. he accepts the fact that change is inevitable and is ready to implement change at the work place. to implement change successfully. it is essential that employees are involved in the implementation of change.

Q.6:- Enumerate the basic management issues in project management A.6:- Having learnt the basic of PM & the prerequisites, it becomes equally important to climb up the ladder to the management levels so as to understand some basic issue of management can neutralize the benefits of good planning & excellent prerequisites. Many organization fall in PM once they assume a dominant rather than a proactive or participative role. Having adopted archaic methods for many years, many managements are not even aware of the philosophy of PM. experience has shown that PMO or project management office is a powerful concept to change the way such managements work. this approach has resulted in the emergence of new trends in the very perception of PM. project success rates have shot up due to the effective absorption of these new trends. organization of today are made to think far beyond a PERT- CPM approach. Improving project performance through the PMO The project management office must create and maintain the ability for the project manager to keep focused on the client and perform high quality project managements towards him, facilitating the necessary methods, tools and support. to do it. a project review is a process where we capture information from the team experience and see the variance and deviation from the project plan. this kind of reviews should us to increase our productivity and improve our organizational success as well. the purpose if these reviews is:

1. Creating an environment for successful projects:Recent experience indicate that project work is fast becoming a majority of the work performed in modern organizations, especially for product development in high technology companies. project based organizations spend enormous amounts of project management training, they also question the benefits. given the experience, executives realize that additional steps must be taken, but they are often unsure of how to help. too much project work also appears chaotic- void of order and predictability. 2. Taming the project based organization:One of the challenges of moving to a project based organization is the time and process necessary to change behavior. A revitalization model describes a society moving through a series of temporary overlapping but distinct phase if change. few believe in the benefits of change until they actually experience them. the revitalization process describes the stages an organization goes through until the majority of the members are ready for change. the model is consistent with chaos theory, which says there is disorder before order. 3. Linking projects to strategy :Once the upper management team is established, a process must be developed to select those projects which will achieve the organizational strategy. in addition, these projects which will achieve the organizational strategy. in addition, these projects needs to have a consistent priority across departments.

What the organization should do:One of the first steps is to identify who is leading the process and who should be on the portfolio team that decides and controls resources for multiple projects. the leader needs get an explicit commitment from all these people to participate actively in the portfolio managements process and to use the resulting portfolio plan when making decisions. the team begins by clarifying or developing its purpose, vision and mission. these identify the goals of the organization and where it wants to go. do this before limiting the discussion to capabilities within the organization. then, iterate between gals and capabilities within the organization. What the organization can do:The next steps for the portfolio team is to gather data on all projects. this is a time to ask basic questions about product and project types and how they contribute to a diversified portfolio. constantly apply screening criteria to reduce the number of projects that will be analysed in detail. The next steps is to estimate the time and resources required for each project. then identify expected resource capacity both within and outside the organization to do projects. 4. Decide on projects:The team can now prioritize remaining projects. focus first on project benefits, then costs. that way the merits of each project get full consideration; later include costs to determine the greatest value for the money. compute overall return from the portfolio and not individual project because some projects may have greater strategic value than monetary. causing each and every project to promise a high financial return is a sure fire way to diminish cooperation across an organization.

Complete the process:After completing the above steps, record projects that are fully funded in an aggressive project plan. in a separate section or another document, list projects for future consideration, also capture and communicate reasons for delaying or not funding projects. the plan of record is both a process and tool used by some organizations at Hewlett Packard to keep track of the total list of projects. it lists all projects underway or under resources assigned. it has achieved in plan status. projects below the cut line of available resources or which have not yet achieved priority status are on the out-plan. when a new product is needed, it must often pass through all departments until it is ready for market. as it passes through, it encounters the over the wall problem, where it is passed back and forth from one departments to the next, and often back to the previous department. with all the transits time and with every handoff from one department to the next, there is information loss. this information loss contributes to a decrease in final product quality. obviously the over the wall method is not good project manageament.