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Importance of Work-Life Flexibility

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Work Life Balance and Wellness in Organizations

Human Resource Management

What is Work Life Flexibility?

Modern Management Concepts

The Relevance of Stakeholder Management in International Business Context

International Business

Positioning and Differentiation of Services

Services firms are not identifying their key market segments and then determining how they wish consumers to perceive both their company and its products and services. Positioning is of particular significant in the services sector as it places an intangible service within a more tangible frame of reference. Thus the concept of positioning stems from a consideration of how an organization wishes its target customer to view its products and services in relationship to those of its competitors and their actual, or perceived, needs. “Positioning is concerned with the identification, development and communication of a differentiated advantage which makes the organization’s products and services perceived as superior and distinctive to those of its competitors in the mind of its target customers.” Positioning offers the opportunity to differentiate any service. Each service firm and its goods and services has a position or image in the consumer’s mind and this influences purchase Continue reading

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The Gap Model of Service Quality

The Gap Model of Service Quality  has been developed by Parasuraman and his colleagues which helps to identify the gaps between the perceived service qualities that customers receive and what they expect. Read More: Service Quality The Gap Model of Service Quality  identifies five gaps: Consumer expectation — management perception gap. Management perception — service quality expectation gap. Service quality specifications — service delivery gap. Service delivery — external communications to consumer’s gap. Expected service — perceived service gap. Gap — 5 is the service quality shortfall as seen by the customers, and gaps 1-4 are shortfalls within the service organization. Thus gaps 1-4 contribute to gap — 5. These gaps are given in the following figure: The first gap is the difference between consumer expectations and management perceptions of consumer expectations. Research shows that financial service organizations often treat issues of privacy as relatively unimportant, whilst consumers consider them Continue reading

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Difference between Cash Credit and Overdraft

Cash credit  is  a short-term cash loan to a company.  A bank provides this type of funding, but  only after the required security is given to secure the loan. Once a security for repayment has been given, the business  that receives the loan can continuously draw from the bank up to a certain specified amount. This type of financing is similar to a line of credit. Furthermore, cash credit is a facility to withdraw the amount from the business account even though the account may not have enough credit balance. The limit of the amount that can be withdrawn is sanctioned by the bank based on the business cycle of the client and the working capital gap and the drawing power of the client. This drawing power is determined, based on the stock and book debts statements submitted by the borrower at monthly intervals against the security by hypothecating of Continue reading

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Use of Logistics Channel and Public and Private Distribution Facilities – For Material Sources

Use of Logistics Channel The procurement cycle occurs at the manufacturer/supplier interface and includes all processes necessary to ensure that materials are available for manufacturing to occur according to schedule. During the procurement cycle, the manufacturer orders the components from suppliers that replenish the component inventories. The relationship is quite similar to that between a distributor and manufacturer, with one significant difference: whereas retailer or distributor orders are triggered by uncertain customer demand, component orders can be determined precisely once the manufacturer has decided what the production schedule will be. Component orders are dependent on the production schedule. Of course, if a supplier’s lead times are long, the supplier has to produce to forecast because the manufacturer’s production schedule may not be fixed that far in advance. In practice, there are several tiers of suppliers, each producing a component for the next tier. A similar cycle would then flow back Continue reading

Abey Francis

Distribution Center Decisions

When deciding upon locational decision a manager basically decides upon suppliers, plants, ware houses and markets. There may also be other facilities such as super stockists, consolidation centers or transit points. Besides locating the facilities a manager must also decide how market may be allocated to ware houses and how ware houses will be allocated to plants. The allocation decision can be altered on a regular basis as different costs change and markets evolve. When designing the network, both location and allocation decisions are made jointly. In some cases, companies want to design supply chain networks, in which a market is supplied from only one factory. This is commonly known as the capacitated plant location model with single sources. Companies may impose this constraint because it lower the complexity of coordinating the network and requires less flexibility from each Facility. A much more general form of the plant location model Continue reading

Abey Francis

Location Analysis in Logistics Management

Plant and distribution center location is a common problem faced by logistics managers. Increased production economics of scale and reduced transportation cost have focused attention on distribution centers. In recent years, location analysis has been further extended to include logistics channel design as a result of global sourcing and marketing decisions. Global operations increase logistics channel decision complexity, design alternatives and related logistics cost. Location Decisions Location decision stage of location analysis in logistics management,  focus on selecting the number and location of distribution centers. Typical management questions:- How many distribution centers should the firm use and where should they be located? What customers or market areas should be serviced from each distribution center? Which product lines should be produced or stopped at each plant or distribution center? What logistics channels should be used to source material and serve international markets? What combination of public and private distribution facilities should Continue reading

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