Plant Layout Crtierias and Basic Designs

The layout of a plant or facility is concerned with the physical placement of resources such as equipment and storage facilities, which should be designed to facilitate the efficient flow of customers or materials through the manufacturing or service system. The layout design is very important and should be taken very seriously as it can have a significant impact on the cost and efficiency of an operation and can involve substantial investment in time and money. The decisions taken with regards to the facility layout will have a direct influence on how efficiently workers will be able to carry out their jobs, how much and how fast goods can be produced, how difficult it is to automate a system, and how the system in place would be able to respond to any changes with regards to product or service design, product mix, or demand volume. In many operations the installation Continue reading

Role of Open Data in Business Innovation

In today’s competitive business world, organizations are constantly struggling to generate a competitive advantage over others in order to sustain their future growth. Companies are facing fierce competition from local as well as international organizations due to globalization and digitalization. In fast pace and rapidly changing industries, corporations rely on an innovative approach to generate and maintain their competitive advantage. Incumbents in industries are threatened by challengers because they use innovation to create a competitive advantage over them. In order to stay relevant and match industry demand, corporations invest in new technology to ensure that they satisfy customers’ requirements and improve their operations. Along with the popularity of internet which is fueled by the growth rate of smartphone users, the popularity of open data has grown as well. Open data is referred to an idea which provides that some data should be freely available and accessible to everyone to republish Continue reading

Customer Retention Strategies: How to Keep Your Clients Coming Back

Attracting new customers might be tough, but in reality, it’s only half the battle – you have to keep them. Cultivating brand loyalty is something that even multibillion-dollar corporations haven’t perfected; it’s definitely more of an art than a science. Regardless, there’s still plenty we know about what a business can do to promote customer loyalty.  How do you do it? Well, you could get an MBA online to figure it out in great depth and detail…but if you don’t have time for all that, you could just keep reading, and we’ll help you dip your toes into the basics. Know What They Want If you want to sell people something even once, let alone ongoing, you need to know what they want. Novelty counts for something, and sometimes products can grab some initial revenue, or even become trendy or fashionable just by virtue of scratching that itch for something Continue reading

Creativity and Innovation in Organizations

Creativity and Innovation are two very inter related concepts, however have subtle differences. Creativity can be understood as the ability to act or think in new or novel ways, while innovation and invention are two types of creativity. Innovation is the ability to implement creativity in something that already exists, while invention is the usage of creativity to make something new. Experts often Creativity and Innovation are two very inter related concepts consider creativity as a sort of ‘muse’ for the team or individual, or a source from which concepts or ideas emerge, possibly in an unpredictable or haphazard way. Creativity is often associated with three aspects, namely: problem solving, imagination and struggle. Imagination can involve aspects such as spontaneity, unconventionality, giftedness or intuition, while problem solving can involve intellect, organization and skills, and struggle implies that creativity can be a difficult process of extracting ideas through struggle. Creativity is Continue reading

Market Segmentation – Definition, Process, and Forms

One of the core objectives of business organisations is to maximise their profit. Attainment of this goal is only possible if is firm has integrated customer-driven focus. Over the past 2 decades, firms have increasingly considered the concept of market segmentation as an important element in their marketing success. Market segmentation is defined as the process through which a firm partitions its market into small groups depending on the customers’ characteristics and needs. Firms intend to satisfy the consumer’s needs. Currently, adoption of mass marketing can lead into a firm failing. For example, a firm’s margin may be pushed downwards because some needs of a certain category of consumers are not wholly addressed. This may also give the competitor a winning margin. Market segmentation is based on the notion that a market is heterogeneous in nature. Therefore, it is possible for a firm to divide the market into small homogenous groups Continue reading

Business Innovation – Unveiling the Innovation Radar

Business innovation has been defined as the building of substantial new value for customers and the organization by creatively changing one or multiple dimensions of the business system. This definition leads to three important characterizations of business innovation. Business innovation is all about new value and not something new: Innovation is relevant if it only is creating any value for the customers and simultaneously for the firm. Therefore, creation of anything new is neither important or enough for business innovation. Customers are the only ones who make sure of the importance of any innovation by contributing to it. There is no difference made by an organization’s thought process regarding it. What actually matters is if the customers will at all pay or not. Business innovation comes in different forms: Innovation can happen on any dimension inside a business system. As an instance, the Home Depot Inc., innovated by targeting those Continue reading