Production system Essay Example

Production system Essay The production system is viewed as a combination of the materials supply, production planning, scheduling, control and material transformation functions. Together, these functions must respond to demands set either directly by customer orders (in a make to order situation), or to production orders generated by an inventory control function (in a make to stock scenario) Production/Factory responsiveness Production factory responsiveness can be defined in a number of ways: A responsive factory is a factory which is agile. Agility is defined as quick moving, nimble and active. Agility is the ability to thrive and prosper in a competitive environment of continuous and unanticipated change, to respond quickly to rapidly changing markets driven by customer-based valuing of products and services. Responsiveness is the ability of a production system to respond to disturbances (originating inside or outside the manufacturing organisation) which impact upon production goals. Typical disturbances might include, for example, the receipt of rush orders, machine breakdowns or degradations or variations in raw material supply. The disturbances may be internal or external and importantly their effect may be either positive or negative. Range of Production Environments and Responses Agility and Response Agility is described as the ability of a company to operate â€Å"profitably in a competitive environment of continually, and unpredictably, changing customer opportunities†. Four key imperatives have been associated with agile companies: a) Enrich the customer, b) Master change and uncertainty, c) Leverage resources and d) Co-operate to compete. Responsiveness helps in fulfilling the need for agility for mastering change and uncertainty. We will write a custom essay sample on Production system specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Production system specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Production system specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer However, agility is also concerned with making full use of the influence a company has over the sources of change and uncertainty, to pro-actively remove them or drive them to support the organisation’s goals. An agile company pro-actively influences the various environments in which it operates by means of many different activities, including marketing, co-operative alliances, new product and process development. In contrast, responsiveness is about taking actions in response to actual or potential changes which the system either cannot control or has not planned. The link between agility and responsiveness is outlined as follows: From this diagram we can say that effective response is a critical attribute, and represents the reactive capabilities of an agile organization. Another important parameter to be considered over here is system flexibility. System Flexibility has received much attention as a manufacturing research topic in the last decade or so. It is the ability of a production system to change the mix, volume and timing of its outputs. Total system flexibility is a complicated function of many system attributes, including machine and subsystem flexibilities. While system flexibility constitutes a possible means for responding to disturbances (both internal – e.g. machine breakdowns – and external – e.g. demand variation, rush-orders) it is not synonymous with responsiveness, since the system must also be able to judiciously use its flexibility in response to disturbances – i.e. decide when to flex its outputs and by how much. Parameters to measure factory responsiveness We feel that factory responsiveness cannot be determined by a single variable. In fact, In order to improve factory responsiveness, first it is necessary to find those variables which would help us to measure quantify factory responsiveness. This will also help us to fix suitable benchmarks. Also, ignoring the factory, will only lead to increased inventory, longer cycle times, and higher costs as product variety increases. There are a number of compelling reasons why the factory should be the starting point in the journey toward demand driven manufacturing. First, converting to lean manufacturing in the factories will help ensure that ERP software is not merely automating an otherwise bad process. Secondly, the factory is often the starting point for companies intending to make broader supply chain improvements. When a company sees significant results from the lean manufacturing transformation, they can often convince suppliers to do the same, providing help and experience. Once the factory is lean, upstream supply chain improvements help ensure that supply disruptions do not hamper the lean factory.

Challenges in the External Environment of Starbucks Essay Example

Challenges in the External Environment of Starbucks Essay Example Challenges in the External Environment of Starbucks Paper Challenges in the External Environment of Starbucks Paper An example of this is that in the market that Cataracts operates in, there are many substitutes which can entice consumers into other businesses. As mentioned before, with the introduction of coffee machines and instant coffee, consumers can quickly make coffee rather than go out of their way to find a Cataracts. Furthermore, using the UK as an example, rival businesses offer an easy substitute. With other similar businesses like Costa, offering products at a similar quality and price it is easy for Cataracts to lose customers, but also gain them at the same time. This can be of strategic importance to Cataracts, as a reconsideration of choice if something goes wrong can influence a customer to move to a rival. Being a fairly easy market to penetrate, Porters Five Forces also suggest that Cataracts could face challenges in its business environment. Using technology that isnt patented just to the Cataracts franchise means that if a new business was to penetrate the market it would be easy to produce an almost identical product to that of theirs. With the right financial background and a good pricing strategy, Cataracts could face rivalry from a new competitive opponent. So, because once a new firm has successfully entered the market it can easily gain access to the same technology and produce similar products, possibly the only thing protecting Cataracts is its image and already established name thus showing a challenge that is of current strategic importance. As previously stated, Cataracts has high competition in its market. Due to this great level of competition, price wars are commonly in place having to match their rivals. This can be seen as a challenge in Cataracts business environment as it could hen in turn drive down profits and profit margins as they try to increase, or as a minimum, maintain their share of the market. Although it could be easy for a new business to enter the market, because Cataracts has such a high market share they would be almost exempt from any threat. Having already built a reputable corporate image and with vast experience in the market, it would be extremely hard for a new entrant to straight away offer much competition. If the market is dominated by a small amount of fairly large suppliers rather than numerous fragmented sources, a suppliers bargaining rower is more than likely going to be high. However, even though suppliers do have power it is often capped to a certain level. Using Cataracts as the example, with such a renowned name and an increasing productivity it means that the coffee beans need Cataracts as well. Additionally, because Cataracts has a range of suppliers of coffee beans coming from South America, Asia and Eastern Africa it means that even if one supplier was to pull out for a reason they could still resort to the other suppliers. This doesnt go to say however, that because Cataracts has a range of suppliers that they can underestimate the power that they to control and limit the amount of coffee beans exported. Due to this reasoning, the bargaining power of the suppliers can and always will be a challenge in Cataracts business environment, and is of current strategic importance. The bargaining power of buyers also ought to be considered when looking at the relation between Porters Five Forces and the business environment along with the market Cataracts operates in. The buyers or consumers, at the end of the day are the key things that keep a business running. In this market it has already been demonstrated that the errs do have the power in theory- according to the five forces proposed by Porter- to control the price of the products. The point that the products arent entirely differentiated, buyers cost of switching to a competitors product is low, the shopping cost is low and buyers are price sensitive means that the buyers seem to have lots of power. In reference to the differentiation segment in Igor Nations matrix (a new product, entering a new market) it doesnt seem as if Cataracts products differ from that of its competitors. This perhaps gives the buyers power to switch over to a competitor offering animal products, because the cost of switching to the alternative is of low cost, and the buyers are price sensitive so will take up the opportunity to do so. This suggests that buyers have power in the market, and because they keep the business running it is of strategic importance for Cataracts to look at this potential problem in their business environment. One of Cataracts many strengths is their established brand name. Because they have such a reputable name, it means that perhaps new consumers may go straight to them rather than competitors when Cataracts decide to expand into a new egging or country. This in turn, means that Cataracts could afford to spend less on advertising when expanding because the recognition by the customers is more likely to already be there. Another strength that Cataracts possesses is the use of high technology in the stores. Using it as an attempt to generate a larger customer base, Cataracts have installed high speed internet in a vast majority of its stores. This makes It ideal for business men, amongst others to gain access to the internet in a relaxed environment, encouraging them to stay longer and perhaps buy more from Cataracts. The use of pre aid cards and an online store, selling coffee machines, tea bags and ground coffee beans is another example of technology used by Cataracts. This is a strength as, even if a customer doesnt shop in store they can buy from online. Another possible strength portrayed by Cataracts is a range of high quality products. An ever increasing range of hot beverages and foods means shows innovation within Cataracts, which is vital in keeping customers hooked. Cataracts also faces a few weaknesses as well, including the high prices it sets on its products. With rivalry businesses in abundance and a high rice due to a rising cost of production, when buying fair trade coffee beans the increase Of price may have a direct effect on the pricing strategy. This could then lead to falling sales and loyalty of the customers. Other weaknesses may include an almost, self-cannibalistic like effect on itself. Due to shops being located within a short distance of each other in major cities Cataracts can be seen to have taken customers from itself in the past. But surely as long as Cataracts are getting the customers, it shouldnt matter should it? Well, because the stores are in abundance and short distance of ACH other, it means some stores wont perform as well as others. The cost of running the stores that arent as high performing as the others is very high, and means that Cataracts may need to reconsider their marketing mix. Possible opportunities that could come from the strengths could be that, it would be easier for Cataracts to expand abroad without facing as many discomposes of scale because of their reputable name in the market. It can be argued however, using China as an example that social problems may overcome the brand name when trying to expand highlighting a problem Cataracts could encounter making it of strategic importance. Another opportunity could be the expansion into retail operations, by selling coffee machines, beans and tea online to customers furthermore expanding their market. This could increase the financial status after diversification. Having looked into, and evaluated the challenges in Cataracts business environment there are possible solutions that could solve them. In regards to the ageing population, Cataracts could possibly create an environment in its stores that cater for more than one age group. This could be reached by possibly putting suggestion boxes in all stores, so they know what to look for. The social problem faced when expanding could possibly be solved according to Porters diamond (M. Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, 1990). Because the product is of higher demand in the home country of the firm, it should probably choose where it expands very carefully and pull out to achieve success. With the economic problem of a low disposable income faced by customers and an increase of rivals due to an increase in technology, Nations matrix would suggest that Cataracts diversifies to fight Off the rivalry. Cataracts were to perhaps enter a new market customers could be willing to Penn money on their goods. To solve the environmental challenges when importing coffee beans, the SOOT analysis would suggest to keep good relations with the suppliers and if possible, increase the spread of where they are sourced. This would then lower the threat of decreased materials is bad harvests are reported. To counter act the problem of rivalry in the market, Nations matrix again would suggest diversifying to enable Cataracts to offer something different capturing the attention of the customers. In order to solve the weaknesses and threats of the business, most frameworks offer the same solution. This would be to concentrate on the marketing mix and the way the company is internally run (structure) this would enable the business to see when and when not to expand. The best solutions for the company for the challenge of the ageing population would probably be conduct research, both primary and secondary to enable them to see how they can cater for different age brackets. This would be suffice as it is getting information from the customers themselves, and should help Struck to excel. In regards to the social problems, maybe Cataracts should reconsider their pricing strategy within different areas to keep the customers happy. With such large populations, these kinds of markets do offer potential if the pricing strategy is right and if Cataracts can correctly grasp the culture. Diversification would be the answer to solve the economic, technological and competition challenges. The offer of different products, such as coffee machines and buying online could help Cataracts to enter a new market, increasing the chance to pull away from competitors and solving the economic problems. With environmental challenges it is vital that Cataracts should keep good relations with, and a variety of suppliers. To conclude, although Cataracts is an international business, the research shows that even these huge businesses do face challenges. With the solutions mentioned above, Cataracts should be able to succeed in getting rid of the challenges. Primary and secondary research methods are both a good way of determining what is needed to be done in order to please the customers. As Cataracts would receive first hand opinions, then maybe they could perhaps work on the problems and satisfy the customers. This would need to be done because the buyers in this certain market have a lot of power and determine the productivity and success of a rim. When expanding, the pricing strategy is very important as economies differ in different countries as demonstrated in China. With careful reconsideration of the culture and price, countries like China could prove to be wise investments. When looking at the problems encountered in the competition, technology and economy diversification although risky at times is the answer. It allows the firm to expand into a new market, increasing the chances of enabling them to decrease the level of which competition faced by rivalry firms. Because coffee beans play such a vital role in how Cataracts reforms, it is key that they keep a good relationship with their suppliers in case any environmental problems were to occur and they got cut off.

Local education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Local education - Essay Example The source of finance acceptable to the institution is the most important factor for many students seeking higher education in American universities, especially international students who have to give evidence of ability to pay for the education. Many students are subjected to a rigorous vetting process to determine their eligibility for financing in cases where they seek for scholarships, grants and loans. The criterion used includes but not limited to; country of origin (citizenship), certain minimum academic qualifications, financial ability, and in some instances work experience, I was lucky to secure financing from the Federal Student Aid program. Having acquired a source of finance, the next major step was enrolling for school and starting my classes. The registration process was long and winding. I started off by obtaining clearance from the finance office after which I was directed to the registrar’s office. At the registrar’s office, I met a long queue of students waiting to be served. I had to wait for 2 hours before my turn came. I submitted the clearance form from the finance office and was subsequently issued with a registration number. From the registrar’s office, I headed for the deans office who now issued me with course application forms. I applied for the course and Units of the first semester. I then had to wait for verification from the programme director and have the application forms stamped. The forms would then be taken to the dean’s secretary for filing. The registration process often is a challenge to new students joining universities. The process involves far too many form filling and verification procedures that would prove a challenge to a freshman especially so for international students who also face language barrier problems. After this process, the dean’s secretary gave me the time table and a manual with all the information I needed to know. The classes were to start the following Monday. Monday

Reflective writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Reflective writing - Essay Example It is therefore SOSE is becoming an essential part of almost all educational institutions to rear the new generation within a culturally diverse society. The primary purpose of the Studies of Society and Environment learning area is to help young people develop the ability to make reasoned and informed decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. (discover.tased.edu.au/sose/whatintr.htm, Sep 8, 2004) Tasmania is an important Australian state containing amalgamation of many ethnic groups and cultures. It is estimated that Tasmania was joined to the main land nearly 10,000 years ago. (Wikipedia Encyclopaedia) The arrival of European nations in the state, in 17th Century, introduced acculturation between the Europeans and the local Aborigines leading towards changes in traditions, language, living style, cults and political and economic conditions turning Tasmania into a diversified region. Moreover, clemency in immigration policies and comfortable sources of travelling in modern times of globalization has brought remote areas and cultures nearer to one another. Though, all the ethnic groups, including Aborigines and others, abide by law while interacting with other individuals, yet differences in cultural values existing in environment creates difficulties. Keeping in mind the socio-cultural situation, educationalists laid stress in providing children with such learning during the ir initial school years that may help them in making adjustments according to their diversified cultural and social set up. Many educators have favoured models such as SOSE because they do not believe that all the students are suited to, or interested in secondary studies. (The Australian, 2007:11) Thus, it was decided that a well-planned, comprehensive and rigorous education must have been provided

Price Discrimination Essay Example for Free

Price Discrimination Essay A seller charging competing buyers different prices for the same commodity or discriminating in the provision of allowances — compensation for advertising and other services — may be violating the Robinson-Patman Act. This kind of price discrimination may give favored customers an edge in the market that has nothing to do with their superior efficiency. Price discriminations are generally lawful, particularly if they reflect the different costs of dealing with different buyers or are the result of a sellers attempts to meet a competitors offering. The Supreme Court has ruled that price discrimination claims under the Robinson-Patman Act should be evaluated consistent with broader antitrust policies. In practice, Robinson-Patman claims must meet several specific legal tests: 1.The Act applies to commodities, but not to services, and to purchases, but not to leases. 2.The goods must be of like grade and quality. 3.There must be likely injury to competition (that is, a private plaintiff must also show actual harm to his or her business). 4.Normally, the sales must be in interstate commerce (that is, the sale must be across a state line). Competitive injury may occur in one of two ways. Primary line injury occurs when one manufacturer reduces its prices in a specific geographic market and causes injury to its competitors in the same market. For example, it may be illegal for a manufacturer to sell below cost in a local market over a sustained period. Businesses may also be concerned about secondary line violations, which occur when favored customers of a supplier are given a price advantage over competing customers. Here, the injury is at the buyers level. The necessary harm to competition at the buyer level can be inferred from the existence of significant price discrimination over time. Courts may be starting to limit this inference to situations in which either the buyer or the seller has m arket power, on the theory that, for example, lasting competitive harm is unlikely if alternative sources of supply are available. There are two legal defenses to these types of alleged Robinson-Patman violations: (1) the price difference is justified by different costs in manufacture, sale, or delivery (e.g., volume discounts), or (2) the price concession was given in good faith to meet a competitors price. The Robinson-Patman Act also forbids certain discriminatory allowances or services furnished or paid to customers. In  general, it requires that a seller treat all competing customers in a proportionately equal manner. Services or facilities covered include payment for or furnishing advertising or promotional allowances, handbills, catalogues, signs, demonstrations, display and storage cabinets, special packaging, warehousing facilities, credit returns, and prizes or free merchandise for promotional contests. The cost justification does not apply if the discrimination is in allowances or services furnished. The seller must inform all of its competing customers if any services or allowances are available. The seller must allow all types of competing customers to receive the services and allowances involved in a particular plan or provide some other reasonable means of participation for those who cannot use the basic plan. A more detailed discussion of these promotional issues can be found in the FTCs Fred Meyer Guides. Under certain circumstances, a buyer who benefits from the discrimination may also be found to have violated the Act, along with the seller who grants the discrimination, if the buyer forced, or induced, the seller to grant a discriminatory price. Although proof of a violation of the Robinson-Patman Act often involves complex legal questions, businesses should keep in mind some of the basic practices that may be illegal under the Act. These include: †¢below-cost sales by a firm that charges higher prices in different localities, and that has a plan of recoupment; †¢price differences in the sale of identical goods that cannot be justified on the basis of cost s avings or meeting a competitors prices; or †¢promotional allowances or services that are not practically available to all customers on proportionately equal terms. Under the Nonprofit Institutions Act, eligible nonprofit entities may purchase — and vendors may sell to them — supplies at reduced prices for the nonprofits own use, without violating the Robinson-Patman Act. The Health Care Services Products Division issued a recent advisory opinion discussing the application of this exemption to pharmaceutical purchases by a nonprofit health maintenance organization. Q: I operate two stores that sell compact discs. My business is being ruined by giant discount chains that sell their products for less than my wholesale cost. What can I do? A: Discount chains may be able to buy compact discs at a lower wholesale price because it costs the manufacturer less, on a per-unit basis, to deal with large-volume customers. If so, the manufacturer may have a cost justification defense  to the differential pricing and the policy would not violate the Robinson-Patman Act. Q: One of my suppliers is selling parts at its company-owned store at retail prices that are below the wholesale price that it charges me for the parts. Isnt this illegal? A: The transfer of parts from a parent to its subsidiary generally is not considered a sale under the Robinson-Patman Act. Thus, this situation would not have the required element of sales to two or more purchasers at different prices. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Definition of Price Discrimination A pricing strategy that charges customers different prices for the same product or service. In pure price discrimination, the seller will charge each customer the maximum price that he or she is willing to pay. In more common forms of price discrimination, the seller places customers in groups based on certain attributes and charges each group a different price. Investopedia explains Price Discrimination Price discrimination allows a company to earn higher profits than standard pricing because it allows firms to capture every last dollar of revenue available from each of its customers. While perfect price discrimination is illegal, when the optimal price is set for every customer, imperfect price discrimination exists. For example, movie theaters usually charge three different prices for a show. The prices target various age groups, including youth, adults and seniors. The prices fluctuate with the expected income of each age bracket, with the highest charge going to the adult population. Price Discrimination When you were young, did you ever order from the childrens menu in a restaurant? When a family with small children goes to a restaurant, they are often given a childrens menu in addition to the regular menu. If they order two similar items, one from each menu, they will find that the item ordered from the childrens menu will be a bit smaller, but its price will be much smaller. In fact, it would often be worthwhile for the entire family to order from the childrens menu, but they cannot. Restaurants usually only allow children to order from it.1 Why do restaurants use childrens menus?  Economists doubt that restaurant owners have a special love for children; they suspect that the owners find offering childrens menus to be profitable. It can be profitable if adults who come to restaurants with children are, on the average, more sensitive to prices on menus than adults who come to restaurants without children. Children often do not appreciate restaurant food and service, and often waste a large part of their food. Parents know this and do not want to pay a lot for their childs meal. If restaurants treat children like adults, the restaurants may lose customers as families switch to fast-food restaurants. If this explanation is correct, then restaurants price discriminate.2 A seller price discriminates when it charges different prices to different buyers. The ideal form of price discrimination, from the sellers point of view, is to charge each buyer the maximum that the buyer is willing to pay. If the seller in our monopoly example could do this, it could charge the first buyer $7.01, the second buyer $6.51, etc. In this case the marginal revenue curve becomes identical with the demand curve. The seller will sell the economically efficient amount, it would capture the entire consumers surplus, and it would substantially increase profits. The Simple Analytics of Monopoly-Repeated OutputMarginal CostMarginal Benefit Every seller would price discriminate if there were not two major obstacles standing in the way. First, the seller must be able to distinguish between those buyers who are willing to pay a high price from those who are not. Second, there must be substantial difficulty for a low-price buyer to resell to those willing to buy at a high price.3 Because price discrimination is potentially profitable, businesses have found many ways to do it. Theaters often charge younger customers less than adults. Doctors sometimes charge  the rich or insured patient more for services than they charge the poor or uninsured. Grocery stores have a lower price for people who bother to check the newspaper and clip coupons. Some companies, such as firms selling alcoholic beverages, produce similar products but try to promote one as a prestige brand with a much higher price. Electric utilities usually charge lower rates to people who use a lot of electricity (and thus probably have electric stoves and water heaters) than they do to those who use only a little electricity (and who probably have gas stoves and water heaters). Banks offer special interest rates on Certificates of Deposit (CDs) that will not be obtained when one lets a CD roll over. People who are more sensitive to interest rates will take the time and effort to personally renew each maturing CD. To the extent that businesses find ways to price discriminate, they eliminate the triangle of welfare loss and approach the economically efficient amount of production. Thus, the mere existence of monopoly does not prove there is economic inefficiency.

Meaning of Slavery Essay -- literary Analysis, Ayn Rand’s Anthem

As a teenager, I have come across recent discoveries of myself and the world, the thirst to gain more knowledge, new responsibilities, and orders from elders. It is the overwhelming combination of these things that occasionally hit me with the feeling of being enslaved, chained to the world, my home, and my family. These expectations and dictations are restrictions, but they do not represent true slavery. True slavery controls every aspect of a man; the dictator must enslave the man’s body and destroy his mind. This effort to completely subdue humanity is exemplified by the leaders and society of Ayn Rand’s Anthem. In this novel, the leaders try to suppress the actions, emotions, and thoughts of the people in an attempt to destroy both mind and body. Anyone can instruct another person to act in a certain way, but a dictator forces action upon others making it impossible to follow one’s passion. The leaders in Anthem governed the citizens’ lives; they gave each person a job and selected his or her mates. Equality 7-2521, the main character of the novel, wanted to grow in his knowledge of the earth and the Scholars’ inventions. In order to do this, Equality needed to become a Scholar himself. His life’s work depended on his vocation assignment, for in his society, â€Å"You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you† (pg. 22). When the Council of Vocations declared him as a Street Sweeper, it prohibited him to study science and to create inventions. Equality loved the â€Å"Science of Things†, but he was unable to follow his passion because of the law (pg. 23-26). The leaders of this world controlled the mating process too. Producing offspring can only be done at one time, the â€Å"Time of Mating†. â€Å"T... ...dependently did not change when Equality became older. When he discovered the hidden tunnel with International 4-8818, Equality made the decision to explore the unknown by himself, a thought that is rarely imagined in a society where there is â€Å"no transgression blacker than to do or think alone† (pg31/17). The laws regarding the separation of a person from the other people gave the leaders the authority to enforce the uniformity of thoughts. Through thoughts, emotions, and actions and Any Rand’s Anthem shows that dictators must control every part of a man to ultimately defeat him. It is nothing but laws, leaders, and society that destroy the man. The laws are established to support the destruction, the leaders enforce it, and the society allows it. How can we allow the enslavement of an individual? How can we allow the obliteration of a mind and body?

E-Hr in P&G

Introduction to Procter & Gamble Procter & Gamble (P&G) is a multinational corporation that provides consumer products in the areas of pharmaceuticals, cleaning supplies, personal care, and pet supplies. The global consumer goods company was started by William Procter, an English candle maker & James Gamble, an Irish soap maker in 1837, and has been well established since then, ranking fifth place of the â€Å"World's Most Admired Companies† by Fortune Magazine . P constantly strives to provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improves the lives of the world’s consumers , where P brands serve 4. billion people in more than 180 countries. A High Performing Organization Being a multinational corporation, P values its people as the company’s most important as-set and source of competitive advantage, and understands that its success greatly depends on the strength of the talent pipeline. The Human Resources department inevitably plays an im-portant role to the company, responsible in attracting the top talents, managing P talent globally to enable career development and growth across businesses and geographies and de-veloping leaders at P around the world in every business, in every region and at every level. In view of the fast technological advances, P continues to stay at the global frontline by in-corporating e-HR into its everyday processes such as selection, recruitment and training. The use of the Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) was also able to increase administra-tive efficiency and produce reports that have the potential to improve decision making for managers. E-HR not only provided human resources departments with the opportunity to make information available and accessible to managers and employees, but was also able to improve the company’s overall efficiency and effectiveness. With all its efforts over the years, P has been widely recognized as the industry’s global in-novation leader and brand-building leader of the industry, being consistently ranked by leading retailers in industry surveys as a preferred supplier and generating $82. 6 billion dollar of sales in 2011 alone. The HR department was also awarded the â€Å"2010 Asian Human Capital Award from Singapore's Minister for Manpower†, a highly recognized award in the industry. Technology in HR Functions Training & Development Early 2000s Being a global company that has hundred years of history, P&G owes its success partly to its large pool of capable and well-trained workforce. P&G trained its workforce on a regular basis. Since early 2000s, P&G sees the need to share product information and knowledge to its em-ployees quickly, while keeping its employees skilled and knowledgeable. P&G thus appointed Saba Learning Enterprise to develop an Internet-based learning system to be used by over 100,000 of its employees in over 70 countries . Through the collaboration with Saba Learning Enterprise, P&G were able to have a scalable system which featured various functions through its web compatibility. Powering the RapidLEARN initiative , Saba had helped P&G to consolidate multiple Learning Management Systems (LMSs) into one that improved the company’s global learning pace, thus reducing its costs greatly . New strategies and direction could be passed on to its employees with great consistency. Through the development of such integrated system, P&G was thus able to meet the needs of various business requirements. As a result of this, number of employees that utilized e-learning had increased from less than 5% to over 25% . It was estimated that such initiative had resulted in cost savings of around $14million after 5 years. In 2003, P&G moved on to engage BrightWave, UK e-learning developer, to transform its in-house presentation materials into an online training program, a 2-hour stand alone modular course, for its employees . Late 2000s With the success of Saba since early 2000s, the system had undergone multiple upgrades and customization. By 2009, the Saba system provided online training to over 90,000 of its em-ployees. There was an average of 16,000 individuals among P&G’s employees that made used of its online training each month. Such success leads P&G to expect an online training growth in the near future. To support such anticipation, P&G planned to improve its learning management system in terms of its availabili-ty, tracking, learning process governance and application support . As a result, P&G decided to assign Accenture in developing its learning management system for 6 years. Prior to the transformation, P&G had over 200 training administrators that provided decentra-lized Tier 1 support, with multiple vendors providing support on more serious application issues on Tier 2 and Tier 3 . Over a period of 3 months, all support services from Tier 1 to Tier 3 had been successfully migrated to Accenture to meet several objectives such as creating a consis-tent development on its application system, having a reliable learning system with high availa-bility, as well as improving the control of its learning process . To meet the increasing demand that P&G was expecting, it moved its Saba-based RapidLEARN to a clustered environment. Today, P&G had a reliable LMS which was scalable to meet the increasing need of web-based training across the globe. More than 90,000 of P&G’s employees now have access to the system. Today †¢Online system To enable all its employees be updated with the most up-to-date trainings, all of P&G’s em-ployees have access to a website (P&G’s online system) listing all the available courses, with details such as timing, course descriptions, and illegibility. P&G’s employees are to sign up for all the trainings online through a common online system. With online registration, em-ployees are able to understand the details of the course as well as select the suitable sche-dule for the courses quickly through a simple click. New courses can be search and signed-up courses can be dropped through the same online system. Aside from the course listings, the webpage also has other information (guidelines) that guides its employees through their own learning path. The system contains detailed infor-mation on the career stage at which certain trainings should be taken. Trainings are categorized into â€Å"General Trainings† which covers soft skills such as leadership and business communications and â€Å"Functional Trainings† which covers expertise knowledge such as finance and marketing. All these trainings are also categorized according to different career stage. As a result, the availability of the guidelines aims to help its employees sign up for the suitable courses during different career stage. E-learning For online trainings or the so-called â€Å"e-learning courses†, employees are able to complete the course at the leisure of their own pace. The system will track the attendance and progress of each employee in the trainings. In fact, employee’s attendance record for all courses attended is readily available online. Some of the common e-learning courses include training on procedures, standard business models , and business ethics. Upon completion of such courses, there will be compulsory tests which the employees have to pass. According to one of the employee’s experience, while such e-learning courses provide them with the necessary information, the knowledge absorbed is very much short-term. Some-times, employees will end up skip the on-line courses and move on directly to the tests by guessing the correct answers so as to pass the tests. Such ‘short-cut’ approach defeats the company’s purpose of having online trainings and wastes the resources of the company. †¢Trainings across the globe Being a global company, the company carries out its e-learning globally. The same trainings are made available to all of its employees at different countries. For other trainings that are not carried out online, the company provides the same content to be used globally. The ac-tual trainings will, however, be carried out by P&G at different regions and offices separate-ly. The trainers for such courses often come from P&G’s employees. These are keen employees who sent to external trainers to receive trainings. As a result of that, the training content of non-online trainings (despite having the same content across the globe) may vary slightly depending on the trainers’ style and expertise. In any case, not all trainings can be attended by all employees. Some training has specific requirements of having to meet certain career stage. Hence an approval status is needed before the employee can attend it. There are also certain trainings which can only be at-tended by certain employees upon recommendation from the managers. Therefore, em-ployees have to take note of such details as well as the location of trainings as an employee in Singapore could not simply attend trainings that are held in United States. The overall benefit of having such a complete online system in its training system is to allow P&G’s employees to realize their own learning progress and to direct them into knowing what kind of skills they need to develop further in the future. It also serves to save employees time by providing the employees the flexibility of completing the trainings at the own time. E-Recruiting With nearly 300 brands worldwide, P&G places high importance in the people and values the talent of every individual. The company spare no effort in attracting suitable talents into its company and promises to offer exciting new challenges, tremendous growth and support, and a chance to touch and improve lives daily for every of its staff. In the modern era, there have been an increasing number of people who are dependent on technology and the internet. In the past, people used to flip through job ads in newspapers. However in this age of internet technology, more people are increasingly turning to online job portals such as monster. com, recruit. et and efinancialcareers. com. USA Today reports that 95% of the college graduation class of 1997 used the Internet as the medium of choice for their job searches while a recent study by JWT Specialized Communications found that 70% of active job seekers are more likely to use the Web than traditional job hunting methods . The increasing popularity of these new and rising recruitment channels provide fresh and innovative ways that P&G can tap onto for thei r recruitment efforts, instead of relying only on personal network or head hunters. One example of such a channel is the increasingly popular use of online job por-tals (e-recruiting) in a candidate’s job search. P&G’s human resource team was able to identify the fast and moving trends of technology and in turn capitalize on the accessibility and availability of the internet to incorporate into its hiring process, making e-recruiting a part of their overall recruiting strategy. The key to successful e-recruiting is by providing a good job site which would make it easy for candidates to understand and apply and for the company to accomplish its goals of attracting the right talent. McKinsey & Company, the global consulting firm, identified recruiting as a critical issue in its 1998 report, The War for Talent, where McKinsey points to various demographic and industrial changes that are making it harder to recruit and retain good employees . A Fast Company article on the report also reiterated the importance of talent, stating that â€Å"The most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent: smart, sophisticated businesspeople who are technologically literate, globally astute, and operationally agile. And even as the demand for talent goes up, the supply of it will be going down. By providing a good e-recruiting website, P&G is able to benefit as the website has acted as an effective filter, making it easy for the correct candidate to apply and deter the wrong applicants from applying. Other benefits of e-recruiting include huge cost savings. Research has shown that e-recruiting is not only faster than traditional channels but the efficienc ies of e-recruiting can also cut the amount of time needed to identify, interview and hire for a vacant position, in turn helping a company to save as much as $8,000 per hire over traditional hiring channels . Considering the scale of P&G with more than 129,000 employees worldwide, the amount of cost savings is substantial by just making 10% of it hires through e-recruiting. A unique website domain was devoted to P&G’s career centre: http://jobs-pg. com/, with a link to a similar interface easily accessible, appearing on the home page just beside the â€Å"Investor Relations† tab, signifying that P&G values e-recruiting as much as it cares about its investors. This career website has been designed in a very user friendly manner, where one is able to search jobs by category, location or groups, enabling candidates to be able to identify the area of interest or job they would like to apply quickly. P&G’s hiring process is then spilt into 5 gen-eral stages, namely application, assessment, initial interview, final interview and the offer, with specific instructions on what is required for every individual step. †¢Application This simple application process instituted a â€Å"paperless† online application system allowing electronic applications to be submitted 24 hours a day and helping the company to find ap-plicants in a timely manner. The information required in the application stage includes con-tact information, education, resume, questionnaire, confirmation and a summary. Appli-cants are also able to save the application as a draft first before completing it at a later time, allowing greater flexibility. †¢Assessments P&G uses online assessments to measure skills and accomplishments that generally do not emerge from interviews. These assessments are beneficial and well received by the appli-cants as it not only allow the company to assess the abilities of the applicant, but also help determine if it is equally beneficial for the applicant to continue through the hiring process, in turn acting as a screening stage for both parties. Examples of the online assessments are: oSuccess Drivers Assessment: â€Å"Assess your background, experiences, interests and work related attitudes and measures your compatibility against P&G compe-tencies for defining successful job performance† oReasoning Screen: â€Å"Measures your cognitive ability. This is important because the nature of our work is complex and continually changing† †¢Initial Interview Behavioural based interviews used to know more about the applicant’s previous accoplish-ment and the applicant relate to, compare with and connect with the company’s Success Drivers. †¢Final Interview One-to-one or panel interviews to find out in greater detail about the applicant’s skills and capabilities. This is also an opportunity for the applicant to get a more in depth understand-ing of P&G’s unique culture, values and endless opportunities. †¢Offer An offer of employment will be first notified through a phone call before a confirmation with details is given through the electronic mail. The comprehensive and descriptive steps of e-recruiting has allowed P&G to achieve a competi-tive advantage in attracting global talents to its company by making job postings available and conducting a firsthand filter of the job applicants through the several stages of recruitment in place. The advantages of e-recruiting for P&G include the ability to reach a wider range of audience, being cost effective and achieving a faster recruitment cycle. With cost effectiveness and a faster recruitment cycle being discussed previously, the ability to reach a wider range of audience is especially important for a global company with job openings suitable for people from all over the world. Opportunities/ Recommendations P&G faces many opportunities that it can tap onto for growth. With the constant increase in the use of internet revolutionizing the way people communicate and interact, majority of the companies today have incorporated e-recruiting into their recruitment strategy. Therefore there is a need for P&G to tap into new opportunities to further enhance and improve its current e-recruiting strategy. In conducting the field research of e-recruitment in P&G, it could be seen that technology was greatly used in the application, assessment and offer process, but not applied in the initial and final interview process. Hence P&G could actively test alternative methods of recruitment such as using audio and video conferencing or a real-time virtual Business Game Challenge in the interview stages to continue develop its recruitment strategy. For training wise, our group believes that P&G could have regular pop-up quizzes which test its employees on the general contents of the past trainings that the employees have attended. This serve to add on the recall on the employees and reminding them about knowledge taught such that it will prevent the employees from forgetting the training content after attending them. This is to ensure that all the resources that P&G develop are put into good use. Such pop-up quizzes, though simple, could serve as a constant reminder about the need of being aware of such knowledge even though they may not use them directly on a day-to-day basis. Conclusion Based on the above discussion, we see that talent is the key resource that drives P&G forward and helps the company to remain on top in today’s competitive market. Realizing this, P&G never let loose its effort in finding the right talent and providing them with proper trainin. The company want to ensure that all of its employees share the same values and are equipped with the most up-to-date product knowledge in a consistent manner. In order to do this efficiently, the use of technology in its e-HR system has proven to be an ef-fective and efficient method that keeps the company ahead globally. With change being the only constant in today’s world, the continuous upgrades in its HR system as well as review on recruitment process are some of the key efforts which require great efforts and are of high importance to the success of the company. Considering the size and global positioning that P&G has, keeping its e-HR competent is therefore the key to success. ? References Fast Company (1998). â€Å"The War For Talent†. Retrieved 22 December 2011 from http://www. fastcompany. com/online/16/mckinsey. html Mark. H & Jakob. N (1999). E-Recruiting. Creative Good Inc. McKinsey & Company (2001). â€Å"The War For Talent†. 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