Group Project Scenario - Assignment Example

Group Assignment Scenario By Student’s name Code+ course name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 The criteria to consider in specifying the structure and features of CGC’s new system. 3 Data that should be incorporated into CGC’s new system 8 Conclusion 13 Introduction Planning is essential during the running of a business, especially when dealing with logistic issues. The business must balance the supply with the demand (Bijker, Hughes, Pinch, and Douglas, 2012). Citizen’s Gas Company (CGC) have not been an exception. CGC has been having an imbalance of supply and demand. This has made it hard for the company to satisfy its customers and win their loyalty. There has been need for the CGC to adopt a new system that will help in the planning processes. The implementation of this new system will aim at increasing the customer satisfaction and establishing long-term contracts. Below are some of the criteria that will be considered during its construction and also data that will be required for the system to operate successfully. The criteria to consider in specifying the structure and features of CGC’s new system. The system must be constructed in a way that its structure and features will have optimum productivity. It must also accommodate changes and have a higher capability to resistance. This will make it more durable and also user-friendly. The criteria that can be considered during the construction of CGC’s new system are; i. The cost that will be incurred and the benefits analyses. ii. Results turnaround iii. Behavior of the market iv. Accuracy of the system v. How frequently it is used vi. Intended functions vii. Acceptability viii. Compatibility Every business is in business to make profits, and CGC is not an exception. Profits are maximized by reducing the costs of inputs and maximizing the general outputs (Bazargan, Lange, Tran, and Zhou, 2013). Implementation of CGC’s new system is meant to contribute positively to the organization by effectively coordinating all the other resources to yield optimum results. However, the system should not be that much expensive. The organization can run a cost-benefit analyses to find out if the organization can afford to implement the new system. The cost in whichever case should not exceed the benefits that are expected to be realized after the system has been implemented. The cost that must be incurred includes; the cost of buying the system, the implementation cost, the cost of hiring new personnel to run the system and the maintenance costs. After considering these factors, the benefits expected should be listed. The management should try to balance the costs and the benefits expected. If there are more benefits expected, then the system can be implemented (Solomon, Patrick, Schousboe, and Losina, 2014). The company can use a similar chart like figure one shown below. Figure 1: A chart showing the cost and benefits The CGC’s must be consulted before the construction of the new system to indicate when the new system is supposed to give feedback or results and who will be authenticated to receive the results. The system will be required to give the regular results of its progress and also all its functions. These results are the ones that are used in the planning processes of the organization. In most cases, the organization will need a monthly report, quarterly reports, and annual report. CGC may decide to implement different marketing strategy for the organization to maximize its output. These strategies need a lot of planning for them to be successful. The decision made must be based on the results obtained from the CGC’s new system. Therefore, one must have proper details on when the results should be obtained to ensure the company gets timely results for the monthly and yearly planning (Bazargan, Lange, Tran, and Zhou, 2013). The market behavior is important in the running of the organization and also the making of the CGC’s new system. This is defined by the forces of demand and supply. The new system should be able to study the company’s market shares. Market share is the quantity of gas sold to specific people at a given time (Kunze, Moerer, Steinmetz, Schulze, Quintel, and Perl, 2015). The system should take record of all the sold stock at a given time. Availability of such information makes it easier for the company to order just the right quantity to be supplied. It will also help the company not to sign up excessive gas supply. Understanding the demand and supply forces makes it easier for the company to maintain these forces at a balance to ensure the satisfaction of their customers and also to maintain customer’s loyalty (Curme, Preis, Stanley, and Moat, 2014). The accuracy of the system is crucial in planning and decision making. The accuracy of the system determines its efficiency. High level of accuracy in a system is required when detailed results are needed. However, it requires high-quality data input for the system to give very accurate results. A complex system logic must be used in the system to get the accuracy needed at that time. However, one must take care not make the system so complex for the users and also not to use excessive resources in the making of the system. Accurate data provides conducive planning environment because there are very few errors that are realized hence making it possible to minimize the inputs used accordingly (Kumar, Lokku, and Zope, 2015). The frequency of using the system is a major factor that should be considered during the making of the system. The frequency of using the system helps in determining the level of automation and also its sophistication. In a system that gives regular feedback, the level of automation is very high. On the other hand, in a system that gives feedback annually, the automation level is low and also it is not sophisticated. Knowing the frequency of the use of the system will determine the platform the system can be accessed. For example, an online system can be used if the system is regularly accessed. This means that the workers or the administration can access the system as long as they are connected to the internet. However, such systems are much venerable and can be easily attacked by hackers (Simons, 2013). The intended functions must be clearly laid out before the system is made to avoid making a system that cannot adequately carry out all the intended functions. The functions will determine both the hardware and the software requirements (Kimura, Tai, Chiang, Wei, Su, Cheng, and Kitoh, 2014). For example, if a system will be dealing with planning activities, it will require more time and more data storage. It is because such system will collect data from different sources, analyze it and give feedback accordingly. A system that does planning activities requires adequate processors and also storage space. Data that is collected for a long time needs to be stored, then processed and produced when the results are needed. If some of the processes will be automated, it means that the system internally initiate processing activities at a certain time of the month or the year. If the system is used on machines that do not meet the minimum software and hardware requirements, it may not fully be functional and may soon fail (Simons, 2013). For the CGC’s system to succeed, it must be accepted and supported by the employees. The employee’s input is needed to make accurate daily inputs and also to keep on updating the system. Some of the reasons that can be behind employees rejecting the system is fear of losing their jobs, complexity of the system and excessive burden at the workplace. A system that requires additional skills that are not available in the organization will make the employee fear to lose their jobs to new employees who can easily handle the system. Therefore, before the system is introduced, the employees must be briefed and be assured that their jobs are secure. On the other hand, if a system will require lots of inputs and the company have fewer employees, it will burden them, and they could eventually reject the system. It is advisable to balance the number of the employees with the workload. When the workload is increased, the employees should also be increased (Shao, Pipattanasomporn, and Rahman, 2012). Compatibility of the system with some of the most used applications is essential for the success of the system. When some of the programs used by the organization conflicts with the system, it may reduce the efficiency of the system. For example, most of the organization use a specific antivirus, on their computers, the antivirus can limit some of the functionality of the system. Therefore, such compatibility issues must be considered when making the system to ensure that the system fully functions. The system can allow some of third-party applications to access data in its database. However, some of these applications can give an opportunity to hackers. They should be well checked and supervised to ensure the system works successfully (Müller, 2011). Data that should be incorporated into CGC’s new system Certain data is important for CGC’s new system to function effectively. This data provides critical information to control the forces of demand and supply in the company. The system accumulates data of the recent sales and supply, it analyses it and gives results accordingly. Below is classification of important data that is required in a system. Demand; Number of customers currently registered in the company General weather data Sales forecasts Customer unit demand Supply Current storage capacity Supplier contracts terms Other data Priority Data about the number of the customers is vital because it helps in the planning process. This also shows the market shares of the company and also helps the company to understand the target customers. The customers are grouped into; Residential, commercial non-heating, commercial heating, industrial non-heating and industrial heating. This will help to improve the accuracy of the data obtained. It is because the company can now do precise planning for a specific group of customers. Data gathered about the customers can be used to estimate their growth rate, and various factors that affect their gas consumption. This information will be valuable to the company to serve fully the demand and also get supplies. Customer consumption mostly helps in the short term planning and also in the coming up with strategies to attract more customers (Peng, Chen, Qin, Yang, Zuo, and Yang, 2012). Figure 2: showing demand and supply curves The demand of gas is highly affected by the weather changes. The industrial and commercial consumption of gas regularly changes unlike, residential where the consumption is constant. Data about weather changes helps the company to do short term and long term planning. It also becomes easier for them to predict the consumption during certain weather conditions. The company with the help of the new system should be able to determine even the length of certain weather condition is going to last. However, due to global warming, the weather conditions and seasons are not constant. This makes it hard to predict and may result to the company failing to satisfy the demand and supply forces that may cause a shift of the equilibrium point. When the supply is equal to the demand, there is a balance as shown in figure 2 above. The weather changes should be recorded for a long period for the results to be valid and reliable to be used to predict the customer’s purchase behavior when under certain conditions. The results on weather changes become more accurate as they accumulate with time (Singh, Kavadias, and Subramanian, 2015). The system should also take recording on the customer unit demand. The data is mostly based on the non-heating consumers. Most of the consumers have a constant monthly usage that do not highly fluctuate and can be used to predict the monthly consumption of the next few months. In some markets, the demand by certain customers keeps on growing. This might be due to other factors such as an increase in their inputs. After the system has been feed with the customer unit demand, it can then classify the customer’s demand to be either constant or varying over time. Customer unit demand data can be used to make short-term plans. Information recorded on customer unit demand makes it easier to determine if cost affects the demand for gas among different consumers. Most of the consumers will not change their prices despite the change in the market prices. Other consumers will have to reduce their production because their budget cannot be expanded, and still cannot increase the prices of its products. Therefore the only option that is left it's just to reduce the quantity they are producing (Thomopoulos, 2012). The system should also provide room for the sales forecasts. Sales forecast serves as the target that CGS wants to achieve or want to sale. This should be in line with their aims and objectives. The sales forecasts can be set as short or long term. The short term sales forecasts can be limited to one year while long-term sales forecast is limited to more than five years. The sales forecast can be used as a marketing strategy since different consumers will check it before they can make their orders. These companies will prefer suppliers who can fully satisfy their demand. The sales forecast that is assigned to certain customer should be realistic and should be based according to the previous average consumption rate. The sales forecasts can also be used to determine if CGC will increase or reduce the amount of gas they are ordering especially when signing a pay-or-take contract. Such contracts require the company to order just the correct quantity of gas that they require in a given period. Such decision requires the company to first conduct a study of the market and approximate their growth rate in a few coming years (Kaufmann, Malhotra, Ardelt, and Ryschka, 2014). Some details about the suppliers are important in decision making. Such details need to be readily available for close reference during the running of an organization. They include the supplier contracts, the contract terms such as the date the contract was initiated, completion date, monthly volumes, costs per unit, and conditions such as take-or-pay conditions. Details of when the contracts was initiated and when the contract ends make it easier for the company to maintain constant supplies into the organization. It also gives the management time to consider if it will renew the contract or not. Such decisions are made when the contract is just about to end. The system will make it easier to retrieve the supplier contracts in case communication is needed. The cost per unit is also required to calculate the monthly consumption. It is also required when doing the company’s budget. The condition that exist with the supplier about the amount of gas consumed is important. Some suppliers requires that the consumer pay just what he or she have used. On the other hand, other supplier prefers having fixed amount being supplied even if they have not entirely consumed the previous amount (Bazargan, Lange, Tran, and Zhou, 2013). The storage capacity is also important for the supply and also for the demand. The company must request just the right amount of gas to avoid ordering excess. The company should also take care not to take more orders than it can handle. Information about the storage space should be feed in the system. The system will warn the users if they have ordered more than they can handle, or the customers have ordered more than what can be stored in the storage tank. Such information can also be used to make the decision to add more storage tanks if the current storage tanks cannot serve the demand. The company may also decide to outsource some storage using a third party company. Details about storage space such as the maintenance dates, gas refill and daily readings will help to detect if there is any defect with the storage space (Solomon, Patrick, Schousboe, and Losina, 2014). The system’s priority list needs to be defined and will be used when distributing the gas. This makes the logistic processes be carried out in a systematic way and also avoids any inconveniences. Priority list can also be used to determine who are supposed to receive the gas first in case of the gas is not adequate. Such priority list is made according to the contracts that exist with certain customers. The system can also be used to suggest a priority list based on the algorithms such as first come first served, the best fit or any other that best serves the organization (Thomopoulos, 2012). Conclusion The implementation of CGC’s new system is aimed at improving the organizational planning technique. The success of the system strongly depends on its design, data inputs, and its acceptability in the organization. The system needs to be tested before it is implemented which can be done through implementation in one of the departments. In case of any defects they can be corrected and then the system can be fully be implemented into the organization. Bibliography Bazargan, M., Lange, D., Tran, L., & Zhou, Z. (2013). A Simulation Approach to Airline Cost Benefit Analysis. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 14(2), 54-61. Bijker, W. E., Hughes, T. P., Pinch, T., & Douglas, D. G. (2012). The social construction of technological systems: New directions in the sociology and history of technology. MIT press. Curme, C., Preis, T., Stanley, H. E., & Moat, H. S. (2014). Quantifying the semantics of search behavior before stock market moves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(32), 11600-11605. Kaufmann, S., Malhotra, A., Ardelt, G., & Ryschka, M. (2014). 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