Performance Management Systems in Maximizing Resources and Reducing the Production Cost - Case Study Example

Performance Management Systems of Woolworth’s Supermarket Name: Course: Tutor: Institution: City and state: Date: Introduction Performance management systems is defined as control model that is in interactive agreement based on an agreement thus for it to have an appropriate balance in terms of the attained results and the resources available. Basically the idea of performance management in the operations is to have one side or rather one hand that is of the targets and resources balanced while on the hand that is of the quality and efficiency to be made possible and making sure that efficiency in terms of cost is achieved as desired. Performance management process has been applicable in the management practices by a number of people in the Woolworth’s Supermarket by bringing people working in the Woolworth’s Supermarket together in the learning and development for purpose of achieving the aimed Woolworth’s Supermarket target. Performance management process is a key tool that has been used by the Woolworth’s Supermarket in having individual and also team management that is effective, this has resulted in the improvement of both organizational and individual development and performance. Woolworth’s Supermarket has been able to achieve its long term goals, issues of services and an appropriate management culture linking the people in terms of; services delivered, individual and team responsibility, and also skills and behavior thus been a key tool in enabling the Woolworth’s Supermarket achieve its long and short term goals. Woolworth’s Supermarket agreement is applied in the following ways, it binds the Woolworth’s Supermarket employees its employees either of the said Union or not. Thus the agreement is applicable to all those employees whose payment rates and conditions are generally prescribed by the Woolworths Ltd (as Woolworths/ Safeway Supermarkets). Woolworths is rated as the Australian market leader in relation to the supermarket industry. Woolworth’s Supermarket has had a double digit earnings and sales growth for a numbers of years this has come to be due to its initiative in cost reduction in terms of supply and operations chains and also venturing in business opportunities that are new. Woolworth’s Supermarket internal environment is made of an automated management software system that is built to perform a number of tasks such as sorting at high speed, management inventory and also links all the various subsystems and PLCs together. Woolworth’s Supermarket facility equipments is made up of warehouse 27600 pallets with 10 x 32m high cranes, warehouse for picking with 4000 Pick by light system, pallet conveyor system, monorail system, automatic carton picking robots that add ups to eight and material flow and PLC controls among others are within the facility equipments Woolworth’s Supermarket. Inclusive in the international environment is the operational support that is the technical operations manager, mechanical and electrical technicians, each sites technical assistant, dedicated engineers for software. Woolworth’s Supermarket has a culture of achieving reduced stock levels overall, land use in efficient way thus reducing land wastage, another known achievement is that of a 99 % accuracy in terms of improved inventory of the Woolworth Supermarket, another thing that has to be a culture of the supermarket is that of a slight a 100% accuracy in picking. The key notable performance of the Woolworth supermarket is that of sales whereby the supermarket makes a yearly sales of approximately $20 billion. The external elements n terms of the environment that is beyond the supermarkets location is that of its ability to be operational in a number of stores that range to about more than 1400 stores within Australia and inclusive of New Zealand’s Dick Smith Electronic stores, thus increasing the Woolworths supermarket sells. Among the strategies laid to improve and makes the supermarkets sales more and its products known is that of branding its products an example is that of Woolworths Metro, Big W among many others. Internal and external environment of the organization Woolworth supermarket internal environment is made up of a number of approximately 140000, of who around 50 000 of the Woolworth employees work in the regional and rural areas. Also it’s internally the supermarket trains apprentices who in turn boost the supermarkets profits. The Woolworth has different departments with each having its own mandate in the internal working environment of the supermarket among the Departments are the store department that deals with general merchandise and retail thatare sold under various trademarks that are known. Minchinbury is recent centre for distribution that serves throughout the New South Wales state Group’s supermarket more so the ones in Sydney area; it distributes liquor products and general merchandise. Another internal environment in the aspect of the Woolworths supermarket in the aspect of its culture and in relationship with the performance management system agreement is that of its employees putting in mind the factor of the employees been key contributors in the supermarkets work force and hence achievements of the supermarket is that of employees engagement, payment, employment conditions and termination of an employee work. Some of the agreements in include that of an employee is notified or rather told of the nature of his or her working conditions that is the working duration, wage rates, a period of the first six months determines if an employee will be given the work or else terminated this is also a strategic approach to ensure that the supermarkets employees competent employees who will be of significance more so in terms of achieving the long and short term targets of the supermarket. Another strategic approach that’s applied internally in the Woolworths supermarket is that of having a classified working hours that is casual, full time, part time temporary employment so as to have the supermarkets activities by maximizing and utilizing time thus having its customers well served at all times. This has also created a conducive working environment for its employees since due to having a big number of employees in different working hours this has made it possible for its employees to get leaves which is part of motivation to its employees. Woolworth supermarket key performance indicators include that of overall stock levels reductions, lowering cost of cartons handled improvement in the inventory accuracy up to above 99 %, also picking accuracy has been estimated to nearly a 100 % another notable achievement by the Woolworth supermarket is that of usage of land efficiently. Some of those notable achievements have been made possible by the introduction or rather use of a logistic system, that enhances and makes it possible for products to optimally flow in goods in form of products in to the warehouse which is a high way ones up to the areas of picking and sorting unit which is done at a high speed which then goes to the dispatch area. Automated picking is used for heavy products thus reducing the load on those picking in other words the pickers; this makes work for the easier and saves on time and the cost of having many employees hence maximizing the Woolworths returns in terms of profits. The Woolworths supermarket organizational structure is one that is well established with individuals and teams having their own work well stipulated which is inclusive in the performance management agreement thus an employee knows what is expected of him or her while working for the supermarket. This has helped the supermarket since it’s able to run smooth management of the entire supermarket since the employees are well behaved, self motivated among that working virtual and ethics are correspondent with good work and yields for both the employees and the supermarket. Another strategic approach applied by the Woolworth is that of branding its products thus having uniqueness of its products when it comes to sells and also advertisements thus making it well known to its customers, an example of its brands are Safeway, Food for Less, Woolworths Metro among others. Woolworths external elements include that of the supermarket have distribution of its services and products to different regions and rural areas so at to be able to reach its customers this also made possible by dispatching its employees who are still within the management agreement, approximately 50 000 employees are dispatched in regional and rural areas. Thus the element of reaching out to the extended environments is made possible by that strategic move. Another strategic approach that goes beyond the Woolworths supermarket is that of use of technology such as online shopping thus making it possible for the supermarket to reach its customers who are beyond its immediate environment. Areas of Improvement within the Performance Management System Some of the areas that need improvement in the Woolworth in relationship with the performance management system include that of addition benefits to its employees and more so to the best employees, through the performance appraisal that is by evaluating performance of an employee over a given a period of time and this should be applicable to all the employees regardless of their working hours. This will be a self motivating factor to individual employees’. The improvement more so to be looked into is the part of having a reliable and a valid mechanism of measuring an employees’ performance management. Another area that requires improvement within the Woolworth is that of ensuring that the guide involved in the process of performance management is used by the employees and management as a guideline in the aim of achieving the supermarkets targets or rather goals with time. Additional is the establishment of a connection or rather a link between the managers of the Woolworth with its employees so as to reinforce behavior of employees with the aim of achieving goals targeted by the supermarket. The other area that requires to be looked into in relation to the performance management system is that of trait appraisal whereby an individual trait is analyzed so as to know more of Woolworths employees potential and which departments within the supermarket the can fit well thus maximizing both employees and supermarkets performance. Interventions to Improve the Problems Among the problems that need intervention is that of addition of benefits to the supermarkets employees’ this can be done to those employees after analysis in terms of performance appraisal should be conducted in a manner that takes into account accurate performance measures, this made possible by taking into account a number of other different characteristics of performance measures. Thus looks into feasibility and acceptability that is the use of appropriate measures to people used on. Another intervention among the problems is that of establishing a conducive and effective communication channel between the employees and the management this can be made possible by a formal communication between the management and the employees that looks into or rather focuses on how the supermarket oversees or in other word believes how the employees on individual level performs. This will help the supermarket in terms of decisions they make that concerns the employees with a well established communication between the two parties that is the employer and the employees, the information provided through the established communication will help in the managers in improving the supermarkets productivity and making future plans of the supermarket for example if the managers see a need to add training to its employees for better performance. Conclusion Performance management system is a process that is applied to have the Woolworth operations manageable n terms of maximizing resources and reducing the production cost. Woolworth internal environment is well structured in that both the employees and the employers have well defined role in the management of the supermarket and also applicable in the running of the Woolworths supermarket is use of the performance management system whereby it is an agreement, for example it clearly stipulated the roles of an employee upon employment and some other agreements such as the procedure of having an employees work terminated in the supermarket. Among the challenges that arise in the Woolworths management is that of communication between the employer and employee among a number of them. References Herbert Sherman, PhD, and Mr. Theodore Vallas. (2010): Performance Management and Appraisal, Performance Evaluation. Dan Murphy’s. (2012): Strategy gaining good momentum and continuing investment in growth initiatives, [Online], Available: http://www.danmurphys.com.au [3 May 2013]. Snellmaninkatu. (2008): 1 AHANDBOOK ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT, [Online], Available: http://www.ministryoffi nance.fi [3 May 2013]. Webereiweg. (2010): WOOLWORTHS AUSTRALIA, [Online], Available: http://www.swisslog.com James Strong. (2008): Woolworths Limited,. Read More