Over recent years, a range of new information technologies has been Assignment

Over recent years, a range of new information technologies has been introduced to retail supply chains, with the promise of more - Assignment Example They include: Customer care Just in time Kaizen Total Quality Management (TQM) For operation manager, it is important to understand the need of these concepts and their impact for the success of overall business. These concepts can also be significant for enhancing employee morale and creating customer loyalty. Further, they can assist in providing direction to the company for its future planning. The role of operations manager is to oversee the manufacturing concern of the organization along with the successful implementation of these concepts. This paper discusses the implementation of the above-mentioned two concepts in form of Information Technology and Consumer Satisfaction. Moreover, a detailed discussion has been presented related to integrating technology for operations and business challenges confronted by retailer in terms of technology. Implementation of Information Technologies in Operation Management of Retail Industry The management of operations and information technol ogy in an integrated manner along with their strategic alignment is vital for business models in order to achieve success. Excellence in operational activities is the key driver to performance, which is driven by information. Information technology helps in redefining the probable business operations and models across various industries, providing new space for interactions, new channels and markets. Information technology is fundamental part of developing new products, managing customer relationships, designing new organizations and achieving operational success. Operations Management provides techniques and tools to evaluate, improve and place firm's operation in such a way that it best fits the competitive strategy, financial constraints and marketing priorities of the firm. It provides a link to successful execution and strategy. It helps in managing businesses such as capacity utilization, six sigma quality, inventory turns and order to delivery. Inventory Management The purpos e of inventory management is to balance the uncertainty in quantity demand and quantity supply. Inventory should be kept in a way that on demand side, it meets the cyclical demand, prospective demand and fluctuant demand. On supply side, it should maintain the operations of equipment and machinery and should prevent shortages (Loar, 1992). Before the advent of information technology in 1970s, companies used to stock up the surplus inventory to meet the uncertainty as well as flow of material. The cost of money was relatively lower than now, therefore companies could afford to pay for excess inventory in order to buffer against uncertainty and fluctuation in the part of procurement, production and distribution, which are three major stages in process of material flow. However, the increased cost of management since 1970s compounded the focus of asset productivity and contributed to increased attention to inventory management. As a result, number of different methodologies emerged whi ch includes MRP, JIT, Lean Six Sigma etc. (Loar, 1992). The advent of information technology has made the inventory management processes more proactive that companies nowadays can time phase the planning of inventory to minimize the impact of uncertainties. The advancement of information technology has given rise to higher possibility of enhancement in performance. The future demands inventory managem

Background history of Facebook and the expected future Essay - 1

Background history of Facebook and the expected future - Essay Example Its main competitors are Twitter, Google+, IGLOO, LinkedIn, Bebo and many others. Its subsidiaries are Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus VR. In 2013, it posted $7, 872,000,000 in revenues, a 55% growth. Its founders are Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes (Facebook, 2014). Mark Zuckerberg serves as the chairman and the CEO of the company. Sheryl Sandberg serves as the chief operating officer, David Ebersman as the Chief Financial Officer and Mike Schroepfer as the Chief Technology Officer, Bret Taylor as Chief Technology Officer. Its Board of Directors is made up of Marc Andreessen, Erskine B. Bowles, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Donald E. Graham, Reed Hastings, Peter A. Thiel. Changes involve Chamath Palihapitiya, former AOL executive joined to take over marketing, Van Natta left as the chief revenue officer, Mike Murphy, become the chief revenue officer and Matt Cohler promoted to vice president of product management (Facebook, 2014). SWOT is a structured method of planning that analyses a company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, opportunities and weaknesses. (Humphrey, 2005) Several factors (Opportunities) have placed Facebook at an advantage over others. Such factors are its ongoing expansion to the Chinese market, its diversification of its sources of income and how it has been tapping into advertising for income (this forms its major source of income), its tremendous increase in the number of its mobile users to 600 million, opening of the Facebook marketplace making it able to earn more revenues (and this is made possible because of its many users and wide coverage). It has also invested a lot of money in its marketing making it well known than other social networks, it’s ability to show the consumer behavior for businesses thus providing an analysis that aids decision making, enables businesses to collect user data through polls and surveys which could otherwise have