A History of Western Technology

Question: Describe about A History of Western Technology? Answer: Operational Plan Generally, Operations Planning is the strategic planning to map the goals and objective. Specifically, it is a concept by Oliver Wight to coordinate between different functions of the company. The major aim is to set the deliverables, define the milestones, targets and how will the strategic plan be put into action during a particular period. It is the foundation for the annual budgetary planning of a company. The operation planning has to answer four important questions viz; the current situation, the intended situation i.e. the goals, the strategic plan to achieve the goals and the evaluation of the progress in course of achieving the goals. The contingency plans are a life saver for companies these days (Klemm, 2009). They refer to the plan and strategies to be adopted in order to save the company from an immediate loss. The loss of certain number of employees, overnight drop in share market, mass resignations or amendments in the legislations are some of the risks which can break the backbone of the company and hence, contingency plans are formulated for mitigating such losses. The procedures are dependent on the controls to be put into places which are; identification of the risk, assessment of the vulnerability, determination of the risk and ways to mitigate the losses. The resources are allocated on priority basis with respect to the criticality of the task, magnitude of the project and availability of the resources with the company. The budget sketches out the financial disbursements and allocation to different domains for carrying out the activities. The budget itself is a consequence of the Operations Plan and also decides the strategy to be adopted for the Operation Planning which makes it the springboard of the plan. Plans are formulated to be converted into actions which mean that once the plan has been made, it needs to be implemented in real time by carrying out the activities and tasks stated in the plan. These actions are directed by the kind of input given because the input give the channel to be adopted, the goal to be achieved, the resources to be used and the schedule to be followed. These elements collectively bring the output in form of the outcomes of the above mentioned elements. The inputs can be tangible or intangible which are subdivided into various categories (DBedeian, 2009). The tangible inputs are procured in form of records and analysis reports. The intangible ones are derived from past experiences, staff working culture and senior management policies. With regard to suppliers, the records specify the amount and kind of resources which are needed to be procured by the suppliers, this helps to specify the supplier with respect to his capabilities to meet the demand. The analy sis reports also give the input about past track of the supplier which can help to decide that whether a particular supplier is suitable for the required project or not. In case of outsourcing, the network of the supplier and his partner companies play a key role in taking a decision as to the credibility of the supplier, whether he has been delivering on time, the after sales response and dealing with third parties if needed. So the inputs are used to shortlist and then choose the supplier where the decisions are based on his reputation, past work experience, market value and the requirement of the company. It is very crucial that a good and suitable staff is recruited as the company not only runs by the work put in by the staff but it is also identified and recognized by the work done by them. Specialized teams are created and trained in every company these days for recruitment, selection and induction procedures and it involves team members not only from the technical or management team but also the behavior and human resource expert for choosing the right kind of people and getting them into the company. This recruitment selection is done carefully for different reasons and hence, the required characteristics are also very important to be taken into consideration (Behnam, 2013). The first and foremost characteristic is that the person to be recruited must be well aware of the job profile and the company including its vision and goals. The job profile must be clearly defined and the tasks which are likely to be assigned are essential as the recruitment is choosing the right person for right job which is a combination of his communication skills, his technical knowledge and his past experiences. In interview rounds, the soft skills of the candidate matter much because the way he interacts gives a shape to the environment and work culture which he would be creating in the company. Moreover, a good recruitment process aims at choosing the candidate which shows the ability to work in the prevalent working environment and perform his best while keeping the organizational goals in mind for the betterment of the company, A well-defined plan is formulated for carrying out the work and it includes the deadlines, schedules, staff requirement and other relevant aspects which are necessary for the completion of the project. As the plan maps the requirements with the resources the schedule, it is very important that it is monitored and evaluated which can be done by employing different strategies in the company. This can be done by supervising personnel, schedule mapping and using technical elements like software such as MS project. The plan is divided into deliverables which are then mapped against the dates so that the critical tasks can be identified (Taft, 2010). The critical tasks are those which if delayed can affect the overall timeline of the project. Another prime consideration of monitoring is whether the efficiency of the staff is being put to optimal use or not. This can be done by keeping the daily record of the performance and also resolving any issues which might crop up during the course o f business. The expenditure monitoring is also important in order to make sure that the budgetary constraints are taken care of. In case any of the above; the budget, the timeline or the staff efficiency has been observed as not meeting the standards, there are different measures which can be taken (Grando, 1993). The staff needs to be motivated and put under a senior leader who had worked on a similar project, the expenditure can be kept under check by resorting to more economical strategies and equipment which serve the same purpose. A prominent team leader, awareness of the project goals and perseverance to achieve the best is the key to get good performance. Sometimes, the staff or part of the team also needs to be replaced or supplanted for meeting the standards. A record keeping system is necessary for maintaining the track of all the ins and outs of the company. This not only helps solve any data deviations but also helps to resolve conflicts mismatch of information among various departments. The importance of record keeping has increased recently because the records are now being used as inputs to various domains and for development or alterations in ongoing projects. The reports are prepared from the data fetched from the record by which the raw information is molded into organized and useful data which gives relevant indications for drawing inferences related to the production, manufacturing, staff keeping, expenditure, revenue etc. The appraisal of staff plays a key role in the promotion of the workforce and is also getting high attention these days. The criterion for appraisal is solely based on the performance records of the staff which are measured on the basis of records (Frederick, 1896). So this record keeping has transcended the boundaries and is now an inter-department task which holds good amount of significance in the company. For making accurate records, it is necessary that proper research must be done, the questionnaires/surveys must be analyzed objectively so that nearest approximate results is obtained. The sales department needs backup and if the database is online, SQL databases are popular these days for record keeping. A centralized computer network helps in quick record keeping and also avoids any kind of errors to creep in the figures thus making it an updated, accurate and correct record keeping process which can be further used further for analysis and performance evaluation. References Klemm, F. (2009). A history of Western Technology, Wiley Sons. DBedeian, B. (2009). The Evolution of Management Thought, Wiley Sons. Behnam, M. (2013). Operations and Production Systems with Multiple Objectives. John Wiley Sons. Pp. 5. Frederick, J. (1896), A Piece Rate System, read before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers https://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects. Accessed on 16 March, 2015. Grando A. (1993). Organizzazione e Gestione della Produzione Industriale, Egea. Taft, E. (2010). The most economical production lot. Iron Age Press, p-1412