Management

Standardization is an excellent process to make sure that your consumers get the same product every time. It builds their trust in your product or service. Standardization also allows you to build a loyal customer base by providing them with the same product they use the first time. If a product is not standardized, it might not gain the same kind of popularity. Customers believe that a company that puts effort into standardization cares about them. Standardization also has a few demerits for business owners. Let’s tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of standardization in detail.

What is Standardization?

Standardization in an industry refers to maintaining consistency among the services and products offered by a company. The services in all aspects must offer the same core values. Similarly, the products must have the same quality throughout. If any changes are made, they must not affect the characteristics of the goods.

 A company follows a particular set of protocols to ensure that the product or service is consistent. They devise the strategies once and make sure to adhere to them. Mostly these guidelines are per the national standards. However, you must follow international regulations when producing goods for the international market.

Standardizing a product or service is based on following the safety protocols and considering the needs of the consumers. It requires adapting the same technology for producing that product and checking product quality on the same parameters. Every product or service has particular standards to ensure consistency and uniformity.

Advantages of Standardization

Improved Production Efficiency

The production efficiency improves when the technology and manufacturing methods are designed per a specific product. When you produce a product according to the same standards, you do not have to worry about innovation. Establishing production rules and manufacturing goods on predetermined standards reduces time and enhances manufacturing efficiency.

Cost Reduction

Better production efficiency also means reduced cost. When the production facility is designed to produce one kind of product only, buying the raw material in bulk brings down the cost. You do not have to spend more money adjusting the machinery to different products or variations of the product. It also saves the added cost of varying raw materials and maintenance. Producing products according to a standard without any changes lessens the cost.

Quality Assurance

Standardization of a service or product ensures that all pieces of a particular product are of the same quality. Having a standard quality standard for all enables you to detect issues with the product. The quality checkers and assurance officers make sure to check the products before packing. The quality of the product and packaging gives the customers a sense of satisfaction with a high-quality product.

Adaption Cost Reduction

Having a standardized process avoids the cost of adaptation. It is more expensive to devise a particular service or good for a specific consumer base. Customizing a product requires gathering data, extensive searching, and looking for various marketing techniques to attract customers. Standardizing a product helps you save the cost of customizing the product. The saved cost depends on the company’s manufacturing.

International Opportunities

Reaching the international market has enabled companies to make more profit by catering to a wider customer base. Today, globalization has caused an increase in the need for similar products of the best quality. People are looking to buy products from different countries. Catering to international markets requires you to make sure each product is uniform. By producing standardized products, you can sell your products beyond borders.

Consumer Benefits

Standardization of a product reduces confusion among consumers. When consumers are aware of the quality standards of a product, they do not look for other options. On the contrary, if the product is not uniform and does not meet the standard of the consumers, they avoid it. Product standardization provides safe, better-quality products to the customers.

Disadvantages of Standardization

Equipment Differences

Standardizing products is not feasible when the product is manufactured in multiple production facilities. Various countries have specific systems and equipment that may differ from other locations. Sometimes, the equipment might not have the same specifications either. Thus, you will need to adjust the equipment per need.

Failure to Adapt

Today, consumers want to get the most according to the changing trends. Many consumers purchase the same standardized products, while others like innovation in the products. Focusing on providing the same features in a product over the years might push the customers to another company. Standardization halts you from catering to the needs of such customers.

Cultural Differences

Product or service standardization is not the best choice sometimes. It may not prove feasible when catering to people from different backgrounds. For example, some tea containing alcohol components is not the right choice for some cultures. It is not labeled halal and is unsuitable for selling globally in Muslim countries. It is better to customize products depending on the customer’s needs.

The Bottom Line

Standardization helps provide uniform and consistent quality products to the customers. It enables them to trust your brand and becomes loyal customers. However, it also hinders adaptation to the modern needs of the consumers. Standardization and customization must work according to the regional and individual consumer requirements.

Manager and supervisor are often used interchangeably in conversations. While organizations have a different hierarchy of roles and designations, management and supervision are quite different. People who supervise employees are called supervisors, whereas those who manage tasks within a department are known as managers.

Now, you may wonder; that sounds the same!

Yes, that does sound the same. Managers and supervisors both have leadership roles within the company. But, they are not identical in terms of responsibility and authority. Let’s take you through the differences between management and supervision for a detailed understanding.

What is a Manager?

The primary function of a manager is to manage how things take place in a department. Managers typically make decisions about a business in a particular domain or various areas of business operation. They are involved in recruiting new people, identifying jobs of other employees working under them, and ensuring the completion of tasks on time. They also determine the resources utilized by their department to execute specific tasks. For example, a quality control manager is responsible for ensuring that all the processes are aligned, and the products are of standard quality. Yet, he might not go to the processing facility all the time to access work.

Roles of Management

The four major roles include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Management plans the timelines for the department and organizes pathways to achieve the timelines and goals. They make sure to be the leaders in situations employees need their assistance to perform better. Other roles of management include:

• Dealing with the issues within the workplace when brought to them by the supervisors.
• Make sure that the supervisors are kind and fair to the workers.
• Evaluating the performance and competency of employees and finding the reason for poor performance.
• Managers also assist the HR professionals in HR functions including hiring and staffing to ensure they find the best fit for their department.
• Making decisions for the designated responsibilities for the best benefit of the company and the employees.
• Controlling and monitoring expenses, and managing them within the budget.
• Setting goals for the future and encouraging other teammates to perform their best.

What is a Supervisor?

Supervisors also have a leadership role in the company. But, they work under the manager. Supervision mainly includes keeping an eye on the employees’ day-to-day activities in the department. They ensure that the tasks are completed in time by the works, and the goals are achieved per the manager’s instructions and timeline. They also act as a bridge between employees and the upper hierarchy. Supervisors usually have an informal relationship with their workers to encourage them to do better. They initially study a situation to assess if it needs the manager’s attention.

Roles of Supervision

As manager leads the supervisors, they lead other workers under them. Major roles of supervision in a company are:

• While the manager contributes to hiring new talent, supervisors train them to gel in the environment.
• Reporting to seniors and HR professionals when needed.
• Accessing the performance of the workers and reporting their evaluation to the managers.
• Acting as a connector between the manager and the employees.
• Resolving conflicts between employees if they are not significant enough to be forwarded to the manager.
• Managing schedules and keeping everyone on track to ensure that all goals are achieved in time.

Management vs Supervision

As mentioned already, management is the manager’s job, while supervision is the supervisor’s task. Here are all the differences between manager and supervisor to help you understand Management vs Supervision.

Role

Manager

A manager’s role in a company is to create goals and encourage the employees to achieve them. He focuses on the management processes and is concerned with timely finishing projects.

Supervisor

The supervisor accesses the individual performance of workers and their contribution to the operation. He makes sure that all the processes are moving according to the timeline and takes care of daily functional activities.

Position

Manager

A manager has a middle-level managerial position, and he is directly connected to the upper hierarchy.

Supervisor

Conversely, the supervisor is in a low-level leadership position where he deals with the workers. He cannot directly connect to the CEO or Board of Directors.

Responsibilities 

Manager

Managers have various responsibilities within the company like discussing the budget, managing tasks, and supervisors, communicating with the company leaders, evaluating the performance of employees and supervisors, and ensuring goal achievement.

Supervisor

Supervisors deal with the workers directly, resolve their disputes, monitor daily assigned tasks, manage workflow, and train new employees.

Decision-making

Manager

Managers are the decision-makers in a business, especially in their department. They decide goals, budget, and the timeline for projects. Managers can also make different types of decisions about the promotion and demotion of employees.

Supervisor

While supervisors can recommend a worker for a different (or better) position, they are not decision-makers. They rely on the decisions made by managers.

Now Hiring

Manager

Managers work with the Human Resource department to hire new talent per the department’s needs.

Supervisor

Supervisors are not involved in the hiring process. Instead, they are responsible for training the new hires and accustoming them to the company.

The Bottom Line

Management and supervision are both essential parts for a company to function properly. It is difficult for the manager to monitor every employee’s performance. That is why supervisors are assigned over a group of employees. Managers hire new people with HR, manage the budget, and deal with the issues between supervisors and employees. Conversely, supervisors train new employees, evaluate their performance, make decisions, and set goals for the future.

Nearly three decades after the theory of disruption was introduced in business, entrepreneurs, marketers, and design engineers are still grappling to find the correct definition and implementation for it.

Disruptive innovation is broadly defined as designing a novel product or service that addresses the needs of some niche customers and then is scaled up to challenge the established players in the market. Gartner defines it as, “The process of conceiving, defining, delivering, monitoring and refining products in, and withdrawing products from, a market in order to maximize business results.”

The architect of disruption theory, Clayton M. Christensen, and his co-authors say that if product managers fail to understand the disruption theory and are unsuccessful in applying its tenets correctly to their product, then the whole business strategy of a company or business goes haywire.

Disruptive Innovation

What is moot to the whole disruptive debate and the concomitant disruptive innovation is that it is a process. According to Christensen, healthy “disruption” is not confined to end products, but it disrupts the processes that lead to the end product and creates lasting value for the business.

Innovative disruption is routinely used for any situation that disrupts an industry leader’s position in the market. This means that no distinction is made about the innovation’s impact on a particular industry or situation.

What needs to be kept in mind is that industry disruptions are ongoing conditions and not sudden transient happenings that disrupt and disappear.

Organizations that have agile teams have a competitive advantage, and those who don’t, should focus on building one so that they can become resilient and adapt to a rapidly changing environment.

Product Manager’s Role in Changing Processes

Product managers many times fail to use innovations in the correct context. Conventional product management isn’t geared towards seamless experiences for the customers or giving agile holistic solutions for any disruptive market problems.

Today, product managers are expected to leverage their skills across the board of a product life cycle to impact an organization’s development and strategies.

They have evolved from being mere departmental heads to be now known as the “ground level CEOs” involved in driving a company’s core policies.

Transition to this position by enrolling in product management courses in India and hone your skills. Create strategic value and solutions at both the product level and the processes that shape it.

Customer-centric

This highly data-driven field is customer-centric. Product managers keep an eye on the evolving market and changing customer needs. The pandemic has brought about sweeping changes in customer behavior, Pre-Pandemic, there were clear signals about market trends and customer behavior patterns to follow, but the pandemic has been a great disruptor with consumers demanding easier, accessible, cheaper, and faster products. According to research by Accenture, there was a 30 percent increase in disruption levels between 2011 and 2018, in the consumers’ goods, service, and retail sectors. Post-pandemic, this figure is bound to cross 50 percent.

Multi-focus

They need to have in-depth knowledge of the product’s life cycle so that they can immediately adapt and change courses to meet any unexpected market disruptions.

A product manager needs to be fully conversant with design, engineering, sales, customer services, marketing, budgeting, and product compliance needs. It is a collaborative and interdisciplinary process.

He collates and collaborates between various verticals and streamlines processes involved in bringing the product from the research table to the retail shelves or the end-user.

According to the Product Management Trends and Benchmark Report 2020, company profits can increase by 34 percent with a fully optimized product manager.

The Disruptive Process

Product management is an iterative process that depends on making decisions based on data analysis, feedback, and outcomes.

Product managers need to be data-driven to separate fads or transient trends from true disruptions. Data analysis helps to identify and anticipate market conditions or potential value additions for future product success.

The product management approach is about building product road maps for better strategies. It is about taking a holistic approach to a problem by making use of cross-functional teams focused on outcomes. This ensures a solution-focused approach that transforms disruptions into opportunities.

Companies with this approach can afford to build on long-term growth goals without being affected by any sudden upsets in the market.

This is because the roadmap works on building processes that can withstand sudden headwinds and ride the tailwinds in the market.

If you want to be a part of the process and meet the challenge of being a mini CEO, join our product management course.

Although you may feel like your employees work hard and are always putting in a day’s worth of effort, they might not express that same appreciation back to you. It is important to give your employees something that will make them feel appreciated. A company gift for employees can be anything from a coffee mug or sweatshirt to a gift card for a store of their choice. This will show your employees that you care about them and recognize their hard work. In this article, we will discuss 8 ways to show your team members just how much their efforts mean to you without going out of your way.

A Day at the Spa

Employees often go through tough times at work. It can be difficult to focus on work when you are feeling stressed or unhappy.

To make your employees feel appreciated, give them a day at the spa! This will allow them to relax and rejuvenate themselves.

There are many different types of spas that offer a variety of services. You can choose to go with a traditional spa, or you can choose to go with a more holistic approach.

Whatever you choose, make sure that the spa offers a variety of treatments that will make your employees feel special. They will appreciate the thoughtfulness and effort that you put into making their day special.

A Gift that Makes Them Happy

It can be tough to find the perfect gift for your employees, but there are plenty of options available. Here are some ideas for gifts that will make your employees happy.

• A funny mug or T-shirt: A funny mug or T-shirt is a great way to show your employees that you care. If they have a sense of humor, they will love receiving a funny mug or T-shirt as a gift.

• A plant: A plant is a great gift for any employee. Not only does it make them happy, but it can also help to improve their indoor air quality.

• A food truck voucher: Food truck vouchers are another great way to show your employees that you appreciate them. Food trucks offer unique and delicious dishes that your employees are sure to love.

• A day off work: Giving your employees a day off work is a great way to show them how much you care about them. It can be difficult to find the time to give everyone an equal day off, but this is one way to show your appreciation.

Something They Can Use Everyday to Maintain Their Health

Employees are the lifeblood of any business. They are the ones who keep everything running smoothly and who make all of our hard work worthwhile.

It’s important to show your employees that you appreciate them and what they do for you. One way to do this is to give them gifts that they can use every day to maintain their health and well-being.

Some of the best gifts for employees to keep them healthy include fitness equipment, health supplements, and healthy food items.

Fitness equipment can help employees to stay healthy and fit. Health supplements can help improve their overall health and well-being, and healthy food items can provide them with the nutrients they need to stay healthy.

Whatever gift you choose, be sure to think of something that will benefit your employees and make them happy. Thank them for everything they do for you, and give them a gift that will make a lasting impression on them.

A Great Plaid Shirt For The Man in the Office

If you’re looking for a gift for your employees, why not consider giving them a great plaid shirt? A plaid shirt is a classic office wear item, and it can make your employees feel appreciated.

Choosing the right plaid shirt can be tricky. You don’t want to buy something that is too formal or too casual. Somewhere in the middle is ideal.

Another thing to think about when buying a plaid shirt for your employees is the size. You don’t want to buy something that is too small or too large. The size you choose should fit comfortably, without being too tight or too loose.

When you give your employees a plaid shirt, they will love it! They will feel stylish and stylish, and they will know that you appreciate their hard work.

Coupons for Popular Dining Places Near The Office

Giving your employees a gift is a great way to show them how much you appreciate them. There are many different types of gifts that you can give your employees, and some of the most popular gifts include coupons for popular dining places near the office.

Coupons for popular restaurants can be a great way to show your employees that you care about their well-being. They can use these coupons to enjoy a delicious meal without having to spend too much money.

Giving your employees a gift that is related to their interests is also a great way to show them how much you care about them. For example, you could give your employees tickets to a concert or a show that they are interested in.

If you are not sure what type of gift to give your employees, consider giving them a coupon for one of the popular restaurants near the office. These restaurants have excellent food and beverage options, and they will love receiving a coupon in lieu of a traditional gift.

A Fun Way To Learn About Technology and How It Helps Businesses

There are many different gifts that you can give your employees to show them how much you appreciate them. Here are six ideas that will have a big impact on their lives and work:

1. A computer or laptop: This is a great gift for any employee who uses technology regularly in their work. It can help them to be more productive and efficient, and it can also help them to stay up to date with the latest trends in the industry.

2. A smartphone or tablet: These devices are becoming more and more popular, and they can be a great tool for employees who need to stay connected with their workplace and with their friends and family.

3. An iPad or similar device: These devices are perfect for entertainment purposes as well as for working on projects in the office. They can also be used for educational purposes, which is something that many employees appreciate.

4. A nice camera: Many businesses now use photography as a way to capture memories of special events or meetings. A nice camera can make this process much easier and quicker than it would be without one.

5. A new computer or laptop sleeve or case. This is a great gift for any employee who is starting a new job.

An Activity That Will Improve Their Mental Health and Wellness

Employees can really appreciate a gift that is designed to improve their mental health and well-being. Consider giving them an activity that they can do together as a team. This will help to build bonds and create a stronger workplace culture.

Some of the most popular activities that can be used in this way include healthy cooking classes, mindfulness meditation, and stress relief workshops. These types of gifts are sure to improve the mental health of your employees!

Gifts

Giving your employees gifts can be a great way to show their appreciation for their hard work. There are many different types of gifts that you can give your employees, and there is no wrong way to do it.

Some of the most popular gifts include gift cards, flowers, and chocolates. It is important to choose the right gift for the person, and you should also consider their likes and dislikes.

If you are not sure what to give your employees, you can always go with a gift card. This type of gift is versatile, and it can be used anywhere in the world.

Giving gifts to your employees is a great way to show them how much you appreciate them. Make sure to choose the perfect gift for them, and don’t forget to thank them for their hard work!

The supply chain can be considered the heart of a business. The raw materials used for production are obtained through the supply chain. Deliveries of finished products to customers and end-users also go through the supply chain. The supply chain is also that part of the business in which suppliers and providers transact with the internal teams and processes, and can thus have an impact on its efficiency and productivity. It’s the process that moves business capital from procurement, then production, sales, and then on to delivery and revenue generation.

There are quite a number of opportunities to further improve the efficiency of supply chain networks in various types of business operations. To pinpoint those areas of improvement, business owners should take a close look at their data reports to identify the gaps in their processes. In financial management, for instance, you can pay less in fees as a global business by using some of the alternative points of sale (POS) software applications and payment facilities currently offered in the market.

Here are four ways in which you can improve your company’s supply chain efficiency.

1. Enhance Visibility And Visualization

One of the most important things to consider when improving your supply chain’s efficiency is to increase the visibility and visualization of your supply chain. Creating a visual representation of your supply chain logistics and processes will allow your teams to visualize exactly where your products are headed. This would also help them identify areas that might be running into some issues or in need of fine-tuning.

For example, a beverage company can use visualization software to track the status and location of raw materials which are headed for delivery to the production plant. In the production process itself, the team can monitor the plant’s output to see if regular quotas are being met.

When the products are finished, the company can use visualization to monitor the fulfillment of orders for later marketing purposes. They can also use visualization software to track the location of delivery trucks and vans and optimize delivery by coming up with better truck fleet dispatching and routing workflows. They can even find out if there would be ways to make use of the backload by instructing trucks to pick up raw materials or other supply items before returning to the warehouse. This will result in further improvement of the cost and time it takes to transport raw materials and deliver finished products.

2. Automate Your Workflow Tasks

Another way to improve your supply chain efficiency is to automate repetitive tasks and duplication processes. Automation also helps reduce the number of workers needed for the business to operate and work hours for orders processing.

For example, in a knowledge production firm, some of the work done by editors can be automated with the use of digital tools designed to detect grammar and spelling errors. With further advancements, AI-based applications could be used as substitutes for human editors handling more complex tasks. This would enable companies to reduce idle time, achieve greater efficiency, and save on operational expenses.

The use of automation would also help attain uniform standards in workflows and speed of processes. For example, the invoice, delivery labels, and shipment bar codes of an online store are automatically printed once a purchase is made through an eCommerce platform. An application linked to the platform then sends a message to the fulfillment center to schedule the package for pick-up by the forwarding team. The only task that would have to be handled manually is putting the order label on the package.

3. Automate Your Warehouse Operations

Warehouse handling and operations could greatly benefit from automation, as software and robotic equipment can be used to handle most inventory-related tasks. For instance, you can use either bar codes or radio frequency identification (RFID) to identify, mark, and locate a specific box or product. If a product has to be retrieved, robotic mobile pallets and retrievers could go to the shelf where the item is located. It would then reach for the item and place it in its cargo hold.

This kind of warehouse management technology is already being used in the warehouses owned by some of the largest eCommerce platforms. In fact, more advanced systems can even place an order for replacement stock as soon as the inventory stock is retrieved by robots.

4. Use Analytics To Continuously Improve

Another move that would immensely improve your supply chain efficiency would be applying analytics in studying your supply chain. Analytics will help you come up with an objective evaluation of how efficient your business operations are, making it easier to identify the gaps and bottlenecks in your supply chain and logistics processes.

In a production setting, management can use analytics to identify which specific tasks are taking up too much time. They can use analytics reports to evaluate whether there are roles and functions which are just duplicating the output of other teams. They can use it to assess whether some layers in the production process do not directly create added value and do not contribute to the bottom line. They can also use data on the idle time of their workers to assess whether there are too many people in one department and consider cost-cutting measures.

You’d also be able to come up with strategies on how to continuously improve based on the findings in your analytics reports. The advantage of analytics is that it uses reported data instead of forecasted or predicted data. It’s not based on the educated estimates of production analysts even though such estimates may be based on established engineering formulas. Going back to the beverage production plant example, analytics can measure the time it took for production to finish from the time it received the orders.

Conclusion

There are a few key opportunities for companies to further improve the efficiency of their supply chain. If implemented properly, these supply chain enhancements not only help speed up production and reduce operational expenses but also improve customer/client relationships by being able to consistently deliver high-quality products and services.

Reputational risks may lead to reputational damage if you ignore the consequences of not considering reputational risks in time. However, to avoid or manage reputational risks, it is important to identify and measure them. Reputational risks and damage are specific to each business, yet you may find the primary ones associated with your brand through some means mentioned below. Read this article till the end to see how to identify reputational risks and measure them to prevent serious damage.

Social Media

You may think that social media is one of the largest supporting reasons for reputational damage; how can it help us identify reputational risks?

Most customers take to social media to express their frustration and disappointment about a brand. Usually, it starts from a post on their profile where they express their resentment about a particular product or service. This first review can help save your business from long-term damage if you nip it in the bud. It is smart to have a community manager for the company who can keep an eye on what people think of the brand. You must try to keep words like “bad,” “poor,” and “uncooperative” away from your business on social media.

Study the Products or Service

Sometimes, you see multiple bad reviews about a company from multiple sources regarding the same product. As a business, you must find out the root cause of the issue and fix it as soon as possible. There may be a quality problem with the product mistakenly ignored by the Quality Control during manufacturing. You may also stop the production of that particular product for a while till the issue is resolved.

Consider Stakeholder Sentiments

Considering the stakeholder’s sentiments is essential for identifying and measuring reputational risks. Different stakeholders have a particular impact on your company’s reputation. For example, issues with the customers are considered a moderate risk. But when media is involved, it becomes a serious reputational risk.

Understanding the nature of the risk associated with the stakeholders and their perception of the company can help identify and minimize the risk.

Track Negative Events

Sometimes, as business owners, we understand the negative events of a potential reputational risk but let go of them. This may be fine sometimes if the benefit ratio is high. However, if the event can be seriously negative for your brand’s reputation, it is better to avoid it. Prevent further negative events by tracking and studying previous events that impact your business negatively.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if you do not identify and consider reputational risks?

If you do not identify the risks in time, you may have to face the consequences of reputational risks like business loss, tarnished image, failure to meet business objectives, loss in market share, etc.

What is the hidden cost of reputational damage?

The Hidden Cost of Reputation Risk by Oliver Wyman offers a new methodology to help identify and quantify reputational risks. It is based on four steps; defining the reputational risk, analyzing the available data, quantifying the reputational risk, and linking the risk to the reputational risk management framework.

What are the types of reputational risk?

Reputational risks are of various types depending on the cause and their impact. Common reputational risks include the vendor’s misconduct, low-quality products or services, failure to keep the stakeholders satisfied, and bad online reviews.

Conclusion

Identifying the reputational risks can save you from reputational damage caused by any likely factors. It helps you measure and find a better way to manage the risks. You can identify the reputational risks through social media, studying your products, understanding the stakeholders’ sentiments, and tracking negative events.