(Done) Business operations (Paper 1) Flashcards
Define supply chain
- The group of firms that are involved in all the various processes required to make a finished product or service available to the customer
What does a supply chain typically include
- Suppliers
- Manufacturers
- Distributers
- Retailers
What could happen if any members of the supply chain are unreliable
- The product might not be on the shelves when it needs to be
- The quality of the product might be poor
What factors influence a businesses choice in suppliers
- The total cost of getting the product
- Consistency of supply quality
- Reliability of timings
Define procurement
- Finding and buying things that a firm needs from suppliers outside of the firm
Define logistics
- Getting goods or services from one part of the supply chain to another
Benefits of effective procurement and logistics
- No breaks in productions
- No wasted resources
- Reduces overall costs
Benefits of maintaining an effective supply chain
- Good relationships with suppliers
- Finding the best price and value
- Reducing waste and unnecessary costs
Define job production
- When a firm manufactures individual unique products
Features of job production
- Unique design based on customer specification
- Often require skilled labour
- Take a long time
- Expensive
- High quality
Define flow production
- When all the products are identical and the aim is to produce as many as possible along an assembly line
Features of flow production
- All products are identical
- Aims to gain from economies of scale, decreasing unit cost to offer competitive pricing
- Quick
- Cheap
- Low quality
Define lean production
- When the business aims to use as few resources as possible and have as little waste as possible
Define just-in-time stock control
- When raw materials or organised to arrive only when needed so that minimal finance is spent on storage
- Finished products are also sent out for delivery as soon as they can be so less finance is spent on storage
Define just-in-case stock control
- Where businesses order and hold a certain amount of buffer stock just in case there are changes in demand or any issues in the supply chain
Benefits of maintaining quality
- Higher selling price
- Increased sales
- Better reputation and image
Drawbacks of maintaining quality
- Staff training costs
- Quality inspection costs
Costs of failing to maintain quality
- Disrupted provision of service
- Product recall costs
At what stages are products usually checked during production
- Stage 1 - Check raw materials from suppliers
- Stage 2 - Random samples taken to check quality of work in progress
- Stage 3 - Random samples taken of finished products
Define total quality managment
- When a business aims to make quality the responsibility of every employee at the firm
Features of total quality management
- Employees are encouraged to think of the needs of the customer
- There is an emphasis on the quality of after-sales service to maximise customer satisfaction
Possible steps of a sales process
- Finding potential customers
- Approaching potential customers
- Assessing the customers needs
- Presenting
- Closing
- Follow-up
Two ways firms can provide good customer service
- Having excellent product knowledge
- Engaging well with the customer
Steps of post sales service
- User Training
- Helpline
- Servicing Products
