Overall objectives of Holly Farm operations Essay

i. Executive SummaryThis part study proposes boilersuit objectives of Holly evoke operations, and analyzes how to achieve those objectives in details. signs and personalitys of operational hassles be identified, in effect to crusade the remedy to the campaign. Solutions of twain finish up-of-case questions ar addressed, and the thought process is demonstrated thoroughly. fin options aiming at upward(a) the operation are also tenderd at the end of the case study.ii. Overall Objectives of the OperationSince Holly levy was opened by Charles and Gillian Giles, there were some(prenominal)(prenominal) operational problems within the worry during the business running process. The objectives of Holly grow operations are to maximally amplification the profitability by making use up of current resourcefulnesss including gracious resources and material resources, as well as brace consider and control capableness.iii. presage of the Problem1. Time spending on promotion activities was reduced. After three years operation, Gillian was unable to give so much time to do the promotional activities.2. The quash of people see maintained in the level of 15,000 per year, and there was no increase since then.3. visitant quash fluctuated during the day time, and there was a visitors queuing problem on weekends. The provoke foundered at 11.00am, barely most visitors would arrive later than 12.30pm, so very limited visitors were in the conjure up during that time period. However, in the midst of 4.00pm and 7.00pm, 4 out of 5 visitors would gather in the same place to see milking, visit maturate shop and purchase produce. Moreover, for milking watching on Saturdays and Sundays, visitors would come up before 4.00pm, but this activity could not start before 4.00pm.4. at that place was a strong seasonality on the farm business. Only during April to October, the farm was open to the public, and within individually week of this period, mid-week exact was too low, and Friday to Monday was high.5. There were not exuberant workers for new designed activities. Gillian considered tying up with schools for educational visits, but she did not want to use farm guide rung on peculiar(a) weekends and Charles needed them three day s a week to do farming work. However, most farm workers were glad to do that.6. The end product of the crosspatch cream was 350 liters per day maximum, and there was yet one smack was made on any day.7. There was no separate immortalize kept of ice cream sales to the paying farm visitors and those to the farm shop only.iv. Natures of the Problem1. manifestation 1 is the problem of foodstuff. The nature of this cogency be not enough market research and survey to invention out the most useful promotional activities.2. Symptom 2 is the problem of hangd payoff of visitors, and there are several natures for it. starting time, not fair to middling or effective promotional activities cogency be one of them, since optimizing promotions could outflank meet customers need and stop the trend of visitors decrease (Chandon, Wansink, & Laurent, 2000). Second, the accessibility and capacity of the farm might be an early(a) one, because the farm could only be open on Friday to Monday, which limited visitor number.3. Symptom 3 and Symptom 4 are both about seasonality and fluctuation problem. One nature is seasonality and fluctuation itself, because early(a) period of time through with(predicate)out the day or the year was not suitable for the farm to either open to public, or conduct milking activities. Another nature isthe capacity and accessibility of the farm.4. Symptom 5 is the problem of human resources. The nature for it might be not enough workers to perform new designed activities, because of lack of human resources in the farm.5. Symptom 6 is about ice cream production and low sales. First nature for it is the capacity of ice cream equipment was limited. Second nature for it might be the once a week deliveries of ice cream was not enough for selling ice cream. The last nature could be not effective marketing to promote on ice cream to the public.6. Symptom 7 is about sales problem. The nature of it might be unbefitting bill system.v. Response to QuestionsQuestion 1If Gillian in 10ds to increase the total number of farm visitors by 50% in 2008, the vital capacity constraints for Holly Farm are the low ingest in mid-week periods from Tuesday to Thursday and high necessity during Friday to Monday within these businesses. In order to manage those limitations of capacity, Gillian is expected to promote and encourage coach club guests with the providing of discounts on the admission charges, and is also supposed to draw and quarter more than efforts to attract more families in cars and school students for educational purpose. That could bring low demand in the period of mid-week and limit high demand between Friday and Monday, resulting in smooth dem and in the operation (Slack, chamber & Johnston, 2010).In addition, Gillian needs to change the work schedule and augment the number of productive hours for the employees so as to alter capacity, which is a potential proficiency to react to the fluctuating demands (Slack, chamber & Johnston, 2010). For instance, when more visitors are coming and extrademand is happening, Gillian could use their farm staffs who are interested in work extra hours after insideng their normal work to earn more cash for their lives, which is a potential method of idle time for adjusting capacity (Slack, put up & Johnston, 2010). The existing farm staffs are more familiar with the conditions of the farm and the farm work, which could reduce the be of error mistakes that could be happened in new employees.Moreover, half-time workers could be occupied during flush demand periods. Furthermore, mixed plans could be employed for Gillian, which include managing demand plan and chasing demand plan (Slack , Chambers & Johnston, 2010). Discounts could be offered during the periods of low demand to encourage customers expenditure on visiting Holly Farm (manage demand plan) and capacity could be adjusted through the applying of chase demand plan to avoid the wasteful of extra staff, satisfy customer demand and restrict the gunstock of finished goods (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010).Question 2If Gillian proposes to increase the count of ice cream tonuss from four to ten, there are several aspects that need to be considered, because variability in supply and capacity ordain lessen the ability of an operation to produce its inputs (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010). In a short, that will reduce its effective capacity (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010, p.325). To begin with, if the number of flavors will be change magnitude by ten, the running(a) time of ten flavors will be increased as only one flavor made on one day, which will augment throughput propagation and decrease the effe ctive utilization of capacity (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010). As a result, Gillian needs to take into account the problems that result from increasing working time. After that, when the amount of flavors increased, the queues will be accumulated on account of the longer throughput times (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010).Therefore, Gillian needs to plan and manage the waiting line of customers and retailers in terms of more working hours will be consumed for the ten flavors. Followed that, the inventory will also be influenced due to the increased variability (Slack, Chambers & Johnston, 2010), so Gillian should to enlarge its inventory level of ice cream (there is only 7,000 liters for its inventory). Lastly, more staff will berecruited for the ice cream factory, since the new-made three employees productivity and efficiency would be decreased with the increasing working hours and duties. Consequently, Gillian should reset the base level of capacity higher to accommodate its i ncreased number of flavors.vi. Options1. Gillian could consider hiring extra staff who can handle the promotional activities, because she did not have much time to do it. check to Almira (2011), the fraternity could build a positive visualize to the public through effective promotions. It could be concluded that the promotional activities could not be restricted to giving lectures to local schools and local organizations, and it should expend on more advertisements on magazines, newspapers and TV programs.In addition, Lawrence (1993) claimed that accurate market research and financial analysis are strong in presenting information to marketers and sellers. From this statement, she also could authorize a market-research company which is able to provide a comprehensive version of the Holly Farms performance, including financial data, ratio and SWOT analysis, to collect useful information. After that, through these professional surveys, the most effective promotional activities coul d be figured out, and there would be a more accurate business forecast for improving Holly Farms capacity of product and economic benefit.2. The essential response of decreasing number of visitors is that increasing customers satisfaction. Outstanding write up could be an nonphysical advertisement for potential consumers, via word-of-mouth promotion of current consumers. Schwaiger and Cannon (2005) found that value of reputation demonstrates the firms capacity to get more future dinero through decreasing transaction costs with their stakeholders. Therefore, Gillian could be suggested to do more training for their managers and service staff, which could meliorate their comprehensive skills and abilities to guarantee that they could do their outperform to meet the demands of visitors.In addition, the flexible operation strategies could remedy the emergencies and meet the divers(prenominal) needs of consumers. Although managing the flexible and specific product could cause the p roblem of costs, go the flexible product to meet the specific demands of customers can improve meshwork significantly (Gallego & Phillips, 2004). For instance, on the one hand, during the busy days, the explanatory tape could be cancelled for customers who were not interested in it, which could save time. On the other hand, Holly Farm could promote a new time schedule of each 15 minutes from 430 pm to 700 pm, which could provide a suitable option for visitors and it also avoid crowded situations, and the waiting time could used to play explanatory tape.Besides that, the various marketing should cooperate with flexible operation which could bring a refreshed image for current consumers, even potential ones, thereby attracting more visitors to come to Holly Farm. In order to meet different demands of diverse customers, various activities packages should be launched during the peak and off-peak seasons. For example, the package could include the maize maze, milking watching, and maki ng DIY ice cream.3. Concerning human resource management, a strategic operation system is required (Onyango & Okech, 2008). The appropriate staff plan and control capacity should be one of the criteria to function the unblemished business (Chang, 2011). In terms of the lack of human resource management of Charles and Gillians Holly Farm, there could be two major recommendations in order to improve. Firstly, enough skilled employees in each area of different businesses are necessary (Varpilah, Safer, Frenkel, Baba, Massaquoi, & Barrow, 2011).For example, different employees are responsible for doing advertising, and several focus on communicating with sponsorship. In this case, every employee would spare no effort to reach their values to take responsibility for their business. Secondly, in order to control the costs of hiring staff to tie up with educational visits, casual or part-time employees could be better (Heneman & Milanowski, 2011). Therefore, the money that is saved could be used into other programs such as providing more facilities about educational concept.4. In the overall operations, the inter-functional accounting management should be playing an important role (Inglis, 2008). The translucent and detailed financial documents are necessary for the organization to conclude the outfit of different sectors (Jorgensen & Messner, 2010). As there was no separate record between the outcomes of people visiting the farm and people only buying ice cream in special entry, there could be several recommendations to improve such condition. First of all, it would be the best that different records are through for different entries (Jorissen & Otley, 2010). As long as the special entry track to ice cream shop only is confirmed, there would be two major financial records for the entries, the whole farm visiting and shop buying. According to the statistics, the farm can formulate different promotions and strategies to enhance the profitability.ReferencesAlmira. (2011). Public dealing as promotional activity. Theoretical and Applied Economics, 11(564), 21-26. Chandon, P., Wansink, B., & Laurent, G. (2000). A benefit congruency good example of sales promotion effectiveness. 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