1. INTRODUCTION
The
management stocks in the small computer science technical support companies in
computer science is considered as a critical factor of the financial and
operational point of view, starting of
the premise that it is not made any study of adjustment, layout and for not having a definition of a replacement
model.
So in
view of the importance of this productive segment and the city, it has been
decided to study the management stocks, for being one of the of great influence
elements in the business administration performance.
Being
the main objective of this research, to describe and analyze the system of
management stocks in a small company of technical services in computer science,
identifying its best practices and main difficulties, proposing at the end of
the research, some improvement recommendations.
The
accomplishment of this research aims to contribute with the services rendered
section in computer science, generating knowledge in the better practices
creation of a model that will speed up and make it more flexible to the
operation, allowing an optimization of the management stocks and of the
production. This attitude can make possible a larger competitiveness in the regional
market.
This
research is limited to a small company of technical service in computer
science, where it will be studied the management stocks, focus the
administrative management whose monthly revenue is about R$ 20.000,00 and a dry
functional staff with 12 employees.
Therefore,
a qualitative research was accomplished with base in the study-of-case
methodology, because this kind of research basically
worries about certain phenomenon understanding and interpretation, it has been
planned here. The data collection instruments in the studied company happened
through interviews, documents analysis and in loco visits.
In
this article it is done a theoretical revised on material management systems,
management production and logistics of plant transactions, so that this study
be based on concepts.
2. SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATION (SAP)
The
concept Davis, Aquilano and Chase (2001, p. 25), define the production as being
"[...] a group of components whose function is concentrated in the
conversion of a number of inputs in some wanted" result. Therefore, the
inputs are understood as the materials and the
information, the resources comprehend people, machines and the necessary
technologies to the production of the goods or services.
Those,
the production involve people, ideas, machines, materials and information. For
Plossl (1993), the materials and the information must be the center of
attention for the organizations, because they are the two elements in the
productive transformation that are more easily wasted,
becoming cost for the organization. The information, if well used, can bring
monetary profit and provide differentials to the organization.
The
management the production is not only a simple process of production of certain
quantities at the best time. Inside the production function we can classify the
management decisions in strategies (long term), tactics (medium term),
operational planning (short term) (DAVIS; AQUILANO; CHASE, 2001). These
decisions will influence the form of planning, to programming and controlling
the daily production. The production activities can be
decomposed in a technical part (that executes the tasks) and another
that offers support (the managerial) (ERDMANN, 2000). The PPCP - Planning,
Programming and Controlling of the Production is introduce in this second part,
projecting what should be done, working the system and exercising the right
controls. For Welzel (2002), in general lines, the PPCP can
be understood as a system of information that determines the directions
of the production, accompanies the process realigning what has been programmed
and exercising the respective controls. The PPCP involves several activities,
but we will focus in this study to the project of the product and to the
project of the process.
Corrêa
and Gianesi (2001, p. 43) define, Therefore, some typical managerial activities
that must be supported by SAP:
a) planning
the future needs productive process capacity needs (qualitative and
quantitatively), so that there is readiness to assist to the market at of
compatible service level with the organization competitive needs;
b) planning
the bought materials so that they arrive at the moment and in the right
quantities necessary to maintain the productive process working without harmful
ruptures at the intended levels of their resources use;
c) planning
appropriate levels of raw materials stocks, semi-finished and final product
stocks in the correct places, so that to guarantee that the of the process
uncertainties affect the level of service the least possible to the customers
and the smooth factory operation;
d) programming
production activities so that people and the involved equipments in the process
be, in every moment, working on the right things, the ones with priority,
avoiding, unnecessary dispersions of efforts;
e) being
capable reacting in an efficient way at reprogramming activities well
efficiently and fast pace in reprogramming activities when something runs badly
in the process or when unexpected environmental situations happen;
f) providing
information to other functions regarding the physical and financial
implications of the activities, present and prospective, of the manufacture,
contributing so that the efforts of all of the functions can be integrated and
coherent; and
g) being capable of promising accurate periods to the
customers and, later to accomplish them, even in dynamic environmental
situations and, many times, difficult to foresee.
Corrêa,
Gianesi and Caon (2001) comments that one of the main reasons of being the
Production Systems of Administration is exactly to provide coordination in
taking decisions. That means should be healed the problems of stocks redundancy
that exist with the objective of solving problems of the lack of this
coordination.
According
to Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002), one of the SAP functions of is the
possibility to protect the production of the "environmental"
uncertainties in offer and demand terms. A form of trying to minimize the
environmental problems is maintaining stock of resources, being this input or
output.
According
to Welzel (2002), the production administration, its functions and techniques
have direct relationship with the company objectives, being industrial or of
services that is to be competitive. That can be translated as "(...) to be
capable of overcoming the competition in those performance aspects that the
focused market worth it better" (CORRÊA; GIANESI; CAON, 2001, p. 22). So
we can understand as competitive advantages.
According
to AEP (2004), thinking about the Productivity, it is
verified, with frequency in those facilities occur facts that promote
efficient and loss productivity being:
a) excess
of people and raw material movement;
b) semi-finished
and finished products, causing several disruption and increasing of breaking
the risks and accidents, besides the production costs and time; and
c) the products have a very complicated productive
course.
The
basic idea of the simplification of the work corresponds to the elimination of
everything that doesn't aggregate value to the
product, in other words, everything that doesn't improve or doesn't transform
the product and that increases its cost.
For
Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002), the physical arrangement of a productive
operation worries about the physical location of the transformation resources.
Putting into a simple way, defining the physical arrangement is to decide where
to put all the facilities, machines, equipments and production person. The
physical arrangement is one of the most evident characteristics of a productive
operation because it determines its "form" and appearance.
Stevenson
(2001) it comments on that the need to do a physical arrangement planning
appears both during the project of new facilities and when projects of
preexistent facilities are reformulated. The most
common reasons for the physical arrangement project reformulation are the
following ones:
a) the
inefficiency of the operations (for instance, for high cost, for the existence
of bottle mouths);
b) accidents,
or risk to the physical integrity and to the safety;
c) change
in the project and products or services;
d) introduction
of new products or services;
e) changes
in the production volume, or in the mix (composition);
f) change
in the methods or in the equipment;
g) change
in environmental requirements or other of legal order; and
h) problems related with the personnel's morals (for instance,
lack of face the face contact).
For
Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002), there are some practical reasons why the
decisions of physical arrangement are important in most of types a
production.
a) physical
arrangement is frequently a difficult activity and of long duration due to the
physical dimensions of the moved transformation resources;
b) the
physical arrangement of an existent operation can interrupt its smooth
operation, taking to the customer's dissatisfaction or to production losses; and
c) the
physical arrangement (subsequent examined) is wrong, it can take to flow
patterns excessively long or confused, stock of materials, customers' lines
being formed along the operation, inconveniences for the customers, processing
times unnecessarily long, inflexible operations, unexpected flows and high
costs.
For
Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002) they classify in four basic types the
layout: layout positional, layout by process, layout for product and cellular
layout. This last one mentioned is the layout form that most impacts in the
waste reductions under the of the Dry Production philosophy. Next
there’s an explanation of each layout type:
a) positional layout: it is used
when the transformed materials are either very big, or very delicate, or even
they would object to be moved;
b) layout by process: in this type
of physical arrangement all the similar operation resources are maintained
together. This layout type is usually used when the
variety of products is relatively big. This type of layout is also known as
functional layout;
c) cellular layout: in this type of layout the
necessary resources for a peculiar class of products are contained in some way.
In this physical arrangement the machines are dedicated to an exclusive group
of parts; and
d) layout by product: in this one
the transformation resources are depicted in the specific sequence for better
convenience of the product or of the product type. This type of physical
arrangement is also known as layout in line.
In
the picture 01 Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002) point out some of the most
significant advantages and disadvantages associated to each type of physical
arrangement.
|
|
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|
Positional |
·
Mix flexibility and very expensive product; ·
Product or customer not moved or disturbed; and · High variety of tasks for the
labor. |
·
Very high unitary costs; ·
Space programming or activities can be complex; and · It can mean a lot of movement of
equipment and labor. |
|
Process |
·
High flexibility of mix and product;
·
Relatively strong in case of stage interruptions; and · Relatively easy equipment and
facilities supervision. |
·
Low use of resources; ·
It can have big stock in process or customers' lines; and · Complex flow can be difficult to
be controlled. |
|
Cellular |
·
Can give a good commitment between cost and flexibility for operations
with relatively high variety; ·
Fast displacement; and · Group work can result in better
motivation. |
·
It can be expensive to configure the current physical
arrangement; ·
It may require additional capacity; and · It can reduce levels of resources
usage. |
|
Product |
·
Low unitary costs for high volume;
·
It gives the opportunity for equipment specialization; and · Customers' movement and
convenient materials. |
·
It can have mix flexibility; ·
Not very strong against interruptions; and · Work can be repetitive. |
|
Picture 01:
Advantages and disadvantages of the basic types of physical arrangement Source: Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002). |
According
to Severo Filho (2006), the kanban is a tool to operationalize the production
system just-in-time, making possible to transform the production of being
"pushed", that according to Moura (1989), it is represented by the
traditional system of production, where orders are given in function of a
certain demand expectation, that may be executed or not. Then,
the production lots are transferred from the previous section to the subsequent
one, independent on this having or not the need of receiving them, causing
them, among other negative factors, an increase of the stock levels; and in
"being pulled", that according to Moura (1989), it happens when the
demand in certain section or cell is generated by the need of the section or following
working cell. So, as the stock of finished products
needs more products, it generates the production need of these by the work
centers that supply it, for so it needs for this production receive the
components produced in the previous sections and so forth, this way making
possible that only the necessary components in certain moments be produced, in
other words, pulling the production.
The
kanban is a System Toyota of Production important of the element such, system
that aims to the total elimination of the losses, however, they are not
synonymous, being the kanban a technique to help the
implement of those principles, being a self-control system in factory level, as
it is illustrated the picture 02.
Picture
02: Planning Kanban X Conventional
Source: Moorish (1989).
The
kanban assumes all the production control functions below the monthly master
program. All the production of the factory, the external suppliers flow of
parts and the control of the of the factory inventory become of the supervision
responsibility. The kanban is operated by the system employees
production line, who possess the visibility and the deep knowledge of the
immediate needs in the factory, to assist the needs of the master production
program (ALBUQUERQUE; ARAÚJO; SEVERIANO FILHO, 1999).
3. LOGISTICS
According to Ballou (2001), it has been suggested that a logistics
strategy has three objectives: (a) reduction of costs, where it is the strategy
driven to minimize the variable costs associated to the movement and the
stockpiling; (b) capital reduction, that is the directed strategy for
minimization of the logistic system investment level; and (c) improvement in
the service, that are strategies which usually recognize the incomes depend on
the level of the supplied logistic service.
The
author comments that the logistics will perform in the stock strategy,
executing the planning and control, helping in taking of decisions on
stockpiling and on the supplies program. To minimize the costs and stockpiling
expenses, and to optimize the transference of the raw material of the
productive process. To decide the quantities of the product that will be dealt, when, how to deal with them and from where to
acquire them are some of the frequent concerns.
According
to Severo Filho (2006), the logistics managers should constantly work with
decisions regarding purchases, production and distribution. He mentions that
some of the most important decisions are:
a) How
many ask: every supply request should specify the requested quantity, basing
upon expected future demands, supply restrictions, existent discounts and
involved costs;
b) When
to ask: the exact moment of emitting a new order is determined by the parameter
of the request point, that depends on the supply lead time, on the expected
demand and on the level of desired service;
c) Under
what frequency to revise the stock levels: the stock levels can be revised
continually or periodically, depending on the present technology and on the
revision costs, among other factors;
d) Where
to locate the stocks: if a company can stock their products in more than one
installation, location decisions should be made, as for instance, to maintain
finished products at small warehouses close to the customers or in a central
warehouse, which depends on the distribution costs, service restrictions, time
in which that the customers accept to wait, time of distribution, stock costs,
costs of the facilities, etc; and
e) How
to control the system: the usage of performance indicators and operation
monitoring must be present to support corrective measures and contingency
actions if the logistic system is out of control or operating with low
performance.
The
Logistics, according to Lima (apud
BRAND; MULLER, 2004), can be divided into three
macro-processes: supply logistics (Inbound Logistics), plant logistics and
distribution logistics (Outbound Logistics). The supply logistics, according to
Ballou (apud BRAND; MULLER, 2004)
talks about the flow of products for the company instead of from this one,
having as more important tasks in this segment: (a)
the initialization and transmission of the purchase orders; (b) transports of
the inputs / materials to the factory; (c) stocks maintenance. The plant
logistics corresponds to the processes of internal provisioning of the
manufacture; this way, related the this function, it can happen the formation of stocks and
movement of materials and finished products among the production processes and
stockpiling places, which will be given larger emphasis. In relation to the
distribution logistics, the finished product can be stored in the later company
itself or dispatched to external warehouses or distribution centers.
According
to Garcia et al. (2006), SCM is the
term used to describe the flow administration of goods and information along
with a chain of supplies, passing through suppliers of raw materials,
manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers, the final consumers
have their demands served. The Picture 03 a typical chain of supplies.
Picture
03: Illustration of a chain of supplies
Source: Garcia, et al. (2006).
According
to Ching (2001), a Supply chain is all effort involved in the different
processes and business activities that create value in the form of products and
services for the final consumer. Its management is an integrated form of
planning and controlling the flow of goods, information and resources, from the
suppliers to the final customer, this trying to manage the connections in the
logistics chain in a cooperative way and for the benefit of all the involved ones.
Ching
(1999, p. 6 and 68) clarifies that
Supply
Chain management is a wider concept and strategically more important, that
starts in the exit of the suppliers raw materials, it goes by the production,
assembly, and it finishes in the distribution of the finished to products the
customers; to formulate and to implement strategies based on the current
customers' retention and obtaining new ones and to manage the chain in an
effective way.
For
Novaes (2001, p. 49), SCM is
the integration
among the processes along the chain of supplies, that continues to be done in
terms of flow of materials, of information and of money, but, now, the
participant agents perform in unison and in a strategic way, looking for the
better possible results in terms of reduction of costs, wastes, and aggregation
of value for the final consumer.
Brand
and Muller (2004, p. 21) mention that to know the nature of the logistics costs
it is of great importance for the process of socket of decision related to the
determination of the appropriate service levels to the consumers, visualization
of opportunities for reduction of costs and improvements and for the evaluation
and justification of investments in new technologies.
Bloomberg,
Lemay and Hanna (2002) suggest that the costs be segregated
in: direct and indirect, fixed, variable and semi-varied, unrecoverable (sunk
costs) and increased or autcast ones. Each one of those costs reveals unique
importance for taking of decisions in logistics and we will classify them
according to the picture 04.
|
Purpose of the Information; |
Classification of the Cost Logistics |
|
As for the relation with the
object |
Direct and Indirect |
|
As for the behavior before the
activity volume |
Pierced and Fixed |
|
As for the relation with the
administration process |
Controllable and non
Controllable; Costs of Opportunity; Relevant costs; Unrecoverable costs; Increase or you Differentiate
Costs; Occult costs (Hidden Costs); Standard Cost; Goal Cost; Kaizen Cost; and The Cycle of Life Cost. |
Picture 04: Classification of the Logistics Cost as
for the purpose of the information Source:
Farias e Costa (2005).
According
to Faria and Costa (2005, p. 69), "the logistics costs are the costs of
planning, to implement and to control the whole entrance inventory (inbound),
in process and of departure (outbound), from the origin point to the
consumption" point.
For
Dias (2005), the ABC curve is an important instrument for the administrator; it
allows to identify those items that justify attention and treatment adapted as for its
administration. The ABC curve is obtained through the
order, disposition of the items according to its relative importance.
4. MANAGEMENT MATERIALS
According
to Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002), stock is defined
as the stored accumulation of material resources in a transformation system.
Sometimes, the stock is also used to describe any
stored resource.
There are four stock types: the protection stock, the
cycle stock, the anticipation stock and the channel stock, these concepts are also defined in the literature and widely used by the business
practices.
Castro
(2005, p. 22) highlights as the main mathematical models developed for the
management stocks:
a) Economical: of developed
by Harris in 1913, it was based on the logic that the great quantity to be
produced is that one that has the lowest cost order simultaneously and to the
stock;
b) Models of Scheduling: it can be
translated as programming and it involves the usage of limited resources in a
certain period of time to comply with the customers’ request or the replacement
of stocks;
c) Dynamic formation of lots: it has its
origin in the economical lot and similar premises, with the exception that the
demand doesn't need to be constant; and
d) Model probability: the probability
models are much more sophisticated and complex and they take into account some
of the deficiencies of the previous models. The most significant ones are the
following:
· The news vendor's Model: this model
tries to solve situations in which there is the need to determine the right
amount to assist certain demand in a specific period, as point out Hopp and
Spearman (apud CASTRO, 2005);
· The Model of continuous replacement of stock: in
this model, the stock is monitored continually while the demand happens in a
random way; when the stock reaches a certain degree "r", the request
point, a “Q” production order (or request) is put;
· The Model of
periodic revision of stock: in this model the stock is monitored in regular
intervals and an order is put in two ways: with variable "Q" and
enough to reach a degree of maximum stock fixed whenever there is analysis of
the stock; combining the analysis interval with the request point, that is,
only adding an order if the stock degree is equal or inferior to "r".
Silver, Peterson and Pyke (apud
CASTRO, 2005) point out that this model is particularly interesting for
companies that don't use a computerized system to control or to control several
acquired items from the same supplier; and
· The Model of base stock: the logic is
always to maintain the stock in the same landing. For so, the stock is supplied
as the consumes happens, in such way to reestablish
the objective degree, in other words, the amount of stock replacement is equal
to the consumption.
For
Silver, Peterson and Pyke (apud
CASTRO, 2005), the classic models of management stocks should take into account
three fundamental subjects: how often frequency is stock evaluation done? When
to emit a request? And when should it be requested?
According
to Arnold (2004), the stocks help to make the operation production to the in
four ways:
a) They
allow that operations with taxes of different production are
carried out separately and in a more economical way. It is necessary to
organize stocks among them, so that two or more operations of a sequence with
different result taxes are carried out with efficiency;
b) They
allow the leveling of the production and the organization of anticipation
stocks for sales in the pick periods. This action results in:
·
Lower costs with extra hour;
·
Lower costs with recruiting and dismissals;
·
Lower costs with training;
·
Lower costs with sub-recruiting; and
·
Lower demanded capacity.
They
allow that the production maintains longer operations, which results in the
following:
a) Lower
preparation cost per item; and
b) The
production capacity increase result from more time of use production resources
usage the operations, instead of in the preparation.
They
allow the production to buy in larger quantities, which results in the
reduction of the unit requests costs for and in discounts about the
quantities.
For
the author, all this has a price. The problem is to balance the investment in
stocks with the following factors:
a) Service
to the customers;
b) Costs
associated to the change of production levels;
c) Cost
of emission of requests; and
d) Transport
costs.
According
to Oliveira (2004), the waste can be defined as
"any activity that doesn't join value to the product / service". It
was identified seven types of wastes, the ones which
are believed, to be applicable in several types of operations - in services and
in manufacture: overproduction, time of wait, transport, process, movement,
defective products and stock. To proceed, it will be made
a brief explanation about the meaning of each one of them, according to the
author:
a) Overproduction,
to produce more than it is immediately necessary for the next process. Its
elimination should be object of intense effort from the organization, because
the processes of a production line should be balanced in such a way that it
only proceeds to the production certain product in the amount and when the
following internal customer request;
b) Time
of wait, is the waste of expectation that happens when the production factors
await to be processed: the companies tend to leave them stopped in function of
the full use of the machines capacity and equipments of the previous processes
many times it is produced addition much more than the next workstation has
capacity to process;
c) Transport
is the waste that happens as there are long distances to be traveled by the
production factors along the process;
d) Process
can happen as the developed stages and activities that don't add value continue
to be executed due to the non-accomplishment of an effective analysis of which
elements can generate costs and of the no-aggregation of the product
value;
e) Movement
is the waste due to flaws in the project of the workstation: when the companies
decide to execute the production process without to analyzing before the
characteristics of the process thoroughly;
f) Defective
products is the waste regarding the loss of production resources, time,
storage, the consuming of equipments, credibility, etc; and
g) Stock
happens when the company maintains unnecessary stocks, that mean investment
losses and also of physical space.
The
production wastes when no monitored or badly analyzed can generate quantitative
and qualitative data conflicting, inducing onerous decision taking as for the
stock. According to Ballou (2001), this monitoring can and must be also executed by the operation, so that it be minimized
the damage.
According
to Dias (2005), the systems of controls of stocks have the function of
dimensioning controlling the stocks being an important and preoccupying theme.
Being a constant and growing concern among the businessmen
to discover recipes to reduce stocks without committing the productive process
and without increasing the costs.
The
concept 80-20 is quite useful in the distribution planning when the products are contained or classified by their activities of sales or for
their annual total sales values. The objective of that classification is
to define systems of control of more appropriate stocks, establishing a more
efficient total system in costs.
The
steps for the application of the ABC technique are the following ones (CORRÊA;
GIANESI; CAON, 2001):
a) for
each item to stock, to determine the total amount used in the previous
year;
b) determine
the average cost of each one of the stock items, using hard currency;
c) make
calculations for each item in stock the total annual cost of usage, multiplying
the average cost of the each item, lifted up in 2, for the corresponding amount
used in 1;
d) order
in a list all of the items in decreasing value from the of established use
value in 3;
e) calculate
the accumulated values of usage value for the whole list, in the defined order
in 4;
f) calculate
the determined accumulated values in 5 in relative percentage terms to the
accumulated total value of the usage value for the total of the items;
g) Plot
in a graphic the calculated values in item 6; and
h) define the three areas according to the inclination of the
resulting curve: area, of great inclination; area B, of average inclination
(around 45o); area C, of small inclination.
5. Case Study
In
this research, trying to restrict its focus, in has been opted to study the
management stocks in a small company which renders
technical services in computer science, with average monthly revenue of R$
20.000,00 that whose headquarters is in the center-west area of the State of
São Paulo of Brazil. This area is composed by 76 municipal
districts and an approximate population of 1.650.200 inhabitants. It has
7.196 industries, 22.773 service companies and 817 education centers
approximately.
The studied company was founded in the 80’ decade, by two
entrepreneurs that work there more than 50 years in the segment and that are
originated from of a great national computer science company. The
studied company has about 12 collaborators and it has been if restructured so
that can render a quicker service, flexible in a smaller cost for the final
customer.
Basing
in the exposed, the main objective of this research is to describe and to
analyze; pointing the main positive aspects and the main deficiencies, the
system of management stocks of a small company which renders
technical services in computer science and that has its headquarters in
the center-west area of the State of São Paulo, Brazil.
Nowadays,
the company doesn't have any type ERP software, to
integrate all of the areas of the company, to support the calculations of
demand forecast, in the stock management, to monitor the production and to
generate information to the administrative areas and help the direction in
taking decision, as for the best practices that can be adopted.
It has systems that work in a tight way, in other words, isolated,
where there is not automatic change of information among the administrative
area, financial and operational, being done through the net by messages, not
having a control on the stock of parts, there is not a measurement of the
values of stocks, the requests are made in an empiric way.
It
has been noticed several times the delay in the service for not having a
certain item in stock and it was verified a high index of rotation of this item
later, in compensation some items that are already obsolete or that have a
rotation index below the expectation, are present in high quantities.
The company also has a serious problem in the physical layout of its
structure, where it has been executed some improvement on realigning the
departments and of flow of parts and equipments, because of certain times
during the day it is noticed a personnel traffic jam and bad usage of the
specialized labor, as it can be observed in the Picture 05, this is the old
layout.
The
stock of parts and equipments is in an appropriate place, because the
technicians have free access and many times it has been noticed the non execution of the rules for the usage of the parts in
equipments in maintenance and even in the substitution and devolution of the
backup equipments.
The
logistics in the calls service is done without any rule and that is generating
an excess the numbers answered call and in the time of displacement by some technicians
it was also observed in a sporadic way the displacement of more than a
technician for the same customer with the intention of assisting different
calls.
Something
else noticed and a very critic one is that the technician decides who he will
assist first, having as a parameter personal interest, the relationship degree
and not the established priority for the direction and nor even having a
rational and economical displacement.
Picture 05: Old
layout of the company
There is not on the part of the management of the company any
pattern type for calculating a demand forecast of parts and technician calls,
that after a brief study has detected a very high cost from the purchase of the
parts, because the same ones are bought in small lots, not allowing a better
negotiation of the values and having very high expenses with freight.
The
company has been losing important customers, because is service cost is high
for the market pattern, the high lead time between the open call and the
problem solution, the bad distribution of the calls, the lack of attendance of
the assisted call among other factors.
6. Recommendations
It is
necessary that the company go by a restructuring of their processes, so that it
is competitive to the level costs, agility and flexibility again, for that it is proposed that an alteration in the layout of the plant,
in the management stocks, in the service logistics to the internal and external
customer, of RH, become among other things.
It
should be initiated the process of normalization of the processes, where all of
the processes should be tabulated and given priority levels, so in a second
step they can be written in a clear and objective way, where every new company
employee can read and understand how the processes work.
A
document of the information safety politics should be
elaborated, in which all of the employees should sign in a copy when
they are recruited and it has to be together with their documents in the
company and a copy with, where it should consist their rights and duties and
how to proceed in case of contingency.
The restructuring process can begin by the alteration in the layout
of the plant, where the reception would be in the entrance of the company, so
the customer does not have direct access to the laboratory, because he would
have to go by the receptionist, being the first laboratory of printers, because
it is an equipment that can be very heavy and high cost, the second laboratory
would be the one of microcomputers and notebooks, for they are lighter and of
easing handling, the financier and the stock can stay at a single room, because
the employee doesn't need the whole the space and in this way you can improve
in the company customization because it the same employee has the appropriate
trainings he can manage the stock of parts, these alterations can be seen in
the Picture 06.
Picture 06:
Proposed layout
In the existent deposits, it one of them is organized to receive
all of the backup equipments that the company has, it will allow the customization
the space in the company and (in the other it can be) the equipments without
repairs, that will be recycled and this area will be transformed in a new
future in to at another laboratory, in case it is necessary.
The management stocks was normalized following the ABC model, where
Côrrea, Gianesi and Caon (2001), define some steps for as application and in
the ABC classification, was dismembered so that they could adopt other models
according to the degree of importance of the product, for instance: in the
products classified like "C", the classification of two drawers was
used, but in the products classified like "B" it was used the
classification of maximum and minimum and for the products classified as
"A" it was adopted the
Economical Lot of Purchase (LEC) model.
The
depreciation of the stocks must be made by the method
of the constant shares, because the inflation is controlled and in acceptable
levels, the calculations of the depreciation should happen every six months
such way, allowing better vision of the earnings and to trying to balance the
costs.
The establishment of an ERP system control the callings, that has
integrated stock control, customers' register, technicians and suppliers,
emission of service receipt and of sale, bills to pay and to receive allow to
accompany the technician's productivity, for equipment, contract and piece
model, allow to visualize the report of calls of the equipment and who has
assisted the occurrence and gave its solution, if it is contract equipment,
warranty or detached.
The
system should contemplate calculations of the part stocks depreciation and
existent backup equipments in the company, because having stock of certain
parts and equipments, level can mean loss, for the most varied reasons and even
to improve the negotiation, the level of negotiation of the products either to
the suppliers or to the customers.
With
the establishment of the system, the management stocks can be normalized, so
that can assist the specifications that were previously undefined, to inform
which is the rotation of each product, the economical lot of purchase, which
should be the minimum stock and of safety, period of delivery to the supplier
with minimum, medium and the high price.
Diming to improve the quality in the system service it should
anticipate when the call was opened, which was the Lead team for the service
and solution, it should have parameters about the period of service and
solution of the problem, what a type of customer and priority, which technician
should assist or should make the control of the taken parts of the stock for
service in the laboratory and in field, crossing information with the calling;
about the closing of the calling, the part it should be given their part with
defect or the one that was removed them the stock.
With
the reception in the entrance, the technicians' agglomeration in the
laboratories can cease, because who will assist the field, receives call on the
reception and only has to request the necessary parts for the service and
doesn't need to go back to the company.
The
receptionist will have the function of filtering the customers' access to the
laboratories, to the financial area, to the director and technical areas as
well she will also (certain period of the day) do the attendance of the
services, like calling the customers and evaluating the service, the attitude
and the degree of knowledge passed by the technician.
The
receptionist should try to know the course of the internal calls and maintain
the customer always informed on his/her equipment and it some alteration there
was been in the prevision forecast of the occurrence solution. she/he should
also call after one week the customers have token their equipments to the
company to know it everything is normal, if there hasn’t been any occurrence
after the equipment removal, if she/he is satisfied with the accomplished
service.
About
the arrival of the equipment with problems in the reception of the company, it should be opened the calling, generated the report and
identification label, so that there is control on the equipments that are in
the company.
As for the service logistics to the external customers, it should
be thought about creating areas for each technician, so as the calling is
opened it can be immediately sent to the technician and in case are of the
technicians doesn't have many calls they should be divided in that moment, the
area of who has more calls and that it is close to his/hers.
In the technical calling there should have, traveled number of the
kilometers driver, time of displacement among the calls, so that it can be made
the costing of each call, through the system, where there will be the cost hour
and the technician and value of the fuel, in such a way to measure how must
productive the technician really was audit the really had the lowest
displacement cost. In the laboratory services, it should be combined
priorities about: arrival order, the customer's level,
emergency degree, etc.
It
should also have at least a technician that has a degree of larger knowledge to
assist the company customers vip, these allowing a
larger fidelization of the customer either the company and a more personalized
service.
But for that it should be delegated for somebody the powers to
define what should be assisted first, this person should have certain degree of
knowledge of the area, about the types of equipments that will be assisted and
the volume of calls by technician, so that nobody gets overloaded and it
doesn’t cause stress for the customer and the technician.
But about the management the human resources, it should be
thought about a company that has experience in doing the recruitment and
personnel's selection and business, as well as in promoting the employees'
recycling, through technical trainings, labor training, professional attitude,
about the legislation, among others. To promote reward for productivity and
commitment.
In the
area of management human resources it should have an
attendance of the employees' productivity, because this attendance should
support the decisions of the direction, it should also have a half-yearly
program on the employees' evaluation 360th.
All the
problems that involve employees should be treated
directly by the human resources and the period for the meeting with the
employee should be at the most of 1 week, with the complainer on part return
the first useful day after the meeting.
Another duty of the human resources will be the
attendance of the employee's health, where it should maintain a registration of
the vaccination notebook, the disease and accident, dismissals the reincidences
that could be extended to the relatives that live with
the employee.
7. CONCLUSION
If the
company hadn’t started begin a fast restructuring
process, it could have had serious financial problems, because the services
were decreasing, the purchases of products were badly managed, the logistics
service was very bad and without any criterion, it didn't possess any parameter
type on the accomplished services, there were not notion of time of
displacement and service.
But it has much to get better and grow, therefore the market
competes with this type of service and as the director had noticed that he was
having a down fall in the revenue of the company, he decided to begin an entire
restructuring of the company in the second semester of 2006 with the recruiting
of a consultancy group to detect the critical points inside the processes of
the company and that needed an immediate action.
As it was shown in the previous topics the lack of a system and the
layout of the company were some of the critical points and where it was decided
to work immediately, the layout of the company could be altered soon by the end
of the year between Christmas and the New Year, when the company decided to
stop with most of the job and to do all the restructuring and consequently the
acquisition of their own system for technical support companies.
With
this reorganization of the departments and the introduction of the system it
was also possible begin an inventory of the stock of parts, and backup
equipments, being made the registration in the system, with the respective
quantities and values and equipments that were borrowed.
The
Kanban label was instituted for all of the equipments
that entered the technical support, parts that were used in these equipments
and the record in the system that was made by the company’s receptionist who
got in touch with the customer informing him/her the course of the maintenance.
The
management supplies, being done through the system that has the module of
supplies, where: the economical lot of purchase, minimum stock, stock of
safety, the ABC curve for product and product line, the medium period in stock
of each product, the percentage of profitability for product line, etc.
So is
defined the first information could be generated the accounting it was
requested all of the 2006 purchase and sale receipts and also from the second
semester of 2005, this way they were recorded in the system, so that some statistical
values could be measured on the rotation of the products.
When certain product reaches minimum stock of is initiated a
quotation process with the registered suppliers, where the responsible for the
stock and finances already knows which is the best purchase option and
immediately makes the purchase request, when the purchase request is superior
to a certain value the request is sent to the director, that will give the
final word.
There
was a reduction in the freight costs, and a larger rationalization in the
purchase of products, reduction in the number of intercity connections for the
suppliers, less work as for the registration of the requests and the opening of
callings.
By now
the measurements are being made monthly, so that it can detect and to work the
deviations, in such way to correct the created parameters. The director of the
company seems to be very favorable to the changes that are being done and
opened to new changes that are being planned.
The
director already has glimpses as a possible and measurable goal the
certification of ISO 9001:2000 for the year of 2008, because with all the
restructuring that is being done, the company’s
already reaching satisfaction levels and quality better day by day having a
very comfortable atmosphere of work for all of the employees.
It has
been made the collection of information so that until the beginning of the
second semester of this year the company will have a growth of 15% in revenue
and it can make new trainees' recruiting, as form of generating professional
technicians.
However,
this research doesn't end all the administration possibilities, because as the
own case study demonstrates, in spite of having common challenges to all
companies, there are also specificities in function of the adopted strategies
in each company or even in function to the characteristics of its operation.
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