Assignment Unit 4 Individual Project Functions of

Assignment Unit 4 Individual Project Functions of Management

Click here to review the scenario. See at bottom of page
Deliverable Length: 	2 to 3 pages
Details 	

Management is broken down into four basic functions: Controlling, Leading, Organizing and Planning. Continuing with the scenario from unit 1, as part of management you now need to make a decision about how to manufacture the product; you have 3 possible options:

    Establish manufacturing of all components and final assembly.
    Establish assembly only operation with components purchased from local vendors.
    Outsource the entire manufacturing operation to an offshore company. 

Click here if you would like to see a What-If Analysis for this assignment. 

After making your decision, write a 2-3 page APA paper that:

    Describes the characteristics of the four functions of management.
    Describes your manufacturing option decision.
    Explains the pros and cons of that decision and the logic you used in reaching that decision.
    Discusses the impact that decision might have on the controlling, leading, organizing, and planning functions of management. 

Please submit your assignment of 2-3 pages in APA format. 

Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:

    TITLE PAGE. Remember the running head: AND TITLE IN ALL CAPITALS.
    ABSTRACT. A summary of your paper, not an introduction. Begin writing in third person voice.
    BODY. The body of your paper begins on the page following the title page and abstract page and must be double-spaced (be careful not to triple- or quadruple-space between paragraphs). The type face should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics except as required for APA level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 2-3 pages. In-body academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged.
    REFERENCE PAGE. References that align with your in-body academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hang indention, italics, and upper and lower case usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the Reference Page is not a bibliography but a further listing of the abbreviated in-body citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-body citation. 

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

Unit Materials

Unit 4 Course Materials
Points Possible: 	125
Date Due: 	Sunday, Aug 12, 2012
Objective: 	
Discuss the changing factors that could influence business in the future.
Explain the basic concepts of management and recognize problems faced in operating a business enterprise.
Submitted Files: 	Submit Assignment
BUSN105: Scenario
You are an inventor who enjoys working around the home, cleaning, cooking, and doing minor home repairs and remodeling. You have little financial skills and no management skills. You have a great idea for a new kind of home appliance that meets everyday consumer needs. Your net worth is not very high so you have no idea if you’ll be able to “fund” this start-up. You know that currently there are similar products that meet the consumers’ needs, but those products are inherently dangerous. You know nothing about manufacturing other than that it costs lots of money to set up a plant. You are convinced that this new technology idea would be applicable in a wide range of other products.
Your spouse, knowing how much time this venture will take away from family time, has asked you for an example of what you mean to make sure your idea isn’t some harebrained scheme. You mention the following as two similar ideas that were developed for one application but proved to have VERY widespread applications:
a. The “clicker” was initially invented for use with TV-, but now has widespread applications for a host of electronic applications, just like your technology could potentially do.
b. The 3-prong power cord for electrical appliances was invented for higher quality appliances. Lower quality appliances have a 2-prong cord, which is a safety issue. Better quality power cords have the 3rd “ground” wire, so now it has widespread application, just like your technology could potentially do.
Marketplace
The market for your new product (which will use a special technology) is quite saturated with annual growth of only 2%. It is expected that the new technology in this invention will jumpstart sales growth as it will make it far easier to handle and use around the house. You fully expect that once this product- acceptance is established, the technology can be leveraged into other products and/or markets. While each of these FUTURE products and/or market opportunities is sure to generate significant sales, there will be significant new investment required for each opportunity as well as some risk.
Scenario Glossary
Saturated: Every market place has a certain number of potential customers; as more and more product is sold to those customers, the market reaches a point where the only continued sales might be replacement sales; this would be considered 100% saturation; on the other hand, for brand new products like a Blackberry, iPhone, etc, the day these were introduced, the saturation rate was 0%; this concept is especially important for firms introducing products to a market already having a number of suppliers supplying this product category.
Annual growth: usually used when describing the growth rate of a particular product category; for example, until this year, the auto industry was growing about 4% per year; the housing industry was growing a little faster. Both ofScore: 	N/A


BUS105 Unit 4 "What If" Analysis

Possible Decisions	Pros	Cons	Examples	What If
All in-house Manufacturing	• most likely the lowest cost options
• total control over quality
• maximizes opportunity to make improvement as you are seeing opportunities during production	• highest investment needed to facility and equipment
• all quality problems are "yours"	• few companies are still doing this - perhaps Boeing	This is like a one-way street; once you spend the huge resources to set up your own manufacturing, that sunk cost will impact all decisions you make going forward.
				
				
				
Assembly Only	• requires far less space and equipment investment than manufacturing and assembling entire product	• dependant on other company for component parts
• higher cost than self manufacturing entire product	• some computer companies, some electronic companies are doing this more and more	if you do this, you must have excellent design quality and quality control at the parts companies that supply you.
				
				
				
				
				
Outsource 100%	• lowest investment option
• other firms "own" all manufacturing problems	• highest cost option
• quality image completely dependant on other firm	• Nike	Clearly an irreversible trend among many US manufacturers; however, IF you do this at the outset, you could always change your decision later and go to option 1 or 2.