Innovation & Sustainable Business Development
Executive Summary
The report presented here focuses on an innovation and its implementation in an organization for improving the working on the organization. The report includes an introduction that discusses the background of the organization, the problem it is facing and the suggested idea of innovation. The main body discusses the innovation idea suggested that is distributed manufacturing in detail. It is discussed that how it will help the organization of Christian Cole in solving its issues. These issues were identified by a member of the team and the team decided to come up with a solution that is innovative and benefitting for the organization. The benefits are also give in the report. Innovation is suggested along with that the implementation of the innovation is also added that gives out a strategic plan to process the innovation, the business model it will follow, and its future prospects along with the competitive advantage it will provide to the company. in the end, a conclusion and recommendations are added.
Contents
Introduction 3
Background 3
Problem 3
Idea of innovation 3
Innovation and Sustainable Business Development 4
Organization innovation 4
Solution to a problem 5
Benefits of innovation 6
Implementation of the Innovation 7
Business Canvas Model 7
Strategic Plan 8
Project options analysis 9
Innovation Delivery 9
Future Opportunities 10
Competitive Advantage 10
Impact on Business Development 11
Conclusion 11
Recommendations 11
References 13
Introduction
With increasing globalization, the whole world has become a huge market place that is focusing to cater the needs of the customers. The increasing competition at domestic and international level, demands regular update of the organizational innovation which refers to the implementation of new organizational methods internally or externally in the business undertakings. The task assigned to the team is to identify the issues the company is facing and provide and effective and innovative solution to it with the help of factors associated with the solution (Lindgren, 2012).
Background
This report will provide an innovative solution to Christian Cole, who owns a small furniture company situated in Australia. The company is engaged in furniture making business from last 15 years and believes in delivering quality wooden products to the customers. The company provide 25 years warranty on its timber products which is the best in the industry.
Problem
The increased costing of related factors of furniture manufacturing like raw material, labour cost, transportation, etc. creating issues in maintaining the quality and cost against high competitive market (Silva, Styles and Lages, 2017).
Idea of innovation
Using Distributed Manufacturing that is decentralizing the manufacturing of the furniture and coordinate with the help of information technology will help the company to lower operational costing and enjoy the competitive advantage against its competitors.
Innovation and Sustainable Business Development
Organization innovation
Planning an innovation, and implementing it effectively act as the reason for achieving the success or complete failure. The first step is to analyse the related factors and then think of the innovation that can help in solving the issue the organization is facing. The issue identified by the team for Christian Cole’s company is that the company is facing issues in maintain its competitive position in the furniture market due to increased operational costs. The innovative solution for the issue is the change in the manufacturing system of the furniture that will be handled with the help of information technology and also adding the use of machines for quick and cost-effective work (Bucherer, Eisert and Gassmann, 2012). The distributed marketing will change the nature of manufacturing turning it from traditionally centralized, time-consuming, large-scaled, and pre-assumed to the new Distributed Manufacturing paradigm that includes the decentralised manufacturing that is autonomous near end user-driven (Andries and Debackere, 2013).
The distributed marketing innovation will include the following factors: –
Distributed Manufacturing- Many furniture manufacturers could be hired the company that can provide the required quality and product as per the customer’s demand. This will increase the bargaining power of the company against its suppliers and the work will also be done better and quicker.
Local Manufacturers- The company can hire local manufacturers for providing furniture as per customers choice and quality. This will reduce the pressure of the company as it can place the order to another supplier if one is not available or asking for too much price (Vial, 2016).
Information Technology- An application can be developed that will help the customers to check the progress of the products they ordered and if they want any change that is justifiable can contact the company for the same before the furniture is complete.
Transport- Local transportation company can be hired on order basis that will help in reducing the transportation cost.
Computerized tools- Computerized machines and tools are quick and provide better finish to the product. Using them will help the company to complete orders in less time and labour costing will also reduce (Joyce and Paquin, 2016).
Solution to a problem
Every organization aims to achieve its organizational goals and for that it tries all ends. With the change of time, the needs of every industry are changing and so the technology. This leads to need of incorporating the innovation in an organization. Cristian Cole’s company in Australia is facing issues with the high operating cost which is affecting the competitive advantage of the company against its competitors. Applying the innovative idea of distributed manufacturing and tracking the product with the help of an application will gain the attention of the targeted customers. Providing them products with competitive quality and in less time, will gain the market share for the company. Thus, the final outcome will the increased profit and achieved organizational goals (Dudin et al., 2015). The team describes the following issues that the innovative idea of distributed manufacturing and incorporation of informational technology will solve for the company: –
Distributed Manufacturing- the increased availability of the furniture manufacturers will decrease the bargaining power of the suppliers which will help in reducing the manufacturing cost of the furniture. Also, the product will be manufactured in less time.
Lower labour cost- The introduction of computerized tools will reduce the labour cost for the company as it will produce more finished products in a lesser time for the company than getting done from labour (Matusiak, 2016).
Low transportation cost- Transportation cost will reduce in two ways. First, hiring the local furniture developers will reduce the transportation area which will reduce the costing of transporting the furniture from one place to another. Secondly, the computerized tools can be setup at one place by the company that can manufacture the furniture and could be sent to the customers.
Customer satisfaction- The application will help the customer to check the progress of the product they ordered which will help in increasing the over-all confidence of the targeted customers on the company’s products.
Quick manufacturing- The use of computerized tools and distributed manufacturing will ensure that the manufacturing of the products is getting done quickly and efficiently (Gebhardt and Wambach, 2008).
Benefits of innovation
Bringing any change in the working of an organization internally or externally affects the whole organization drastically. This makes it important to analyse the effects of change before applying it on the organization. The analysis helps in deciding that the option or the solution selected for resolving the organizational challenges is effective or not. The benefits the innovation will provide to the organization need to be analysed for justifying its usage. The benefit Distributed Manufacturing will provide to the organization and related factors are as follows: –
Material handling cost- The cost of the material handling will be reduced when distributed manufacturing will be applied as the work will be distributed in smaller quantity that will reduce the storage, transporting, damage, etc. costing.
Minimizing wastage- The distributed manufacturing will allow the reduced wastage as the work will be distributed amongst many manufacturers.
Manageable Supply Chain- The supply chain will be managed more efficiently as the suppliers will be local and easy to reach (Mizuno, 2015).
Increased Customer Satisfaction- The customer can check the quality of the timber works and the product at the local manufacturing hub which will increase the customer satisfaction. Also, it will allow the customer to make manageable changes in the products if anything found a miss.
Improved Customer Loyalty- The increased customer satisfaction that is earned by incorporating the use of technology will increase in developing the customer’s loyalty towards the brand.
Technology- The technology will help in making the service rendering easy and that will help in improving the customer satisfaction and also will help in gaining more customers for the company (Kapsali, 2011).
Implementation of the Innovation
Business Canvas Model
Key Partners
The local manufacturers will be the key partners in achieving the organizational goals
Key Activities
Finding correct and efficient manufacturers
Providing quick and efficient products
Distributed Marketing or decentralizing the process
Key Resources
Technology in the form of application and systematic customer approach (Mortara and Minshall, 2011)
Value Propositions
The cost-effective quality products
The application that will help in keeping a track on the progress of the product
Customer Relationship
The new cost-efficient product with quick service and track of progress through application will help in improving the customer relationship
Customer Segment
The people who believe in quality and believe on the power of innovation and technology will be the targeted customer segment (Beardsell, 2010).
Channels
Local newspaper and mouth-publicity will be the channel for promoting the innovation
Cost Structure
The main cost factor will be the cost required to develop the application for the company
Revenue Stream
Services provided to the customers will generate revenue for the company (Schaarschmidt and Hoeber, 2017).
Strategic Plan
The strategic planning is important to guide the management and the associates in initiating and implementing the innovation in the organization effectively. The strategic plan to incorporate distributed marketing in Christian’s business is as follows: –
Step 1- The first step will be to identify the local manufacturers that can deliver the quality and quantity in the products that the company aims to provide its customers. A list will be generated including the names of the companies and manufacturers.
Step 2- The next will be to find the nearest timber depot and forest. The company will contact them to purchase the raw material of the furniture manufactured by the company (Newton, 2012).
Step 3- The third step will get in contact with the shortlisted manufacturers and the timber depot. This step will help in analysing the cost factors associated with the change that organization will incorporate by bringing in the innovation in the organizational working.
Step 4- The fourth step will to sign a MoU between the company of Christian Cole and local manufacturers and timber depots.
Step 5- The last step will be to contact the customers and that can be done by tracking and contacting them with the help of social and digital media (Kant and Singh, 2009).
Project options analysis
There are two options provided by the team that can help the organization in focus to improve its working and find the solution of challenges it is facing. The options are: –
Option 1
Proposal: Establishing own manufacturing plants
Scope: – Limited to the nearby places of the plants only
Option 2
Proposal: – Distributed manufacturing through local manufacturing hubs
Scope: – Extended as there are many hubs throughout Australia
Innovation Delivery
The innovation that is distributed manufacturing will be applied in the organization in the following manner: –
Step 1: – The order of the customers will be received with the help of the website and other media like timber depot and local manufacturers.
Step 2: – Using Digital Media Platform the Timber products will be designed at the head office of Christian Cole’s company, by the expert architectures and then designs will be provided to the customers (Kuhnle, 2016).
Step 3: – once the customer will be satisfied with the design and cost the order will be confirmed
Step 4: – Timbers imported from the local forests and timber depots to the hired local hubs for manufacturing
Step 5: – Final contact to the customer if any alteration in the design needed
Step 6: – Manufacturing started using Digital CNC routers
Step 7: – Customer can keep the track of the progress and can also visit to the local manufacturing hub for quality checking
Step 8: – Product delivered and feedback received (Wang and Shen, 2007)
Future Opportunities
Heavy products can also be manufactured by using this distributed manufacturing process
The business opportunities could be expanded to the New Zealand territory
Business integration in the field of timber depots and forest acquisition would be done
Business diversification to other business could be a possibility for Christian Cole (Huang et al., 2014)
Competitive Advantage
More manufacturing capacity means more customers can be handled in less time without compromising with the quality
More customers will mean more market share
More market share will mean stronger market position among the other marketers
Strong market position means increased competitive advantage than the close competitors (Gupta, 2012)
Impact on Business Development
This innovation will help Christian Cole in increasing the sales revenue of her business and also the better services will increase the customer satisfaction. The improved revenue generation will help Christian to provide better facilities to the employees and that will help in improving the employees’ dedication towards the company (Kant and Singh, 2009).
Conclusion
Innovation and its implementation is very critical for any company. Christian Cole’s company is facing some issues and that is reflecting in lower sale and revenue generation. The team got together and analysed the related factors to present a report that suggest an innovation ‘Distributed Marketing’ for the company to implement for gaining its market position back in Australia. The idea behind the innovation is to incorporate technology in the manufacturing and also reducing the operational cost of the whole process and that is done using local manufacturers and incorporating nearby timber depots and forests. A website will help in gaining its customers and provide then designs by the experts of the company. The innovation will allow the company to extend the business to the other parts of Australia and New Zealand. Hence, the report shows that incorporation innovation can help in gaining market share and improving the services also reducing the operational cost.
Recommendations
The recommendation that can help in using the innovation idea in a better way are as follows: –
The local hubs and timber depots should be contacted in regular basis
Constant touch with the customer till the product is delivered
The advance payment by the customer before the commencement of production should be done electronically for easy recording and less wastage of time
The quality of the timber at the hub should be analyzed by the representatives of the company in regular basis
References
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