WORKFLOW ANALYSIS AND JOB REDESIGN

12 Oct WORKFLOW ANALYSIS AND JOB REDESIGN

CASE STUDY – WORKFLOW ANALYSIS AND JOB REDESIGN

RFM Corporation was incorporated in August 16, 1957 as Republic Flour Mills Inc. to manufacture flour in the Philippines, despite wheat not being grown in the Philippines. In 1963, RFM began manufacturing cooking oil and margarine. Two years later, started manufacturing poultry and hog feeds. In 1971, RFM integrated forward into hog and poultry breeding. It entered into a licensing agreement with Peterson Farms and H&N, Inc. to breed day-old chicks. In 1973, RFM entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Swift & Company to use the brand “Swift” for its meat processing business (in 1987, RFM purchased ownership rights for its exclusive use in the Philippines). For the next 15 years, RFM concentrated on growing its established core businesses and also introduced other grocery products, such as cake mixes, hotcake mixes, and ingredient mixes.

Sales of its grocery products are handled by the Grocery Sales Division, headed by a Vice-President. The division organizational chart is shown below:

Below is the sales process work flow for the purchase of grocery items from the company.

 

Order is received    PO generated  Salesmen assigned  Items withdrawn    Post sales  Collection of

and delivered  documentation    payments

The whole sales process for a purchase of grocery items, from the receipt of an order to the collection of payments involves a series of steps involving clerks and a salesman. Each clerk, performs specific functions within the sales process while the salesmen’s jobs are limited to the delivery of the purchased items. All grocery salesmen, sales assistants, as well as all clerks are paid a fixed monthly salary, and are not entitled to sales commissions. The chart below shows the details of the sales process.

 

DETAILS OF THE GROCERY SALES PROCESS AND THE RESPONSIBILITIES

Marketing and Sales

This section is responsible for the advertising and sales of grocery items. Sales assistants are tasked to look for and solicit sales orders from customers both retail or wholesale. Orders received are then referred to the Order and Billing section for processing.

Order and Billing

When orders are received, OB clerks, prepare purchase orders (POs) , then sends the POs back to the Marketing and Sales Department

Marketing and Sales

Sales clerks receive the POs, prepares waybills, then gives the waybills and the POs to sales supervisors who will then assign salesmen to handle the sale and the delivery of the products. Salesmen receives the waybills and the POs, then proceed to the warehouse to withdraw the grocery items for delivery.

FG Warehouse

FGW Clerks, release the grocery items indicated in the waybill to the salesmen and loads them into the sales trucks.

CUSTOMERS

Salesmen delivers the grocery items to the customers, who then acknowledges receipt of the products and are issue receipts. If the PO indicates Cash on delivery (COD),  the salesmen are authorized to receive payments from the customers.

Order and Billing

After delivery, the waybills, POs, and payments are turned over to and received by the Order and Billing section. A collection memo is then generated and given to the Credit and Collection Department, while payments received are turned over to the cashier.

Credit and Collection

The CC Clerks starts process of collecting payments.

Over a period of time, the salesmen have been complaining about their alleged low salaries. They have been requesting and fighting for an entitlement to sales commissions. RFM management believes that since the job of the salesmen involves only delivery of purchased items, they continue to deny the salesmen’s request.

Recently, a labor union started giving seminars, inciting the salesmen to organize and form a union so they can bargain collectively with RFM’s management. Through discreet reliable sources, the HR Manager found out that about 90% of the salesmen will be joining the union because they were unhappy with their job. The main issue that the salesmen were complaining about were their alleged low salaries and the failure of RFM Management to grant them sales commissions. When the HR Manager reported this to CEO of the company, the CEO asked the HR Manager:

1.  To redesign and reorganize the Grocery Sales Division to become more efficient and effective.

2.  To resolve issues so that the formation of a labor union could be aborted.

3.  To develop a strategy on how to effect the changes with minimum resistance from all personnel involved and at minimal cost to the company

If you are the HR Manager, what will be your overall recommendation? In answering this question, I want you to follow the format below:

I  Background Information

II Statement of the Problem

III Analysis of the Problem

IV Generate and Justify Your Alternatives

V Recommendation

This is your Final Case Study. Your grade in this case study will carry more weight and will depend on how much you integrate what you have learned not only from Chapter 17, but from other Chapters in the textbook that we have covered.  Your overall recommendation must be thorough, detailed, and well supported. You will also be required to draw diagrams to show responsibility and accountability, if you are proposing a reorganization or a change in the process or both.

Marketing and Sales

Salesmen are tasked to look for and solicit sales orders from customers both retail or wholesale and are given monthly sales quotas.

Salesmen are responsible for getting the orders and preparing the purchase orders which are given to the FGW Clerks

FG Warehouse

FGW Clerks, prepare the waybills and release the grocery items indicated in the waybill to the salesmen and loads them into the sales trucks.

CUSTOMERS

Salesmen delivers the grocery items to the customers, who then acknowledges receipt of the products and are issue receipts. If the PO indicates Cash on delivery (COD),  the salesmen are authorized to receive payments from the customers.

Marketing and Sales

After delivery, the waybills, are turned over to and received by the Marketing and Sales assistants.

Payments received are turned over by the salesmen to the cashier.

 

Marketing and Sales

Salesmen are required to follow up and collect payments from customers that they delivered to