Reference no: EM133210439

Assignment:

Technology in Business Assignment

Research a real company (local, national, or global) and list ten ways in which the company uses technology.

Technology in business:

How can companies use information technology to improve access to and sharing of information with external organizations (e.g., customers, suppliers, etc.)?

"My first boss in the steel industry told me, nobody thinks there's any inventory until they look out the window and say, 'Oh my God, what's all that stuff?'" so said economist Michael Montgomery of IHS Global Insight. Although it's not as simple as looking out the window, you can definitely relate to the thought as you look over the inventory and sales statistics for your company, which makes LCD televisions. You've been following the industry standard with an eight-week inventory, but sales are declining rapidly and you're faced with, well, a lot of stuff. It's your job to figure out what to do with it.

You know you're not alone. Consumer spending on anything that isn't essential has been declining globally due to the economic recession. Overstock, especially of SUVs in the U.S. auto industry, is now infamous. But the problem of excess inventory has also hit companies who make chips, computers, and cell phones, as well as flat-screen TVs. And the problem isn't only a decrease in consumer spending. Companies have invested enormous amounts of money into production, and now many are running at partial capacity or are closing. The numbers are staggering: Semiconductor inventories may grow as large as $10.2 billion, up from $3.8 billion in September 2008.

While you can't solve the global economy, you do have the very immediate problem of how to manage your inventory. There are immediate solutions such as temporarily stopping production-SanDisk stopped production for a week at some of its plants and then re-opened at 70 percent capacity-and reducing prices or writing down inventory that can't be sold. But you're also concerned with the long-term issue of how to manage your inventory and your operations in a way that brings supply and demand into better balance in what looks to be the smaller economy of the near future. As Montgomery said, "It's going to get worse." You're looking to shift from an eight-week supply of flat-screen TVs to a four- or five-week supply. What will your inventory system of the future look like?

Oversupply Reaction Assignment:

Read the following case study and answer the following questions.

Questions

1. What issues do you need to think about as you design a new inventory system?

2. Think about the systems discussed in the text. Which would you use? Explain your decision.