OPERATIONS
Most of the operation is targeted to be in the main shop. This is because this is where new power bank will be ordered and delivered to, it is where major offices will be located, and it is where major maintenance center for power banks that will be requiring maintenance. The primary process in the organization will be acquiring and renting power banks. The method of renting power banks will be direct to our customers from our shops and through online platforms. Customers who will be able to access our shop physically will be served, but if a customer has run out of charge can send a request through our online platform, and the power bank will be transported to the place where he or she is. To request a power bank online, the clients will visit our website, which is www.Changingbank.com, and place his or her order (Jiang & Jun 2013). Alternatively, he or she can go to play store and download our application “Charging pal” and install it on his or her phone, which will be used to access and request our services.
The main shop will be located in the city; however, most of our shops will be located in remote areas, mostly with adventure sites. Like forests, lakes, caves, etc. This is because when people are on an adventure, they use their phones a lot, especially in photo-taking, and they would prefer to have a power backup in case their phones may run out of charge. The company will also have several vehicles, motorbikes, and even motorboats in various famous tourist attractions lakes and oceans. Vehicles will be used to transport power banks to our stores from the main store, and also they will be used to deriver requested power banks to required places. Motorbikes will be used to deriver power banks to areas where vehicles cannot pass like in the forest where there are narrow paths. Lastly, motorboats will be used to felly power banks on request to the interior of lakes and oceans
Fgure1: Process Flow Chart
The management of the organization will be well organized. The company will hire qualified personnel in each of the few departments; the company will have a department (Chen, Chuang, & Chen, 2012). These will include professional accountants, managers with excellent leadership qualities, and objective oriented subordinate employees. The organization will have various departments, accounting, and finance, quality assurance, purchasing, ICT, and servicing department.
The accounting and finance department will be in charge of accounting, controlling, and auditing. The department will be producing a financial statement’s weekly and financial reports monthly to help in monitoring the trend of sales. The quality assurance department will be mandated to ensure quality products are purchased by testing conducting research of ordered products and measuring their durability. The purchasing department will conduct all procurement processes. This is the department that will be ordering new power banks and equipment. The purchasing department will work closely with the quality assurance department to ensure quality products are acquired. The purchasing department will also be mandated to monitor the stock in the organization. In monitoring stock, the procurement department will work with the ICT department as a close recording of stock-flow will involve technology a lot.
The ICT department will be critical due to the online services provided by our organization. The duties of this department will include managing and maintaining the company’s website (Lee, Chu, & Tseng, 2011). This is by ensuring the site has no downtimes and also adding new brands adopted. The ICT department will also be the one to provide training to the employees on how to navigate various web pages to view orders and also train employees on how to use computers and other electronic gadgets. ICT department will also be responsible for monitoring company LAN and conduct maintenance if need be.
The servicing department is another critical department in our organization. The department will comprise of qualified electronics engineers. This is the department that will be responsible for repairing faulty power banks (Lih et al., 2012, June). The engineers will also be monitoring the durability of the power banks to ensure the power banks satisfy customer need so that the customers can build loyalty to our products. The department will have to generate a clear monthly report on the conditions of our power banks. This report will include the number of power banks that broke down completely and what caused the fault. The number of power banks that broke down and repaired successfully and what was the fault. The company of every power bank that resulted in fault should also be recorded in line with the faulty item. From this report, the company will be able to know the main cause of faulty power banks and also the company with quality and long-lasting power banks. Power banks contain rechargeable batteries; the service department is the one to plan on how the power banks should be recharged. Clients will charge the power bank if he or she rent the power bank for a long period of time.
Repairing the cost of faulty items will depend on several considerations. If the faulty is examined and found that the customer mishandled the power bank, the customer will have to pay for the maintenance fee, but if it was a normal fault, the company caters to the maintenance fee. In case the client loses the power bank, he or she will have to pay for another power bank no matter how it was lost as long as he or she was in possession of the product.
So far, most of the operations, including equipment acquiring, identification of store areas, and even building and hiring of the buildings are almost done. The organization is planning to acquire the remaining equipment soon as the budget for acquiring all equipment is passed. Key employees have completed their interviews, and the appointment letters are ready. The organization has even ordered power banks from different companies such as Toshiba, where 1000 pieces have been ordered, and 4000 pieces are ordered from Dell company. Currently, the ICT department is testing the site and our online app.
The customer engagement business model will be the model our business will adopt (Teece, 2010). In this model, the customers will be engaged through online chatting with our customer care, and their views will be used to polish our services. For example, in case a customer proposes a new brand to be added, maybe because the products we have in store are not compatible with his or her phone, we will have to order the product that can charge his or her phone. If a customer has ordered a power bank that has three charging ports and he was in need of a power bank that has five ports, the order will be concealed, and the power bank of five ports is availed, but he or she will have to increase the service amount has three ports is cheaper than five ports.
Our business will have some external risks which the business will deal with in various ways. One risk is security threats. When a customer orders power banks online, it is difficult to tell whether the person is a good person or a thief, to deal with this, products ordered in places considered insecure will have to be transported with the escort of our security agents.
Most of our staff will be long term employees. This is because we will require experienced employees. If we hire a short-time employee, it will cost the company an extra amount to train the new employees and to avoid this most of our staff will be long term. However, few short term employees will be required to boost the operation, especially during holidays when the orders skyrockets.
References
Chen, S. S., Chuang, Y. W. & Chen, P. Y. (2012). Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: Examining the roles of KMS quality, KMS self-efficacy, and organizational climate. Knowledge-Based Systems, 31, 106-118
Jiang, L. A., Yang, Z., & Jun, M. (2013). Measuring consumer perceptions of online shopping convenience. Journal of Service Management, 24(2), 191-214.
Lee, Y. C., Chu, P. Y., & Tseng, H. L. (2011). Corporate performance of ICT‐enabled business process re‐engineering. Industrial Management & Data Systems.
Lih, W. C., Yen, J. H., Shieh, F. H., & Liao, Y. M. (2012, June). The second use of retired lithium-ion battery packs from electric vehicles: technological challenges, cost analysis, and optimal business model. In 2012 International Symposium on Computer, Consumer, and Control (pp. 381-384). IEEE.
Teece, D. J. (2010). Business models, business strategy, and innovation. Long-range planning, 43(2-3), 172-194.