The toy industry is very fickle and innovation is critical. Sales for January 2017 showed only a 3% rise over January 2016 leaving the company managers concerned about meeting projected sales targets for 2017. In a 30-month plan, George Jepson, Jr., as CEO, together with Edward Mercury, CFO, set long-term goals for the company to include the following:

increase sales unrelated to NASA toys by 22 percent;

reduce company-wide costs by 5 percent within 15 months and 11.2 percent by the end of the plan;

create new technology based action toys;

use innovative technology in production to increase efficiency;

reduce carbon footprint by 5 percent.

Keith Wisternick, VP of Production, has the job of aligning all the production teams for Galaxy Toys, and more specifically, he is the person that ensures that each of the plants are capable of producing toys that meet the quality standards of Galaxy Toys in an efficient and cost-effective manner.   Also, part of Keith’s job is to provide valuable input into the long-term planning process of the company. Every two years, Keith and his counterparts in the other departments meet to determine the new product line for the upcoming two years. They are presented with new ideas that have been developed by the Design and Engineering Department.

After soliciting input for recommendations on the toys that would most likely meet the company’s future objectives, the Board of Directors narrowed the choices to Payload Nine and Moon Mission to Jupiter’s Europa 1 (MMTJE1).

As VP of Production, Keith is very aware that his recommendation and vote lends great influence to the outcome. Lucky for Keith, he is not expected to provide his recommendation without first delegating some researching responsibilities to others. One person that he relies upon for research and analysis is Itza Yu who is a Production Manager. Yu has been tasked with creating a SWOT analysis for Keith’s review.   However, Yu has not had any prior experience with creating this type of information.

Assume the role of Itza Yu.

Task 1: Explain the role of a manager in the organizing phase of the POLC (Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling)

The organizing phase explained…..

Organizing

Once a manager has created a work plan, the next phase in management cycle is to organize the people and other resources necessary to carry out the plan. Organizing should also consider the resources and physical facilities available, in order to maximize returns with minimum expenditure.

Organizing may be referred to as the process of arranging and distributing the planned work, authority and resources among an organization’s members, so they can achieve the organization’s goals.

Organizing involves the following steps −

Creating the organizational structure − The framework of the organization is created within which effort is coordinated allocating human resources to ensure the accomplishment of objectives. This structure is usually represented by an organizational chart, which is a graphic representation of the chain of command within an organization.

Making organizational design decisions − Decisions are made about the structure of an organization.

Making job design decisions − Roles and responsibilities of individual jobs, and the process of carrying out the duties is defined.

Task 2: Identify and discuss five major issues with Galaxy, Inc. that Itza Yu must address in organizing the production floor for both existing production and the new project.