Data-Mining Methods and Processes

Medical Needs is a company located in Tennessee, with locations in Nashville and Memphis. This is a company that manufactures many different medical devices. They have been in business for over a year now. Project administrators in the medical device industry have confronted the need to decide the fitting condition for a given item for a long time now. (Molded Devices Inc, 2016) In making the assurance, inquiries to consider incorporate the inquiry, does a cleanroom give additional points of interest that would legitimize the cost of structure and taking care of one? What are the rules including cleanroom conditions? What things or methods deal with the necessity for such a situation? (Molded Devices Inc, 2016)

This company has built up a controlled situation and proper specifications for temperature, cleaning, and pollution controls set up. For instance, filters ought to be supplanted per plan or as required dependent on planned examinations. Any practices or factors from the accompanying rundown that the producer has considered proper and chosen to utilize ought to be determined and routinely performed or pursued. (Molded Devices Inc, 2016) Utilizing a controlled domain as opposed to a cleanroom regularly likens to noteworthy cost funds amid introductory development and in arranged, intermittent upkeep. The essential explanation behind structure a cleanroom is to represent future monetary contemplations. (Molded Devices Inc, 2016)

The success of a business lies in a number of factors that are determined by the contributions of the stakeholders that make up the business. Among these factors are the decisions made and the processes followed when making these decisions and when solving problems. Companies are kept running with progressive decisions that aim at picking the choices that have the best interests of the companies. As such, proper guidelines have to be followed and suitable circumstances have to be in place in order to make the right decisions that ensure the progressivity of the company. In the event that these criteria are not achieved, then problems may arise that hinder the decision-making process.

In the organization from the case study, production managers have to make a decision between a clean room and a controlled environment with the goal of determining the most appropriate production environment for a given product. From the company description, several factors appear to exist that influenced the manufacturer’s decision to establish a controlled environment rather than a clean room. For a start, the company has been in business for a fairly short period of time (just over a year) and that duration may not appear to be enough to have gathered all the necessary information to make the decision. Secondly, the company’s decision was also influenced by the financial factor, in which the company opted to go for the option that would be cheaper to establish and maintain. A third problem that relates to the decision that the company made is a fear of failure. This problem arises from the possibility of taking a risk and having negative results from taking the risk, which makes managers weary of taking risks when making vital decisions with a future positive objective. From the brief, it is certain that the benefits from the choice of a clean room puts into dispute the legitimacy its cost and maintenance. Besides from there being a financial sufficiency question, the fear of failing after establishing a clean room is also evident. Technology is another factor that has relations with decision making. Its availability influences the form that decisions made take. In terms of technology, a clean room is more technologically advanced than a basic controlled environment. Although they serve the same purpose, in circumstances where one has the technology to run a clean room, one would consider establishing a clean room rather than a controlled environment. In the case study given, Medical Needs chose to establish a controlled environment as opposed to a clean room, an indication of the level of their technological assets. The fifth issue relating to the organization is the lack of effective decision-making processes. For many years, production managers from that field have not entirely succeeded in choosing an appropriate production environment, a factor that can be realized from not having effective decision-making processes. Ineffective decision-making processes can be reflected by a lack of decision-making skills which result from a lack of training.

The business pressure-responses-support model is a model that indicates that the pressures brought about by business are responded to and opportunities are taken advantage of. As demonstrated through the model, support facilities are availed to monitor the environment for opportunities and thus the responses given become of higher quality. The business pressure-responses-support model therefore is made up of three major components: the business pressures, the responses to the pressures and integrated computer support systems (Sharda, 2018). The responses to counter the business pressures include measures such as adoption of new business models and use of strategic planning techniques. These measures for instance are appropriate for countering the fear of failure and the making of decisions without enough information. Additionally, innovation and creativity can be used as a measure to counter the problem of failure. Also, using automated decision-making processes such as Automated Decision Systems or ADS can help counter the problem of a lack of effective decision-making processes and that of a lack of training in decision making. In response to capital unavailability and technological insufficiency, the model offers the option of engaging in partnership collaborations.

In general, the responses to the business pressures are required to be reactive, adaptive, anticipative and proactive measures. These responses are valuable to a company in enabling the company to keep up with competition and progress as a company by making work easier and decisions more favorable. One such response is automating some decision processes by using automated decision systems or ADS. As explained by (SlidePlayer, 2006), ADS is a system bound by rules that uses intelligence to offer or recommend solutions to decisions that have to be made repetitively. Thanks to the intelligence in the system, business decisions are better made since the system does a better job at calculating risk while adhering to the rules governing business processes. Secondly, as earlier mentioned, business collaborations are effective responses to the problem of capital and technological insufficiency. This is because when companies collaborate in their operations, they may realize significant advantages in relation to cost reductions for example. The companies can use common facilities in some areas which would help them cost share instead of each having an individual establishment. Also, the use of strategic planning is valuable to decision making as it clarifies the direction in which to take in order to achieve a set objective. Through strategic planning, managers’ abilities are enhanced and in turn, they take better control at managing resources relevant for the survival of the organization (Gartenstein, 2018). Flexibility within the organization is also vital as the company will better handle transitions that are made for the wellbeing of the company, such as transitions to better technology realized through innovations, and e-commerce. By moving to platforms such as e-commerce, the company improves its operations through experiencing better communication, better data transfer and easier marketing to name but a few. When such functions are streamlined within a company, problems within the company are easily solved.

Business intelligence is a process that converts data to business wisdom. The transition from information to wisdom begins from data to information, then to knowledge, and then to business wisdom. Business intelligence uses a combination of techniques such as data mining, data warehousing and decision support to be able to make powerful management systems. These techniques gather, manage, analyze and share information to come up with hints that result to the making of wise and informed decisions (Kopáčková & Škrobáčková, n.d.). Business information can also be described as a tool made up of a set of methods and concepts that use systems supported with facts to improve the decision-making process. This kind of tool can prove very important in a company such as Medical Needs. Through business intelligence, stronger and more profitable bonds can be created which can guide the company through its participation in business alliances with partners. Since the result is business wisdom, exploiting business intelligence in an organization results to the making of wiser decisions which then raise the odds of identifying valuable business opportunities.

Any given organization is made up of various moving parts working together for the achievement of the overall business strategic goals. Requirements gathering is an important stage in the business decision making process and takes all available information to provide both an overall and in-depth look at the company. A macro view will involve the former, taking a bigger picture of an organization’s impact factors. These are quite easy to see as their occurrence are a salient part of the company’s operations. It could include a plateauing in sales over a given period, a high staff turnover and so forth. They can also be termed as patterns, which reveal themselves within the organization. The macro approach to requirements gathering simply provides an overview of the most important factors affecting the organization at that point in time (Cokins, 2017).

The micro approach on the other hand is all about the minutiae, digging deeper to provide details that explain the occurrence of the macro results. Instead of the bigger picture, it is about the exact causes to the smallest detail and fleshing them out as much as possible. Where the macro will identify a high staff turnover, the micro approach will attempt to find out the reason it is happening. This approach could then uncover such details as employees getting better offers from competitors, or an unconducive work environment that drives employees to quit or even a lack of vision within the leadership that makes the employees feel lost in their mundane responsibilities. These are aspects of operations that would not be readily identifiable under a macro approach (Cokins, 2017).

Relation of Macro and Micro Requirements Gathering on Business Performance Measurements

The macro and micro approaches play a vital part in measuring business performance. In a performance methodology like employee appraisal, it could be done in response to a high employee performance that was identified under a macro approach, with the appraisal being used as one of the ways to determine the micro levels. Another performance methodology is the continuous creation of value within the organization which involves measure of return on investment, innovation and opportunity, all three of which are leveraged to propel the business forward. These three value creation methodologies begin on macro level, through the gathering of information, either to implement them or gauge their success. However, they only become effective under a micro approach that identifies either the reasons of failure or success (Bianchi, 2016).

As such, the macro and micro approaches can be used either to facilitate business performance methodologies, or they can become essential parts of these methodologies. Either way, an organization cannot simply rely on single approach. A focus on the macro risks the management losing out on important details needed for effective decision making while a focus on micro risks resulting in stagnation as they rely on fixing small parts instead of taking a holistic view to growth, which only happens under a combination of both (Bianchi, 2016).

Business performance needs to be measured under a variety of metrics. One of these is employee job satisfaction and fulfillment. The employees of Medical Needs are key stakeholders in its success, being tasked with doing the actual work necessary for the goals of the company to be achieved. If employees derive satisfaction and fulfillment from their responsibilities, they are more likely to be more productive and create value for the company and thus improve the performance of the company. Measuring employee job satisfaction and fulfilment can be done through periodic assessments as well as providing an open-door policy for them to air their grievances to management. Employees will be satisfied in an environment where they are listened to, whether it is the challenges in their work, ideas on how to improve the business and so forth. Anonymous surveys could also be used to provide employees an opportunity to be honest and forthcoming in their opinions (Buckingham, & Goodall, 2015).

Another measure of business performance is customer satisfaction, which can highlight the success of the business based on the response of the customers to the company’s products and services. Low customer satisfaction means less business and hence low performance. Some of the ways to measure the level of customer satisfaction will be through retention of the customers for the long term and repeat purchases. Another one way to look at it would be speed at which the company is able to acquire new customers (Cokins, 2017).

Sales and profits are perhaps the most obvious signs for the performance of a company like Medical Needs. Businesses exist to make sales and derive profits from these sales, and these will be the way to measure them as regards the performance of the business. Higher sales might not necessarily lead to higher profits, especially if the costs are high. All this information can be had by simply looking over the company’s financials over a given period of time (Buckingham, & Goodall, 2015).

The first thing when formulating a business performance plan will be to carry out a current situation analysis, which is an evaluation of the present state of the company as pertains to its products, capabilities, customers, both current and potential as well as other factors such as competition, and overall market situation. A common way to conduct a current situation analysis is through identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This information will tell of the current health of the company and help in formulating strategies for future success (Cokins, 2017).

The next step is determining the planning horizon, which is the timeline for the fulfilment of a company’s plan and successfully moving to the next level. The planning horizon is different for every organization, since a requirement for its determination is to be realistic by taking into account uncertainty factors especially in the external operating environment of the company. With a higher degree of uncertainty, the company will have a shorter planning horizon, while a longer one can be made if the factors are favorable to the company (Cokins, 2017).

Another step in crafting a business performance plan is through carrying out an environmental scan, which involves tracking any emerging trends both within and outside of the company that could have a potential impact on its performances. These include the demographics, which will tell of potential customers and talent pool. Another is the political and policy environment where such issues as regulations and business enabling come into play. Others include technology and the wider economy, whether locally, regional or nationally. The set factors should include both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the environment (Buckingham, & Goodall, 2015).

The next step involves identifying the company’s critical success factors, which are high level goals the company absolutely needs to meet in order to be successful. These are bound to change as the business progress and previous success factors are achieved. Examples include growing the company’s market share by leveraging on the existing customers, and the alignment of incentives for employees with their roles in a bid to boost their satisfaction (Cokins, 2017).

A gap analysis essentially involves identifying the current state of the business and making comparison with the company’s future goals. It helps in bringing forth any current shortcomings in the business that need to be dealt with to achieve the desired goal. The gap could be in finances, talent, or any other factor needed to help the business reach its future objectives (Cokins, 2017).

A strategic vision is a collection of ideas that give a sense of the company’s desired direction and the values needed towards this direction. The strategic vision is meant to provide the guiding principles of the company and a mantra for all of the stakeholders involved. A business strategy involves identifying the means by which a company will fulfill its vision, including resources like finances and talent and areas where to allocate the resources effectively and efficiently for maximum returns and success. The strategic objectives and goals will include improved sales for the Medical Needs products, acquiring the right talent to drive growth, heightened engagement with customers and embracing innovation (Buckingham, & Goodall, 2015).

Performance methodologies provide organizations with the tools to measure, report and manage the growth of their operations and determine that need improvement. With these tools, the company is in a much better position to implement its goals and objectives by having a much clearer view into its operations (Buckingham, & Goodall, 2015).

One of the first business performance methodologies to be adopted will be employee appraisals. Just like any other organization, Medical Needs is dependent on its employees to ensure they are capable of effectively delivering on the business goals of the organizations in a timely and quality manner. The success of failure of project will as a result depend on how the employees are approaching them. An employee appraisal essentially evaluates the skills of the employees and ensures the goals of the individual employee can be aligned with the goals of the overall organization. They can be used to identify areas of weaknesses on the skills of the employee and determine how it can be corrected, which is mostly done via further training. The key performance indicators for a successful employee appraisal will need to point out what is expected of the employee by the management of the company (Bianchi, 2016).

Employee appraisal right from the onset should be backed by targets provided to the employee by the management. Whether accomplished successfully or not will then become the basis for determining the performance of the employees. A typical target would be that of a sales representative of Medical Needs who has been given a target of a thousand units of a given product to be sold within a certain quarter. A later employee appraisal will provide insight into whether they were able to meet this target, and if not, determine the reasons and factors this never happened. As a young company of a bit over a year of operations, Medical Needs requires it sales team to make as many sales as possible in a bid to familiarize the company to the industry and establish a formidable foothold. The appraisal will also determine whether the employee received the appropriate tools and resources from the company to accomplish their target. To determine the typical success of a sales representative, different of them with the similar resources at their disposal will measured up against each to understand the points of deviation in their performances. Revenue per employee is one way of determining the value of an employee to an organization, and to Medical Needs this will be done through evaluating the sale volumes of individual sales representative (Bititci, 2015).

Beyond simply conducting interviews with employees to determine their performance, another way would be having conversations with the people within that individual’s sphere of influence. These are the people they meet with daily in the course of their responsibilities. They will include supervisors, fellow work colleagues and peers, direct reports if there are any, suppliers and customers. While potentially tasking given how such a circle might be huge, it nonetheless presents an opportunity to have a nuanced view of an employee’s performance while talking to the people who interact with them. This methodology provides a holistic view of an employee’s performance by representing actual on the ground information that might otherwise not have come up within an interview (Bianchi, 2016).

Key performance indicators under this methodology will include how much time they spend collaborating with other employees, the rating of service provided by the employee to customer and the kind of relationships they have established with suppliers. While it is normal that not all sales calls will go as smoothly as expected, it still presents an issue that needs to be looked if an employee has a higher rate of poor service than their colleagues. This will be measured under number of complaints received The development of a ratings system to be used by these various individuals to measure the performance of an employee will be useful in identifying important areas of improvement and discovering the strengths and weaknesses of the employee (Buckingham, & Goodall, 2015).

Businesses exist to provide goods and services to their customers and as such this is one area senior management can decide whether the company’s policies are delivering the desired results. As the recipients of the products and services, customers are best placed to gauge the performance of the company. This is information that is usually acquired through surveys and in some instances through direct interviews. These tend to be quite honest, with most customers ready to be forthcoming as far as their experience with a given product or service is concerned. They will provide honest feedback on their experience with the products of Medical Needs, whether they were excellent and commendable to other people or if they were non-satisfactory. This information will be important in making further developments and improvements on the products (Bianchi, 2016).

For customer satisfaction, the key performance indicators will include the number of recommended purchases being done on the back of word of mouth from satisfied customers. A lower number will mean the inverse or will indicate the customers are agnostic towards the product whichever way. This would therefore a ramping up in generating interest for the company’s products. Another performance indicator will be that of customer retention. The company provides a range of products that encourage return sales and the building of a trusted customer base. As such, a goal will be ensuring the existing customers are maintained and provided with enough motivation to make return purchases and continue doing so for as long as possible. A typical customer retention period is meant to last years, but given the company is a bit over a year old, the results of this aspect of the indicator will be successful over years. However, a short-term indicator will be the capability to retain the existing customers for the foreseeable future. This could be measured on a weekly or monthly basis and making evaluations after every review period, taking note of whether there a dips or surges, and possible reasons for either of them. Dips will suggest a failure in a certain area that needs to be addressed, while a surge will help in identifying and refining the correct business strategies (Buckingham, & Goodall, 2015).

Within the organization of Medical Needs, value can be created in three main ways namely, return on investment, innovation and opportunity. Return on investment (ROI) measures how capable the organization is at leveraging its investments, whether existing or newly made, to result in a maximum possible level of returns. This also needs to happen while maintaining a reasonable level in the total cost of ownership. Innovation is useful in providing the company with a strategic advantage over its competitors by leveraging on the investments it makes in human resources, financial position and technology infusion into the company. Finally, opportunity involves a clear comprehension of available opportunities in the market and the adeptness in leveraging the company’s assets to ensure the potential for maximized revenue and profitability in the organization. The success of this will also hinge on how well the company’ talent can be directed towards making these decisions and taking advantage of these opportunities (Bianchi, 2016).

Creating value in an organization provides for clear key performance indicators, some of which might not be as readily quantifiable as others. While it is possible to measure return on investment or total cost of ownership for a given investment made by the company within certain metrics, others like taking advantage of business opportunities might not be so. This is for the reason that it might not be readily as to which business opportunities the company failed to get, and whether the reasons were internal or external. However, business value provides a quite holistic standard that is tied to the overall health of the organization. As such, it only requires looking at the overall growth trajectory of the company to understand how much value is being created (Bititci, 2015).

Introduction

Conclusion

Data-Mining Methods and Processes TBD

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[Accessed 17 May 2019].