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    Management Tools and Techniques

    Management tools and techniques consist of a variety of "best-practices" that managers use to drive cost reduction and improve operational effectiveness in their company. These tools run the gauntlet from outsourcing and automating, to implementing quality management techniques such as TQM. Management tools and techniques allow a company to compete onspeed, cost and quality. That is, businesses that focus their strategy on employing these best practices tend to be focused on delivering their products faster, cheaper and with less defects than their rivals.

    Management tools and techniques are important for a business to understand and implement. That is, speed, cost and quality are important for a company's profit margin.However, companies that compete on speed, cost and quality alone often fall into this trap: management tools and techniques are easily copied, and the more benchmarking companies do, the more they begin to look alike. Companies that compete on operational effectiveness, but do not differentiate, end up racing to the bottom with diminishing profits - their gains in productivity are captured by consumers or elsewhere on the value chain. Companies that differentiate their products or services, but do not differentiate their processes, are also easily copied.

    Sustainable competitive advantage must come from strategic positioning (finding some way to differentiate your product or service),fitbetween this position and the organization's operations (the organization's operations must be bothdifferentthan what other companies are doing, andbetterat supporting your unique strategic position), and operational effectiveness (being efficient will help ensure you stay better at supporting your strategic position, and efficiency is important for sustaining profitability).

     

     

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    BrainMass Categories within Management Tools and Techniques

    Just-In-Time

    Solutions: 151

    Just-in-Time inventory is a supply chain, production and distribution strategy which aims to reduce inventory and related carrying costs.

    Lean Manufacturing

    Solutions: 185

    Lean manufacturing is used to preserve value with less work (which equates to fewer expenses for the manufacturing company). It is derived from the management philosophy of the Toyota Production System (TPS).

    Business Process Improvement and Reengineering

    Solutions: 124

    Business process improvement is often associated with the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen (continuous improvement). Business process re-engineering is inspired by the need for business process improvement.

    Automation

    Solutions: 48

    Automation is the process of redesigning work so that it can be done using more machinery, equipment and information technology. In order to reduce the amount of labor used in the business's activities, reducing the labour costs.

    Benchmarking

    Solutions: 142

    Benchmarking is widely used in strategic management, where managers develop new business models in order to copy another company’s processes.

    Outsourcing

    Solutions: 179

    Outsourcing is the process of contracting out to third parties to the production of goods or services, or the undertaking of business processes that was typically done in-house. Outsourcing can refer both to domestic and foreign contracting.

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