ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China
ForeFront Wood Products produces high-quality wooden door sets. The company faces capacity constraints and inefficiencies resulting from its processes and culture. As a consequence, it struggles to be profitable. ForeFront's parent company, ForeFront Holdings, plans an initial public offering in 2007. It has recently hired a new operations manager with the mandate to turn the factory around. As the operations manager begins his job he tours the manufacturing facilities to gather information on production processes and factors affecting capacity, cost, and conformance. Describes the firm's manufacturing and managerial processes. Many issues are covered, including high costs, low yields, unreported defects, and equipment that fails to operate near its rated capacity. Organizational and change management challenges, including high employee turnover, excessive use of overtime, and failure of supervisors to observe or report employee errors are also described.
Swot Analysis of "ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China" written by Chris J. Piper, Nigel Goodwin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Forefront Processes facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture, Technology and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Forefront Processes, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Forefront Processes operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Forefront Processes
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Forefront Processes
Strengths ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Forefront Processes in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Forefront Processes is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Forefront Processes has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Forefront Processes are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Forefront Processes is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Forefront Processes is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Forefront Processes is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Forefront Processes is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Analytics focus
– Forefront Processes is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Chris J. Piper, Nigel Goodwin can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Forefront Processes has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Forefront Processes has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Forefront Processes in the sector have low bargaining power. ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Forefront Processes to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Forefront Processes is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Forefront Processes to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Forefront Processes to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Chris J. Piper, Nigel Goodwin suggests that, Forefront Processes is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Forefront Processes 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China, is just above the industry average. Forefront Processes needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China, it seems that the employees of Forefront Processes don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Forefront Processes is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Need for greater diversity
– Forefront Processes has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Forefront Processes is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Forefront Processes needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Forefront Processes has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Forefront Processes is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Forefront Processes needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Forefront Processes to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Forefront Processes can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Forefront Processes operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Forefront Processes has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Forefront Processes to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Forefront Processes can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Forefront Processes in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Manufacturing automation
– Forefront Processes can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Forefront Processes can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Forefront Processes to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Forefront Processes to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Forefront Processes can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Forefront Processes in the consumer business. Now Forefront Processes can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Forefront Processes can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Forefront Processes can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Technology & Operations segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Forefront Processes can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Forefront Processes has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China are -
Regulatory challenges
– Forefront Processes needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China, Forefront Processes may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Forefront Processes with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Forefront Processes can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Forefront Processes.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Forefront Processes can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Forefront Processes is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Forefront Processes can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Forefront Processes needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Forefront Processes in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Environmental challenges
– Forefront Processes needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Forefront Processes can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Forefront Processes in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of ForeFront Manufacturing: Production Processes and Change Management in Mainland China is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Forefront Processes needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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