Nikon: Value Chain, Planning, Controlling, And Decision Making Essay.

a Clear introduction of the selected manufacturing company which covers all of the following: Company’s name; Establishment year; Vision & mission; Managerial Highlights; Products focused; Line function & staff function.

b Identify all components of the value chain of the manufacturing company and describe them in details.

c Explain the process of Planning in the manufacturing company for all three issues provided in the question.

d Analyse the process of Controlling in the manufacturing company for all two issues provided in the question.

e Provide two situations in which Decision Making is presented in the manufacturing company. Clearly explain and analyse each situation.

f Summarize three significant points of the discussion topics in your report in a coherent manner and provide recommendation or forecast of the manufacturing company.

Value Chain of the Manufacturing Unit of Nikon

Managerial accounting is basically refers to the process that involve five basic steps such as, identification, measurement, interpretation of data and communicating the same to the stakeholders so, that they can introduce changes as per the need (Edmonds et.al. 2016). It is considered as a special branch of accounting commonly known as cost accounting.

Nikon is one of the biggest companies of Japan that deals in cameras. This company was established in 25 July 1917 with the initial investment of 857.8 billion. Organisations have spread its many units in the different countries. Every organisation has some mission and vision which help them in attaining their overall goals. Mission of the organisation is to manufacture a cameras that facilitate in capturing adventurous events as they are been experienced by the people however the key mission is to develop a feature of 360 degree capture simultaneously along with the storytelling capability in the same (Shibata, Kodama and Suzuki,2017).

 On the other hand company also have some visions such as, unlashing the possibility of light which has no limit, try to brighten experience of customers, laying and major focus on better future for everyone. In order to convert the vision into reality many line functions such as, providing good quality cameras and much other equipment to the customers are performed by the company. Apart from this there are many staff functions such as, conducted advertisement in order to attract new customers. All these functions are related to one other which helps the organisation to attain success.

This project report includes complete information regarding, Nikons value chain, process of planning, controlling process, decision making process and conclusion.

Every organisation has a value chain which involve number of activities helps the company to increase the value in its production, marketing, advertisement and many other ares (D'Amourset et.al. 2016). Manufacturing companies can create the in only by arranging the raw material from the right place as well as in right quantity so that they can add the value to their product.  Further retailer purchases these products in small quantity and presents them in the way which is most convents for the customers. Nikon understand that they cannot increase their customer base only selling their products. Therefore, they had tied up with many insurance companies which offer different policies to the customers in order to protect their gadgets. At the end keeping sustainability in mind they make the final delivery of the product in eco-friendly way.

Figure 1 value chain of Nikon (Frederick and Lee, 2017)

Nikon manufacture all the parts by its own. Therefore, many different units are established in the different parts of the world depending upon the type of skills and techniques available in the particular region. In the manufacturing value chain of Nikon there are basically seven stages. At the primary stage a blue print of the camera is made by the experts after that the as per the demand of manufacturing unit raw material is procured.

Nikon keep an eagle eye over the inventory in order to ensure proper supply of raw material to the manufacturing department. Once the cameras are developed they are packed and send to the retail outlets of Nikon. Here the Nikon retailers put their best effort to sell the same to the customers by fulfilling all their wishes. At the end feedback is received from the customers so that the changes can be made as per their requirement.

Process of Planning

Every organisation need to do proper planning in order to attain their goals. Short term plans are made by the Nikon in the different departments so, that they can help in attaining overall goals. In the digital market Nikon faced many problems because of the excess competition.  At the same time leaders of the organisation realised that they need to develop standalone system with their employees who will facilitate them in reduction of sales opportunity losses, flexibility in the production, marketing and many other units. Major planning is done by the Nikon in sales and operational department only (Leigh and Blakely, 2016).

Strategies are the plans that play an important role in attaining all the long term goals. It’s important for Nikon to develop a strategy so, that the organisation can have an easily access to all the resources which are scare in nature.

Being the part of digital world Nikon has developed e-business strategy in order to expand its business and to overcome the problem of rapid change in technology as well as in IT sector. Nikon under this strategy has developed the website in USA and Japan. As, these websites will provide suitable platform to the customers. Apart from this organisation had also displayed complete information about its product on these sites which facilitate the target group to attain instantly information about new cameras and purchase the same at the low prices. In order to maintain the same customer base and to attract new once company has also adopted e-promotion strategy which includes promotions banners and many other things (Hiles and Hon, 2016).

Market segmentation strategy

Target market includes the educated professional people who desire to click quality pictures. As per the research conducted, women’s have the power to take the decisions in the family so this target segment focus maximum upon the mid-age women’s who are actively involved in performing the jobs in metro Politian areas (Nagle, Hogan and Zale, 2016).

Product differential strategy

Being the part of competitive market Nikon focuses on lounging the product that is completely different form its competitors. Such product will help the organisation in gaining competitive advantage, high profits and suitable customer base (Rugman and Verbeke, 2017). Attain 15% increment in the operating margins in the month of March 2016.

Nikon knew that the market in which they are entering is very competitive so, in order to enter it they need to understand their own as well as their competitor’s strength and weakness. Apart from this they also need to analyse the entire external environment so, that they can grasp the opportunity before the competitors and make appropriate strategy to overcome the threats.

Figure 2 Market position of Nikon

Nikon has attained its position in the market over its competitors only by keeping its focus on the strengths such as-

Higher share in the market – in the Asian market company has attained the highest position by contributing 40% in digital single- lenses and 27% in important equipment’s because of all these factors organisation has attain competitive advantage over its competitors in the market and still have capacity to expand its business.

Business Strategies Adopted By Nikon

Major focus on research and development – being in technical segment company has invested huge amount on research and development activities but as this department require huge funds so Nikon has collaborated with HP which facilitated it in attaining digital image in the year 2005. Further in 2008 Nikon signed agreement with Microsoft.

 A budget basically refers to the financial plan which is prepared for the specific period that is usually a year (Einsele, 2013). It involves complete planning the finance that how the funds will be spends over different resources. This will help the organisation to exercise control over the unnecessary wastage of funds.

 In order to prepare manufacturing budget, Nikon need to accrue complete information about opening as well as closing inventory.  As the change in the opening inventory comes because of the purchases so, apart from the inventory information there is need to know the demand of the products in the market. Apart from this, cost such as-cost of labour, raw material, also comprises an important part of the budget.

Monitoring refers to the process of analysing that whether the work is done as per the standards laid by the organisation or not (Mitchell and Tojeira, 2016). Just like many other manufacturing companies Nikon also has to monitor the quality standards in its products. However a complete quality control process is developed by the organisation to ensure that their customers do not face any issue regarding the quality.  Apart from monitoring the quality there are many things that need to be monitored within the organisation. Apart from the quality there are many stages and things, on which it’s essential to monitor such as, packaging of the cameras, inspect broken part, defect in the pixels, filthy sensors and many more. There are many ways in which every this can be monitored such as-

1. In order to ensure that production to be done at optimum level managers should keep their eagle eye on employees.
2. Quality control standards should be established as this helps the line managers to monitor where the product is lacking behind in quality (Dau-Schmidt, Finkin and Covington, 2016).
3. Maintaining proper accounting books – this will help Nikon to have proper check over their inventory. This will reduce the problem of over stock and under stock (DRURY, 2013).
4. Managers should check the work personally this will help in building good relation with employees.

This card helps in improving internal functions of the business so that overall outcome can be improved. At the end results are been measured and feedback is given to the company so that they can make suitable changes in their manufacturing department as per the gap between the standards established and actual work done (Heginbotham et.al.2016).

Figure 3 Balance score card (Siddiqi, 2017)

Nikon can also develop this score by establishing the standards in financial, customer, process, and learning & growth. In the case of finance Nikon need to focus on ease availability of funds whenever the need arise so that the company can improve its performance by investing an appropriate amount in the manufacturing area. In the case of customers, growth and internal process performance can be managed by establishing the standards in the terms of quality services, revenue to be earned, increase in leverage and ability to create scalability.

There are certain areas in Nikon in which it’s essential to follow decision making process so that the correct actions can be taken without any mistake. Nikon also have to take many decisions in order to ensure successfully completion of manufacturing work but among all the areas two main area are-

Nikon's Position Among Other Existing Competitors and Potential Rivals

Raising funds from the market – being in technology industry Nikon also required huge funds for in order to carry on its manufacturing process. Although the company had goodwill in the market so it can easily raise the funds from the financial institutions but as actual owners of the organisation are the shareholders so, meetings are arranged in which all the directors, managers, CEO sit together to take decision that how much funds are require and from where they can be raised (Goodwin and Wright, 2014).

Making some innovative change in the cameras – Nikon has appointed many designers which keep on producing many new designs as per the change in market trends and needs of the customer. Before executing any design, discussion is carried out with the manufacturing unit, top managers and directors (Beech and MacIntosh, 2017).

1. Nikon should pay attention on the areas where they are lacking behind such as- identifying change customer taste and preferences by forecasting market trends under the guidance of researchers. This will help the organisation to grasp the opportunities before their competitors and expand its market share.
2. In order to increase the profitability Nikon should prove proper training to the new employees so, that they can deal with the customers in the best way they can. Apart from this they should also be trained to provide appropriate services to the customers by developing an understanding of their needs (Landy, Zedeck and Cleveland, 2017).

Conclusion

From the above report it can be concluded that, Nikon has worked hard over the years in order to attain the position as well as its market share built there are certain areas where they need to develop more strategies (Nisbet and Shucksmith, 2017) in order to win over there competitors such as Canon. However, strategies that are discussed above will help the organisation in attaining all the goals successfully. Being a democratic organisation Nikon, has develop proper hierarchy which has facilitated in quick problem solving, taking appropriate decisions after consulting with all the managers and top level employees. Apart from this, entire organisation pay special focus on quality control in order to serve the customers with good quality products (Schilling and Neubauer, 2017).

References

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D'Amours, S., Ouhimmou, M., Audy, J.F. and Feng, Y. eds., 2016. Forest Value Chain Optimization and Sustainability. CRC Press.

Dau-Schmidt, K.G., Finkin, M. and Covington, R., 2016. Legal protection for the individual employee. West Academic.

DRURY, C.M., 2013. Management and cost accounting. Springer.

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Einsele, G., 2013. Sedimentary basins: evolution, facies, and sediment budget. Springer Science & Business Media.

Frederick, S. and Lee, J., 2017. Korea and the Electronics Global Value Chain.

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