How to improve Armstrong place of work

            There are so many businesses emerging each and every single day and thus this has raised so much competition amongst all the people. One can hardly get a business that is the only business dealing with that line of business without other competitors even if it means competition from other businesses that offer substitute goods.  Therefore business administration has to work extremely hard so that they can change most of their operations so as to adopt new systems and operations that will see them through the success process. Those business that have considered improving on all the sectors within their work place has seen so much growth over the period and thus have been able to compete efficiently with their competitors. The so many businesses that are regarded as the best in the market have had to advance on their operations and also their resources including the human resources and the physical resources that are needed and the management of the business. Therefore no business person or manager can ignore the great need to improve on productivity of the business. Armstrong organization has gone through tremendous changes that are geared towards improving the organizations operations and productivity in general. This has therefore demanded the business administration to accept in changes and believe in the positive implications of these changes so that the organization can be encouraged to aspire to be the best in the market and hence discouraging fixing of the wrongs that may be in the organization. This paper will therefore major on discussing the proper description of Armstrong Company, the type of structure in the organization, problems facing the organization, current organizational theories, solutions on the problems and recommendation.

 

            Armstrong World Company is located in Pennsylvania which was incorporated in the year 1891. Its operations are available worldwide and it deals with designing and manufacturing of floors and ceilings. The company is based in Lancaster in the United States and it has thirty two companies in eight different countries where they undertake their operations. Their stocks began to be traded in the New York stock exchange in October of the year 2006 (Slaton & Vault 2006).

            The company was established by Armstrong Thomas who was later joined by John Glass where they opened a one room shop in Pennsylvania where they carved bottle corks by hands. Their first deliveries were made by the use of wheelbarrow locally but by the end of the 1890s the company had experienced growth and was regarded as the largest suppliers of cork in the world. Later they introduced the corkboard, brick, fine board and then later the ceiling board. The cork tile and linoleum was later developed in vinyl flooring and into ceramic tiling and laminate floors and finally to carpets. In the 1906, they purchased an Armstrong minor which was basically purchased to act as the central location where it hosted the organizations young sales employees who were under training. Later the house was used for so many other uses that included a place to hold meetings and also to house employees who were visiting the company. The manor is still in use and recently it has been used to host vising employees and customers of the Armstrong Company and its continuing provision of space for meetings. This manor also has some parts that are set aside for maintenance of the minor. Later in 2011, the Armstrong manor was sold as it was regarded that the department was not part of the building and manufacturing of the company. Over the past years there have been environmental complaints since the company did not observe on preserving the environment. They were producing asbestos which is incombustible. The company however stopped the production of asbestos and are now involved in the production of the vinyl, wood floor covering and interior furnishes (Slaton & Vault 2006).

            The company therefore prides themselves in being part of those that are committed to the sustainability of the environment. The company is the leading organization in the designing and manufacturing of floors and ceiling. The company has undergone innovative process in their residential as well as the profit-making products designs, elucidations and services rendered to customers. As a result of this inn ovation, there has been an increase in customers into the company as the organization is capable of delivering exceptional interior spaces that they visualize for themselves and their customers (Slaton & Vault 2006). The company specializes in housing flooring and ceilings, business ceilings and flooring and wall systems. The company is also involved in the manufacturing of cabinets and is ranked as the seventh manufacturing and distributing industry in the United States. It offers six wood species in its stock and also in its semi-routine cabinets. Manufacturing operation serves approximately three thousand customers and it has around twenty six networking facilities.

            The company size is within 5001-10,000 employees but the current employees are approximately 7500 employees globally. The organization is a public company. The company claims that their operations are based entirely on reliability, respect, diversity, endless improvement and desire for safety.

 

 

 

Structure

            The company is subdivided into three businesses that are the resilient floor cover, wood floor cover and building materials. Resilient floor cover deals with the production of vinyl and laminate floor coverings and linoleum floor cover in overseas countries. The building material business involves the making of ceilings mostly for business use and this is the strongest segment of the company. The company is favorably Self-motivated in relation to pricing and organization structure. The company is leading in the market as a result of the duopolistic business hence has a leading market share. The ceiling business is regarded as the most capitalistic as it can be capitalized at considerably higher multiples just as it would in a standalone business. While the floor covers business offers assets that are on the other hand subject to earnings instability, lower pricing and in a lower position in the market thus does not enjoy the market benefits that ceiling business receives (Slaton & Vault 2006).  

            The organization structure of the company is organized in such a way that there is the predisposition to increase task specialization as the company is developing and growing larger. There are several departments that are grouped and established according to the task or roles in the organization. All those tasks that are involved in almost similar task for example all accounting employees are organized and grouped together where there is a supervisor or a head of that department who ensures that the operations in that department are carried out as expected. The company’s management ensures that they identify challenges that are facing the business and they find changes that can help solve these issues and when given directive from the board of directors they implement these changes (Coombs & Holladay 2012). There are the employees who are in the subordinate category and they are the ones who are tasked with the manual roles. The sizes of these groupings or the departments are determined by the number of people a manger is supposed to supervise.

            The company has its operating standards which describes the way in which the company conducts its business that includes their commitment to respect the worthiness and the inherent rights of every stakeholder in the company. The company’s commitment extends to their suppliers as they strive to serve the suppliers interests fairly and conscientiously. They are able to manage their supply chains with their partners and the suppliers must meet the Armstrong management process. This will include the contract obligation to abide by the rules and regulations of the countries in which the company is conducting their business.

The company evaluates the suppliers’ according to their abilities to meet those obligations. The suppliers are also monitored by the company so as to measure the suppliers’ performance and appropriateness where the company requires these suppliers to submit details that demonstrate compliance with the company’s obligations. It is through this management process that the company is able to acquire quality suppliers in a quality supply chain. The company uses a third party in the supply verification process. They also carry out an audit on the suppliers so as to verify that they have met the legal and regulatory contract obligations.

            All employees in the organization are required to complete their training as pertaining to the Armstrong Code of Company conduct. They are also required to certify that they will follow these standards in their daily work in the company. However those workers with specific job responsibilities related to the supplier management usually receive more training on Armstrong management and audit techniques.

The company has been using low cost techniques of communication within the business where their promotions use minimal resources and this is a considerable step as it helps on saving finances and thus preventing the stakeholders from complaining (Coombs & Holladay 2012).

            The company has embraced the values that were exemplified in the operating principles that were adopted in the 1960. The company has been holding onto the legacy that was set by its founder by ensuring that acts fairly and that it strikes a balance between the interest of its customers, shareholders, workers, general public, suppliers, the society, and government.

 This makes the company to be more consistent on these principles and authority and compliance is taken seriously. The company therefore uses corporate governance and they have made this governance stronger by expanding the committee charter and have also established multiple means in which the shareholders are able to contact the board of directors. The boards of directors are made up of outside directors with the exemption of the CEO. There are several regular holdings of the executive sessions without the presence of the management and they have regular access to the company’s employees.

The auditors, compensation as well as the governance committee have charters that guide their operations. The board of directors often encourages the customers, shareholders, stakeholders and the general public to give their feedbacks, concerns and their thoughts that would help the company in improving their operations so as to serve them well.

 

 

 

Problems

            Armstrong faces some challenges along the process of their operations for instance; there is short supply of raw materials into the company due to the nature of these raw materials. For instance there is the short supply of plasticizers and when they are available their cost is sensitive as a result of price fluctuations in oil resource. Most of the times, the producer specifies the amount of supply that will be supplied to Armstrong despite their order. The long time basis taken by the company to order raw materials creates a lot of problems especially when there is an increase in demand and the customer requires the goods within a shorter period. Hence the scale of manufacturing is low thus there is minimal space that can accommodate too much raw materials or work that is in progress.

Thus there are higher chances of late delivery in case the raw materials have been delivered late and this may affect the company negatively by losing their customers as they may view them as unreliable. Another challenge is on the ink that is used during the work in progress have are short live hence must be used so quickly so that the entire batch cannot be contaminated and if it is contaminated then the whole batch must be scrapped. This is therefore a reason as to why the company has a minimal work in progress.

            The fact that the world is globalizing each day, the company is limited towards producing excessive products even though they might have a long life basing on sales but with changes in fashion, the product produced may not be in fashion within a short time (Turker & Altuntas 2014).

 

This therefore limits the production of the company hence minimal growth of the company. Overreliance of only a few employees to carry out a certain task in the company has caused the company great challenge as the location of the expertise knowhow is within only a few employees thus making the company weak. 

            Effects of the problems and Solutions        

            These problems within the company has raised concerns within the company’s management and thus to correct these problems they have been able to strategize on the various ways in which they implement in the company. Changes within the company affected the company in a way that the company has to change its schedule on the undertaking of the operations.

            According to the organization theory, overdependence on a group of employees may cause problems within the organization in cases where the employees are on leave or when the employees have retired or have quitted the job (Daft 2006).

This is because the replacement of the human resource may take longer than it is supposed to take hence the company may undergo slow operations and hence losses. 

            Basing on the organizational theory and design, it is advisable that the company distributes its role to the employees without overloading some employees in some departments especially the technological department that are involved in innovations. Thus there should be employed many workers within this department so that when one employee is not in then there can be others to fill that gap without affect ting the entire company. The result will be continuous success over the time without any chances of slow work in progress due to failure of just a small number of the employees for instance two or three employees.

The company therefore ought to demonstrate the effects that one decision has on the rest of the company thus this will help the company’s employees to understand the company in entirety and any action that they take affects the company. This will thus enable them to improve on the quality of their work by avoiding any careless acts that affects the business. 

            The company has thus been able to accept and adopt the preactor technology that involves scheduling and production planning.  Thus the company has integrated the internal scheduling of suppliers deliveries together with the dispatch system. The company has thus achieved tremendous local results as a result of the use of this technology. However, it is recommended that in the company should conglomerate the effects of rolling out of this system throughout the company so as to be successful. This will ensure that the entire supply chain approach is effective thus no late deliveries and quality services are given with quality products that are readily available in the company hence good customer relation.

            According to Daft, the contingency approach that enhances the measure of effectiveness basing on different parts of the company for instance, the resource centered approach. This approach evaluates the company’s effectiveness by observing the operation process from the beginning to the end and whether it has obtained the important resources that are necessary in attaining high performance (Daft 2006).

Armstrong Company therefore has failed in this approach as it does not have adequate resources that are important in ensuring that the company has attained success. This affect the company since it cannot be able to use it to obtain performance when there are no other performance indicators.

is thus recommended that the company finds the necessary resources that will help in making the company’s operations a success and this will enhance the effectiveness of the company. With the increase in the market served and the growth of the company, it is recommended that the company should add on more departments and positions where there will be more managers and supervisors who will coordinate these added departments. This will help to serve many and also this will help in solving of the uncertainties within the company.

            The company has only few employees who are involved in the technical tasks in the business hence there are no technical staff that are found in the external environment doing market research. It is thus commended that the company should add buffer departments that are responsible for the technical core of the company. The business should also implement the business intelligence where it represents the new approach of boundary- spanning responsibilities that link and bring together the company key elements in the external company’s environment (Daft 2006).  This will ensure that there are high practical analysis of both the internal and external information that shows patterns and relationships that might be relevant for the company. This mainly assists the company in identifying the market gaps and the trends in the line of business thus, allowing the company to make necessary changes that will see it to success.

            An organization may face challenges in achieving its objective. Bureaucratic theory may hinder an organization from succeeding. There is danger in simplifying that the organization could achieve improvement when there is over authority and an intense hierarchical power (Hales 2000). This means that the organization will be run in more of a directorship program where the employees are not heard or listen to. They are obliged to work accordingly. This means that the employees are not motivated as they work for long hours with little pay.

This affects the business adversely since efficiency is not optimized. It is also unhealthy for the workers as they tend to be unproductive as they have nothing to be proud of. Another critique of the theory that affects business is the working conditions that they are subjected to. This contributes to great difficulties of running the business as employees cannot work in unison (Cunliffe & Luhman 2012). It is therefore recommended that the Overworking hours be paid to the employees. There should also be a good relation between the employees and the management. Hence Armstrong should ensure that the supervisors are not too hierarchical and that they use power in the right way without any discrimination. This will thus create an enabling environment for the employees at all level hence they will be able to be more productive.

            Resource management is a vital aspect of running a health business. When the resources are poorly managed it becomes more difficult to run the business. This worsens the going concern assumptions as there is poor cash flow in the business. Operating costs are not met due to the financial constraints which affects the business adversely. Due to poor resource management credit limits by the credit lenders are lowered which affects the business. Suppliers of raw materials tend to with their credit limit or shorten it as a result of poor resource management by the organization. It is therefore recommended that the company should raise awareness on the employees on the importance of sustainably using the resources to ensure that the company does not spend on unnecessary expenses. Therefore the management should ensure that they set up strong and more effective project portfolios that will enhance better management of resources within the company and that new development of products is produced (Coombs & Holladay 2012).

 

Conclusion

            Armstrong Company has gone through tremendous growth over the years since it was first started but they have been able to stay in business due to the endless efforts by the entire stakeholders involved in the company. The changes that have been implemented in the company have enhanced it to withstand the challenges and the uncertainties that have faced the company. The integration, collaboration and cohesion between the management, suppliers, customers, society and the shareholders has enhanced the company to attain its goals and this has enabled the company to lead in their operations. The balancing of the interests of all those that are involved in the running of the company has enhanced the company to be able to have strong governance over their competitors in the market. It is thus important that the company has adopted new technologies that have enhanced it to develop even more and to produce ceilings and quality flooring products that make the company proud.  The company will continue to grow and succeed if they stay to the course by globalizing their activities and upholding integrity. This is also enhanced through valuing all those who make their operations a success that is the customers, employees, suppliers and the government.

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

            Bonham, S. S. (2008). Actionable strategies through integrated performance, process, project, and risk management. Boston: Artech House.

            Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (2012). Managing corporate social responsibility: A communication approach. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

            Cunliffe, A. L., & Luhman, J. T. (2012). Key concepts in organization theory. London: Sage.

            Daft, R. L. (2006). Organization theory and design. Mason, OH: Thompson-South Western.

            Hales, C. (2000). Managing through organisation: The management process, forms of organisation and the work of managers. London [u.a.: Business Press Thomas Learning.

            Slaton, H. R., & Vault (Firm). (2006). Vault guide to the top manufacturing employers. New York: Vault, Inc.

            Turker, D., & Altuntas, C. (2014). Sustainable supply chain management in the fast fashion industry: An analysis of corporate reports. European Management Journal, 32(5), 837-849.