After the products have been selected and the systems for producing them have been designed and built, the next major step is to operate the system. This requires setting up a company structure, staffing the positions and training people. In factoring companies, managers are needed who can provide the supervision and leadership to carry out activities necessary to produce desired products or provide services. Other activities, such as purchasing and maintaining the inventory, are also required in maintaining the factoring companies. The aim is to obtain the best productivity ratio within a time period with due consideration to quality. Controlling operations, as in any case of managerial control, requires setting performance criteria, measuring performance against them, and taking actions to correct undesirable deviations. Thus, one can control production, product quality and reliability levels, inventory levels and work force performance in factoring companies. A number of tools and techniques have been developed to do this. With the development of computer hardware and software, it is now possible for virtually any measurable data to be reported as events occur. Systems are available for quickly and systematically collecting data bearing on total operation, for keeping these data readily available, and for reporting without delay the status of any of a large number of projects at any instant. They are thus primarily information systems playing a pivotal part in factoring companies to provide effective planning and control. These and other systems that use the technology of fast computation clearly promise to hasten the day when planning all the areas of production can be more precise and controlling more effective. The drawback is not cost; rather it is the failure of managers to spend time and mental effort on conceptualizing the system and its relationships or to see that someone else in the company does so. |
