Hannah Wittman
29 October 2014
Management Control Systems Essay
Management control systems can look different between companies depending on what an organization’s goals and strategies are. Control systems can also depend on what the internal structure of the company is and what type of environment employees are working in. In most cases, a control system is put in place to set a uniform stand within an organization. The hope is that a management control system will result in an increase in productivity, moral, sales, decrease in cost, or whatever the goal of the company may be.
In this article, published by the Chicago Tribune, Reynolds and Reynolds, set up a management control ...view middle of the document...
Because of the open communications that Selleck has developed between the employee units and upper-level management, the company is seeing increases production and decreases in costs, without having to hire any more employees.
Setting up a control system to foster innovation and communication throughout the company, the employees at Reynolds and Reynolds are now working with a standard set of goals and policies that have helped not only to streamline processes, but also to keep departments within the company on track with each other. I think that the employees have provided management with important information on how to better production and control costs, which is essential in an accounting control system.
Although this company has seen results, there are issues with setting up this type of system. It would probably not work in a company that has thousands of employees and is dispersed into different areas of the country or world. The article pointed out that there were problems with collecting information from the employees at the beginning because many ideas were being shut down in fear that a bad idea would hurt an employee’s performance review. It is important that this type of control system is set up in a company where there is a culture that fosters employee input and group innovation. Some companies are cut throat and employees would never dream of collaborating with a co-worker.
Bottom-up Approach Pushes Plant`s Performance To The Top
By Raju Narisetti, Cox News Service.
DAYTON — Last December, when manager Randall Selleck sought volunteers for an employee team to work on improving operations at his plant, he got only 11 responses.
But by August the plant began to be cited as a model of productivity improvements within Reynolds and Reynolds Co., a Fortune 500 maker of computer systems andbusiness forms.
The Reynolds experience is a case study in teamwork and a bottom-up approach, concepts that usually receive lip service from managers.
At a time when companies are looking for ways to streamline operations and cut costs, managers at Reynolds have gotten measureable results that show the best answers can come from asking those who know best-the workers.
``Letting go wasn`t too hard,`` said Gordon Petrik, a supervisor. ``By doing so, we were also asking the workers to take ownership of problems.``
Their weapons: an employee-run problem-solving team that funneled ideas to management, ``cross-training`` among technicians and a slew of little changes that added up to dramatic gains in efficiency.
The outcome: The plant in the Dayton suburb of Moraine repairs 6,500 parts a month, up from 4,800 a year ago, without any addition to the work force.
The plant repairs computer and peripheral components, such as printers and monitors, that go into the company`s automotive-dealer information system. In spite of low standing on the Reynolds totem pole, the parts-repair plant has always been critical. It costs Reynolds $35 to...
