CASES ON BRAND IMAGE

Case Study On How Café Coffee Day Adopt Social Media to Increase Sales?

Ø  History of CCD

Café Coffee Day is one of the India’s largest coffee beans trading Company. It is popularly known as Coffee Day. It is an ISO 9002 certified company with a budget of Rs 750 crore. The main source for coffee comes mainly from 5000 acres of estates which is the second largest in Asia. It is owned by a sister concern and some 11000 growers. It is the leading exporter of coffee and the main customers are from Europe, Japan and United States of America.

The golden roots are from the Chickmanglur which is the home of the Indian coffees.  The expansion of Coffee Day has become very necessary and hence there is a separate department to consider these issues. Coffee Day has its expansion throughout India. There are many divisions such as

·      Coffee Day express (owns 895 Kiosk)

·      Coffee Day Fresh n Ground (owns 400 Coffee bean)

·      Coffee Day exports and Coffee Day perfect

·      Coffee Day take away

·      Café Coffee Day (CCD)

The first Coffee Day was opened in Brigade road, Bangalore in the year 1996.

Ø  Problem Faced During Implementation of Social media marketing

The main responsibility for social media marketing is to expand their business in every region of the country and in a wider scale to the entire world. There is a special team that holds this responsibility of expanding the business and considering about the positioning of the Company in the internet. The main reason for the expansion is to increase the number of customers and increase the visibility of the shop in the internet. The people in the social media marketing are also responsible for sales promotion and the tie-ups.

Ø  Responsibility for Entering Into Social Media Marketing

To enter into social media marketing is not a joke. You will have to face lots of problems and hurdles. You should be in a situation to manage the problem and overcome in a short span. Café Coffee Day has entered into the social media marketing for one main reason; expansion of the Company to many customers. Do you think without any marketing through media you can gather more clients? In today’s world the most efficient marketing is the social media marketing. Thus CCD is not an exception. The marketing people should decide and manage the merchandise category that is displayed and sold at the shops.

They should keep in track of the promotions and sales. The café citizen program is one of the unique customer loyalty tools that helps in creating new customers and maintain the existing customers by rewarding them with some points that they earn and they can be redeemed. These strategies are quite important for people as they consider these points as a gift to them. Building trust is an important factor for customers.

Ø  How they Gain Customer Satisfaction

In the modern world, it is not only necessary to provide value to customers but also please them. The pleasing ambience should be created when they enter into the shop. This is provided in the Café Coffee Day. There is also some collection of information such as name, DOB, Anniversary and preferences which would help to improve the shop.

Conclusion

For any company to survive in this modern world, social media strategy is very important for expanding the business. CCD is no exception and it has entered into the world of social media strategy and gained success.

 

 

BRAND: Ministry of Tourism, India & the Incredible India’s Atithi Devo Bhavah Campaign (Case Study)

BRAND: Ministry of Tourism, India

Campaign Title: Incredible India’s Atithi Devo Bhavah Campaign

Strategic communications challenge?

Background:

The tourism industry is one of the most profitable industries in India and is also credited with contributing a substantial amount of foreign exchange. It is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and 8.78% to the total employment in India. India witnesses approximately 3 million annual foreign tourist arrivals every year.

The tourism industry also helps growth in other sectors as diverse as horticulture, handicrafts, agriculture, construction and even poultry. Both directly and indirectly, increased tourism in India has and will create job opportunities in a variety of related sectors. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, India will be the world’s leading tourism hotspot, having the highest 10-year growth potential. Some of the factors contributing to this growth are:

•  Growing disposable income in India
•  Growth in IT and outsourcing industry in India that is leading to a growing number of business trips by foreigners, who often add a weekend break or longer holiday to their trip. The upcoming Commonwealth Games (2010) in Delhi are further expected to add significantly to this growth.

However, in spite of an incredible wealth of Tourist spots, Cultural Attractions, Natural Wonders and Destinations for the soul, India’s is still not amongst the top 15 tourist destinations of the  world. While India had 3.3 Mn international visitors last year, Singapore had 7 Mn, Thailand 9.6 Mn and Malaysia 11.5 Mn.
(Source: Ministry of Tourism)

Two key factors contributing to this are:

•  Security and safety of international tourists
•  Defacement of the national heritage monuments and tourist spots

And the prime reason for both these factors is the attitude of the Indian citizen at large—a low level of empathy for the tourists, and low or no sense of pride for our culture and heritage.

Challenge:
The challenge was to change this perspective and ensure that the tourism industry in India realises its true growth potential.
Objectives:
The one line brief from the Ministry of Tourism to the agency was “We’ve lost touch with the hospitality that we were famous for. Now its time that we make an effort to make it part of us again.”

The key objective of the campaign, therefore, was awareness leading to a behavioural shift— sensitising people to the need to behave responsibly towards tourists, national monuments and our rich heritage and culture.

The campaign was designed to complement the Incredible India campaign. Its long term objective is to re-instil and re-enforce the confidence of foreign tourists towards India as a preferred holiday destination.

The big idea?
Driving the audience to be part of a drive to make India tourist and tourism friendly by reconnecting the TG with a prominent part of Indian Culture—Guest is God

How did they arrive at the big idea?

The arrived at the big idea by juxtaposing the core of the medium (internet) and our culture:

Interactivity and Hospitality. Given the objective of awareness and behavioural change, it was imperative that they ‘involve’ the consumer and not just ‘broadcast’ the message to him/her. Guest is God is a prominent part of the Indian culture. This was translated into the tag line of the brand campaign Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is God).

As an agency, they believed it was the best route because

• - Its part of the culture and therefore there is some amount of inherent acceptance

• - Imbibing the concept would ensure higher empathy and a more responsible behaviour towards the tourists

• - This would also prompt them to take care of their ‘home’ that the guest is visiting—their monuments and tourist destinations

Aamir Khan was roped in as the brand ambassador for the campaign. This added further impetus and mass appeal to the activity.

Bringing the idea to life?
After a detailed agency research, they managed to  figure that the key audience where the  need was to drive a behavioural change is the youth. This was because the incidence of graffiti on monuments, eve teasing, molestation etc. was highest in the age group of 18–30 years. Having zeroed down on this TG, They then looked at the activities that this audience is involved in the digital space.

In line with the audience media consumption, they looked at e-mails, social networks, blogs, entertainment sites, community websites, technology and travel genres for spreading our message. At the heart of the activity was an eye-catching yet simple microsite (http://atithi.org.in) that hosted an interactive forum, especially developed to empower the audience to contribute their ideas on how to tackle graffiti and tourist molestation. The brand ambassador, Aamir Khan, was the spokesperson on the website as well. The website also provided ideas and how to tips to the audience on how to be more responsible both, to the tourists as well as the tourism destinations.

To drive awareness about the campaign and traffic to this website, the agency conceptualised a Pan India campaign, comprising engaging interactive banners. The engaging banner ads asked viewers to write a love message for their beloved on India’s magnificent monuments (The Taj, Jantar Mantar, Sanchi Stupa, and Gateway of India). When the user tried to do so with a mouse, the monument dodged the pencil—this was followed by a message from Aamir telling the user to protect the monument.

The campaign ran on over 2,600 youth-centric websites including Orkut, YouTube, Music India Online and Gmail. These sites were shortlisted, keeping in mind the above media consumption habits of the TG and were shortlisted on the basis of three key factors—reach of the website (measured in absolute numbers), audience skew (share of our target audience in the overall traffic on the website across audiences) and site stickiness (time spent by the audience on the website). Given the audience and their consumption of the internet medium, social media and search played a crucial role in the overall campaign. They extended the core creative idea into Emailers, Desktop Calendars, Google Text Ads and press releases, all of which struck a deep chord with the youth.

Results:
The key objective of the campaign, as discussed, was awareness leading to a behavioural shift— sensitising people to the need to behave responsibly towards tourists, national monuments and our rich heritage and culture. As a long term objective, the campaign was to supplement the main campaign of the tourism ministry—Incredible India.

In terms of the first objective: awareness, They far exceeded their internal expectations. As highlighted earlier, at the heart of the Atithi Devo Bhavah activity was the microsite (http://atitihi.org.in). The campaign ran between February ’09–May ’09 and the various activities that we did around the campaign (social media, banners, mailers, PR etc.) led to a huge boost in the traffic on the website. According to Google Analytics (refer screen shot below), the website  garnered close to 5 Lakh visitors in the campaign period and 90.91% of these visits were new visits. This was much higher than the expected traffic of 3-3.5 Lakhs.

The Media Plan:

The media plan generated 181 Mn (1,81,921,968) views (Source: Agency Ad Serving Software) The social media activity also contributed to high reach and awareness of the campaign. The team got close to 8.5 Lakh video views on You Tube alone (Total number of video views in the campaign across the various video websites was 9,29,228. (Source: Agency Research)

The second objective of the campaign was to drive involvement so as to aid the behavioural shift. Close to 8.19 Lakh visitors clicked on our banners and mailers to visit the microsite and be part of the Atithi Devo Bhavah initiative. (Source: Agency Ad Serving Software).

Given that the long term objective of this campaign was to supplement the main campaign “Incredible India) and that 85% of the travellers research online before booking travel; we further used our social media activities to ensure that the Indian tourism website (www.incredibleindia,com) gained visibility through Google Search engine results as well. From a zero visibility, the website now ranked amongst top ten searches on highly searched keywords. e.g.:

• 5th on Google.co.in for “Goa India Travel”
•  6th on Google.co.in for “ India Travel Information’
•  Amongst top 10 on Google.co.in for keywords such as ‘India’, ‘Vacation India’ and ‘Plan India Tourism’ 

  

HAJMOLA - the brand and it's Branding Strategies

Born: 1978
History: Owned by home-grown consumer products company Dabur India Ltd.

Status: Has more than 60% market share in the digestive products markets worth Rs150 crores

Brand story: Hajmola, one of the strongest brands in Dabur’s portfolio, was launched in 1978 with a core proposition of “fun, taste and i digestion”. Its tag line for years - Chatpata swad, jhatpat aaram, (tastes good, provides instant relief) conveys the product’s benefits simply and succinctly.

Over the past few years, the brand has to moved away from it’s ayurvedic  positioning to that of a mild digestive product with a younger  and naughtier image. With a category penetration of close to 80% (which means eight out of every 10 Indians have used digestive tablets), the  company claims that around 20 a million Hajmola tablets are  consumed every day in India.

A lack of serious competition has given the brand a definite edge over the few regional and unorganized players that compete with it. “The (brand’s) fundamental premise is a ‘universal’ need. Hence, it is sustainable,” says Sanjeev Malhotra, director, Alia Creative Consultants Pvt. a brand consulting firm.

Another reason for Hajmola’s success is that it has kept pace with the evolution of the consumer. “Earlier, Hajmola was available only in glass bottles and was more of an in-house consumption product. But the introduction of Hajmola in pouches gave consumers an option of buying and consuming it on the go,” says K.K. Rajesh, executive vice-president, Dabur.

The brand has extended itself to candy and other forms of digestives as well. “Apart from a new price point, a new format like candy (has) brought new consumers, mostly kids, into the brand fold,” Rajesh adds.
Another evolution strategy was the use of celebrities such as cricketer Kapil Dev in the 1980s and actor Amitabh Bachchan in recent times. This helped in giving the brand a certain status.

 

 

FAIR & LOVELY the Brand from HUL

FAIR & LOVELY

Born: 1978 

History: The fairness cream brand was developed by Hindustan Lever Ltd (now Hindustan Unilever Ltd) in 1975.The product was then marketed nationally in 1978

Status: According to industry estimates, Fair and Lovely holds 80% market share in the at least Rs1,000 crore by sales Indian fairness cream market

Brand story: Made to cater to the Indian market, where beauty is equated with fair skin, the launch of Fair and Lovely was met with much enthusiasm. In 1988, the brand went international, and is now available in 40 countries.

The brand has had its share of negative publicity, with women’s groups calling the ad regressive. The ads, which focused on the mass aspiration of “marrying well”, soon moved to more progressive ones in the 1980s.
The early 1990s saw the brand take on the role of enabler of t dreams. In the late 1990s, the brand message was that a woman could make her own destiny—a thought that was carried forward in all its campaigns. In 2007, the brand tweaked its approach to the Power of Beauty platform.

With the fairness cream business accounting for the lion’s share of the skincare products industry here, several companies have launched fairness creams in the hope of securing a piece of the growing pie.
While none were able to challenge HUL in terms of numbers, they did start eating into the company’s market share with unique offerings.

Fair and Lovely was quick to take on competition—with variants. So, whether it was unique offerings such as ayurvedic formulations with saffron (to combat Fairever by CavinKare Pvt. Ltd) or those that claimed to erase marks (to fight No Marks by Ozone Ayurvedics), Fair and Lovely managed to launch variants that matched, and in some cases even topped, the promise touted by the competitor. To tap the premium segment of the market, Fair and Lovely also launched Perfect Radiance. The popularity of the brand and category can be gauged from the fact that today, it even has a variant for men.

 

ONIDA the Brand and its Strategies

Born: 1981
History: Owned by Mirc Electronics Ltd

Status: The most recognizable home-grown brand in the highly competitive consumer electronics industry dominated by Korean chaebols such as LG and Samsung.

Brand story: Onida is a brand best remembered for its unique mascot—the green devil with horns, long nails and spiky tail slithering across television screens. The tag line, Neighbour’s Envy, Owner’s Pride, was as catchy as the mascot. The devil turned out to be an angel in disguise—his mischievous message stood the brand in good stead in times that saw many of its rivals capitulate under market pressure.

For, Onida, too, was a victim of liberalization: Korean heavyweights such as LG Electronics and Samsung came to India with aggressive pricing and distribution strategies and conquered the consumer electronics market. The older players, such as Mirc, Videocon and BPL, couldn’t match their ability to scale up operations and cut prices while playing the volumes game. Most companies went into the red.

Onida survived. “There was a great fear that all Indian companies will be washed out with large MNCs (multinational companies) coming to India. But, Onida had managed to build a strong connect with its consumers and it re mained intact even in challenging times,” says Gulu Mirchandani, chairman of Mirc Electronics. “We soon decided that to stay ahead, we must make products that are not only globally competitive but measure up to global standards of quality as well,” he adds. The company continued to communicate its brand promise through clutter-free advertising—and the irrepressible devil.

According to a study of brands by market research firm TNS Mode released in September 2007, more than 78% of those surveyed could recall the devil, and connect it with the Onida brand. The times remain challenging, but the devil and his antics have built a strong equity among consumers.

Raymond the Brand and its Branding Strategy

Status: Raymond produces more than 35 million metres of fabric and holds over 60% of the market share in the suit fabric market in India

Brand story: In the early years, the brand started out with a chess king logo. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Raymond decided to include the common man with an instructive campaign. The brand offered a “guide to the well-dressed man” that would educate the consumer.

The brand’s persona was taken forward by Vijaypat Singhania, chairman emeritus of the Ray mond Group. In the 1990s, it launched The Complete Man campaign. And, more recently, Raymond has taken this concept further with a new initiative which also focused on the product—Feels like heaven, feels like Raymond.

“Raymond’s success lies in the fact that its pursuit of innovation is part of an ongoing strategy, not a knee-jerk reaction imposed by market conditions,” says Gautam Hari Singhania, chairman and managing director, Raymond Ltd.

“Till date, any special occasion—first job interview, a wedding in the family or even the first board meeting—Raymond is the preferred brand,” he adds.

“A brand can never be created through ads or campaigns alone…it takes a lot more than that to win the consumers’ faith and confidence,” says Nabankur Gupta, founder CEO, Nobby Brand Architects and Strategic Marketing Consultants.

Raymond has, year after year, delivered on a brand promise, Gupta adds—with trust and performance creating a strong emotional bond with consumers.

   

Brand Horlicks Case Study and Strategies

Born: 1873, in the US

History: Two Chicago, US-based brothers, James and William Horlick, first patented the malt-based milk drink as baby food.  the US

While the exact date of its India launch is not known, some of its commercials date back to the early 1900s. Currently owned by GSK Consumer Healthcare Ltd in India
Status: Horlicks holds 58% of the Rs1,900 crore health food drinks market, and is currently a Rs1,000 crore brand in India  

Brand story: From a drink that was supposed to promote a good night’s sleep to one that can help children grow taller, stronger and sharper, Horlicks has come a long way. Simultaneously, its brand image, too, has changed—from a fuddyduddy, boring health drink recommended by doctors to something that is nourishing, and enjoyable.

In 1992, as its market share grew, the brand extended itself to a new product—Horlicks Biscuits. In 1994, it started singing the “micronutrient” story, fol lowed by its “smart nutrients” campaign in 1998.

The brand underwent a massive transforma tion in 2003, when almost everything about it changed—from the taste and flavour to the packaging. It also changed its positioning: it was nourishing, yes, but also tasty.

Another turning point came in 2005, when the brand released a clinical study which claimed that children who consumed Horlicks were “taller, stronger, and sharper” than those who did not. For the first time, the brand tried to communicate with children, not just their mothers.

Beginning a major advertising and marketing campaign along that theme, new variants such as Horlicks Lite were launched, followed by the revamp of Junior Horlicks in 2006. The latest variant is Women’s Horlicks, launched this year.

We are constantly striving to ensure that the brand is relevant to consumers,” says Shubhajit Sen, vice-president, marketing, GSK Consumer Healthcare Ltd.Product innovation, he maintains, is likely to remain a priority.

BRONZE MEDAL TO BBA STUDENT

Industrial visit of MBA students to MINDA INDUSTRIES, MANESAR

Workshop on Marketing Management

PRODUCTION AND OPERATION MANAGEMENT MODULE

·         ABC	Activity Based Costing
·         ABSENTEE POLICY	The policy that covers allowed absence from the workplace and the penalties that accrue for excessive absence. This policy is typically part of the employee handbook.
·         ACCOUNTS PAYABLE	Liabilities that result from a purchase of goods or services on an open account. Amounts owed to suppliers of goods or services
·         ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE	Amounts owed to a company by customers as a result of delivering goods or services and extending credit in the ordinary course of business
·         ACQUISITION	Typically the purchase of a company or a significant business asset. In the defense industry, acquisition means the purchase of products and systems
·         ACTIVITY BASED COSTING (ABC):	An ABC system identifies and then classifies the major activities of a facility's production process into one of the following four categories: unit-level, batch-level, product-level, and facility-level activities. Costs in the first three categories of activities are assigned to products using bases (i.e. cost drivers) that capture the underlying behavior of the costs that are being assigned. The costs of facility-level activities, however, are treated as period costs or allocated to products in some arbitrary manner.
·         AD&D	Disability insurance as part of an employee benefit package
·         ALLOCATION	The assignment of costs incurred in one area or function of a plant or company to another because of the service to the charged unit
·         AMORTIZATION	The systematic reduction of an asset, specifically when referring to a long-lived intangible asset such as goodwill or intellectual property. It usually means the allocation of costs of intangible assets to the periods that benefit from these assets. See also depreciation.
·         ANDON	The visible light or sign that denotes the state of an operation (i.e., on, trouble or off.) The process can be stopped or investigated for quality issues or defects as a result of the status of the lights. In addition, everyone in the immediate area can see that the problem is being addressed.
·         BACKROOM COSTS	Indirect costs that do not add direct value to a product and may or may not be necessary to support its production. Examples are matching supplier material receipts to their invoices to make sure that they are being paid accurately; sending invoices to customers; matching computer inventory records to actual inventory; accounting for product costs at each station on a production routing; keeping track of hazardous materials receipt, control, and proper disposal; tracking customer warranty issues; operation of the computer systems that control the production process, etc.
·         BATCH	The number of production units in an aggregation of units that can be produced by an activity that produces in batches. A multiple of units in a plant designated for any purpose such as packaging, outside services, etc
·         BENCHMARKING	Benchmarking is defined as a process of continuous comparison of a company’s performance on predetermined measure against that of the best in an industry or a class, considered the standard or the reference. Benchmarking is one of the most popular business management tools for establishing competitive advantage and initiating performance improvements. The Benchmarking process supports the adoption of best practices with enhanced organization performance. The goal is to attain low-cost producer status
·         BILL OF MATERIAL (BoM):	A bill of material is an ordered listing of all the parts in a finished product. The listing usually includes the part number, how many of each part is required, and a brief word description of the part. It is best practice to use only words that appear in a parts dictionary. Bills of material are usually organized by indenting subsystems.
·         BLOCKAGE	Prevention of a processing unit to produce more units because of inadequate storage space or lack of authorization to produce
·         BLUE SKY	Goodwill associated with an acquisition of a company or asset
·         BUFFERS	Inventory between processing or activity units
·         BUILDING TO CUSTOMER ORDER versus BUILDING TO FORECAST	Building to customer order means that at least the final assembly, packaging, and shipping awaits a firm order for the product. Building to forecast means that the product is manufactured to a forecasted demand. Building to customer order means that the product is pulled by customer order rather than pushed by a forecast.
·         BURDEN	Also known as overhead and sometimes as indirect costs. It is the support system cost with respect to the direct costs for manufacturing a product. Burden rates vary widely among operations depending on the equipment investment and other factors. Burden rates include all indirect costs and are usually referenced to direct labor cost excluding fringes required for the direct product manufacture.
·         CAD	Computer aided design is a process of generating and manipulating product designs through computer software. The software allows all information of a part to be generated and stored electronically at a computer terminal and transferred to other sites or machines
·         CAM	Computer aided manufacturing (often used synonymously with CAD) is a similar process of generating manufacturing processes electronically
·         CIM	Computer-integrated-manufacturing. Popular in the 1980s, it implied fully computer- controlled manufacturing processes. It has been supplanted by lean manufacturing concepts in the main.
·         CLASSIFICATION	The designation of the job function that an employee is proficient in and assigned to, e.g. machinist, welder, assembler
·         CNC	Computer numerical control generally refers to equipment that is operated through the use of digital information rather than human input. For instance, a CNC milling machine will automatically produce the desired net shape of a part as specified by the controlling program
·         CONTRIBUTION MARGIN	Sales minus the variable costs—the contribution of a sale to the fixed costs of an operation
·         CONTROL CHARTS	Statistical charting process that is used to identify sporadic and chronic faults in a process. Mean and variance measurements of a product are charted and acceptable limits are set on these values. An out of control process can be identified and adjustments made to remedy the situation through the use of control charts
·         CORRELATED DEMANDS	Implies that aggregated demand would have less variability than separate demands because of correlation among demands
·         COST OF GOODS SOLD (COGS)	The term appearing on the income statement of a company or plant representing the manufacturing cost of the goods sold. The COGS does not include sales and marketing, engineering, and corporate administration
·         COST OF SALES (COS):	This abbreviation denotes the "cost of sales". It denotes all the costs in a plant. It is the sum of materials cost and value added. The COS can also be referred to as "cost of goods sold
·         CRITICAL PATH	That path through a process or activity system that has the longest theoretical flow time
·         DECOUPLING	Implies that through buffers and inventory, processes in a product line can operate relatively independently of the each other
·         EBIT	Earnings before interest and taxes
·         EBITDA	Earnings before interest, taxes, amortization, and depreciation. The single most used measure in valuing companies. It represents free cash flow quite accurately
·         EPS	Earnings per share of common stock for a company
·         ERROR PROOFING (POKA YOKA	Error proofing seems to be a simple concept, but there are many variations on the primary theme. The basic concept is that a product is prohibited from being taken out of its fixture if it has a quality defect as a result of the machine or operator action. The defect must be corrected prior to release of the product from the fixture
·         EVA	Economic Value Added--the amount the profits of a company or entity differs from its cost of capital times its net assets. EVA is increasingly used as a performance measure replacing return on equity and return on investment
·         FLOW SHOP	An operation that produces products at volume in a continuous flow or by a well-defined, connected sequence of activities or processes
·         FLOW TIME	The average (actual) time for a unit of production to flow through a process unit or activity including input and output inventories. Theoretical Flow Time is the flow time without inventories
·         FMEA	Failure mode and effects analysis--the process by which failures are hypothesized, valued, and corrected
·         FOREWARD BUYING	Buying of materials in advance of need
·         FORKLIFT	A general-purpose small truck for lifting and transporting materials and containers in a plant; not conducive to lean operations
·         HAZMAT	Hazardous material handling process defined by environmental laws and legal precedents. A process has been defined by regulations that impose stiff fines for a plant if the regulations are ignored.
·         IRR	Internal rate of return--that period interest rate that makes the present value of the discounted cash flows zero. Given a stream of cash flows, iteration is required to find that interest rate that makes the net present value zero
·         ISO 9000	International Standards Organization quality standard. The "9000" designation is a general one. Levels of quality achievement encompassing wider functions in a firm from manufacture to complete product design, customer service, and manufacture progress from "9003" to "9001".            This quality standard is administered by approved consulting firms and denotes a company's commitment to follow standard processes in its business practice
·         ISO CERTIFICATION	Denotes that a firm or plant has received an ISO quality standard. Also, it is the process by which a firm achieves such certification
·         INVENTORY	Goods and products held by a company in the product value stream that are eventually intended for sale to customers on their own or as part of a product system. Inventory includes the material cost of the goods and the value added by the operation to reach its state of manufacture. Raw materials, work in process, and finished goods are three categories of inventory
·         JIDOKA	The principle of stopping work (or the line) when there is a quality problem--the process for correcting that problem
·         JIT	Just-in-time manufacturing system. In a full JIT system, the only parts that enter a plant or move from process to process in a plant are those identified uniquely with a final product, no more or no less. Thus, every part being supplied and every part in the plant can be related directly to a bill of material of a product that is either in production or will shortly to be in production.
·         JOB SHOP	Job shops refer to those operations where each order is more or less unique and where the volumes are small or only one order. The clearest example of a job shop is a construction firm that constructs unique buildings. The book manufacturing industry is another example of a job shop if the production runs are small as is the case for a textbook. The automotive, appliance, towel, petroleum refining, and computer industries are examples of repetitive manufacturing. See also repetitive manufacturing
·         KAIZEN	The process whereby teams attack a manufacturing operation to make a series of quick, small steps to improve the process. It is also the process by which such small improvements are continued. Standardized work is the result of Kaizens
·         KANBAN	A card that signals the replenishment requirements in a production process. Associated with delivering just the amount of inventory needed at the right time. The heart of a pull system where the process need for inventory is signaled by the placement of a demand card with the supply process
·         LAYOFF	The process by which employees that are not needed for some extended period of time are given notice that their services are not needed. Layoffs are usually associated with unionized operations although not always so. Layoffs do not necessarily imply that the employee will be called back, but in union contracts, laid-off employees have callback rights. Eligibility for unemployment benefits also depends on the layoff process. Seniority generally rules for layoffs, although voluntary layoffs where employees volunteer to a layoff are effective ways to allow flexibility in the layoff process. Benefits may or may not continue in a layoff.
·         LEAN	A term used to indicate that an operation adheres to the Toyota Production System and has achieved the level of quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction associated with application of that system
·         LIFE CYCLE COSTING	Using the full cost of a component or system over its useful life in a financial decision process instead of just original purchase price. For example, life cycle costs brought to present value may justify a higher initial purchase price
·         LINE BALANCING	In a production or process operation line with several processes, machines, or operations in sequence, the discipline of balancing the throughput of each operation in the sequence such that production of any one unit in the sequence is equivalent or "balanced" with each of the other units in the sequence
·         MAKE-TO-ORDER	Operations that make products or deliver services only to customer order--no finished goods inventory
·         MAKE-TO-STOCK	Operations that make products to inventory in anticipation of customer demand--requires demand forecasts
·         MASTER PRODUCTION SCHEDULE (MPS)	The schedule of finished goods that are to be manufactured based on actual or forecasted customer demand. Work centers are scheduled to manufacture the products to meet the MPS.
·         MRP	Material requirements planning. MRP systems are used in almost all plants. They coordinate the bill of materials, forecasted demand, long lead-time parts, and the inventory in the plant. The reasons MRP systems are generally required relate to the fact that all parts cannot be supplied JIT and that schedules are not predictable. There are still suppliers that give price discounts for larger orders. Further, material receipt, inventory tracking, and engineering changes introduce complexity in plants unless the bills of material are few and simple
·         MUDA	Waste. Reducing waste throughout the enterprise is one of the fundamentals tenets of the Toyota Production System.
·         MULTIPLE SOURCING	Sourcing more than one supplier for the same part or system
·         OSHA	Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The federal agency that administers The Occupational Safety and Health Act was formed by an Act of Congress in 1970. Ever since, OSHA’s mission has been clear and unwavering: "to assure so far as possible every working man and women in the nation safe and healthy working conditions." Coverage of the Act extends to all employers and their employees in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all other territories under Federal Government jurisdiction
·         OEM	Original Equipment Manufacturer. The term OEM denotes a company or sector that manufacturers equipment ready for purchase by the end-use customer. The large automotive companies are referred to as OEMs. Suppliers to such companies supply to the OEMs, they are not OEMs themselves. There is an implication of a distribution entity between an OEM and the ultimate customer.
·         QFD	Quality Function Deployment: The formal process whereby products and services are designed that meet all customer expectations cognizant of costs, competitors, manufacturing, and flexibility
·         QUEUING	Formation of a line. Queuing theory is the study of the formation and variation of queues. It is applied to operations where capacity constraints or variations produce lines or queues.
·         SPC	Statistical process control involves the implementation of statistical tools (including control charts) that monitor processes in order to identify improvement opportunities. Process faults are identified, a root cause of the fault is isolated, and corrective actions are taken to improve the process
·         SUPPLY CHAIN	The supply chain denotes the process by which components are moved and produced from raw material to the ultimate consumer. It also includes the details of that process such as cost, time, transportation, packaging, etc. It may involve two or three levels of suppliers, one or more OEM plants, a distribution system, spare parts replacement parts flow, and the disposal and recycling process
·         TIER ONE	Tier one designated those group of suppliers who have becomes directly responsible for not only product supply but product development. The tier one suppliers in the automotive industry, for example, supply complete seats, braking systems, drive trains, and other complete systems that have been developed in cooperation with the OEMs
·         TERMINAL VALUE	The value of an operation or entity at the end of the time period considered. For discounted cash flow, it is the net value of the entity considering all future cash flows at a terminal time in the future.
·         TQC	Total quality control--a process by which a firm deploys it quality program throughout all functions of the company