Integrated Systems Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Integrated Systems Management - Research Paper Example It rather refers to a situation whereby there is a pact in the delivery of all components of the business. It is actually this characteristic of integrated systems management that makes it suitable for not just a limited group of companies or business openings but all businesses. Caution must also be taken in identifying what needs to be integrated and what needs to be left out. In their opinion, the Chartered Quality Institute (2012) states that an integrated systems management â€Å"should integrate all currently formalized systems focusing on quality, health and safety, environment, personnel, finance, security.† In the present study, the use of integrated systems management in facility location is going to be assessed into detail. Stage One: Is location predetermined? Location management is an important practice in every integrated systems management that aims at facility location. This is because a comprehensive location management would ensure that a great deal of cost b enefit analysis is done of all available locations so that the best choices can be made (Gilpin, 2002). Location management can therefore be said to ensure that the best value is got of a place in terms of determinants such as labor, transportation and market availability. In some unfortunate situations however, location managers tend to be arbitrary in their management tasks. What this means is that they use predetermined factors to judge between available options of locations to make their selections. Commonly, location managers use certain logics to justify their reason for predetermination of location. Some of these logics include the thinking that an appropriate location of a factory should be close to a source of raw material. Another includes the thinking that a service industry must be close to a market it served. Again, they may come up with the argument that dependencies like fuel and energy must be catered for within the location. However, these are major misconceptions t hat defeat the very impetus of location management. Indeed, for the company I work for, effective location management is achieved by ensuring that location managers make use of primary rather than secondary data. This means that they are always admonished to on the ground to gather empirical data. Stage Two: Solving a centralized versus decentralized location problem To solve a centralized versus decentralized location problem in a facility location system, project managers and all concerned stakeholders would be thinking of a cost benefit analysis in terms of production cost as against distribution cost. In some schools of thought, it is actually held that centralized versus decentralized location refers to pre-production and production cost against post-production cost; whereby pre-production and production cost cutting suits a centralized location whiles a post-production cost cutting suits a decentralized location. For the company in question, there are two major options availab le and these are either to locate a single location point where all production and distribution will be done from or to locate several regional location points where production and distribution will be done from. However judging from the fact that the cost of production has relatively being high than the cost of distribution due to the fact that the