The 4Ms of Operations

Method. Based on what is known, the Manager can determine the volume of cars that
need to be processed and who will be responsible for each step of the process. The
Manager will determine the most efficient way for each portion of the process to be
done to eliminate damage to the product and to eliminate areas where time and
manpower are be wasted. Controlling waste is the key to efficient and profitable
production.
Manpower. When examining the Methods you now have in place, what is the ideal
number of people it will take to perform these methods and what positions should they
be in? How will the personnel be trained and measured for performance?
Machine is the third M in the sequence. When examining your facilities, vehicles and
tools, do you have everything you need to ensure the safety of the employees while
maximizing the efficiency and productivity of the department? Do all employees have
access to the same tools and equipment if needed? Do the tools enable them to
perform tasks independently? Are they trained on how to maintain the machinery and
tools?
Materials are the last portions of the Ms of Production. Do you have the materials
needed to perform all parts of production and are they conveniently located to minimize
waste.
Manpower -This refers to the workforce, whom will help a business to produce more
products. An entrepreneur needs to hire good and competent people to produce quality
products.
Additional info:

Machine - Refers to the devices and equipment used to perform specific type of work
and usually uses energy (electricity) to perform a task.
For example: in food industries, food processors are indispensable in producing
products.
Material - Pertains anything used as inputs to production or manufacturing.
It can be a finished product or an unprocessed raw material.
Raw materials are first harvested, extracted and processed to produce semi-finished
materials.
Method -This refers to the ways of producing a particular product from raw materials.
This may refer to traditional method, such as producing the product manually, or it may
be machine-assisted and automated.
Value Chain
The idea of value chain was pioneered by Michael Porter. Five steps in the value chain
give a company the ability to create value exceeding the cost of providing its good or
service to customers. Maximizing the activities in any one of the five steps allows a
company to have a competitive advantage over competitors in its industry.

Inbound logistics are the receiving, storing and distributing of raw materials used in
the production process.
Operations is the stage at which the raw materials are turned into the final product.
Outbound logistics are the distribution of the final product to consumers.
Marketing and sales involve advertising, promotions, sales-force organization,
distribution channels, pricing and managing the final product to ensure it is targeted to
the appropriate consumer groups.
Service refers to the activities needed to maintain the product's performance after it
has been produced, including installation, training, maintenance, repair, warranty and
after-sale services.
Supply Chain
The supply chain comprises the flow of all information, products, materials and funds
between the different stages of creating and selling a product. Every step in the
process, including creating a good or service, manufacturing it, transporting it to a place
of sale and selling it is a company's supply chain. The supply chain includes all functions
involved in receiving and filling a customer request. These functions include:

-product development
-marketing
-operations
-distribution
-finance
-customer service
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Four M’s
Money, material, machine and manpower are the Four M’s, the traditional framework
for viewing the resources available to a business, which can be useful when designing a
business plan.
Identifying the resource needs is generally considered in business, a task for those in
management. Failure to supply the resources required by a business often results in
organizational failure.

Develop a product description

1. Know Who Your Target Audience is

The first step to writing product descriptions is to define your target audience.
You want to be able to define which features would be of most interest to your
potential buyers.

2. Focus on the Product Benefits

As a business owner, you are understandably excited to share all of the qualities of your
products. You want to show that your product has the best features and most unique
specs.
The buyer, however, is not necessarily interested in the mundane features of the
product. Instead, they want to know how it can benefit them.

3. Tell the Full Story

A good product description should give all relevant details, convince the buyer of its
benefits, and pack an emotional punch.
Emotions influence buyer behavior, so your product description is the perfect place to
elicit emotions. By filling in any gaps that potential buyers may have about the product.

4. Use Natural Language and Tone

If you read your description aloud, does it sound like a real conversation that you would
have with your friend? If your product description isn’t something that you would say to
your friend about the product, then it’s time to inject a little life into them. Bringing this
natural tone–one that you would use in a real conversation–will help your customer
connect with your brand.
Create a prototype of the Product

One of the essential early steps in the inventing process is creating a prototype--which,
simply defined, is a three-dimensional version of your vision. Creating a prototype can
also be one of the most fun and rewarding steps you'll take.
So now that you know that creating a prototype is a vital step in your invention process,
how exactly do you move forward and actually do it? This stage in the inventing
process is possibly the period of greatest learning.

1. It enables you to test and refine the functionality of your design. Sure, your
idea works perfectly in theory. It's not until you start physically creating it that you'll
encounter flaws in your thinking. That's why another great reason to develop a
prototype is to test the functionality of your idea. You'll never know the design issues
and challenges until you begin actually taking your idea from theory to reality.

2. It makes it possible to test the performance of various materials. For

example, your heart may be set on using metal--until you test it and realize that, say,
plastic performs better at a lower cost for your particular application. The prototype
stage will help you determine the best materials.

3. It'll help you describe your product more effectively with your team, including
your attorney, packaging or marketing expert, engineers and potential business
partners.

4. It will encourage others to take you more seriously. When you arrive with a
prototype in hand to meet any professional--from your own attorney to a potential
licensing company--you separate yourself from the dozens of others who've approached
them with only vague ideas in mind. Instead, you'll be viewed as a professional with a
purpose, as opposed to just an inventor with a potentially good idea.
Test a product prototype

businesses believe that a prototype needs to be perfect before testing, the truth is that
it’s wise to evaluate market response at an early stage. By testing a physical product
with users now, you can avoid having to make expensive changes down the line while
ensuring that the end results meet the user’s goals and desires.

1. Assessing the Market

When testing a physical product, it’s important to consider whether there’s an
addressable market for it. After all, it doesn’t matter how great a product is if it doesn’t
fulfill a current need in the marketplace. If you want to know what people are searching
for, Google Trends is a helpful tool for assessing the interest level in an existing
product. Not only can you determine the volume of searches for a topic, but you can
also see whether an item’s popularity is increasing or decreasing.
2. Define Expectations
Prototype testing is only useful if you first define clear objectives. Along with defining
the goals of the test itself, businesses can increase the odds of success by considering
variables like audience size, and by setting specific timelines for gathering results.
Additionally, business owners should take time to consider all product features and
choose audience participants accordingly.
3. Select Your Audience
Choosing the right audience helps ensure your physical product test is as useful as
possible. When selecting participants, it’s important to try to mimic the composition of
your desired market.
Along with factors like age, gender, and income level, consider whether users have
prior experience with a given product as well as their general level of interest. If users
aren’t interested in using a product, they may not pay close enough attention to its
flaws. The end result is a review that is falsely positive and not as helpful as you might
have hoped.
4. Create a Presentation
A good problem presentation can be a vital part of the market testing process. While a
product presentation is designed to introduce an item to consumers, a problem
presentation details the business’ understanding of the product’s biggest issues. The
goal is to garner information from your market at the prototype stage, when making
changes is less cost prohibitive.

Although it’s wise to create your problem presentation before testing a prototype, the
hope is that your participants will raise these issues on their own. In general, you
should focus on listening, and let your target market do the talking. Once your audience
has provided a list of problems, and rated them by importance, you can start proposing
solutions that meet everyone’s needs.
5. Suggest Solutions
It’s not enough to identify problems through your market testing. Developers also use
the opportunity to suggest possible solutions to their target audiences. When
presenting your ideas, concentrate on conveying the big idea rather than a laundry list
of technical changes that may go over participants’ heads. Next, take time to observe
your audience’s reaction and ask for feedback.
The goal is to ensure that your proposed solutions make sense and correct the most
significant usability issues. You should then redesign any plans that don’t make the
grade. Remember: this isn’t the stage for selling users on your product. Instead, use
the occasion to collect invaluable feedback about your ideas.
Validate Your Product Ideas
One of the most important aspects of building a business is validating that there is a
demand for your products. There is nothing more discouraging than spending your time
and energy creating a product that you think people will love, only to realize that
there’s no interest when you launch.

1. Ring the cash register

The first and arguably best way to validate your product is to prioritize making a few
initial sales. Nothing is more important than customers seeing the value in your product
and exchanging money for it.
Remember that while talking to potential customers is an important part of building
your business, until people pay you all you have is a list of assumptions. Market
research, surveys, and feedback from friends and family can point you in the right
direction, but real product validation only happens when money changes hands.
2. Conduct competitive analysis
Research can be useful when you’re still in the ideation stage or searching for a product
to sell. Exploring the current market can also help you mitigate risk and build
confidence in your idea before investing too much time and money.
Is to evaluate the market for your product as it stands today to ensure there’s enough
demand to build a viable business. One way to make sure there is a healthy market to
sell to is to look closely at your direct competition. Find out what they are doing and
how it compares to what you are planning to do.

3. Research the existing demand

A third strategy you can use to validate your product and its market is to analyze
demand and search volume. Now that you know more about your competitors, let’s
take a closer look at interest from potential customers.

5. Meet customers in person

it’s provided a convenient way to gather quick info, first-hand feedback from potential
customers. Once you’re able to meet in person, you’ll benefit by getting to talk to
potential customers, seeing their initial reactions to your product, and finding out if they
are willing to spend money on it. Consider having a set of questions ready to ask
customers, such as their preferences on color and flavor, and what if any competing
products they might currently be using.
Recruiting and Hiring Capable, Self-Motivated People for one’s business
enterprise.

You can’t typically grow your business without growing the number of people with
whom you work. Your success will depend on your ability to put together a team of
highly qualified people who are committed to the goals and objectives of your firm. The
key in hiring for your company is not necessarily finding people who thrive in
uncertainty but rather finding people who thrive in the kind of organizational culture
your company strives for. Resist the urge to hire people just because they share the
same personality traits and background as you.

Use Applications—Before interviewing applicants, consider having them complete and

sign an employment application form, even if they have a resume. As a legal document,
the application form must conform to state and federal regulations. Human resources
consultants can assist you with the development of legal applications.
Screen—Save time conducting interviews by screening applicants beforehand using
information provided on the application form. Look for unexplained breaks in
employment, omissions on the application, career changes, and reasons for leaving
other employers. Salary history, professional affiliations, and overall professionalism in
completing the form can also give clues about the applicant.
Interview—Determine what you are looking for and develop interview questions in
advance. Develop questions that ask interviewees to tell you how they would respond
to real workplace situations. Ask every interviewee the same set of questions. Rate their
answers in some systematic way.
Avoid Bias—Be aware that we tend to judge people who are similar to ourselves more
highly than those who are different from ourselves. Recent studies have shown that
persons tend to rate others more highly if they exhibit physical beauty or attractiveness,
regardless of their actual qualifications’
References—Always check references to verify the information with additional
research. Studies show that about 30 percent of resumes contain some kind of false
information. People who overstate or falsify their job qualifications may cause future
harm to your organization or may be poor employees.