Expanding Product Lines: Strategies for World Cruisers to Target Middle-Income Consumers

Question

Task: How can World Cruisers effectively introduce a new product line aimed at middle-income consumers while maintaining their luxury yacht production?

Answer

Introduction

World Cruisers are a successful cruise ship building businesses in Australia which currently produced 12 and 15-meter yachts for clients located across Australia. With the increasing demand for yachts amount the middle-income groups in Australia the businesses intends on including an additional 9-meter yacht to its portfolio which would be sold to growing middle-income consumer basket in Australia. The businesses are currently operating at 83% efficiency which leaves an 17% gap for improvement and the company has been able to manufacture six 12 meters and two 15 meter yachts during the past year.

The business intends on including the 9-meter fleet to their production line but needs to produce at least six 9 meter yachts by June 2018 for them to be tested and marketed by yacht magazines (Patanakul & Shenhar, 2011). The business also needs to maintain its current production and produce the new product to their assembly without increasing their shipyard space. The report shall review the current operation and propose a new strategy and operations management approach the business can utilize to ensure the businesses meet the production goals without disrupting current operations or hiring additional shipyards.

Appoint a Competent project manager

The first aspect linked to executing this plan required for the business to hire an experienced operation manager who has both practical and technical experience and knowledge. It’s also important for the manager to have a strong command over the use of computer software which can assist with the planning, distribution, and monitoring or reporting of the projects progress (Pollack, 2007).

The operations manager must have full control of the operation and be able to develop an effective strategy which can be used to include the new proposed product to the businesses production assembly without distracting the businesses current performance. The manager plays an important role as he will be responsible for coordinating the businesses operations which makes it important for the business hire an operations manager who is capable of evaluating the current production and including the proposed plans to the assembly line thus ensuring the businesses archives the plan.

Create a Plan

Planning plays a huge role towards any proposed projects success and this is especially important while infusing a new proposal to an existing operation as experienced by World Cruisers. The business already has an established clientele who need to be served but the business also needs to include an additional product to their portfolio so as to increase their product line and income.

To maintain current operations and include the new products without investing on additional workspace the businesses will require distributing its current operations and consider increasing the number of shift which would help compensate the production of the new product. The existing 12 and 15 meters yacht production must remain on schedule but at the same time, the 9-meter yachts production requires to be infused to the production line without disrupting current operation (Globerson & Zwikael, 2002).

This will only possible if the business increases the e shift timing linked to each of the yachts thus meaning each yacht would have two to three sets of skilled employees working on it thus requiring additional coordination to ensure the quality of the yachts is maintenance. With World Cruisers not willing to invest on additional shipyard space to facilitate the new product the business will have to compensate this by hiring additional staff and skilled professionals as well as consider contracting more of the yacht assembly to external manufacturers.

Proposed plans must be drawn and presented to the business's ownership and will require being re-evaluated at a later stage to determine the most appropriate and best to consider before the final proposal can be drawn and plans finalized for production (Kliem & Anderson, 1996).

Set goals

It’s also important for clear project goals to be set since this plays a huge role towards setting the pace a business’s needs to follow so as to achieve its set targets. Goals and milestones will have to be set keeping in mind the businesses needs to still maintain its current client orders for 12 and 15-meter yachts. The new addition yacht is an additional product manufactured by the company which will require be developing, testing and reporting before being marketed to the consumers.

This makes this an important requirement but once which falls second to the businesses current operations which will require being prioritized to avoid undermining the businesses image amount its existing clients (Kliem & Anderson, 2004). Delays are not acceptable since most of the clients would be looking forward to taking possession of their yachts in spring 2018 thus making it important for the 12 and 15-meter yachts to be ready by the end of winter.

It’s also important to have the new 9 meter yachts ready by the beginning of spring which would allow for them to be tested extensively during the spring and summer months after which reports can be published on their performance and modifications made to their design in preparation for the 2019 season. With the inclusion of a new product to World Cruisers product line, the business will have to consider developing attractive human resource management policies which favour their employees and skilled professionals thus ensuring they perform at their optimal levels and are able to meet their targets.

World Cruisers will also require considering distributing some of the new yacht components production to contracted services providers for the initial 6 nine meter test yachts which would help distribute their pressure linked to their production (Ananda & V.Gray, 2017). It will also help the business meet its production deadline thus allowing the business move on to refinement and marketing in preparation for the next year’s wave of sales

Get all stakeholders others involved

Another important step linked to the proposed expansion is getting all stakeholders involved in the process. This is critical towards the proposed projects success as it involves all stakeholders and this allows the business secure important feedback and insight linked to the viability of the project (Dalal-Clayton & Bass, 2012). This is achieved by involving the different stakeholders who will deliver different perspectives linked to areas one may not have considered thus allowing the businesses develop a stronger perspective, understanding, and plan linked to the proposed plan. Some important benefits linked to involving stakeholders include:

Helps measure success rates from different perspectives

Involving stakeholders to proposed plans plays a huge role towards the businesses performance as it helps gather important insight linked to plans from different consumer views. Each stakeholder will have their own insight and understanding linked to the proposed plan and will be able to point out important points which the management may have missed (Dalton, 1995). This makes it important for all employees and stakeholders to be involved in the planning process which will help the business secure important insight toward the proposed plan thus helping develop a more effective plan which will encounter fewer problems.

Helps secure important stakeholder views and commitment

Another important aspect lined to involving stakeholders in the planning process would be securing their attitude, views, and commitment towards the proposed plans. The business will be heavily dependent on the employees to execute the work which makes it important for the business to secure their trust and commitment towards supporting the proposed plan (Czarniawska & Metzger, 2017). Involving them to the proposed plans planning will help secure their insight, views and determine their attitude towards the proposed plan which can then be used by the management to plan their human resource and make additional modifications if required.

Contribute unique insight of the plan

Involving a large number of people in the planning process helps gather a wider understanding of the plan. This is critical towards the businesses success which is a critical requirement for any business. In many situations, paper plans will differ from practical implementation plans which make it important to involve the employees to contribute their knowledge and understanding linked to the process and changes which may be required to ensure the success of the plan (Whyte, Stasis, & Lindkvist, 2016). Each of the contributions can then be used to make modifications to the proposed plan with the intentions of improving the projects executions and success rate.

Helps build stakeholder trust and commitment

World Cruisers proposed plan to include a new product to its portfolio will require for the business to secure its employee and stake holder’s commitment so as to execute the plans effectively. Involving them in the process will help the business determine committed employees and stakeholders which will critical the project’s success (Group, 2017). Only with committed employees will the project be able to execute successfully making it important for the World Cruisers to win stakeholder truck and commitment before implementing the project.

Project Measurement and Analyse

Projects also require being closely measures and analysed to ensure they are following the goals and projects milestones which ensure the project remains on track and delivers on its consumers’ expectations (Gasik, 2011). This can be achieved by using simple both simple as well as complex project planning tools which can be used to develop project milestones and ensure they are being achieved.

Manual project planning tools

Projects planning will require beginning by being prepared on paper but over time the project will have to include the use of project planning and statistical tools to ensure the project meets its goals and targets. Some important project statistical tools include the Activity diagrams, Beta distribution, work breakdown structure, Project network graphs and Predictive analytics techniques (Waard, Cousijn, & Aalbersberg, N.D).

It is critical to utilize a Gantt chart to provide a rough map of the operation and production plan which will help the management develop additional plans which define specific dates which can be set for the 9 meter yachts. Each yacht will produced in a maximum of 30 days which would allow the project to be completed by mid-June thus allowing a 2 week grace period for any alterations which may be required before the testing phase begins.

Gantt chart Plan

Digitalized and software solutions

In addition to these the project must also include and use a computer and digital software programs which can be used to predict future targets as well as analyses previous accomplishment after which future targets can be set of realigned so as to meet the goals of the project. Some important project management software’s which can be used include Wrike, pulse, Fresh service, Zoho Projects among many other (Kukreja, 2013). Each project will require using one or more software to monitor the projects progress thus helping the business report on the projects progress and modifications which may be required to improve performance.

Effective communication channels

Communication also plays a huge role towards the projects performance and effective communication medium must be included in the project so as to ensure smooth communications (Pokharel, 2010). It’s important to include various modes of communication which can be used to improve communication but at the same time avoid distracting employee attraction and focus. With the increasing number of communication medium, today businesses are experiencing reduced employee efficiency due to being distracted by certain media thus making this an important area which needs to be observed while selecting a communication medium.

Conclusion

World Cruisers will have to develop an alternative pan in this the business maintains its current operations and production while at the same time facilitating future growth and expansion plans. To remain competitive and remain dominant and a leader in the market the business will have to also focus on innovation and offer affordable budget yacht to the Australian budget consumers.

With a growing middle class looking to invest in affordable and low maintenance yachts, World Cruisers must consider also offering this consumer market a product before competitors enter and capitalize on the industry. Currently, middle income consumers avoid investing on the 12 and 15-meter yacht due to their requirement to be moored at mooring which results in incurring the owner’s high costs. The 9-meter yacht would be loaded and transported to convenient storage facilities which will make owning the yacht more affordable and attract more customers thus increasing the businesses sales.

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