Resource Planning Quarter

Resource Planning Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Operations Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Organizational Structure Quarter.

Concepts

1. Enterprise resource planning (ERP). The integrated management of core business processes, often in real-time and mediated by software and technology.
2. Enterprise performance. The accumulated results of all the enterprise's work activities.
   • Performance. The end result of an activity.
   • Efficiency. The degree to which an enterprise gets the most outputs from the least amount of inputs.
   • Effectiveness. The degree to which an enterprise does those activities that result in achieving its goals. In other words, effectiveness is the measure of how an enterprise meets the needs of its clientele or customers.

     Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. -- Peter Drucker, management consultant

   • Capability. An organization's skill and ability in doing the work activities needed in its business.
3. Information system. A structured, interacting, complex of persons, machines, and procedures designed to produce information which is collected from both internal and external sources for use as a basis for decision-making in specific contract/procurement actions.
   • Management information system (MIS)
4. System. A collection of interrelated and/or interdependent elements working together as a unified whole to produce a desired output out of consumed input through one or more processes. System elements can include hardware, software, and people. One system can be a sub-element (or subsystem) of another system.
   • Mission. An undertaking that is supported by the system to be designed to be successful (e.g. space mission).
   • Open system. A system that interacts with its environment.
   • Closed system. A system that is not influenced by and does not interact with its environment.
   • External interface. An interface with other systems (hardware, software, and human) that a proposed system will interact with.
   • Boundary. A separation between the interior of a system and what lies outside.
5. Cost of quality. The costs incurred to ensure quality. The cost of quality includes quality planning, quality control, quality assurance, and rework.
   • Rework. Action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming item into compliance with requirements or specifications.
   • Total quality management (TQM). A philosophy of management that is driven by continuous improvement and responsiveness to customer needs and expectations.
6. Budgeting. The process of allocating resources to pay for designated future costs.
   • Zero-balance budgeting. Process starting with an established point of zero rather than using the current budget as the basis for adding, modifying, or subtracting resources.
7. Incremental budgeting. Process starting with the current budget from which managers decide whether they need additional resources and the justification for requesting it.

Roles

1. Top manager. A manager at or near the upper levels of the organizational structure who are responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing the goals and plans that affect the entire organization.
2. Board of directors. A group of influential individuals, elected by stockholders, chosen to over see the affairs of a company. A board typically includes investors and mentors. Not all startups have a board, but investors typically require a board seat in exchange for an investment in a company.

Instruments

1. ERP software.

Results

1. Budget. The financial plan for allocating resources to specific activities. An enterprise uses its budget to establish its estimates for earnings ahead and its decisions on what those estimated earnings will be spent. A budget is used to control the actual financial data against this plan.
2. Organizational development. A collection of planned change interventions, built on humanistic-democratic values, that seeks to improve enterprise productivity and employee well-being. Organizational development can also be defined as change plans that focus on (1) people, (2) enterprise, and (3) the nature and quality of work relationships.

Practices

No successor lecture exists in the Course. Happy implementations of the learned concepts, methods, instruments, and practices on the fields!