12/27/2019 0 Comments Activity Based Management EssayActivity based management (ABM) is an approach to management that aims to maximize the value adding activities to the customers while minimizing or eliminating non-value adding activities. The objective of ABM is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization in securing its markets. It draws on activity based-costing (ABC) as its major source of information and focuses on managing activities to (1) reduce costs, (2) create performance measures, (3) improve cash flow and quality and, (4) produce enhanced value products in order to improve customer value (Business Dictionary.com). This ABM system’s top priority is in eliminating or improving those activities to increase profitability by seeking out areas where a business is losing money such as the factors which cause activities to be performed or activity cost to change. Undeniably, in order to improve an organization’s work processes and activities to effectively and efficiently meet the rapidly changing environment in this globalisation world, management practices and methods have changed over the last decade and will continue to change in future. THE TRADITIONAL ABSORPTION COSTING is the first system implemented to keep track of the true cost of a product or service. It assigns indirect cost to cost object and uses unsophisticated methods to assign indirect costs. It allocates overheads to production and service departments and uses small number of 2nd stage cost drivers to allocate costs from cost centres or pools to productions or cost objects. This system will only be appropriate when the (i)direct costs were the dominant costs, (ii)indirect costs were relatively small, (iii)information costs are high, (iv)there is a lack of intense global competition and (v)a limited range of products is produced, it might be difficult for every organization to use it. For instance, this system might not be appropriate for companies with complex processes and manufacturing practices. The large increase of indirect and overhead expenses will make the traditional costing method less efficient. Therefore, in 1980s, ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING (ABC) was introduced to overcome these problems. ABC is a system for managing the organization better. It is a one-off exercise that measures the activities’ cost and performance, resources and the objects which consume them so as to generate more accurate and meaningful information for decision-making. It uses sophisticated or modern methods to assign the indirect costs. This ABC system allocates overheads to each major activity but not to departments and allocates costs to products or cost objects. However, it limits the company to have advantage of the ABC technique. It cannot be used for official record keeping as the IRS and stockholders require the use of traditional methods to create necessary reports for taxes. In another words, companies need to use two different costing methods in order to get the benefit. The system is costly to build, complex to sustain and to modify. Therefore, the emphasis has shifted from ABC to ACTIVITY-BASED MANAGEMENT (ABM) which is also known as ACTIVITY-BASED COST MANAGEMENT (ABCM) later on. ABC is a subset of ABM as the application of ABC evolved from a manufacturing product costing orientation to a management philosophy of activity management applied in industries and organizations (Business Dictionary.com). ABM has grown largely out of the work of the Texas-based Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing-International (CAM-I) (Investopedia). The CAM-I has initiated the development of a comprehensive glossary on ABCM terms by clarifying the significant confusion regarding the semantic and acronym associated with the activity based information (Investopedia). This ABM system makes the cost and operating information useful to improve decision making. Through the ABM analysis process, the management will gain a thorough understanding of its business processes and cost behaviour and management team in the company. In addition, the results of an ABM analysis can help a company generate more accurate budgets and financial forecasts (Investopedia). It gives management insight into the cost structures for making and selling diverse products. In a simplified term, ABC is used to answer the question, “what do things cost?†and for ABM, a process view is taken to understand factors which cause the costs to occur. This system focuses on the ways to redirect and improve the use of resources, by using ABC data, to enhance the value created for customers and other stakeholders (Investopedia). These two systems (ABC and ABM) have attracted high levels of interest from both academics and practitioners since its emergence in the late 1980’s. It is mainly due to the significant change in cost management systems they have brought. Due to the lack of pertinence and relevancy of traditional costing that leads to mutual subsidy between products and cost, ABC and ABM are used to enhance or replace the traditional cost calculation methods. For example, ABM approach reports by activities while traditional analysis is by departments; ABM reporting is by sub-activities but traditional is by expense categories and ABM reporting can reports information on activities that are cross departmental boundaries whereas traditional is not allowed(Drury C, 2008). Thus, ABM is concluded to have more meaningful information as it gives more visibility to the cost of undertaking the activities that make up the organization and may raise the issues that are not highlighted in traditional analysis. Most forward-thinking companies have implemented them, or are in the process of doing so as it can be applied to different types of companies, including manufacturers, service providers, non-profits, schools and government agencies (Business Dictionary.com). CONTENTS 1. Features of ABM system _A. STAGES OF IMPLEMENTATION_ In order to implement ABM system, the companies are required to carry out the three out of the four stages in ABC (Drury C, 2008). The steps are listed as below: (i) Identify major activities that result in costs being incurred, The activities are the aggregation of units of work or tasks such as machine set-up cost, purchasing cost and warehousing cost that use up resources. In order to identify all the activities within the company, activity analysis has to be carried out. The activities chosen must be at a reasonable level of aggregation based on the cost verses benefit criteria. In addition, the activities have to be either influenced by the total cost of activity centre or the ability of a single cost driver to provide a satisfactory determinant of the cost of the activity. (ii) Assign cost centers to each activity, and The companies should not use the arbitrary allocations in assigning the significant proportion of costs to activities as it will reduce the reliability of cost. They have to identify and assign the direct costs to specific activity and assign the indirect costs on cause-and-effect cost drivers. By doing so, the cost incurred on each activity can be determined. (iii) Determine the cost driver for each major activity In this stage, the drivers are called as activity cost drivers. In selecting the cost driver, there are two factors which the companies need to consider. Firstly, the cost driver should provide a good explanation of costs of each activity cost pool. Additionally, the cost driver should be measurable easily, and the data should be easily obtained and be identifiable with products. (The cost driver can be production or service oriented). _B. TWO CATEGORIES OF ABM APPLICATION_ Based on the source adapted by Kaplan & Cooper (1998), this system accomplishes its objectives through two complemetary applications which are the operational ABM (“Doing things rightâ€) and strategic ABM (“Doing the right thingsâ€). Operational ABM enhances efficiency of operation and asset utilization and lowers costs. Its focus are mainly on doing things right and performing activities more efficiently. Management techniques such as activity management, business process reengineering, total quality management, and performance measurement are used in the ABM application. As for strategic ABM, it attempts to change the activities demands and boost proï¬tability by improving activity efficiency. It focuses on choosing proper activities for the operation, eliminating non-essential activities and selecting the most proï¬table customers. Strategic ABM applications use management techniques such as process design, customer proï¬tability analysis, and value chain analysis. 2. Comparison between Activity-based management system (ABM) and traditional system ABM focuses on activity performed by business and hence, it views business as a set of linked activity that ultimately adding value to customers. Its goal is to satisfy customer needs while making fewer demands on organizational resources. Hence, ABM could have information of activities such as why activities to be performed, how to perform the activities and how well they are performed. In contrast, traditional system focuses on types of cost from departments. It gives less information to manager for the needs in decision making. ABM is better than traditional system as ABM could provide wider information and information could go deeply and more detailed as needed by the management in decision making. Besides, the ABM system only seeks to use cause-and-effect cost driver which is different than the traditional system. It does not rely on arbitrary allocation bases. As we can see from table 1, the information provided by both systems is about customer order processing. However, these two systems take into account different information while preparing the customer order processing. ABM focuses on information that is relevant in the process of customer ordering while traditional analysis focuses on the types of cost incurred in the customer order processing. ABM ANALYSIS RM Preparing Quotations 100 Receiving Customer Order 280 Expediting 120 Total 500 TRADITIONAL ANALYSIS RM Salaries 110 Telephone bill 170 Depreciation of Asset 120 Total 500 Table 1 In addition, ABM is different from traditional system in terms of the report approach. ABM report is determined by activities while traditional system is determined by departments. It can include crossing departmental boundaries. For instance, material purchasing process might involve not only one department but it includes inventory control department, purchasing department and account payable department. The manager will be able to know how the amount spent (e.g: RM 2000) to be used in purchasing material under ABM system. It may show the relevant information such as inventory reviewing, sending purchase requisition and sending purchase order. The manager will be able to know how purchasing of material works on and what are the reasons of purchase delay as well as how to minimize the cost of purchase. It focuses on information based on activity. As for traditional system, manager can get the information on material purchase which costs for RM2000 only. However, this RM2000 does not comply with the amount of goods order. By looking at one information itself, the reasons of non-compliance cannot be tracked as there is lack of information. Therefore, ABM system is better since it did not focus on information based on cost but it assigns cost of activities to products according to product’s demand for activities and relies on cost centres and cost drivers that cause activity resource consumption. Other than that, it assigns activity costs to cost objects on basis of cost driver usage and measures resources consumed by cost objects more accurately. In addition, ABM system provides both information from value and non value added activities. As for traditional system, it provides information on value added activity only. Value added activity is an activity that supports primary objective of producing outputs. For instance, activity like colouring adds value to a book. Under value added activity, traditional report will show the amount spent in colouring since it adds usefulness to customers. Customers would likely to buy books with some colouring or some pictures rather than books with only words as it might help them in memorizing and understanding the information stated in the book better. However, if the profit does not increase like what the company expected, manager will be able to trace back the cost incurred by looking at amount spent in colouring – non-value added activity. Hence, non value added activity is important as it may affect the company’s profit. Non value added activity is an activity where an opportunity is available for cost reduction without decreasing product’s service potential to customer such as storing and moving raw materials. Under ABM system, manager will be able to draw attention on this issue and trace back the reasons such as waste in the production. Manager will be able to track the cost which has been wasted in the production by reducing material movement and improving production flow without reducing the value added to customer. In other words, customer can have same quality of products-same kind of books while management could reduce the cost of production. 3. Benefits and Limitations of ABM system One of the benefits of the system is to help the management in decision making. It provides better decision making as the information provided by the ABM system is more useful and reliable. The management can make informed decision about product mix, lines of business, process, product design, services, capital investment and pricing. For instance, manager will able to make decision on how much capital to invest in new product and what kind of new product to be launched based on information that manager obtains in ABM system. Furthermore, ABM is a system for continuous improvements. The system is not just an accounting tool but it also provides many tools that can enhance organizational performance management. In other words, ABM system provides other information as well (the product mix, customer services, line of business and capital investment) that would be able to help an organization in its future development and improvement. For instance, an organization knows how to serve customer better by looking into information provided in customer services activity. ABM also provides a better understanding of cost driver. It is a factor that affects the costs associated with an activity. Managers apply activity- based management system to the operational activity in order to determine the cost to perform an activity and the cost associated with not performing the activity. Through this activity cost drivers, it seeks to provide an extensive view on the actual costs of an activity. For instances, we can see in the Mason & Cox. In Mason & Cox, they feel that it is expensive to implement the activity-based costing system because it is more complex and expensive to maintain. Nevertheless, ABM seems to be more helpful to them in term of improving the company profitability. For example, saving had been achieved by targeting non-value-added activities. Their real cost driver had been identified so that manager may know what to eliminate. The drop in the price of the high-volume lines had met with customer approval. Furthermore, ABM enables company to monitor and improve quality and delivery customer value by tracking cost driver. The new approach provided timely information about factors that were important to customers and factors that employees could control. There was no doubt that ABM had helped Mason & Cox to improve both profitability and customer value. Besides that, in Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) needs more sophisticated cost information to make better decision in order to compete in the nature of the health care insurance industry and the need to manage the cost of operation like ways to allocate administrative cost to the products and services. Hence, BCBSF decided to implement ABM system. ABM helps manager to examine the analysis of value added cost and non-value added costs. A value added cost is the cost of an activity that cannot be eliminated without affecting a product’s value to the customer. Some value added costs are always necessary, as long as the activities that drive such cost are performed efficiently and effectively. For instances, we can truly understand this concept in the Carpenter Company. The senior vice president of sales and marketing said that pillow fall into two distinct segments, the “commodity†part of the business and value-added line. For the “commodity†part of the business- consists of polyester-filled pillows which are a normal pillow. Besides that, the “value-added lineâ€, which features technology-driven fibers and fabrics designed to enhance sleep. As we can see, Carpenter Company had produced variety function of pillow like muscle stress and pain relieve pillow as well as pillow which reduce unnatural awakenings. Today, consumers are better educated about the benefits of various sleep surfaces and they recognize that the role of pillow can play in quality sleep. Although the price for a pillow which features technology-driven fibers and fabrics designed will be expensive but it can help consumer to have a quality sleep. Thus, consumers will not mind to pay more to improve a quality sleep. As a result, we can see that the “value-added line†may help company to gain profit. In contrast, a non-value added cost is the cost of an activity that cannot be eliminated without diminishing the value. Non-value added cost activities are assumed to be unnecessary as a result it always be minimized like storing and handling inventories; transportation of raw material or partly finished products. If this non-value added costs happened, company may reduce or eliminate it by careful redesign of the operational process. As we can see how Taipei Fubon Bank deals with those non-value added costs in this mature and complex market. Taipei Fubon Bank needs to accurately determine profit and loss data by customer and customer group so that it could help bank to reduce operating costs and increase profit while maintaining it quality of service. Hence, the bank had developed a customer profitability management (CPM) system that provide thorough information regarding cardholder spending pattern and profitability to build highly targeted marketing and retention program. This system did helped bank to reduce cost by updating timely management report, thus speeding marketing strategy adjustment decision. However, they wanted more information regarding a detailed analysis such as the profitability by card type at the individual customer level. As a result, they entered into the new CPM system by performing an in-depth analysis at the transaction level. The new CPM system contributes to division-wide productivity through the delivery of as-needed reporting to the user custom portal. The reporting may include customer spending habits, customer ranking by demographic criteria or the profitability of co-branded card by service channel. After using this system, Taipei Fubon Bank has significantly improving division profitability and now they can make more faster and accurate decision. In Dow Chemical Company (DCC) which produces chemicals and plastics implement ABM to identify the activities they perform, eliminate non-value-added activities, determine cost drivers, set activity price to charge users and benchmark these price to ensure that they are competitive. While ABM has brought benefits to DCC but also brought many challenges to them. For instances, DCC feels that it is difficult to capture cost driver information without creating additional work. As the activity analysis became more and more detailed, DCC had to justify the complexities in obtaining and processing activity information. Ultimately the company decided that should not break activities down to task level, otherwise the resultant activities were too small and numerous. By comparing with the traditional system, ABM system is more costly. Implementation of ABM system requires many resources such as human resources and time consuming. Different activities require different resources. Data that concerns on major activities must be measured, collected and entered into system. As we can see that Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) feels that ABM system is a timely and costly system. By using ABM system, they need to implement a thorough mapping of all processes, drill down and filtering of all “relevant†activities, the identification of cost driver and others are enormous challenges. Thus, this may cause the company to take up much time and resources because this company consists of over 1100 staffs. Furthermore, everyone may have different point of view and searching for different data therefore they need times to eliminate and collect the right data into the right activities. Incorrect data collection and allocation may result to setbacks during the implementation stages and may jeopardize the whole project. Misinterpretation might also happen in ABM system. This is because most of the information is interrelated and ambiguous. For instance, cost assigned to material, products and customer may be relevant and cause the manager to overlook some information. This causes misinterpretation happen and link to the wrong decision making. Wrong decision making may cause some issues happen in the operation such as production delay, over-production and wrong shipping. Reports by using ABM system are suitable for internal users only and cannot report to external users. This is because ABM system has limitations since it does not conform to generally accepted accounting principles (G.A.A.P). Stakeholder might not be able to understand the reports on ABM system and therefore, ABM system is only restricted for internal use. CONCLUSION Previously, company usually apply traditional accounting system to manage the company’s operational activity but this system does not provide more detailed information that needed in this competitive environment. Therefore, managers require better information by developing activity-based management. This approach allow everyone in the organization understand where costs are being incurred, why are they being incurred and how these activities contribute to a higher value added to customers. Moreover, ABC explores to identify activities that can be eliminated or improved. In additional to that, communications will improve and changes are easier to make if company conducts the activity-based approach. In addition to the above purpose, we feel that ABM system may be useful for a company. This is because it not only focuses on the product of a company but also the services and customers of a company. Besides that, it also help company to find out the cause of a problem, action plan for future development as well as evaluation of managers’ or departments’ present performance. In addition to that, it also helps company utilize true cost data which generated through ABC for further improvement in business profitability in the long run. ABM in best practice firm lies at the heart of the decision-support process. Integrating ABM within the total information and management control system of the organization can lead to quantum improvements. Therefore, an organization needs to understand and address the common pitfalls and barriers to success at every stage of implementation. Besides, the ABM system should include and draw on the insights of the people who use it no matter during planning, activity analysis or other so that the implementation will success when the people use the system. Organization should tailor to the unique strategy, structure, capabilities, and needs of the firm so that the implementation will be succeeded. This is because ABM will not look the same in every organization although it is a universally useful concept. Finally, we have an in-depth understanding of ABM during the process of working out this assignment and we found out that activity-based approach has more advantages than disadvantages. We have learned many things like time management and how to get along with our group members. Although we spent much time for discussing the lessons and recommendations, we didn’t have any argument during our discussion and everything went on smoothly. BIBLIOGRAPHY _Advantages, Disadvantages and Limitations of Accounting Based Costing (ABC) System_. (n.d.). Accounting For Management. Retrieved March 9, 2013, from http://accounting4management.com/limitations_of_activity_based_costing.htm Business Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2013, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/activity-based-management- ABM.html Cardos,I.R., & Pete,S. (2011). _Activity-based Costing (ABC) and activity-based management (ABM) implementation – Is this the solution for organizations to gain profitability?._ Retrieved March 9,2013, from http://www.revecon.ro/articles/2011-1/2011-1-9.pdf CIMA. (2001). Techinical Briefing. _Activity-based management – An overview_. Retrieved March 10, 2013, from http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/ ABM_techrpt_0401.pdf Drury, C. (2004). _Management and Cost Accounting_, 6th Edition. International Thomson Business Press, London. Drury, C. (2008). _Management and Cost Accounting_, 7th Edition. International Thomson Business Press, London. Eden, Y. & Ronen, B. ( 2002). _Activity based costing and activity based management: The same thing in a different guise?_. Retrieved March 9, 2013 from http://boazronen.org/PDF/Activity%20Based%20Costing%20and %20Activity%20Based%20Managment.pdf Gary, J. (2013). Power of Pillow. The Business Journal for the Sleep Products Industry. Retrieved February 23, 2013, from http://bedtimesmagazine.com/2013/01/power-of-pillows/ Implementing Activity-BasedManagement: Avoiding the Pitfalls. (1998) Instituite of Management Accounts. Retrieved March 9, 2013, from http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Public/Research/SMA/Implementing %20Activity%20Based%20mngt_Avoiding.pdf Investopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2013, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/abm.asp#axzz2Jng4KVP6 Leo, S. (2010). Taipei Fubon Bank Uses Activity-Based Management to Build Customer Profitability. Retrieved from http://www.b-eye- network.com/view/12857 Managing costs and time for customer value. (n.d). Retrieved from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0074711903/ 50509/sample_ch15.pdf May & Margaret. ( Jan 1995). Activity-based management accounting. Management Accounting, 73(1),40. Retrieved from Business Source Complete, Pro Quest. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com. Sarkis, Joseph, Meade, Laura, Presley & Adrien. (2006). An activity based management methodology for evaluating business processes for environmental sustainability. Business Process Management Journal, 12(6),751. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from Business Sources Complete, Pro Quest, http://search.proquest.com SAS. (n.d.). Activity-based management. Driving profitable growth through activity- based management. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from http://www.sas.com/solutions/abm/#section=2 Sharman, P.A. (1993). Activity-based management: A growing practice. CMA Magazine, 67(2), 17-22. Retrieved from Business Source Complete, Pro Quest. Retrieved February 30, from http://search.proquest.com
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12/12/2019 0 Comments Reflective Practicee EssayIt is important to receive feedback on my practice as much as possible to ensure I am improving and developing within the role. I feel it is important to get feedback from the following people: Teacher: I try my up most to talk to the teacher after the lesson to discuss the progress of pupils whom I’ve been working with. There are times when I have expressed a concern on the seating arrangement within the classroom and other behavioural matters that I have felt need to be addressed, the teacher has often given further direction in where they want me to support in the room. I’m always really keen to receive feedback from the teacher about how they felt I worked with the pupils, how I could improve my role within the lesson, sometimes I have been encouraged to work with groups of pupils, therefore I have gone away and looked into different ways of delivering certain tasks and how certain pupils work better together.
I’m not always given the learning objective ahead, which I feel is really important to receive so I am prepared and feeling confident to discuss the topic amongst the pupils, therefore I often try to discuss the next lesson with the teacher in advance to ensure I have an overview. Line Manager: I have been lucky to have been observed within lessons by my line manager to receive direct feedback on how I can improve my practice within my role. I have received some constructive feedback and some very encouraging positive praise. I have asked about several training courses to develop my understanding in certain areas and started some of my own independent reading in behaviour. My line manager is always very open and approachable; she has given me ideas for specific year groups which have really helped within lessons. I am always asking to be involved in any extracurricular clubs and keen to learn from others whilst at work. What is meant be reflective practice? Reflective practice means when we think about what we are doing, how we are doing it and whether we could change or improve it. A time to reflect on our own development, evaluate our strengths and weaknesses and look into opportunities, ideas to encourage further development and gain confidence in our profession. What is meant by National Occupational standards? These are National standards that are based on the roles and responsibilities of support staff in schools. Together with the guidance, they enable staff to manage the different stages of support staff recruitment, development and progression more effectively. Functions and requirements of your role Give one example for each of the following areas of the job role, of how personal reflection has impacted on your own practice. Supporting learning: I have worked with a small group within year 8, the lesson has a mixed of abilities, I aim to get round each pupil to ensure there is an understanding on the task set. On reflection I felt their wasn’t enough time given to each child throughout the lesson, it was with this feeling I spoke to the teacher and suggested groups of four at a table, so they would be able to discuss the exercise as a group and then work independently. This would allow both the teacher and I to talk to the groups at one time and encourage involvement from all throughout the lesson rather than going round individually. This has worked really well, each table works really well together and in reflection to the previous set up it has also developed the pupils social and communication skills. Promoting positive behaviour In a year 9 lesson I have been supporting a student with his numeracy; the student is often distracted by other things going on in the classroom and struggles to focus. I felt I was continuously calling him to sit down or to stop talking. In reflection to this reoccurring I decided to challenge him in completing the task under a time limit, I bought in a stop watch and also did the task beside him to see who could complete it first. His reaction was incredible; he completed all the work and expressed a really positive reaction to these small challenges. In response to this I asked the teacher if I could make a note in his planner to record how well he had done, in addition to this note I made sure I gave the pupil lots of positive praise, he responded to these comments really well and have since continued the small timed challenges. Developing Positive relationships Recently a year 7 pupil had left their previous school due to bullying; this was one of the first things she said to me on working with her in a lesson. I noticed she had a lack of confidence in talking to people, firstly being new to the school and secondly probably anxious from her previous school experience. In reflection to this at the end of the lesson I ensured the teacher was aware and suggested pairing her up with another pupil. In response to this each week we did ‘turning tables’ so the person sat on the right would move one space back each week, so the pupils would always be sat with someone different. I also encouraged this pupil alongside others to attend a new after school sports club I have started running. The new student showed up for the club and has been attending since, she has made some great new friends and familiar with other year groups which has in turn increased her confidence and enjoyment at school. Contribute to planning assessment and feedback Every morning I spend 15mins with a year 9 pupil who has cerebral palsy. I have worked with his phyiso and parents to assess his needs and put together an exercise plan that I assist him with each day. I have a record sheet of what we do each day and how he did with each exercise, I regularly liaise with the physio on how he is getting on, sometimes the physio will give me additional exercises to include. There have been occasions where the pupil hasn’t felt like doing it. In response to it I sometimes give him the opportunity to challenge himself to walking to different areas within the school, he reacts really well to praise and involvements which is something I include in the feedback I give to his family and physio. I also keep my line manager up to date with the pupils development to ensure other assistants are aware of his level of independence in movement so it can be encouraged within lesson too. Communication Communication is a major asset in my role at school, I am continuously talking to teachers, IT support, external companies and parents. I have recently been reflecting a lot on my communication around the children out of lesson. I have a lunchtime duty on our playing fields. I have often found myself standing there with another member of staff, listening to one another’s ideas on what works with certain year groups, however in reflection this should be happening in a dedicated time not whilst I have a responsibility as lunchtime. Therefore I have started to make a bigger effort in communicating with the children, encouraging positive behaviour and social skills. Key skills There are various key skills that I feel I could improve in, sometimes in a lesson I am lacking equipment due to handing it out regularly. Therefor I feel I need to encourage organisation for the pupils to ensure they bring their own equipment. I often reflect on my time keeping, I feel there is a big rush between and end of a lesson and getting to my lunchtime duty before the students. Therefore this may be something I discuss with my line manager about leaving a couple of minutes earlier before lunchtime. I am always reflecting on my job role description to ensure I am fulfing all my responsibilities. 4. Identify possible development opportunities available to you. Remember to consider formal and informal opportunities. Give evidence from your own practice. I am often reflecting on my own development and always keen to progress in my own learning. I made the decision to take this course (Level 2 Supporting teaching and learning in Schools) to increase my knowledge in the position of a Teaching Assistant. I feel I have really benefited from this and it has inspired me to continue on to level 3. I have a strong interest in working with families therefore I may look into a course more directed to this. I have hired out books from our local library to read into behaviour and social skills, this is an area which I have been allocated to at school, which I am really pleased about but I would like to get a bigger understanding so I can plan activities and feel confident in delivering. I have recently been assisting a music intervention group with specific SEND students. This has been a great 6 week project; I have taken the time to write up a report each week of the activities set and the reactions of each pupil. I received some outstanding feedback from the company and have recently been asked to represent the project in an open evening for them. I would like to look into these small projects more to help the development of children’s learning through creative subjects In school, I feel that it is a great opportunity to be able to talk to other members of staff about techniques/ styles of delivery for specific year groups. Sometimes there are groups of students that I feel unfamiliar with, but since speaking to other members of staff, I feel prepared to enter the lesson with their experience in my mind. 5. Why is CPD important? It is important to keep up to date with professional development to ensure to u are confident and familiar with the constant changes within education. There are often developments within schools and it is our role to be ready to adapt to these changes and encourage pupils with these variations. Some courses that are available to assist our role open up areas of discussion that you may not get the time for within school. There are areas of my job description that I have strengths and weaknesses in, therefore CPD is important to develop my own skills, knowledge and experience in all fields. Starting a self-review 6. What aspects of your job/role satisfy you the most? The biggest satisfaction for me is the rewarding feeling you get from assisting the development of a student’s progress within a subject or to help improve their behaviour etc. I find my role very satisfying by promoting a positive amount of encouragement for the pupils to believe in themselves as individuals, to prepare them with life skills and gradually develop their self-esteem. I feel this is a huge stepping stone to building a successful future. I enjoy having a variety of responsibility within my role; I like working with different year groups and understanding the range of learning styles. I like to learn from others, I feel within the classroom environment there is so much to observe and learn. I love being part of a team but also to work independently and put forward my own ideas to develop the children’s learning. 7. What aspects of your job/role have not been successful as you anticipated? I sometimes feel there isn’t enough time to discuss things with teachers before or after a lesson. I feel this is an important link to feedback on the pupils learning. I would like to focus on this area and seeing if I can build a stronger relationship with the teachers to ensure I get the chance to evaluate after the lesson I am supporting in and to gain a stronger understanding beforehand to ensure I am ready to assist pupils with confidence in the subject. I’ve also been a little disappointed that I haven’t received an official appraisal since I started my role. I have had opportunities to talk to my line manager about various things, but there has never been an allocated time to give me the change to discuss my development which is equally as important to me. 8. Are there any areas of you work you would like to improve? (2.3b) In reflection of my work so far I am really pleased with my development but always feel I could improve. Firstly I feel that I would benefit from a deeper knowledge in some subjects. For example I am frequently in a Spanish lesson, however I never had the option at school to study this language therefore my Spanish skills are minimal! I would like to look into learning Spanish to help my involvement within lessons. I am keen to re take my core subjects or study at a basic level to refresh my understanding of these subjects; it’s been surprising how much I’ve forgotten. I would also like to dedicate more time into talking to the subject teacher before the lesson to feel confident with the learning objective. At the end of the lesson I would also like to feedback on the pupils participation and understanding of the lesson and discuss how to go forward with any areas of concern. Sometimes I feel it is difficult to keep up with each lesson as my timetable frequently changes and therefore I have limited time to gather information of lessons that I am going to last minute. As a result of the above I would like to improve in planning and organisation to help me progress with other staff and add to the success of the school at every angle. 9. Describe the main aspects of appraisal (2.5/2.6) – An appraisal includes a self-assessment before the meeting with your line manager, this is normally a questionnaire that you rate it on a scale of 1- 10 to analyse how strong you think you are in each section, then as a result these point are discussed in a face to face setting with the line manager. It is allocated time to discuss the progress of you work within the school and personal strengths and weaknesses. This is also an opportunity to discuss the prospect of professional development, short and long term goals. An appraisal is professional organised meeting to agree on actions for going forward in areas that could be improved. 10. What should a school consider when agreeing development plans? In agreeing a development plan, a school needs to consider the amount of funding available for their staff development. The school need to consider the cost of equipment, training and resources, which will support staff to develop and carry out their role to their full potential. As a result of development plans moving forward with staff, there may need to be an agreement in that the staff will need to have their job role updated to reflect their responsibilities. If it was agreed that I was going to attend an external training programme during school hours, this would need to be considered in how the school can cover this absence. In turn the agreement would be looking at how my development could benefit the school in helping in other areas and using the skills learnt within school going forward. 11. When setting and agreeing targets, what is meant by SMART? S – Specific – Making sure that your target states exactly what is needed. M- Measurable – To make sure that you can measure whether the target has been reached A – Achievable – The target needs to be accessible and not too hard to achieve. R- Realistic – It is important to make sure the relevant resources and equipment are available to reach the target set T- Time Bound – There should always be a time set for reaching the target. This is to prevent putting it off to a later date 12. Identify ways in which your own knowledge, understanding and skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT impact on practice. There are times within a lesson where students will ask me to read out a question or to explain a question they don’t understand, it is important that I have the confidence to read it out and deliver an answer accurately. A lot of lessons involve using computers to write up work on or to use specific programmes linked to the subject. I am often asked by the pupils for help in saving their work, spellings and understanding of certain programmes. Fortunately I have worked with computers in previous work therefore I am at a level where I can encourage their ICT knowledge which will be helpful for them in the future. During maths lessons, students are not always allowed to use a calculator and therefore they need to practice other methods. I have learnt several teaching methods from being in these maths lessons to pass on to other year groups, but I am still refreshing my own mind with numeracy. Sometimes it’s a positive that I don’t know the answer as I get the teacher to go through it with me and the pupil to highlight that they are not alone in not knowing it and it makes the teacher aware that pupils require further information on certain tasks. What opportunities are available to you to improve own knowledge, understanding and skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT (unit 210-6.2) Sometimes during inset days our department runs workshops that cover the core subjects to update us with the syllabus of work that the children will be aiming for. The levels are constantly changing and each student is aiming for specific target grades. Therefore we receive a copy of the levels to understand what level the students are at. I have recently asked for a username to the maths programme the pupils use within school and for set homework – this cover all areas of numeracy and is a great resource to keep on top of the work. 14. – Table = To be completed? Understand the work of the team 15. Why is team work important in schools? It is important to support others within school because as a result of developing good working relationships it makes our role more effective. Team work allows us to share and discuss your own ideas and listen to others. It’s an opportunity to develop in all areas listening to others strengths and suggestions that could strengthen the team as a whole not just individually. Team work is also important in that within school it is important that the staffs are using the same guidelines and rules to ensure that the children are receiving the same response from all staff. Offering advice to the pupils should be the same as the next member of staff asked. Team work in schools is so important to keep the pupils feeling safe and confident in their learning environment. Positive working relationships will be witnessed by the pupils and therefore encourage them to mirror this within their lessons. What is the purpose and objective of the team in which you work? Our objective is to identify the needs of students and works to the best of our ability to support them. Our team is in place to support individual students, groups of pupils and general support within class groups. Our team is in place to offer social, emotional, intellectual, physical support to every pupil. Some pupils have individual programmes and difficulties that require one to one support, however everyone is treated equally. Our purpose is to encourage the development of each pupil throughout this stage of their life within secondary school and to motivate them for a positive future. What is your role and responsibilities and those of others in the team? My role and for others in my team includes a variety of duties and responsibilities within the school. On a daily basis we are to ensure we are aware of the needs of the children we are directly supporting and other pupils within a lesson, break and lunchtimes within school. During a lesson we need to be confident in supporting the teacher with each task set and encourage good behaviour and positive learning within the room. It is my responsibility to keep the students on track with their work and not to complete it for them. It is important at the beginning of the lesson to ensure the children have their equipment, books and planners out on the desk and bags under the table to be ready for the teacher to deliver the lesson. It our responsibility as a team to support the teacher in each exercise set for the pupils, liaising throughout the lesson with the progress or concernswithin the class. I also ensure I speak with the teacher about rewarding the students if they have responded well in completing the task or improved a skill that they have been struggling with. During break and lunch times each person within our team has an allocated area to supervise. We are responsible for ensuring that the pupils are behaving and engaging positively with others. If there is a problem within a break time we are linked up to the rest of our team and a support team to have immediate support in a situation. I am responsible for supporting individual programmes of physical stretching exercises which are in place by the statutory statement of Educational Need and consultation with parents and the physiotherapy team. I have a responsibility to complete an evaluation form each day which is a written up overview to record the support given in each lesson. I continuously liaise with the team and my management to ensure I am moving forward and progressing with the school in the right direction. Why is it important to respect the skills and expertise of other practitioners? It is important to respect the skills and expertise of other staff as different staff bring different skills to the team. I would always seek advice from others when needed in order that the students are getting the best that the school can offer them. This can also help me develop in my role. Other people may have different skills, training and experience thatmay be able to help me on matters I am unsure about 11/28/2019 0 Comments Swot Analysis of SkodaExecutive Summary The aim of this report is to illustrate the present situation of Skoda company in China car market and the world car market. By using SWOT analysis, describing Skoda had done a successful work in China. Evaluate the suitability of China as a foreign market for Skoda and it's product cars and Skoda may stay in China for more development. This will be assessed in the PESTEL analysis. Introduction
Two young men, Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement, started to designed and produced bicycle in Czechoslovakia in 1895. 30 years later, the small factory became Skoda which went on to produced farm ploughs, cars, airplanes and bicycles in Eastern Europe. Between 1925 and 1990, Skoda overcame hard times which included war, political change and economic depression. The management of Skoda chose Volkswagen AG (VAG) as their strong foreign partner at 1990 and the reason was VAG has strong reputation, reliability and high quality. In addition, VAG is the largest car manufacturer in Europe, which taking 12% share at the world market by providing more than five million cars a year. Volkswagen AG comprises seven different car brands and each brand has its own specific character and is independent in the market. (SWOT ANALYSIS : SKODA, 2009) Latest Performance ? Skoda–Historical sales of world market model |2002 | |Weaknesses |Threats | |Outdated infrastructure |Competitors release same level products | |Not enough series of products |Expensive non-renewable energy | |Less famous |Increasing wages of killed workers | |Poor image | | PESTLE Analysis PESTLE stands for: political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental. ‘PESTLE analysis is a tool that can aid organization making strategies by helping them understand the external environment is which they operate now and will operate in the future,'(PESTLE Analysis,2003) China ? Political – Low price of the raw materials – Low restrictions of car industry – Various of policies support the car industry(Guo peng, 2010) ? Economic – Economics of China is growing fast while other counties is in economic recession, which helps people can offer cars in their daily lives. ? Social – China has a very stable society, which is helpful to the sales and the innovation of Skoda. ? Technological – China government has released some encouragement policies on car manufacture and car market development. This made the technology of making cars have a large of improvement and it is suitable for Skoda to do the research and innovation. ? Legal – China has a complete legal system which can protect the company well. Environmental – China government has done many things to ensure the supply of petrol. This would also help the car sales. Conclusion In Conclusion, Skoda's overall performance in China is excellent. In these four years, it has a great improvement of sales from zero to 123 thousands a year and the number is still growing. Skoda shows a high level of quality, innovation, reliability and service. However, it still has to work on the weak areas. In China, Skoda's market share is still not large enough and the government gives a great environment for the car industry. Therefore, it would be a better choice for Skoda to stay in China. References Guo peng. (2010). PESTLE Analysis of China car industry : http://wenku. baidu. com/view/b771d4335a8102d276a22f12. html. Viewed 6/8/2010 PESTLE Analysis. Renewal Associates. 2003: http://www. renewal. eu. com/resources/Renewal_Pestle_Analysis. pdf. Viewed 5/8/2010 Skoda in China sales over 83 thousands in the first half of 2010. (2010). Homepage Skoda Auto: http://www. skoda. com. cn/skoda/pages/data/new/news_20100721145609_000000000707. jsp. Viewed 5/8/2010 SWOT ANALYSIS : SKODA. Yogin Vora on August 6, 2009: http://managementfunda. com/swot-analysis-skoda/. Viewed 6/8/2010 |