Control mechanisms in the workplace will assist in the planning development for customer satisfaction and measurable milestones for improvement. Every business needs to develop and use some kind of control mechanism to operate effectively and efficiently. This paper will explore four different types of control mechanisms used by various departments at two corporations – Dixon Sanitary and WE Energies. In doing so, the authors will identify, compare, and contrast these mechanisms and determine whether these mechanisms are effective by examining the positive and negative reactions to these control mechanisms, and explain how these control mechanisms influenced the four functions of management.
Dixon Sanitary uses numerous controlled mechanisms throughout its operating business days. One control mechanism used at Dixon Sanitary is called “a bay a day.” This is a pro-active rather than reactive procedure for ensuring quality and accuracy in filling customer orders. At the start of each day the warehouse supervisor picks a bay in the warehouse racking system to count. This is normally done in succession rather than just selecting a bay at random. Every parts located in the bay comes up on a form that is printed out with the parts location and quality that each should meet. A warehouse worker would count the entire bay for the number of parts at the site and compare the actual count to what the system says it has on hand. If the counts do not match, a second person would re-count all the parts at the bay that discrepancies occurred. The workers would then check for any missing parts that may have been placed at the wrong location. If parts are still missing, the division manager may sign off for an inventory adjustment ...