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As MD you have been worried by the large numbers of secretaries in the administration
area, and are determined in the long term to encourage management to handle the bulk of
their own correspondence by the use of their own keyboard systems. As an initial step
Carron Associates have shown that there could be substantial improvements in the use of
secretarial time by creating a central typing and filing pool available to all. Management
would use tape machines for all dictation which would then be completed on word
processors linked to the central system, enabling any corrections to be simply and rapidly
completed. The introduction of this system would be relatively inexpensive at € 10,000.
Installation of auto dialling telephones for all key executives would reduce the need for
secretarial involvement in this area leaving two girls on the switchboard to handle all non
routine telephone calls. The likely forecast demands on the secretarial services and the
impact of new technology are listed in Table 14 in Appendix A.
Technical Support
This has been identified in the business plan as one of the key areas in which Burke
Engineering is weak. With the concentration of the company in the valve sector the work
load for technical support will rise. Technical support engineers will be making much
longer journeys as a result of the increase in the amount of business that the company is
likely to be developing in Europe.
The introduction of personal computers with journey planning software can improve
journey efficiency by an estimated 10 per cent. Such personal computers will also be
important in producing reports and the requirements for follow up action. The appropriate
software could be used to significantly speed the completion of reports which could be
transferred back to the company using the telephone system. Such software would
substantially reduce the amount of time that was needed for the completion of reports or
sending the material back to the company. The overall cost of providing such support
would be around € 10,000.
In the technical support department there was also likely be a substantial increase in the
amount of time spent on site, to advise, install and modify valves to particular customer
requirements. Such installations and service problems could be improved by one of a
number of software systems and associated diagnostic equipment.
Carron Associates estimated that the total investment in this area would be around €
20,000 which would lead to a 50 percent reduction in the time required to find faults and
revise systems. As with the other departments, you consider that it is important that the
technical support department is more involved in the day to day running of the company
and that training is substantially increased, though this would mean an expansion of the
work load. It was possible that the introduction of expert systems could have the effect of
reducing the training component; Carron Associates (estimated that an investment of €
15,000 could reduce training times by 20 per cent.
As technical engineers were moving from one clearly defined site to another it was not
thought appropriate to provide them with portable telephones, but the use of a telephone
paging system would probably be cost effective at around € 40 per employee per year.
The implications of the new business plan and the effects of new technology are all
included in Table 14 in Appendix A.
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