Thesis, Graduate (Master in Management)--University of the Philippines Mindanao, January 2006.

Confidential.

The present-day firm has to be nimble-footed in order to survive and to remain competitive in an environment that has become increasingly dynamic and globalized. Modern Manufacturing Systems, Inc. (MMS), a machine shop located in Cebu City, has realized this. This realization has led the company to choose the strategic planning process as its primary vehicle to effectively meet the challenges of the 21st century. The endeavor involved an in-depth analysis of the firm's internal and external environments and an assessment of its corporate objectives. The result of that undertaking is this strategic plan: a blueprint of activities which MMS shall undertake to reach its stated objectives. The researcher's evaluation of the company's internal environment revealed the following significant strengths and weaknesses: Strengths ? Strong corporate culture; quality consciousness; customer and service orientation; respectable profitability; high capacity to expand; continually improving production efficiency, continuous technology development; good human resources practices; improving marketing performance; and accelerating sales growth. Weaknesses ? Inadequate working capital management practice; inadequate procurement system; inadequate production planning; inadequate inbound/outbound logistics; inadequate marketing research; undocumented organizational structure; inadequate knowledge management; absence of strategic planning system; little to no project management; and inadequate control systems. Likewise, the analysis of the corporation's external environment revealed the following threats and opportunities: Threats - continued government instability; rising cost of raw materials; degradation of the natural environments; deterioration of the labor skill pool; low barriers to entry; incompatible zoning ordinance. Opportunities ? Higher market demand; strong Euro against dollar; surplus of labor; availability of computerized machines; relatively low supplier power; low product differentiation among competitors; and more educated customer buying decision. The juxtaposition of these factors considering the company's stated Vision, Mission, and Goals resulted in the identification of two strategic proposals; namely, Market Penetration and Product Development. Market penetration involves seeking increased market share for present products or services in present markets through greater marketing efforts while product development involves offering new services to the market such as High-Speed Products, and Tools and Die Making. To operationalize these strategies, the following objectives and plans were formulated for each of the major functional areas: Marketing has set a goal of achieving a sales growth of 25% annually. The action plan involve dividing the target market segments into geographical areas and assigning a sales representative for each. Production has set a goal to reduce process lead time by 50% and process lead time variability to less than 0.01%. Research and Development shall study the feasibility of the proposed two new services and formulate a business plan for both by 2010. Human Resources shall develop and fully implement an employee development program by 2007. A knowledge management program shall also be fully implemented by 2009. Management shall put up a corporate planning committee which shall oversee the strategic planning process. Management shall also be responsible for upgrading the company's procurement activity. Finance has established a goal of achieving an ROE in 2010 that is 3.5 times as much as that of 2005. Finance shall also upgrade the financial management system and establish an internal audit function to improve the reporting speed and ensure the accuracy of these reports. Control systems were also crafted to ensure that the company reaches its intended goals. http://staffkoha.upmin.edu.ph/cgi-bin/koha/cataloguing/addbiblio.pl?biblionumber=3175#tab9XX