Q5.

As the existing layout is not appropriate due to machine congestion, lack of smooth flow of material and poor lighting, then the new layout has to overcome these problems as the following:1- An electrical operated crane can be considered to mobilize heavy weights and also during machine maintenance. 2- For smoothness of material handling, fork lift trucks can be considered with proper spacing for moving, loading and unloading. 3- Spaces between machines have to accommodate the smooth movements of these forklift trucks, a space for operators and a safe temporary loading area. 4- Sufficient lighting has to be placed in order to assure proper visibility. More importantly HSE policy has to be established and maintained to minimize the occurrence of any possible incidences. The current layout has several problems as mentioned, such as lighting problem, machines congestion and material flow. The new layout shall be developed to avoid repetition of these obstacles. A rootcause analysis should be conducted to analyze the dependencies and answer the following question: Why these problems happened? Obviously lighting issue can be solved by introducing an efficient lighting to be distributed all over the layout to guarantee sufficient visibility and hence a safe operation and production to the plant can be guaranteed. To solve the machine congestion, which is either caused by the improper placement of machines, or more machines have occupied a small space. If the machine productivity per day is known then the minimum required machines to produce the weekly target of production can be placed properly in a way which would sufficiently provide a comfortable space to operators, material handling system and safe evacuation in case of emergency. This is also applicable to material flow problems Q6. The most adequate organizational structure for this factory is the functional structure (Engineering Department, Finance Department, Marketing Department and Human resources and administrative department) . This type of structure will guarantee an integrated work environment as every division will be doing a specialized part of the work, therefore contradictions and conflicts could be avoided and hence more efficient is the management system, more productive is the factory. An R&D department with two sections, one for training and other for market research is additionally thought, training department would help in improving the skills for the low-qualified personnel, while the market research would assist the marketing department with market research studies and possibly surveying the market for future plans. The relevant organizational structure to any industry should be determined by its size, business type and their management style as well. As the company is entering in a new business and also already lost 4%

of the steel market share that indicates a very important factor to realize while deciding the best model to follow, which is to make considerable cost reduction, flexibility of operations and integrity of the overall process (plant operation and production to meet targeted weekly plan, avoiding over-stocking problems at warehouse and following a coherent marketing strategies and marketing channels to sell the products as projected, in addition to solving the un-qualified staff problem). Thus empowering a functional organizational structure will facilitate the above goals by introducing functional departments such as marketing department, HR and training department, operation, maintenance and production department, Quality and safety department. Stock management and warehousing can be a part of quality and safety department to always assure a proper stocking, quality checks for defect items and inventory management. Q7. As the company started to loss share of market by 4%, they have to follow a defensive strategy to return back as strong as possible, this could possibly be done by several methods: 1- A simulation has to be made in case the company decided to cut the steel price to at least the current competitors levels, and assess the impact financially. The company might possibly accept selling its products to an extend that guarantee a break-even point. If that is achieved then as production increases production cost minimizes and profit margin increases slightly, which means more share percentage. Increasing share is risky but also rewarding. 2- Conducting market surveys to understand the customers preferences for that particular product. This will increase customer loyalty if these preferences taken into account. 3- Introducing new product into the market (which has been already done). The new product should include attractive features. 4- The company needs to approach its existing customers, introducing the new product to them, this could be easier in the first instance than attracting new customers. To define a proper marketing strategy to promote the sales of the new product, the following points are essential to be considered which affects new products introduction to markets, such as market research (already conducted by the company), timing (readiness of the plant and the product at market at the time of announcement), capacity (sufficient resources we can assume the availability) , testing (are the new product features being made as per customer requirements/expectations? Have feedback from sample material been received?), distribution (could the factory use the same distribution channels, personnel and existing customers?), training (obviously its a problem amongst the production staff as mentioned, in addition to existing staff problem to know the features of the new product and the way to convince customers of its relevancy to their needs) and promotion (advertisement, samples, public relations specially with the existing customers, incentives to gain additional customers and attract existing ones to the new product). Therefore at least the below points could be strengthened and joined with the above to formulate a good marketing strategy: 1- An investigation to be carried out to determine customer preferences and needs.

2- Train existing marketing personnel on the new products, its technical features and relevancy to the industry. 3- Incentives to be given to customers (could be an attractive discount for purchasing a specific amount). 4- Frequent advertising, meeting expectations of clients in terms of providing the quoted quantities on the agreed time, this would encourage the customers to increase their orders. Q8. In order to extend the life of the project, the point considered in point number (1) in Q7 regarding increasing market share, plus the R&D division would be a good plan for the future. As long as the machine service life is 8 years that means three years are yet to be utilized. Profit can be less than before if a price cut is pursued as a strategy, at least a break-even point would be thought of, therefore loss or negative profit margin could possibly be avoided. R&D in a sense would be very effective in introducing new products. R&D would continuously conduct market research in support to the marketing and sales division, and also to identify the market needs in terms of other products. AlrusaylCompany as a supplier to construction contractors sector would identify new products based on the market demand, availability, prices and competitors. As the project is going to complete three years the R&D division will be expected to submit three products options for example to be discussed within the management, more researches and feasibility studies could be made and hence would be supportive to the management decision. Once a product is selected and all calculations and studies been made say around the end of the fourth year, then the company could start budgeting the required capital and resources to establish the new production lines between the 5th and the sixth year of production to the Aluminum product life.

The purpose of extending the life of the product could be understood in 2 ways; achieving a profitable net present value after the completion of the 8 years of the production facility life, and introducing a new product on a suitable time to maintain the company business If we assume that the existing product will peak and then reach saturation at the fifth year, then a decline will be expected in the last three years. We could assume a decline on profitable net present value till a point where net present value compared to the current time equals zero. Market saturation would also mean availability of the product in competitive prices, therefore a decision has to be made in order to decrease the unit selling price and achieve a zero profitable NPV instead of losing.