MAS Holding Case Study

Management Theories in Relation to MAS Holding Case Study



Management Theories in Relation to MAS Holding Case Study

Introduction

There are several different types of management theories to understand in relation to an MAS organization. All these theories are universally accepted today. To provide a useful historical perspective that will guide our study of modern management, we shall discuss two different approaches to management in this report:

(1) The Classical approach,

(2) The Behavioral approach

The development of these approaches began in 19th century with the industrial revolution. The organizations start looking for customer needs enhancements. Larger scale production units have been started. People management and social problems developed in factories. Therefore understanding these general approaches to the theory and practice of management can help & appreciate how management has evolved, where it is today, and where it appears to be headed (Badawy, 2000, Pp:293-297).

The Classical Approach to Management

MAS Holdings, is US$570 million turning over company in Sri Lanka. Company has adopted various approaches to manage the business units and to run a smooth operation. They do practice most of the theories which have been universally accepted. The company always solves the problems following by management thoughts. The product portfolio of MAS is bras, panties, elastic, fabrics, lace, hooks and other accessories and briefs in different types of fabric manufactured in Sri Lanka, the UK, Mexico, Indonesia and China. 60% of MAS revenues came from one customer, Victoria's Secret.

The organization has ten production factories in more than 10 countries and centralized warehouse and cutting divisions in charge to supply fabric cuts for all respective factories. Responsibility of the centralized fabric division to get the fabric rolls from loading bay, send it for fabric inspection division , after inspection put into the ware house racks and later issue to cutting department based on cut dates. The below exhibit#1 explains how the process goes on (Ansari, 2004, Pp: 44-69).

Exhibit # 1 - Fabric in house to Cutting Dept

Though the fabric inspection division knows which style to be prioritized still there was a backlog of inspection. So the company decided to find “one best way” to handle the situation. Therefore the assistant manager of the fabric inspection division was asked to find answers for below given questions.

How many workers work in the division?

What are the fabric qualities to be inspected?

How many minutes take to load a fabric roll to the machine?

How much time required inspecting a fabric roll?

How many minutes take to unload the fabric roll from the machine?

How much time required preparing the inspection report, swatch card & shade range card?

The fabric inspection division was occupied with ten workers with an assistant manager. And mainly four fabric types identified. And there are urgent situations where need to prioritize fabric inspection for certain unplanned fabrics also. Based on the information, the best practice found was five teams were formulated to handle different types of fabric. With two workers in each team assigned to handle one fabric ...