Factors that influence Design of Mobile Phones

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nExecutive Summary

nDue to advanced technology over the last few decades, the mobile phone has experienced tremendous growth. In addition, the level of competition has increased as new designs of mobile phones have emerged to cater for customers demands. The main factors that influence design and layout of mobile phones in manufacturing industries include, cell phone cost, advanced technology and good landline services. In the contemporary society, many mobile phone users require devices that have many attractive applications at affordable costs. When designing new brands of cell phones the manufacturer must include features such as high-resolution camera, the Internet, music players and applications such as Twitter and Facebook. The operational performance objectives determines the decision making abilities of the firm, which include quality, flexibility, speed, dependability and costs. The manufacturer should ensure quality assurance of products, speedy production of cell phones and offering affordable products. Besides, the products should be flexible hence easy to adapt to external environments. A firm should ensure that operation activities are consistent, dependable and reliable.

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nFactors that influence Design and Layout of Mobile Phones in Manufacturing/service Industry

nOver the past few decades, the mobile phone industry has recorded significant growth. The market for cell phones is expanding tremendously across the world. Since early 1990s, the number of mobile phone users has increased from approximately 20 million to nearly 182 million in the United States. Due to the emergence of new technology and innovation in designing mobile phones, the market is increasing at a faster rate (Cater-Steel 2009, p. 5). In the contemporary society, every person wants to use advanced technology and maintain the pace with the innovation. Moreover, the use of mobile phones is growing at a faster rate because they have become a necessity in every household. Parents are buying mobile phones for their teens because they would like to communicate during emergencies (Sule 2009, p. 33). The competition among the manufacturers of mobile phones has increased over the years, which have made the products to be more affordable.

nThe majority of firms are competing in designing phones at a higher technology in order to attract customers to purchase their products. Consequently, the market has become competitive as many firms produce similar products and services. However, they produce phones with diverse physical features and variety of prices, which gives the buyers a chance to choose from different prices (Cater-Steel 2009, p. 5). The mobile phone industry has recorded higher rate of competition as key players in the market continue to lower the cost and enhancing their products in order to attract many customers. Most importantly, the main factors that determine the differences in design of mobile phones is cell phone cost, advanced technology improvement such as camera phones, many applications in a single phone e.g. Internet, text messaging, Skype, and E-mail as well as good landline services (Jordan 2003, p. 4).

nIn addition, the ability of a manufacturer to gain profits and grow in the industry depends on the capacity to attract new customers (Sule 2009, p. 33). By promoting and enhancing the mobile phones and their services, they have a higher chance of attracting many potential customers since technology alone cannot achieve much. On the contrary, manufacturers need value-added services for cell phone securities (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 133). Research indicates there are two main factors that determine the effectiveness of the cell phone business. First is the style of phone innovation, which makes the new designs in the physical appearance of mobile phones. In addition, developments of new add-on applications entice potential customers to purchase them more frequently (Cater-Steel 2009, p. 7). Moreover, producing phones that are more affordable to the majority of the population it attracts buyers to purchase more products. Therefore, it enhances competition between firms to reduce service costs.

nIn the United States, more than 50 companies in the mobile phone industry occupy about 80 percent of the cell phone market. However, six leading firms that operate in the mobile phone market, which include Verizon wireless, Cingular wireless, AT&T wireless, sprint wireless, Nextel wireless, and T- Mobile wireless. In the United States, Verizon is the largest firm since it has more than 38 million customers (Sule 2009, p. 35). With a variety of data applications and features accessible on cell phones, the commodity has become both a luxury and a necessity. The users of cell phones utilize their gadgets for many functions that include talking, and using phones as music players, calendars, clocks and cameras (Jordan 2003, p. 27). Research revealed that most of the users of cell phones are aged between 18 to 35 years.

nNonetheless, the study noted that a higher dependency on mobile phones could produce many risks to the users that include paying higher costs for mobile phone services (Cater-Steel 2009, p. 7). Due to higher rate of competition between mobile phone manufacturers, customers have experienced production of low quality products and services. When manufacturers minimize their services cost, they are prone to get lower profits and lower shares. Many customers complain because of the high cost of services. Studies indicate that customers dislike poor mobile phone services (Chitale 2011, p. 5). Therefore, they complain of exorbitant penalties, lousy services to customers and dropped calls.

nInnovation and Technology

nAdvancement in technology and innovation takes place every year hence making the mobile phone industry to be more competitive. Companies manufacturing mobile phones using attractive design and apply emerging upgrades are becoming more competitive in the market. Some of the innovations and new technology on mobile phones include Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), Android, and cell phone tour guide, Near Field Communication, and VOIP on cell phones (Jordan 2003, p. 89). The customer uses Wi-Fi routers at high speed to reduce the problems of poor reception in their house through unlicensed Mobile Access. The new technology enables mobile phone carriers to grow without using huge sums of resources to develop new infrastructures (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 133).

nThe innovation is beneficial to many users who utilize handset to download data wirelessly at higher speeds while travelling. In addition, cell phone tour guides help users to know the places they would like to see. The technology is more exciting to use as compared to live tours and books (Sule 2009, p. 37). Besides, users believe that the new technology saves money and time. Furthermore, the Near Field Communication innovation enables cell phones to connect to other devices such as computers to transfer data.

nThe NFC technology is beneficial to users as it can be used as electronic IDs and a debit card. In countries such as South Korea and Japan, users can utilize NFC-enabled machine to purchase items such as lunch and soda. The manufacturers of mobile phones must apply the technology with credit card infrastructure such as VISA Card to encourage support of new technology (Cater-Steel 2009, p. 10). In mobile phones, the use of VOIP reduce mobile phone bills for international users as it helps users to apply VOIP to route international calls over their cell phones. The application assists students from foreign nations, immigrants and travellers.

nAfter emergence of smartphones, mobile operating systems such as Android have been established. The invention of Android by Google has revolutionized the mobile phone industry as it helps the user to download latest applications and use services such as Twitter and Facebook (Cater-Steel 2009, p. 13). In addition, it has enabled easy access to bank accounts, play games and purchase items such as lunch. Furthermore, it assists users to customize browse websites on the computers and use them on their smartphones.

nAndroid service is beneficial to the users as it automatically backs up phone contacts. Therefore, in case a mobile phone user loses his or her phone all the contacts are saved in a Google Account and no need to back them up anywhere else. Moreover, using Google Play Store, the user of Android phone can download many games and applications. All Android phones have touchscreens and a QWERTY keyboard (Chitale 2011, p. 91).

nCharacteristics of Products

nIn the mobile phone industry, the services and products are highly consistent. In this regard, many products from different manufacturing firms are almost similar. Customers want to buy mobile phones at lower prices unless the products are attractive (Chitale 2011, p. 67). The customers considers when purchasing a cell phone is the capacity to take images. Consequently, mobile phone devices with camera apps have captured more than 40 percent of the market (Cater-Steel 2009, p. 13). Additionally, many users want a camera that has the higher resolution capacity, the capability to utilize storage media and other features that exist in modern digital cameras. Therefore, phones with higher resolutions cameras and camcorder have a higher chance to attract many customers.

nIn the contemporary business, phones with cameras increase the customer’s convenience of accessing an imaging device all the time. Therefore, they can send and display images wirelessly (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 152). Additionally, the use of 3G Internet has accelerated the adoption of camera phones because they assist in digital imaging. The 3 G internet helps in the cost efficient transmission of high-resolution images. The use of 3G internet in cell phones has increased over the years because it can transmit more than 380 K bps and enhancement on the image to 330 000 pixels (Chitale 2011, p. 26).

nThe manufacturers of mobile phones produce products that can allow users to download apps in their phones. The majority of the applications have a large capacity hence better phones require huge memory, high-speed data access and faster network capacities. Moreover, customers require mobile phones that can be used for video streaming hence the manufacturer should incorporate such design in new wireless gadgets (Chitale 2011, p. 39).

nOperational Performance Objectives

nMany factors influence decision-making relating to process design and layout of cell phones in operational performance objectives of the firm. Performance objectives refer to goals associated with operations of businesses. They help a business to assess certain areas of the process of transformation and develop essential adjustments. These performance objectives include cost, flexibility, dependability, speed and quality (Ormeño 2007, p. 93). Frequent control and monitoring enable a business to meet the performance objectives. In terms of quality, the firm management develops performance objectives based on the design quality and the finances used in the products (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 155). The quality of production of mobile phones is monitored at various production stages.

nThese include ensuring that quality inputs are supplied, quality processes, and output quality. In case the customers believe, the product is of poor quality they will not purchase the product (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 173). Manufacturers of mobile phones make many efforts to accomplish consistent and excellent quality products at affordable prices and same time ensure that they meet the needs of their customers. For accomplishing this goal, the manufacturer of cell phones continuously enhances productivity by monitoring the changes in different processes in the right manner (Ormeño 2007, p. 114).

nContinuous enhancement is executed by a various strategies such as closed loop methodology involving a selection of crucial parameters. In addition consist critical parameters monitoring, assessments of systems of measurements and improvement of process capacity. Furthermore, quality assurance ensures that reaction plan is in place (Chitale 2011, p. 71). The main aim of the continuous improvement program performances is to reduce the variation around the target.

nThroughout the process of manufacturing, the automatic interlock system controls and monitors all the processes and products. In production of mobile phones, there are three main stages, which include recipe process, parameter equipment and output process (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 109). The interlock for recipe process monitors incoming materials. Many manufacturers also use statistical process control in the production process to randomly monitor the trends of production (Chitale 2011, p. 14). Furthermore, firms use the reaction to out-of-control, detection of change process, critical detection for quality yields and detection of change in processes.

nThe manufacturer should also consider the speed of production in performance objectives. Most importantly, the quality of the product does not matter if the products are not delivered to the customers at the right time. Therefore, the firm sets objectives to minimize the time used to acquire the order from the customer, manufacture the product and deliver to the product to the clients (Ormeño 2007, p. 115). A firm must increase the speed of production of new products because every time a firm produces new phone, a rival firm begin to develop their own products that would compete with others. Every organization plans to establish cell phones that offer global competition (Chitale 2011, p. 37). Therefore, firms that produce their products at a faster rate are able to compete with other players in the industry. In every competition, one needs to produce quality products within a short period.

nFurthermore, production of new models, requires the firm to innovate new models within a limited time to increase income. New models attract many customers hence they sell faster as compared to old models of cell phones (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 154). In addition, a manufacturer of mobile phone should produce products that satisfy the needs of the current and the future generations.

nDue to advancement in technology, everything is changing at a faster rate (Ormeño 2007, p. 123). Therefore, they should vary their cell phones features as the technology changes. The manufacturer should produce cell phones at a faster rate since the needs of human beings evolves faster. Human beings’ tastes and preferences changes very fast in favor of new model of mobile phones hence manufacturers should set goals to produce new brands at a faster rate (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 181).

nDependability is an important performance objective in the business operations. Therefore, a firm should ensure that operation activities have consistency, dependable and reliable (Rao 2007, p. 23). In this regard, these factors are very crucial if the firm is to safeguard the loyalty of the customer and retain its current customers. Production of cell phones needs to be of reliable and consistent standard (Chitale 2011, p. 91).

nThe strategies for performance should focus on minimizing the complaints from customers. As the business grows, additional work affects the quality of products produces. Therefore, it is crucial to be aware of the maintaining good customer relationships (Ormeño 2007, p. 125). The producer should design new ways of communicating with their customers. In this respect, it is essential to keep the customers satisfied and involved always. Producing innovative services and product needs personal interactions with customers. Therefore, the interactions need to be planned to allow the company to listen and keenly see as the customers express their feelings concerning their experiences (Chitale 2011, p. 39). The tremendous advancement in communication technology allows manufacturers to offer a greater chance to develop, sustain and nurture customers relationships in the long term. Consequently, the firm is able to convert these long-term customer relationships into profits by minimizing cost of acquisition for customers and enhancing repeat buying (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 171).

nResearch indicates that manufacturing industry that utilizes the service-led growth ensures better differentiation of products. Furthermore, production of new products should be aimed at improving the customers’ satisfactions (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 186). Besides, the firm should adhere with the legal responsibilities to keep their customers informed. The law requires that manufacturer need to offer customer with specific information concerning description of products, their prices, delivery information and cancellation rights (Ormeño 2007, p. 147). In distance selling, the law demands that a firm should offer the customer with a confirmation order.

nThe manufacturer of mobile phone should put in place measures to recognize the key performance indicators. Most notably, the firm records the number of customer complaints, the number of faulty phones and the frequency of contacting the distributers or customers. The information gathered should be used to improve the services of the customers (Rao 2007, p. 31). For instance, if the level of delivery is low the firm should initiate corrective measures. Additionally gathering relevant information concerning the customers is very important (Chitale 2011, p. 43). Collecting regular feedback from the customers helps to monitor their satisfaction and maintain higher level of standards.

nOperational performance objectives in a firm require a business that is flexible in a manner that adapt to the changes in the external environment. For instance, in case the demand of the customers instantly increases the business need to satisfy the demands as faster as possible. In this case, performance objectives encompass plans of production of different mobile phones (Ormeño 2007, p. 172). In addition, other plans may involve frequent equipment maintenance that ensure that the business satisfy the customer’s demands in a timely manner. The firm should also develop staff training in order to ensure that they understand the changes in circumstances (Chandra and Kamrani 2004, p. 171).

nThe fifth performance objective of the business is to consider the cost of production of mobile phones. In this respect, the company should offer a costs that the customers are willing to meet. In addition, the manufacturer determines its profits hence total costs needs to be lower than the revenue, otherwise a firm makes a loss (Eapen 2009, p. 9) . The product cost involve the amount of expenses spent on product packaging, testing and development, which influence the pricing decisions.

nTotal costs involve both variable and fixed costs. In manufacturing company, fixed costs are expenses that a firm pays inspite of its production level of sales level. Fixed cost of mobile manufacturing company include insurance, advertising costs, fees for leasing equipment, and rent. On the contrary, variable costs involves expenses that changes based on sales and production level. The management need to consider the cost of commissions, labor, raw materials, packaging and distribution costs (Eapen 2009, p. 21). When a firm launches new mobile phone, the cost of promotion is very high as the customers must be aware of new product. Thefore, these activities can affect its pricing. In adddtion, when making decisions on cost of mobile phones, the firm considers the price their customers are willing to pay (Eapen 2009, p. 23). The majority of the customers are sensitive to changes in prices.

nConclusion

nIn mobile phone designing and layout, the manufacturing company need to consider a variety of factors that influences its decision making. Advanced technology and innovation has enabled many companies to design different mobile phones at a faster rate. The use of advanced mobile phones among individuals over the last two decades is increasing (Chitale 2011). In addition, due to higher rate of competition among the key manufacturers of mobile phones , affordable products have emerged. Besides, most of the companies compete in mobile phone designs in order to attract many potential customers. The main factors that influence the differences in mobile phones design include, the cell phone costs, advanced technology and a good landline services. The ability to attract many customer and value-added services improve the profitability of the firm. Five operational performance objectives influence decision-making concerning designing and layout of mobile phones, which include quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost (Ormeño 2007). The firm must put in place proper mechanisms to control and regulate the quality in various production stages.

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nReferences

nCater-Steel, A., 2009. Information technology governance and service management. Hershey: Information Science Reference.

nChandra, C. and Kamrani, A., 2004. Mass customization. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

nChitale, A., 2011. Product design and manufacturing. [S.l.]: Prentice-Hall Of India Pv.

nEapen, G., 2009. Decision options. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

nJordan, P., 2003. Designing pleasurable products. London: Taylor & Francis e-Library.

nOrmeño, M., 2007. Managing corporate brands. Wiesbaden: Dt. Univ.-Verl.

nRao, R., 2007. Decision making in the manufacturing environment. Berlin: Springer.

nSule, D., 2009. Manufacturing facilities. Boca Raton: CRC Press.