Unit 9 Constraints Affecting Engineering Organisations Assignment 3
For this 3rd assignment, I will begin by describing potential local impact, statutory
controls & public issues that may affect the operation of a given engineering
organisation.
Local Impact
The unemployment rate is the first local impact I’ve decided to use on an
organisation, like that of BMW. The unemployment rate is essentially a part of the
labour force that is jobless; & in the UK, the rate of unemployment is currently sitting
at 4.3% (June 2017).
If the unemployment rate was to rise, it would affect BMW in a number of ways, due
to the fact that:
Consumers will have less money to spend on their cars, & if the company
don’t receive enough profit, they will eventually have to close down in that
region.
BMW will offer more opportunities for entrepreneurship since the company
will have less workers.
Another factor to take into account is exchange rates as they especially target BMW
since this company imports & exports cars & components from other regions.
Alternating exchange rates fundamentally affect how much BMW have to pay to
their international supplier, which can impact profit margins as well as take a lot of
resources.
Interest can also affect BMW, but it may not be from them taking loans, but from
their customers that have a contract with this business. If interest rates increased
consumers may decide to not purchase a vehicle from BMW as they’ll have to pay
far more than they expected. So taking into thought about demand & supply (in the
long run), if interest rates stay high & continue to rise, the demand for BMW
products will constantly decrease & eventually put them out of business in that
region.
Statutory Controls
Statutory controls are essentially a control or regulation that’s provided by
legislation. The first regulation I will discuss that BMW & other business must have
The Health & Safety Regulations 1992. This regulation
The Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992 is another regulation,
which covers a range of health, safety & welfare issues & apply to most workplaces
(except those on construction sites, ships & below ground). Without this regulation,
the employees that work in BMW won’t have correct ventilations, lightning,
workstations & many more. Thus, they would most likely complain about bad
working conditions, which could lead to employees quitting &/or getting very ill &
would need to leave the workplace.
The next statutory control is The Manual Operations Regulations 1992. An employee
should ensure they use any safe system of manual handling their employer puts in
place. This regulation reduces the risk of hazardous manual handling as well as the
P6 Fahim Mohammed
, Unit 9 Constraints Affecting Engineering Organisations Assignment 3
risk of injury. Employees must follow strict protocol to ensure their safety & others.
However, if this regulation was not in place, employees could abuse this risk & claim
money off BMW for their injury or potential injury; they could also get injured
accidentally as there won’t be a strict procedure for employees to follow. Due to
this, news would spread out about BMW not being a safe place to work & less
people would desire to work there, leading the business to be short on employees,
which’ll slow down the amount of cars the company produces & sell.
Public Issues
Public issues is fundamentally the sale of a company’s shares to investors. A
company like BMW must take into thought about how their plan/s will affect
stakeholders both positively & negatively. Minimum wage is a public issue, even
though it was raised to £7.50 in the UK; a company like BMW have thousands of
employees working for them so the number of hours will vary. What this means is
that some workers will have lesser income than others & will have to search for
more work within the industry or another place.
Another public issue is noise since the manufacturing stages can be very loud, & this
can affect an individual over time if that person doesn’t have functioning protective
gear or doesn’t wear them. This goes the same for the body shop wear the cars are
being painted; the fumes can be inhaled & over time can affect the lifestyle of an
individual. There are far more public issues like hygiene as well; & with all these
issues in place, if they were to occur employees would have to resign due to their
health & others may quit or not apply to work for BMW due to these issues giving
the company a bad reputation.
P6 Fahim Mohammed