Salvation Army’s Dallas ARC

Salvation Army’s Dallas ARC requires to increase its revenue and this can be achieved primarily by dealing with the available limitations or challenges. Deriving better channels of dealing with the present problems and presenting other income generating methods will save the institution from loss making. These measures should range from decreasing expenses and increasing revenue generation on the already performing areas.

Firstly, since most of the losses occur due to the inability to manage the peak periods, measures require to be taken in order to better manage the elevated traffic (The Salvation Army in Dallas, 2011). The institution needs to prepare in advance for the transportation of items during the peak periods by hiring vehicles in advance. This will ensure the supervision of the budget or transportation cost in advance.  Members of the church who own vehicles that are able to carry items are the best option since they will lease them at a much-reduced cost. The bulk of donated items require equal work force to assist in the loading and unloading of tracks. Many of the volunteers should be allocated time during the peak periods to provide assistance. Additionally the able members could be allocated duties to also periodically assist during the exercise.  The fee, in order to attract repairmen, should be slightly raised; in addition, repair trainings can be awarded to particular members of the church to cub the temporary repairmen shortage whereby they can work on part-time basis (The Salvation Army in Dallas, 2011). In order to stock the right items the institution can encourage donations of particular items that are most needed in the stores. The institution can also establish a garage to repair damaged donated vehicles in order to raise their value.

In matters regarding the donations, the institution can encourage donors to donate repairable items. For instance, clothes form a big bulk of the items donated and some are irreparable. This would reduce the cost of storage and dumping of items that are beyond repair. To reduce sorting duties at the warehouse the sorting can be done at the donor’s premises this reduces the amounts of unsorted donated items in the warehouse. I suppose that the reclamation processes form part of the mainly nonperforming operations due to the large volumes of trashed items.  The sorting of huge piles of items seems to be overwhelming (The Salvation Army in Dallas, 2011). Measures such as increasing manpower in the processes could improve the reclamation process. In matters items selling, the number of stores can be increased and even open branches outside the state this will increase the number of prospective clients. Additionally, the auctions can be advertised in the social media sites and major trendy websites to extend the awareness.  A number of measures though seemingly efficient could enhance the reclamation process. The institution could establish a plastics recycling plant that can melt and remake the plastics into various items such as toys, chairs, tables and so on (The Salvation Army in Dallas, 2011). Additionally, the institution’s owned small garage could refurbish the donated vehicles into better conditions to fetch better prices.

In my opinion, the most expensive process is reclamation. This is because many activities are carried out in this phase including sorting, refurbishment, trashing and storage. This phase additionally consumes most of the resources since repair involves buying new parts, sorting requires huge manpower and conducive storage facilities. The selling process seems to be the mainly efficient activity. Owing to the daily auctions, stocking of the items being demanded, pricing items depending on their storage period and engaging in exporting business makes this process very efficient.

References

The Salvation Army in Dallas. (2011). The Salvation Army in Dallas: The Supply Chain Challenges of a Non-Profit Organization.