Task (1):

At term one me and my class mates were introduced to the business sectors,
and here basically what they do:
Primary: is the companies that abstracts the materials from the ground or earth,
like abstracting oil and gas from the ground and abstracting iron from the rocks.
Secondary: is the companies that makes things from the material abstracted from
the earth like making furniture from wood that is abstracted from the trees.
Tertiary: are the companies that sells the things to the costumer, in other words
they are the companies that deals directly with the customer.
a) UES or United Engineering Services is considered as a large company
because it has more than 250 employees. It is located in Al-Rusail, this
company do more than one thing, makes pipes to be used to carry oil,
water or gas in the desert, do pressure test for the pipes that they
make, to make sure that the pipes are not leaking or have any failings in it,
and it also makes tanks that can afford a lot of pressure, and can stand the
heat. Not forgetting to mention that the UES is a company that lies under the
secondary sector, because it make things from the materials that are
bought from the primary sector companies, like iron, steel and aluminium.
This company is considered as a private limited company LLC, and sole
trader because it is owned by one person and it is not owned by the
governorate. It is Matrix in style, because this style is more suitable for such
a company that has a huge number of employees, and that has more than
one sector in more than one place, so it will be best operated this way. And
the type of management is owner-manager, because it is owned by one
person.
b) P.D.O, It is the exploration and production company leader in the Sultanate.
The company represents more than 70% of crude oil production in the
country, and almost all of the natural gas supply. P.D.O is a Primary
company because it extracts oil and gas from the ground and then they do a
basic filtering for it it, because as you know the oil that is extracted from earth
is not pure, it have other substance in it, thats why it needs to be filtered. And
it is also considered as a large company because it has more than 250
employees. P.D.O is considered as a Partnership and Public limited
company (Plc), because the Company is owned by the Government of Oman
(with a 60% interest), Royal Dutch Shell (34%), Total (4%) and Partex (2%). So
it is mostly owned by the government and because it is owned by more than
one member. It is Hierarchical in style, because this style is more suitable for
such a company that has a huge number of employees, so it will be best
operated this way. And the type of management is CEO.
Al Maha Petrol station, it is the major distributor of oil products in Oman. Al
Maha is considered as a tertiary company because it distribute the oil or
petrol to the customer, it deals or interacts with him (the customer) directly.

This company is considered as a large company because it has more than

250 employees. This company is considered as a private limited company
LLC, and sole trader because it is owned by one person and it is not owned
by the governorate. It is Matrix in style, because this style is more suitable
for such a company that has a huge number of employees, so it will be best
operated this way. And the type of management is owner-manager, because
it is owned by one person.

c) In UES they have a number of functions:

1) Quality assurance: It is the process that is taken to check that the
product doesnt carry or have any failures or errors, and that the product
that have been developed meets the specified requirements. In UES they
have a group of people that their job is to check the pipes, tanks and the
joins that they made to join the pipes together, to make sure that the
client gets what he have ordered without any failures and in the best
quality. But for every piece they have a different test to do:
The Pipes: they do a pressure test to make sure that the pipes can stand a
high pressure.
The Joins: they do an X-Ray test to make sure that the welding is clean
and good, then they attach the joins to the pipes to make the pressure
test.
The Tanks: they do a leaking test to the tanks to make sure that they do
not leak, and to do that they full the tanks with water and keep it for a day
or so, and they see if it leaks or not.
2) Material supply and control: it is the process by which an item of
supply is controlled within the supply system. The United Engineering
Services was moving some equipment to their new building, so they didnt
have a lot of space to store their materials. What they did is that they
ordered a number of materials that they needed in a regular way.
3) Installation and Commissioning: it is the act or process of making a
machine or a service ready to be used in a specific place and checking
that it is operating to specification. As I mentioned before, in UES they do
pressure tests, using machines. But they have to make sure that the
machine is ready to use, and that it is operating as expected, because any
mistake or if the machine was not ready to use, anything may happen, the
pipes may be thrown around because of the high pressure, and someone
may get injured or even die.
4) Technical sales: it is the representatives sell and promote products or
services related to technology and manufacturing. There is a group of
people in UES that are responsible for promoting the products of UES.
They have a website and sometimes they got to some companies like
P.D.O and ORPIC to promote their product.

5) Project planning and management: it is a discipline for stating how to

complete a project within a certain timeframe, usually with defined
stages, and with designated resources. There are some people in UES that
their jobs is to make sure that the product is being manufactured
according to the schedule that theyve done. These people dont work on
the field or in the workshops, they mainly work behind the desk, but
sometimes they go to the workshops to make sur that everything is going
as planned.

Task (2):
a) The information in companies or organization can flow in to ways, vertically
or horizontally.
Vertically it means that the information flows up and down among managers.
Horizontally means that the information flows sideways among departments.
However, in UES the information flows horizontally, for example, in
manufacturing process the information goes throw a lot of people of sectors
in UES, starting from when the client orders the product till he receive it. And
throw manufacturing process you are going to notice that it goes throw
inspection more than one time, and this what makes the production of this
company is in high quality.
Next Im going to mention the process that it geos throw and how the
information flows through:
1) Once the client order the product the information or the order goes to a
group of people, and they go through the request or the demand from the
client to check it if what he has order could be done or not, because
sometimes the sector that the order should be done in is going throw a
servicing and is not available at that moment, and then they can accept it
or not.
Then the proposal estimate comes, the same group of people calculate
the time for the material to arrive, manufacturing process and the
inspections, and then give the best estimate for the client to inform him or
give him an idea when his product is going to be ready.

2)

The next step, the information goes to the ordering people, they look at
the kind or type of material needed, measurements of the material and its
size then they order it.

3) After the material arrives it goes to the inspection people, they check it
and test it to see if it is good or ready to work on, or if there is any fault in
it. They write down some notes or comments if needed, if there was any
faults in the material they inform their supervisors or the people that are
responsible for them and then they return the material and order another
one. But if the material is good, then they send the material to the
fabrication section.
4) The material and the information or the details about it goes to the
fabrication section, there is people that read the information and tell the
workers what to do, whatever it was cutting, welding, drilling or whatever
they need to and then they send it to the inspection.
5) The material then will be send back to the inspection people to check if
everything is done correctly and in a good way, and do some hydraulic
and load tests if needed, if something was wrong they send it back to
fabrication to be fixed or done better, if not they send it to the B & P
section.
6) In the B & P (Blast & Paint) section do blasting to remove the rust from the
material and then they paint it according to the colour of paint written in
the information.
7) After B & P, the information will be send again to the inspection people to
see if everything is done correctly without any faults, and us usual if there
is anything wrong it will be sent to back to B&P, if everything is okay they
send it to the final inspection.
8) Now the material is send to another group of inspection, this group read
the information and do inspection for everything in the material, to make
sure it is manufactured in a good way and that the product is in high
quality.
9) Now when everything is done and ready a group of people do the final
documents and certificate, then they arrange for the delivery for the
client.
b) For the information to flow inside UES (internal communication) it must be in
two forms, written and electronic, but different people will receive different
type of information. More or less, the type of information that flows between
the headquarters or officials, the supervisors and vice versa will be electronic,
by emails or any other contacting soft wares. However, the type of

information that will flow between the supervisors, the workers and vice
versa will be written, so it will be in a hard copy or a document, or anything
else that is physical.
For the information to flow outside UES (external communications) could be
also in the two forms, writer or electrical. The external communication will
happen between the headquarters or officials and other companies or
customers. The information could be written as an official document and
delivered to the other side or person. Or it could be electronic, using email or
any other software.
c) In UES, first the headquarters of each function are the people that will receive
the information, and then they will give them to the workers to work on.
Obviously, the information flow are really important in every company, it is
like the blood inside the company. Without the information flow the work
wont be with the same quality and the workers will not know what to do
unless they have been told exactly what to do. In other words, the
information flow between the different functions will enable the company to
complete and design a successful products.
A good way for the information to flow inside a department is to flow
horizontally, between people, divisions, departments or units within the same
level of organizational hierarchy, and to flow vertically, between different
levels of the organizational hierarchy.
There are four types of information to flow in a company:
Technical information: This would be needed by employees who are
manufacturing a product or setting up a system.
Production management data: This is needed by managers responsible
for controlling production.
Marketing and sales figures: This would include sales, customer orders,
information about customer support services and customer feedback.
Financial data and general management information: This would sales
projections, income and expenditure accounts, cash flow forecasts,
share price movements and budgets for capital equipment.

Some examples how the information flows in different departments:

1) Quality assurance
In quality assurance the information will flow between the CEO, officials and
the workers, and it will flow in two ways, vertically and horizontally. It will
flow vertically to provide necessary orders, instructions, and directives to
the subordinates in downward direction; and receiving suggestion, opinion

and feedback from the subordinates in upward direction and it is mostly

done through written media. For example if the CEO wanted to receive an
opinion or feedback about something from the subordinates, he first have to
send a message or a letter to inform the subordinates that he wants a
feedback, then the subordinates will send the feedback wanted to the CEO.
But it will flow horizontally to coordinate the activities of various
departments and divisions of the organization, or for other reasons such as
information sharing, problem solving and collaboration and it is mostly done
through oral media. For example if the workers had a problem in doing
something, they can communicate with each other to solve that problem.
The type of information that will flow in quality assurance is Technical
information.
2) Material supply and control
In material supply and control the employees are the executive director,
officials and the workers. The information will flow vertically and horizontally
to provide the necessary orders and instructions, and to share information
or for the workers to collaborate with each other. The information in the
material control and supply are mainly in written or electronic, for example
the information between the workers would be in written, but between the
executive director and the officials would be electrical. The information
might flow in the material supply and control if for example a new ordered
material has arrived, so some data or orders will be sent to the officials by
e-mail telling them to store the new material. However, the type of
information that flows in this function could be Production management
data or Technical information.
3) Installation and Commissioning
In installation and commissioning the employees are the executive director,
officials and the workers or the installers. The information will flow vertically
and horizontally to provide the necessary orders and instructions, and to
share information or for any problem that might face them. The information
in the installation and commissioning are mainly written or electronic. So for
example if a new machine has arrived or something, and it needs to be
installed, then the executive director or the officials will order the worker by
sending an electronic e-mail to the worker telling him to install the machine,
then the worker will install it and write some notes if needed, then he will
send the notes to the officials either written or electrical. The type of
information that flows in this function is Production management data.
4) Technical sales
In technical sales commissioning the employees are the executive director
and the workers. The information will flow vertically and horizontally to
provide the necessary orders and instructions, and to share information or
for the workers to collaborate with each other. The information in the

technical sales are mainly electronic. So for example if the company wants
to promote their products, the executive director will send an e-mail to the
workers telling them to promote the products on the website of the
company, or even to order them to go to other places like trade shows if
needed. The type of information that flows in this function is Production
management data.
5) Project planning and management
In the project planning and management the employees are the executive
director and the workers. The information will flow vertically and
horizontally to provide the necessary orders and instructions, and to share
information or for any problem that might face them. The information in this
function could be written, but it is mainly electronic. So for example if a new
project or product is being manufactured, then the executive director will
inform the workers using e-mail to make sure that everything will go
according to the schedule, and that it wont be behind it, then the workers
will keep the executive director updated with what is going on, or if they are
in front, behind or in the schedule.
d) The flow of information in a company or an organization must be confidential,
because for example in UES if the B & P section will only work on the product
if the inspection people said that the product is good to work on, in other
words they are depending on what they say, because they trust them. The
ethics is one of the main factors that is important in the information flow, so
the new worker must agree and sign up company policy on communication
procedures, such as:
Not passing data to competitors or other companies without approval
from the headquarters.
Showing respect for colleagues in written and verbal communication.
Avoiding any unacceptable email content and accessing the internet.
Also in UES they the problems by talking in a very good and respectable way,
so the problem will be solved without intervention needed and with no one
insulting the other in any way possible.

Task (3):
In UES the communication between the departments is really bad, because they are
using g-mail to communicate, and the communication between them or the workers
is slow, because if something happened sometimes they have to send a message to
every employer individually, and that will take time. So I think it will be better if
they made a programme that is just for the company, and that different levels of
ranks will have different accessibility, for example the CEO can see who is logged in,
and who have seen a certain information, and the workers for example can only
view the information.
Improving the information flow will have some advantages, for example improving it
will allow it to be processed and transferred across all different function in a smooth
and effective way, minimises the time needed for PDP (Professional Development
Plan), avoids errors, generates suitable records and project documentation.
The information flow is going to help the company to improve in serval ways:
Develop a high level overview of the flow of information in an organisation.
Highlight detailed flows in an individual task.
Describe the flow of information inside and around organisations and
between departments
Understand business process bottlenecks in sequential, deferred, real-time,
parallel, wheel, one-to-many, many-to-many and many-to-one-to-many
information flows.

Task (4):
In UES, United Engineering Services the information flows throw an internal system,
but the internal system is not that advanced, because they the information flows
through e-mails mainly. In g-mail you can make groups, and that what they did, for
every department they made a group. This type of communication inside the UES
works best with the technical sales for two main reasons. The first one is because
the technical sales is one of the smallest departments in UES, so the communication
between the employees will be easy. The second reason is because it is easy for
them to promote their products to other companies using g-mail, and as you know
g-mail is one of the programs or websites that are widely used in communication
between different companies. The g-mail will allow the departments to

communicate with each other and keep everyone up do date if something

happened, and the access of information will be easy and accessible at any time, at
home or at work. The g-mail have a lot of problems, because the information inside
the company are not flowing that fast, and all the employees have the same
accessibility, unless a certain information havent been shared with them.