Continous Improvement of Processes in Ca Retail Caf - Case Study Example

CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT OF PROCESSES IN CA RETAIL CAFÉ Name Course Tutor University City and state Date Task one Question 1 In order CA Retail Group café manager to increase the employee participation in key issues about the strategies development for the cafes, it is important to become flexible and allow creativity in terms of the development of viable ideas that could help solve the issues. Effective communication between the employees and manager is essential, in which case they have the ability to air out their grievance concerning set goals and the various ways to achieve the goals. The manager at CA group should ensure that employees are familiar with the policies and procedures as well as the laid out processes focused on quality improvement, performance management, and knowledge management. Using the PDCA to ensure staff participation one can Plan by: Identifying ways of reducing inconsistent food quality and returns and evaluate the best way to the address the lack of performance systems and ways to increase staff morale through knowledge management. To check address quality, weekly meetings that discuss policy and procedures will be held to and review of that progress To check on performance management- welcoming any recommendation, through brainstorming and equal contribution will help to identify key failure in the performance management Mind mapping would help identify individual talents and establishing a culture of that openness and approachability especially to the manager when it comes to Checking on knowledge management. The manager can do a test trial and review the progress and effectiveness of the set plans made in the weekly meetings. Finally, the manager can check on the developed key areas that need improvement, and after changes are made, then the employees should act thus implement the newly developed and workable measures. Question two There are several modes of communications that can be implemented to offer a continuous improvement to the company. Interpersonal communication among the employees is important to allow cohesiveness through peer evaluation and which allows them to give instant and corrective feedback. This enables each employee to have an opportunity to learn from each other thus leading to continuous improvement. The manager should encourage face-to-face communication to disseminate information, which allows the employees to seek clarification immediately. Face to face communication allows better understanding among the employees leading to continuous improvement and higher productivity in the organization. In additional a manager can communicate non-verbally through actions such as being assertive and employees may emulate by showing empathy. A Strong and assertive manager who is also hardworking inspires strength and hard work among employees contributing to the continuous improvement. Concerning internal stakeholder relating with external stakeholder such as employees and client respectively, there are many ways of communication including advertisements, social media, and newsletter as well as telephone. In the advertisement, the feedback is gotten from the entry of new customers, while social media, newsletter, and telephone have immediate feedbacks from the external stakeholders. This communication has an impact on the continuous improvement through developing awareness and getting feedback on areas that need improvement and key areas in which the CA retails want to excel. Finally, this feedback is crucial because it helps the organization to focus on the customers real needs which is vital in the organization’s success. Question 3 To make a change in the continuous process improvement it is important to develop a long-term plan that defines how to effect the changes and improvement. In the case of CA retail café, there are several issues identified which include a waste increase from 5 percent to 10 percent, low morale at workplace due to lack of proper performance management and knowledge management. There should be a necessary step taken to assess the reason for the food waste and how to reduce waste. This would include: Customer feedback to determine the appropriate amount of products to prepare with an aim of reducing waste and provide value for money through social media forums and website channel. Develop task and activities of action that will help to reduce wastage and improve the quality of food. Improve customer service through effective verbal and non-verbal communication of clients. To improve performance management and eliminate the low morale one should: Encourage communication between employees, Ensure high understanding of the roles and job descriptions as well as development through constant communication through meeting Ensure that Key result areas are established and realistic, as well as key performance indicators. Introduce mentorship programs and coaching of employees who are not adequate as well as procedures to appraise employees. Provide training for the new management system weekly To improve the knowledge management as a manager one could encourage: Free and approachable management style to allow employees pass on good ideas Allow room for creativity within the workplace that would help in achieving the set goals and objective. Question 4 Mentors and coaches should be encouraged to put in more effort in providing necessary training that would be able to help in establishing continuous improvement. For coaching to become an integral part of the CA café’s culture, several tools can be adopted. These tools include: Ensuring trust and confidentiality to allow the employee being mentored to be open about the challenges being undergone Implement solution focused coaching; which involves helping the employees to reach desired future goals. For example harnessing knowledge and talent to in order and aligning them to café goals and objective Team coaching – includes the provision of team building advice from the team for instance in the CA café, to work in a cohesive manner despite the various personality difference. Implementation of GROW model of that coaching that include the identification of future intended goals in comparison with the current level and setting up task and alternatives to achieve the goals while also putting into account the challenges to be overcome. Mentoring between colleagues instills confidence in the mentee and good work relationships that helps in the continuous improvement of the workplace environment and output. This can be integrated to CA café’s culture through: Developmental mentoring – mentors assist employees to develop new skills and capabilities to increase growth Sponsorship mentoring – Influence the career of a particular employee providing advancement opportunities Mentors need to be role models confidence as well as have intrinsic need to mentor others Fostering a culture of encouragement, support and nurturing talent is good for the CA café’s continuous improvement plan. Question 5 PDCA for CA City Café knowledge management system Plan How you plan to address the knowledge management systems in the café. Identification of key areas that need changes Internal conflict management is key in CA Retail Cafe Development of performance incentives as well as measurement Review of training, coaching and mentoring programs that help in continuous improvement Review of waste management systems and processes Do Test, trial or implement the changes required This will be done through: Review of best practices in the restaurant industry in business repositories concerning conflict management Review of community practices in wastage management Review of assessment and reporting of intellectual information of employees. Review of performance appraisal system Review research from social research software such as survey monkey and social media. Efficient communication processes concerning the implemented changes. Selective implementation of the chosen practices. Check Check or study the test, change or intervention. Is this working well? How well is it working? What was learned? What went wrong? Decide on several measures which can be used to monitor the level of improvement. Use of balance scores card to evaluate the effectiveness of measure put in place Review of Key results in areas concerning appraisal performance and waste management Benchmarking to review the progress of the affected changes concerning wastage management and employees performance incentive and human resource utility Using of financial reports to assess the effective to business bottom line Act Through the cycle again. Analyse performance measures to determine whether it is worth continuing with a particular change. If it consumed too much time, was difficult to adhere to, or even led to no improvement, and then it might be necessary to consider aborting the change and planning a new one Implement and control of effective processes Review of alternatives to the ineffective processes Task 2 Question 1 In CA retail café, planning is very crucial for the development of monitoring and control of continuous improvement measure. This is done by the utilization of the Plan –Do – check and act model. However, the criteria that should be utilized in planning involves: 1. Alignment of CA retail café strategy plan and vision- this is in order to establish a clear purpose that is aimed through the utility of the human and capital resource provided. 2. Benchmarking – this is a way of assessing the performance and in comparison with another competitor within the industry best practices. In CA retail groups this helps will help in Evaluating the best practices of wastage and resource management way. Development of new ideas to incorporate in the CA organization culture Assist in forecasting regarding intended future position 3. Review of resource availability – this is done to help in prioritization process and review of essential key areas that would help the CA retail group to achieve the intended goals. 4. Time allocation- It is important to review the time that is taken into the implementation process of the new changes while assessing the benefits of the changes. Moreover, there are tools that the CA retail group can monitor and evaluate operational progress. These include: Review of financial targets such as spending rate budget allocation and the expense and sales to assess the improvement key result areas Customer service indicators that include surveys that assess the satisfaction of customer as well as number of feedback from the customers Review of work health and safety policies by assessing the number of injuries in the workplace. Review gains from productivity such as reduction in waste increased output Sustainability assessment, which will assist in comparing the targets of waste reduction versus the actual waste, emanated from CA retail café. Use of a SWOT analysis to review the café’s strength weaknesses and opportunities as well as threats. Question 2 Communication of the improvement processes and measures is a vital aspect. Establishment of ways to communicate to relevant stakeholder is the key to the success of improvement measures. In CA retail group, this will be done through: Planning of a communication strategy that can be used to approach stakeholders. It will assist in defining the objective, and targets require to be communicated, the essence of the message as well as the effective ways of communicating the particular action that are required. The communication strategy will also help in defining ways of garnering support from the stakeholder In CA Café, communication with top-level management would require a compilation of a report indicating the proposed changes and requirement to affect the change process. The best communication methods will be regarding face to face especially if the one requires resources from the top management. The conclusive report is required to gain support. For middle level, manager communication via email and telephone calls and face-to-face meetings is appropriate to review strategies and evaluating strategies required. Support can be gained through renegotiation. Employees’ use of news internal newsletter and email, as well as notice boards, will effectively communicate the change process. Furthermore, holding an evaluative meeting and informal communication will be determined by the type of message that needs to be communicated. Finally, external stakeholders such as client and suppliers can be communicated to, using different forms of media such as social media, email, advertisements in newspaper and media. Task 3 Question 1 It is necessary for the CA retail group to communicate the outcome of the continuous improvement plan. For this reason, it is necessary to have systems and processes in place to communicate the success and failure of the improvement efforts. A positive outcome will work to motivate the employees who have been involved in the continuous improvement change to continue implementing and innovating on the continuous improvement plan. Furthermore, the continuous update will assist the stakeholders to know the areas where the process is working and where it is failing which enable them to deliver quality outcomes in going forward. There are different methods and tools that could be adapted to communicate the continuous improvement process outcome and gaining feedback. The three main areas include: Face to face meetings Using electronic components and delivering Updates in the Policies and Procedures In the face-to-face Meeting, we find that different methods can be used. These methods include workshops, forum groups, and performance review Workshops- allow for practical sharing and learning Forum groups – allows internal stakeholder to share their idea and Experience Performance Review- allow for the review of employees performance as well as the overall department and café Electronic communication will include the use of electronic communication technology such as video conferencing, website updates, social media updates, emails as well as images and text. Policy and procedures updates should essentially be communicated across the organization. In CA retail the use of Push communication (where information is dispersed through email newsletter among other forms) and the use of pull communication where information is sourced from the repositories such as websites, and the information is hubs is recommended. Question 2 An organization should keep a record of the ideas that needs to be implemented in the future. This is because reasons for the lack of implementation of such ideas may be attributed to lack of immediate resources, technological know-how or the use of the systematic approach to improvements. The ideas should keep a register that detail all the ideas that have been developed for continuous improvement. The document should highlight the issue being tackled, the person who came up with the idea or issues where it was meant to be implemented. Finally, it important to evaluate whether the ideas have been implemented. In CA retail, such can be used to keep a record of suggested improvement in the wastage management to increase staff morale as well as the customer service improvement within the café. This allows for future referral and implementation of particular suggestions. Question 3 In CA retail café, there are key areas that require future improvement. They include Review of better wastage reduction process to reduce wastage by 20 percent annually Review of better ways of improving customer services. Register of idea for future continuous improvement Continuous improvement register Issue Source Location Action status Review of better process to implemented in customer services department manager For Customer service section for CA retail café to maintain High-quality service Not yet implemented Review of better waste reduction processes. Chef Help in Sustainability program to reduce waste up to 20 percent annually for CA retail café Implemented The above records demonstrate the ideas and ways in which the ideas can contribute to the overall improvement of the business in the future. The process that can be recommended for further improvement is the total quality management (TQM). TQM is crucial for the entire business in that continually improves the processes and systems across the entire organization. It involves improving quality, excellence in teams, research guided decision, knowledge management, performance management and sustainability of the business. TQM system will capture insights, experiences, and ideas for continuous improvement relying on research, emphasizing on employee involvement, teamwork, systematizing processes, reducing cycle times, variations and defects, Reference Careers Australia. (2015). Facilitate Continuous Improvement. Careers Australia Read More