Logistics and Operations Management for Retirement Complex - Case Study Example

Logistics and Operations Management Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Findings and Analysis 3 Question A 3 Question B 4 Question 2 6 Conclusion8 Recommendation 8 References 10 Appendix 12 Introduction The retirement home is a complex which is built for retired people. The complex has flats for both singles and couples with 55 self-contained flats. The residents are aged in the range of 55-85 years. It is found that some of the residents find it easy for moving to the place while others find it difficult to move to the building. The assistant to the house keeper is responsible for keeping all the facilities clean and neat in the complex which includes the lifts, sitting rooms, dining rooms and other places. The complex was made for the residents who were retired and also wanted to stay independent. Apart from this the complex also has a dining hall where the residents can access for lunch and dinner for meals. Getting the reviews from the residents the head housekeeper came to know many problems that were there in the complex. Findings and Analysis Question 1 A As per quality guru Juran quality is defined as meeting or exceeding the customer expectations. In this case of Roundal Wright retirement home the quality of the complex can be defined as the way the facilities are been maintained in the complex and the way the complex is been maintained in terms of cleanliness, the way the dining room is maintained and the way the residents are able to avail the facilities in the best possible way (Baker, 2002, pp. 98-102). The best quality in terms of the complex refers to the way the residents are able to use the resources in the best way and they don’t face any difficulties in living. As most of the residents are old aged persons so the facilities like lift, toilets, dining room etc. must be in good condition and also help the customers in having a happy and comfortable life (Vollmann, William, Clay and Jacobs, 2005, pp. 34-37). This is a service case where the definition of quality is related to the comparison of the customers expectation to what is been offered to the customer. In this case of this complex Sandy must look to compare the expectations of the residents and the facilities that are been provided to them based on which she can understand the level of the quality of service that is been provided to the customers (Liker and Meier, 2005, pp. 87-93). Quality is the most important factor and it covers reliability and durability also. These factors will improve the condition of the complex and provide proper utilization of the resources. Quality in terms of the menu refers to the type of foods that the customers are expecting to get and the food items that are been offered to them (Wireman, 2004, pp. 67-73). The other quality factor with related to Roundal Wright retirement home is related to the long queue in the dining hall at the time of dinner and lunch which is a big problem as the residents expect to get the food items without any queue and more because of their old age it is difficult for them to wait for long time in long queues (Bass, 2010, pp. 123-127). Question 1 B The quality gurus have found out that there are basically seven tools for quality maintenance. This seven tools are been listed below. Cause-effect diagram which is alternatively known as Ishikawa or fishbone diagram Control chart Check sheet Histogram Scatter diagram Pareto chart Stratification (Murdick, Render and Russell, 1990, pp. 34-42). Cause and effect diagram With the defects that have been found in the complex. To know the exact reasons behind the cause of the defect Cause and effect diagram must be used which will help the complex to know the exact reason and cause for which the defects and problems have happened in the complex (Sobek II and Smalley, 2011, pp. 23-25). The cause and affect diagram for the problems in the complex is been given in (Appendix 1) which clearly the basic reasons why the problems are been caused based on which the problems can be solved and the quality of the complex can be improved in a huge way providing the best facility to the residents (Bassett, 1992, pp. 45-52). Check Sheet The complex house keeper can use check sheets to have a continuous monitoring of the toilet cleaning, compound cleaning, cleaning the dining hall and also the park and ground. They need to maintain separate check sheets for separate places (Hollins and Shinkins, 2006, pp. 89-96). We can see in (Appendix 2) the check sheet for monitoring the toilets every day for three times. The check sheets for various places must be filled by the particular person who is responsible for that particular place line the check sheet for toilet must be filled by the sweeper etc. (Christensen, Betz and Stein, 2007, pp. 78-82) All these reports must be checked on regular level by the head housekeeper Sandy and she must visit the places and check that the conditions are been maintained properly (Mohr, 1996, pp. 76-82). This will help the complex to have a good monitoring of the toilets and keep it clean on a regular level. Pareto chart This quality tools explains that 80% of the defects are been made by the 20% of the main causes. It is a combination of bar and line graph to understand the main causes which leads to around 80% of the defects (Chorafas, 2012, pp. 56-62). Sandy must look to use this tool to analyse the actual causes for the lack of quality in the complex. This tool will help to know the problems which are the major reasons for the maximum number of defects in the complex and working after those causes will help them in improving the condition in many ways (Wang and Bovik, 2006, pp. 34-37). Question 2 The complex can also look to implement the 5S housekeeping concept so that the quality of the complex is maintained very carefully. This 5S helps the complex to maintain a good facility in the complex and good condition in the complex (Fabrizio and Tapping, 2006, pp. 23-34). The 5S’s of housekeeping concept are been listed below. Seiri- Sort Seiton- Set in order Seiso- Shine Seiketsu- Standardize Shitsuke- Sustain (Juran, 1992, pp. 125-131). Based on this tool the complex has to be first divided into certain groups and sub groups. Groups like garden, buildings, parking, toilets etc (Heizer, Jay, Render, Barry and Rajashekhar, 2009, pp.23-28). These groups are further divided into sub groups and then each step of 5S are been implemented one after the other so that the each step will help in improving the quality of the complex and also maintain a good condition for the complex (McCormick, 2002, pp. 67-73). The elements in the sub groups must be sorted in a proper way based on their different aspects. After that the items are been set in order and kept in a proper way after which the subgroups and the groups are been cleaned and well maintained. This whole process has to make standardized so that the complex can follow a standard process for housekeeping. This standard process has to be sustained and maintained by every member of the complex to keep in the good condition and also help to maintain a good quality of the complex (Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013, pp.46-52). The other tool or model that Sandy can implement to improve the quality of service is by using the PDCA cycle. The PDCA cycle refers to the Plan Do Check Act, this is a model where Sandy will be able to plan the process of improvement and then implement the process. Sandy will have to continuously check the process and find the problems in the process and act accordingly to correct the process as and when needed (Zeithaml, 2010, pp. 45-52). Sandy can use the FADE model also for the quality improvement of the complex as well. FADE refers to the Focus, Analyse, Define and Execute. Focus relates to the defining and verifying the process to be implemented and improve, analyse related to collecting and analysing the data to know the root cause and move towards the solutions (Zeithaml, 2010, pp. 87-94). Develop is the process of developing the action that is been planned based on the data that is been collected for the improvement of the quality of service and also apart from the action the development of the methods of measuring and monitoring the actions is also to be developed. Next process is to execute evaluate the process that is been developed to improve the quality and also reduce the wastes. Thus the housekeeper can use these tools to maintain good quality in the complex and help it to be in good condition with all the facilities being available in good and proper way. Conclusion Thus looking at this case it can be seen how the quality for every service is an important factor. By ignoring quality the service provided to the customers has lots of defects and faces lots of problems. In this case Roundal Wright retirement home has lots of problems related to the quality of services that are been provided to the residents of this complex. The head housekeeper Sandy must look towards implementing various quality tools like Pareto chart, cause and effect diagram or the fish bone diagram and check sheets to have a good analysis of the quality of the complex in whole and also of each division of the complex. The various models must be used to better the quality of the complex like implementing 5S housekeeping concept, using the PDCA model and also FADE model to improve the condition of the quality of service been provided to the residents. For Sandy to change the quality of the complex it is very important that she goes into the root off the problem understands it and then makes the changes. Recommendation Looking at this case it can be recommended to Sandy that she should use various quality tools to analyze the problems and solve them accordingly. Sandy needs to benchmark the good complexes in the country and look to implement the process that those complexes have implemented which will improve the conditions in Roundal Wright retirement home in a huge way. She can also conduct quality functional deployment to analyze the exact requirement of the residents based on which the changes can be made and the facilities will be able to achieve the maximum satisfaction of the residents in every possible way. References Baker, K. R. (2002). Elements of Sequencing and Scheduling. Hanover, Baker Press. Vollmann, T, William, B,Clay ,W, and Jacobs,R. (2005). Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems for Supply Chain Management. New York, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Liker and Meier,M. (2005). The Toyota Way Fieldbook . New Delhi. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Wireman,T. (2004). Total Productive Maintenance. New York. Industrial Press Inc. Bass. (2010). Lean Six Sigma. New Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Murdick, R, Render, B and Russell, R. (1990). Service operations management. America, Allyn and Bacon. Bassett, G. (1992). Operations Management for Service Industries: Competing in the Service Era. America, Greenwood Publishing Group. 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London, Productivity Press. Sobek II, D and Smalley, A. (2011). Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyotas PDCA Management System. London, CRC Press. Christensen, E, Betz, K and Stein, M. (2007). The Certified Quality Process Analyst Handbook. America, ASQ Quality Press. Heizer, Jay, Render, Barry and Rajashekhar. (2009). Operations Management. New Delhi, Pearson Education India. Appendix Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Read More