Strategic Quality and System Management - Essay Example

Name Tutor Course Date Section 1 Operational management cannot be overlooked in any organization where success is a priority. It is forms the heart of an organization in that it exercises control over all systems of operations of the organization. Operations management is concerned with the careful management of the processes of production and distribution of products and services (Maull & Cliffe, 320). It is important in meeting organizational objectives since it involves improvement, operation and design of any system that delivers and creates the primary services and/or products of an organization. Effective operations management results to enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of organizational process hence ensuring business objectives of meeting customer requirements are met. This is because effective operations management results to improved communication, quality improvement, increased flexibility and continued improvement on performance factors (Prajogo et al, 112). In addition, effective operations management results to reduced time wastage, inventory and support costs hence saving on resources. Ultimately, the benefits are realized in meeting the objective of increased profits resulting from use of as few resources as possible to attain maximized production and efficiency. Operation management process which include planning, organizing and controlling when accurately applied contribute to meeting organizational objectives (Prajogo et al, 690). For Pioneers Motors , operation management processes have been applied in planning of the development of new products. In this regard, operations management processes are applied in utilization of core competences and production machines in marketing, branding and product production with the aim of securing competitive advantage in the market (Maull & Cliffe, 321). Planning ensures that resources are well distributed and utilized to avoid overstretching or underutilization of available resources. Organizing involves the determination of the activities which would result to achievement of organizational goals and how they responsibility and authority to them are assigned. This reduces wastage of financial, time and manpower resources thus reducing production cost (Maull & Cliffe, 325). Lastly, controlling is exercised to ensure that planned performance is realized in actual sense hence maintaining the focus of attaining organizational goals. The main purpose of operational management is to improve the content of value-added activities in the given processes whereby the added-value activities are supposed to be linked with market opportunity which is meant for satisfying enterprise performance. Profit is made when the cost of production is less than the revenue generated by sales. Section 2 Effective Quality management is essential as it focuses on continually enhancing performance which is aimed at addressing the needs and expectations of the consumers of the products and or services (Prajogo et al, 699). This goes hand in hand with the addressing of the needs of the stakeholders. It ensures that the services offered are customer driven and focused while at the same time maintaining the firm’s competitiveness. This is achieved as the firm ensures that they maintain customer satisfaction through customer needs based production and obtaining customer feedback. To attain the formulated goals objectives, effective management aims at maintaining focused and corporate thinking. The workers are to contribute to the achievement of the firm’s goals as a team thus ensuring that they provide services and products that meet the expectations and needs of the customers (Ketokivi & Schroeder, 24). This is vital as customer satisfaction always leads to increased profits. Effective quality management ensures that the gap between customer satisfaction and performance levels is closed. This is ensured through the creation of an environment that is receptive to innovativeness, communication leadership, improved communication and employee participation (Prajogo et al, 720). The innovations are however expected to be of high quality in performance, durability, esthetics, use and reliability. The products and services are to have freedom from deficiencies thus, are able to be of higher conformance. This will result in fewer customer complaints and increased consumer satisfaction. Effective quality management ensures that the firms meet the time and timelines in the production of their products and services. Consistency and courtesy are also a virtue in effective quality management as this ensures customer loyalty as the same level of services and products are provided by the firm (Ketokivi & Schroeder, 32). Lastly, effective quality management ensures that the products and services are easily and conveniently accessed. The services that are provided are to be accurate and the unusual situations are reacted to positively following a product complaint procedure. The work force capacity is to be increased to ensure the quality of the services and products is maintained. The three quality management processes are quality planning, performing quality assurance and performing quality control (Prajogo et al, 724).. These processes are very important in meeting the overall strategic management objectives in any organization. This is because quality management processes help in setting quality targets for the working team to meet, defining how the set targets are to be measured, execution of the right actions in measuring quality, identification of areas of improvement and quality issues and lastly reporting the overall quality achieved. The cycle continues in that the identified quality issues are to be addresses through the same cycle. This way, strategic management objectives are met as the speed of adoption of quality improvement methodologies increases and consistency is achieved. Section 3 Pioneers Motors has been operating under a policy that requires employees to report any mistakes done in offering customer service. For instance, if an employee delivers a product that is contrary to what the employee requested for, the supervisor had to sign before making the changes required. A strategic change planned in this regard requires employees to address employee concerns by adopting the principle that “customer is always right”. Pioneers Motors intends emphasis on delighting the customer and reducing overreliance on inspection thus helping customers realize their value as sustaining members (Valentine et al, 29). This change is aimed at reducing the time taken to solve a customer’s problem as well as raise the level of trust and responsibility in employees. To achieve this change, employee development and training is important. Pioneers Motors will therefore hold a team building activity once every three months and group discussion once every month. A mentoring program will also be developed whereby supervisors will be required to mentor employee in decision making process to identify the best solutions for encountered problems. Only complex problems will be forwarded to the supervisor. Time, man power for mentoring and financial resources will be mobilized so as to effect this strategic change. Simple rating machines will also be purchased for monitoring purpose. The planned change will have several implications including increased operation cost to cater for mistakes made whereby employees will not be required to pay for their errors as was the case before. However, Valentine et al (2002) explains that increased level of trust on employees resulting from reduced reliance on inspection instills a sense of responsibility in them and hence a reduced number of reoccurring mistakes (Valentine et al, 54). The strategic change will result to a lower number of complaints reaching the customer service desk or the management thus reducing the number of personnel required at this level. It is likely that customer satisfaction level will increase thus resulting to increased number of loyal customer. To monitor the implementation of the strategic quality change in Pioneers Motors, customers will be required to give their rating after receiving any service. Simple rating machines will be availed with buttons calibrated Excellent, Good, Moderate, Bad and Very bad and the question being “How were our services?” In addition, customers will be provided for with customer complains box to put their complaints and concerns. Employee appraisal will also be done on monthly basis and feedback of their experiences be collected during group discussions. The quality plans will be reviewed continuously and stakeholder involvement be emphasized. Section 4 The strategy management change on policy regarding decision making processes will be implemented by first involving front line employees who have shown interest in maintaining quality services before about it and holding discussions to scrutinize their views. Once accepted among this group, the change will be discussed with every other employee through group discussions in order to develop a true quality attitude (Zehir et al, 234). Employees will be made to understand the importance of this change and their responsibility in enhancing success through awareness programs. Attachment of frontline employees to the change will mean improved performance during the transaction. In addition, a training program will be developed for new employees in order to build a quality culture in them. This change will be successful due to existence of a culture of teamwork, management commitment and creativity. The existing ties between employees and the management team make it easy to communicate change. Effective communication reduces employee resistance to change and hence the time taken to communicate a change (Prajogo et al, 721). In addition, employees are in a position to learn from one another due to existing culture where team work is valued. This means that in case of a mistake and the employee does not know the best solution, then he or she can consult with another employee even before asking for assistance from the supervisors. Team work development activities held in the organization will also help in monitoring since during events such as group discussions, employees are able to voice their concerns. Pioneers Motors has also encouraged creativity among employees and thus employees are free to come up with new ways on how to solve a problem. Monitoring is important in ensuring the implemented strategic plan is successful. One monitoring method is through a continuous review of the total number of sales made and the number of customers visiting the café. An increased number of customers will mean increased customer satisfaction and hence the strategic plan implementation process will be termed as successful. Customer reviews and ratings will be compiled on a daily basis to identify whether customers are satisfied with our services. Lastly, notes will be collected during group discussions with employees and the dropout rate be taken into account in determining employee satisfaction level. Section 5 Implemented quality change resulted to reduced number of mistakes made and indicated by reduced customer complaints. Since employees had to deal with customer problems without necessarily having to consult their supervisors, they felt that they were trusted and at ease offering services. In their dedication to avoid failing the good faith management had on them, employees became more responsible and keen in all they did hence reducing the number of mistakes made during service delivery (Prajogo et al, 724). Efficiency in service delivery was also achieved since reduced number of mistakes meant less time utilized solving customer problems. Another outcome was improved customer satisfaction which was as a result of delivery of timely services that are well presented and reduced time wastage as their problems were promptly attended to (Zehir et al, 341). This resulted to improved customer loyalty. Employee satisfaction was also achieved as employees felt at ease delivering services. In addition, improved quality customer service resulted to the development of a positive relationship between employees in lower working levels and the customers which ultimately translated to employee job, low dropout rate and customer satisfaction. Another outcome was increase profit margins as efficiency in service delivery resulted to increased production time, increased market share and reduced production cost. Less number of mistakes meant that fewer resources were utilized in correcting the mistake. Though the outcome proved that the quality change was successful, there is need for more to be done to ensure that the quality change is successful in meeting organizational objectives as stipulated in the recommendations below. Recommendations There was lack of complete commitment from the top management who felt that employees in lower level were going to take up their responsibility and thus result to loss of jobs. This requires that managers be involved from the initial steps to understand the implications and importance of a quality change as more time is wasted solving their resistance. Training of new employees immediately they join an organization is important to build a culture of quality maintenance in them. Though employees embraced the quality change, a belief that only supervisors and managers could solve customers had been developed. It is until training was done and several problems solved by employees in lower levels assisted by supervisors that they came to appreciate their capability. Customer involvement is important in implementing quality change. This means that customers should be involved from the initial stages. A mistake was done in implementing this quality change since customers were not involved in the initial stages. Some customers insisted that their problems had to be solved by supervisors as they were used to this. Employees felt intimidated by such comments. To address this, awareness creation among customers is important. Ample budget resources to meet the need for holding trainings and team building activities should be availed from the beginning of quality change Works Cited Ketokivi, M. and Schroeder, R. Perceptual measures of performance: Fact or fiction? Journal of operations management, 22(3), 2004. Maull, Brown, and Cliffe, R. Organizational culture and quality improvement: International Journal of Operations & Production Management 21 (3), 2001. Prajogo, I. & McDermott, M. The relationship between total quality management practices and organizational culture: International journal of operations & production management, 25(11), 2005. Valentine, S., Godkin, L. and Lucero, M. Ethical Context, Organizational Commitment and Person-Organization Fit, Journal of Business Ethics 41, 2002 Zehir, C., Elçi, M., and Savi, Z. Ethical climate's relationship to job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention: HUEM, 1st. International Business and Professional Ethics Congress of Turkey. , Sept.17-19, 2003. Read More