Vodafone Quality Improvement Journey - Case Study Example

Name: Class: Unit: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 1.0 Vodafone quality improvement journey 3 Economic imperatives 3 Social imperative 4 Environmental imperative 5 2.0 Strategic targets 5 3.0 Quality philosophers 7 4.0 Quality tools 10 5.0 Management system 10 6.0 Deficiency in the organization’s human resource management and quality philosophy 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction Vodafone Group Plc. is one of the world largest telecommunication companies with operations in different countries. The UK based company has grown in revenue and the number of subscribers over the years. Vodafone provides data and voice services through mobile phones, data services, fixed phones, roaming and other value added telecommunication services. The organization has of late penetrated the mobile healthcare communication technologies. This is an organization that is well known for their quality services. The organization started the quality journey in the 1990s with ISO 9000 standard being gained in 1994. The certification was later upgraded to 2000 version. The company has continuously been pursuing quality improving in its all areas of operations (Vodafone, 2017). Vodafone position in the market has greatly improved through enhanced quality of their products. The next sections of this report look at how Vodafone has progressed on their quality improvement journey and their accomplishments. 1.0 Vodafone quality improvement journey The desire to maintain market dominance has played a major role in Vodafone journey. The quality strategy is based on three key pillars: social imperatives, economic imperatives and environmental imperatives (DeSimone and Popoff, 2000). The imperatives will be discussed in the next paragraphs. Economic imperatives The economic imperative has acted as a major drive for quality improvement at Vodafone. Vodafone quest for quality is highly associated by the need for the organization to offer quality products and services to attain good profits. This has led to a lot of emphasis on product quality and efficiency in all operational procedures (Dodourova, 2003). As a result, Vodafone has seen an increase in their revenues. In 2016, Vodafone group had a reported growth of 3.9% based on revenue of €27.1 billion. This is associated with the organization quality improvement which has seen the revenues and products increasing steadily. This has also led to an improvement of their cash to debt ratio (Vodafone, 2017). Social imperative Social imperative is another major driving force for quality improvement at Vodafone. This is based on creation of value for various stakeholders who includes the employees, society, customers, government and the suppliers among others. This is attained through use of Vodafone Corporate social responsibility as explained in fig.1. The areas in which social imperative have mostly focused on are creation of employment, fair remuneration, fair dividends, paying taxes and involvement in community and social work (Vodafone, 2017). The company also focuses on providing the community with superior services in telecommunication. Of late, the organization has started involving the community in the supply of goods and services. This ensures that the community is able to benefit from the operations of Vodafone (Paulrajan and Rajkumar, 2011). Fig.1, Vodafone Corporate Governance Environmental imperative Vodafone is also driven by the environmental imperative to care for the natural resources and protect the environment. This is based on sustainability where the resources usage should not lead to unbalanced ecosystem. Vodafone has specifically made a lot of contribution to environmental sustainability. Through ISO 14001 certification, the organization has ensured that their products and services makes the society more sustainable. The organization ensured that their environmental management system was ISO certified. There is also an active environmental policy by Vodafone (Vodafone, 2017). 2.0 Strategic targets Ability to offer quality services and products leads to a competitive advantage. This is due to the strategic importance of quality management. Vodafone strategic targets are based on operations, management, strategy, long term goals and normative decisions. Based on operations, Vodafone has successfully come up with new strategies aimed at network enhancement (Dodourova, 2003). There are also ventures into consolidating health specific resources. This is through a venture into e-health services through use of new technology in healthcare delivery. Through use of mobile network, Vodafone has aimed at enhancing dissemination of medical information and data management. This is a strategy that is aimed at enhancing efficiency, productivity and delivery of health services to the society (Marković and Dabetić1, 2011). Vodafone has set targets to achieve an improvement using the administrative actions. Vodafone came up with new changes in management that are aimed at making quality improvement. An analysis and design project was implemented in several countries of operations to improve customer services. The customer care was reorganized based on opportunities for improvement (Paulrajan and Rajkumar, 2011). Vodafone long term strategy was continuously reviewed several times with an aim of coming up with the best way of attaining long term value. Customer experience is a critical area of focus by Vodafone for a long time. This is an area that Vodafone has engineered with an aim of building long term customer loyalty. Of late, Vodafone has focused on creation of a disruptive customer experience to challenge the market. Linking this to overall long term business strategy is aimed at achieving sustainable growth (Marković and Dabetić1, 2011). Vodafone normative decisions are based on situations that have an impact on the available decisions. The management involves junior staff in most of the decisions that have an impact on the quality management. In most cases, decisions are made based on close consultations. When making technical decisions, it is common for the management heads to involve the experts in respective fields. This is especially on the decisions based on sustainability and environmental assessment. This ensures that the decisions made are quality and have the stakeholders support (Vodafone, 2017). 3.0 Quality philosophers The quality gurus’ ideas have dominated quality movement globally. These are ideas which are capable of standing the test of time and have led to formation of the body of accepted knowledge. According to the quality management gurus, quality has to be managed and it does not just happen. Vodafone quality improvements are guided by the philosophies of several gurus. These are philosophies aimed at ensuring the services meet the customer needs. The organization has enhanced their services offering ensuring that they move beyond the norm. Vodafone has increased focus on the capacity building through training and development of staff. This is through philosophies influenced by Edward Deming whose approach to quality management has 14 elements and is based on a cycle as evidence in fig.2. The elements includes creation of consistent improvement, adoption of new philosophies, stopping of mass inspection on quality improvement, awarding the business more than the price tag, and continuous improvement. Moreover, other elements are: on-job training, fear eradication, removal of slogans, and inclusive contribution to quality improvement, substitution of leadership and elimination of interdepartmental barriers (Huczynski, 2012). Vodafone has highly utilized the elements which are associated with staff development and leadership from Deming. Fig.2 Deming’s cycle (Huczynski, 2012) Moreover, Vodafone has used Philip Crosby philosophies in their quality improvement. This is a guru who has had a major influence on Vodafone quality improvement journey. This is especially on the Crosby ninth step which is based on zero defects as explained in fig.3. The Philip Crosby 14 step program of quality improvement is followed in all Vodafone aspects. The steps are: management commitment, quality improvement team, quality measurement, cost of quality evaluation, quality awareness, correction action, establishment of an ad-hoc committee for zero defects concept, supervisor training, zero defects day, goal setting, error cause removal, recognition, quality control and repeating all steps again (Huczynski, 2012). The typical program implemented by Vodafone takes about 18 months. Fig.3, Crosby’s Zero Defects principle Vodafone has laid down its communication guidelines on quality improvement to its employees. The guidelines are based on consistency, clarity, timeliness and correctness. The employees are communicated on quality improvement in a timely manner so that there is effective implementation. Thus, the message has to be delivered at the right time. Consistency is vital for effective quality communication (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). This has led to the organization ensuring that quality philosophies are communicated in a consistent manner and in line with the organization communication strategies. The message is also checked for accuracy and to ensure that the correct signs are used. All the policies that are shared by Vodafone are consistent with the organization strategic policies and statutory requirements. Moreover, Vodafone quality philosophies are always communicated by those who are authorized to do so. In all offices, the quality statement is hanged on the wall. This has also helped in ensuring that there is adequate communication on philosophies. The communication strategy ensures that everyone is aware of what is expected of them to enhance quality (Huczynski, 2012). 4.0 Quality tools To improve quality, Vodafone has used several tools. The main tools that are used by Vodafone are: benchmarking, Pareto charts, Six Sigma, house of quality and the Baldrige awards. Quality tools makes it possible for the organization to have a stable production process and quality operations (Bamford and Greatbanks, 2005). Through benchmarking, it is possible for Vodafone to compare its quality performance with those of the competitors. This has helped in determining Vodafone quality position in relation to the competitors. It is a common practice for Vodafone to use measurements of time, costs and quality as the variables. In respective countries of operations, Vodafone has targeted the award system such as Baldrige awards to enhance their quality. The organization has used house of quality with an aim of identifying and enhancing the customer preferences. Use of statistical process control has acted as a vital tool for Vodafone in enhancing operations through elimination of wastage. Through use of Six Sigma, Vodafone has enhanced their product quality through identification and elimination of defects. Pareto charts are a vital tool in identifying the defects on their products and services and the main causes (Tague, 2005). 5.0 Management system To ensure holistic quality nature at Vodafone, the organization has implemented a management system which is based on Total Quality Management (TQM), ISO 9000 certification, skill reliant quality management and supplier development. Vodafone considers strategic alliances as vital aspects of quality management journey. Based on their areas of operation, Vodafone branches globally allies with local and international partners for quality enhancement. For example, Vodafone UK has collaborated with BSI group with an aim of quality enhancement. In 2014, Vodafone UK was certified with ISO 20000 in IT (Disterer, 2009). This was due to maintenance of an integrated process approach to ensure delivery of quality services. In Greece Vodafone was the first telecommunication company to gain certification in quality management. The suppliers to Vodafone are expected to adhere to strict rules and regulation that ensures quality services. ISO 9000 when internalized in an organization leads to an enhancement of customer satisfaction and uphold the reputation for quality (Terziovski, Power and Sohal, 2003). Vodafone utilizes Total management system as their quality management system. TQM is associated with organizational success as evidenced in various studies (Terziovski and Samson, 1999). This started in 2010 when the organization started applying TQM with an aim of enhancing performance and effectiveness of various departments. The program was initiated by a consultancy firm with an aim of maximizing the customer experience in their Netherlands portfolio. The results were encouraging with the customer experience improving significantly. This acted as a blueprint for the adoption of TQM in different countries of operations. The main essence of TQM is based on philosophy of linking organization business goals with customer satisfaction as evidenced in fig.4. In this case, quality is looked as a goal, a means of carrying out business and management philosophy. For Vodafone, it is a business approach which is based on continuous improvement on quality performance. Vodafone was able to gain ISO 9000 certification in 1994 and the registration was upgraded to 2000 version (Marković and Dabetić1, 2011). This covered the quality management system in network, marketing, customer service and other support functions. This has made it possible for the organization to satisfy their customers and become more reputable in quality. Through quality management, all areas of the organization are emphasized on. Use of skill based quality management has led to quality improvement through continuous training and development for staff and ensuring that they are well equipped (Boaden, 1997). Fig. 4, quality management system (Terziovski, Power and Sohal, 2003) 6.0 Deficiency in the organization’s human resource management and quality philosophy Despite the fact Vodafone has adopted TQM in all their departments; there are several areas where they can improve. The level of efficiency in various departments is still low despite the efforts to implement TQM. Vodafone should consider use of process analysis methods to enhance the lagging departments. Through application of flow chart approach and detailed analysis, it is possible to enhance effectiveness. Another area that Vodafone has to address is ensuring that TQM is used at all levels of their global operations. The deployment in all levels would ensure that the organization reaches new level of quality management in products and services. In the human resource department, it would be advisable for Vodafone to enhance diversity. This is due to fact that the organization is yet to attain gender balance. Diversity helps a lot in attaining quality improvement (Boaden, 1997). Having more women on the top position may help Vodafone in their quality improvement journey. Thus, it would be advisable for the organization to restructure human resources through including both genders while ensuring that quality is not compromised (Van der Wiele, Dale and Williams, 2000). Conclusion Vodafone group Plc. is one of the most successful telecommunication organizations globally. To enhance quality, Vodafone embarked on a journey of quality improvement. This is a journey that was driven by the economic, social and environmental imperatives. Through economic imperative, Vodafone aimed at enhancing their revenues and profits. The social imperative is aimed at enhancing the value for stakeholders while environmental imperative is aimed at ensuring environmental sustainability. Through strategic targets, Vodafone has aimed at the operations, new opportunities, and administration actions to ensure that the organization is aligned with quality improvement. From the analysis, it is clear that Vodafone strategies are mostly influenced by Deming and Crosby. There is appropriate communication to ensure that the philosophies are communicated to everyone in the organization. This is through use of policies which ensures there is compliance. The quality tools used by the organization includes: benchmarking, Quality Awards, Six Sigma, Pareto Charts and statistical process control. The quality management at Vodafone is based on ISO 9000 certification, strategic alliances, TQM, and supplier development. It is recommendable for Vodafone to enhance quality management system to ensure that it is well adopted in all departments. There is also need for organization structure being revised to enhance diversity especially including more women in top positions. 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[online] Available at: http://www.vodafone.com/content/index.html [Accessed 14 May 2017]. Read More