Quality Management in Sorouh Real Estate Company - Case Study Example

Quality Management in Sorouh Real Estate Company Name Institution Date Table of Contents QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN SOROUH REAL ESTATE COMPANY 14 2 Table of Contents 2 Quality Management in Sorouh Real Estate Company 3 Detailed Profile of the Organization 3 Benefits of Quality Management at Sorouh Real Estate Company 3 Nature of Quality Management System 5 Projects Undertaken To Boost Development 5 Inputs to Quality Planning Process 6 Project Management Plans by Sorouh Real Estate Company. 8 Tools and Techniques That Could Be Used By the Company to Underpin Continuous Quality Improvement 9 Nominal Group Techniques 10 Strengths and Weaknesses for the Quality Management Practices 10 Improving Quality 12 Conclusion 12 Quality Management in Sorouh Real Estate Company Detailed Profile of the Organization Sorouh Real Estate Company is one of the largest companies in the United Arab Emirates dealing with real estate development. It is based in the Asian continent in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East. The company is one of the fastest growing in the region and has a number of projects to undertake ranging to about US $5.6 billion. The company commands a large market share and is well known in the development of real estate in the region. Its business mandate ranges from offering mortgages to customers who are the main clients to development aspects of real estates. According to Surhone and Tennoe (2010), the main development partners and clients are mainly high profile companies which include Shams gate, Saraya and Lulu Island. The company is comprised of the Chairman, the board of directors and the executive management at the top level. The company has been in existence since June 2005 when it was formed to present. Quality management was introduced in the company in order to increase production and efficiency and also to ensure that the employees strive to meet the goals and objectives of the company. This would ensure that the clients are well satisfied with the services and hence boosting client satisfaction towards the company. Benefits of Quality Management at Sorouh Real Estate Company Sorouh Real Estate Company in its quest to achieve its goals and objectives analyzed the benefits of quality management practice and noted that mistakes and errors were being sorted out easily and to some point eliminated completely. This is because the quality management practice enables the company to analyze all processes and procedures more carefully. This has lead to zero defects at the company. Due to these procedures, the clients are better served which is the main objective of the company. The increased efficiency has seen the company increase its client base which in turn has lead to increased profit margins. The improved efficiency is greatly benefiting the company (Books LLC, 2010). According to the human resources manager the company performs better when the morale of the employees is high. Due to quality management, all the employees are usually involved in the decision making process regarding the implementation of projects. Sorouh Real Estate company has formed several teams to be involved in the decision making process. All the employees are supposed to give their opinions regarding the issues being handled. This has been an important aspect for the company since the employees feel that they are fully part of it. This factor together with the formation of several teams has seen the employees quite motivated and their morale greatly boosted. With the employees of the company working with high morale, the clients usually receive quality services compared to the past. The working relationship among the employees has been improved by the teamwork and each employee not only feels empowered but also has developed a sense of ownership. The services and employee satisfaction has thus improved greatly (Mukherjee, 2006). The operational costs of the company were high due to some tasks being performed. Quality management has been important in improving the way these tasks are being handled. This in turn has lead to a decrease in costs of operation which is good for the company in terms of increasing its profits. Schlickman (2003) argues that quality management is useful to the company in terms of eliminating repetition of some processes which are quite costly. Repairs and reworks have also been eliminated completely and thus reduce the costs. This is more evident in some areas like construction whereby re works and repairs have to be done occasionally. The quality management also promotes proper use of the available resources in the company by ensuring that accountability to all the activities is maintained (Surhone & Tennoe, 2010). Nature of Quality Management System The main aim of the company acquiring a quality management system is to improve the services it offers to the clients and to achieve its goals and objectives. The company is in the process of acquiring the ISO certification and currently has a department that deals with the issue. Currently the company is using the total quality management method with the views of satisfying its clients. The method has had several positive outcomes. Some of the benefits have been the motivation of the staff, reduction of costs and customer satisfaction which have been discussed. The introduction of the TQM system was necessitated after the just in time system failed to produce much results. This lead to consultations within the management and staff and an agreement to adopt the TQM system was arrived at. However when the company will acquire the ISO certification then there would be a lot of positive changes that will greatly boost the quality of services and goods that are offered by the company. All the principles of total quality management are currently being implemented although it has not been fully achieved (Mukherjee, 2006). Projects Undertaken To Boost Development With the technological advancement in the world, Sorouh Real Estate Company recently undertook a computerization project in order to improve efficiency in its operation. Before the computerization project, the company used to perform most of the tasks manually at times the company had to seek services from other companies which was quite costly. According to Nanda (2005), the manual processes also had an impact on the services offered to clients which was always done at a very slow rate. Currently every department has been computerized. Architectural work is now being performed by the use of computers. The staff was trained on how to use various soft wares to perform their duties which include data analysis, interpretation and carrying out engineering designs. The project was successfully implemented and currently showing positive results. The registry and database section was also computerized and the company’s information can now be found online This project has greatly improved the services offered by the company. The rate of accomplishing tasks has been greatly reduced which has helped in reducing costs and maximizing profits. The duration of performing some duties like designing of structures has greatly reduced. Initially the design period could last up to three months causing inconveniencies to the customers but currently it only takes two weeks. The staff on the other hand has benefited a lot since most of the tedious work has been eliminated. The frequent training of the staff members has deepened their knowledge and created healthy working relationship. Most of the staff are usually trained together and thus learn from each other. This has promoted good working relationships (Indiana University, 2008). Inputs to Quality Planning Process Enterprise environment is one of the inputs to the quality planning process for Sorouh Real Estate Company. These are basically the internal and external influences that affect the quality management process. The external influences include the market itself and the competition that exists. The company is facing stiff competition resulting to innovating means to shake of the competitors and as a result creating an input to the planning process. Internal factors include the performance of the staff and the visions the company seek to accomplish all this are inputs to the planning process (Carmona & Sieh, 2004). According to the human resource manager, the projects scope statement is also a factor to be considered. It comprises mainly of aims and objectives that the planning process seeks to establish. This input was carefully planned by the managers so that it may not lead to future problems to be encountered during the project. It is therefore ensured by the managers and supervisors of the company that the deliverables met the required quality. The required quality should always satisfy the client. Technological advancement is also an input that the company is using in the planning process. Technological changes occurs everyday and as such the company has adopted the use of modern technology to achieve quality management. Of major interest are the development of a database and also the computerization of all processes. All the important information regarding the company and its clients are found in the data base. The information regarding the business partners and stake holders are also found in the database (Nanda, 2005). Cost analysis is also an important input in the planning process for the company. The analysis of the cost is established in order to determine the cost effectiveness of the project. The changes might include purchasing new equipment or other hidden costs. The manager will always put into consideration this input since it might affect the profits to be made by the company. Project Management Plans by Sorouh Real Estate Company. Project management is very important to the organization. This is because the company is entirely dependent on the process in order to achieve its goals and objectives of satisfying the clients. The team leaders and the manager work very closely and have identified three main aspects of the projects. These aspects include the goals to be achieved to satisfy the client, the goals that can be delivered in time and the problems likely to be encountered. The manager has thus established procedures to be followed when implementing any project to avoid errors that may end up compromising the quality of the entire project (Carmona & Sieh, 2004). The first stage is establishing engineering terms to be used, which is done by the company’s technical team this is basically to reduce the chances of making mistakes and errors during the project. The manager will come up with a strict overview of the whole project to avoid making any errors at this stage. The second step includes establishing the stakeholders who will be involved in the project whether directly or indirectly. The specific role of the people who will be working on the project is also established and a structure of command also established. This is important so as to determine who will be in charge of the whole process and will be directly answerable incase of any problem. The sub contactors in the process are also identified and their roles are established clearly so that they will be answerable for any quality issues. The team leaders are also identified at this point and his or her roles clearly defined (Schlickman, 2003). The final phase is the preparation of the plans of how to implement the project. This may include when to assign duties to the individuals and stakeholders. The plans to acquire the necessary resources are also considered at this point and the budget estimates developed. This may include bank loans or the money from the company. A plan for quality assurance control is also developed at this point so as to ensure the desired quality objectives will be met. The parameters to set the quality of the services are developed by the company. These procedures are usually followed to eliminate loopholes that may arise and compromise the quality. This is the most critical strict quality measures are usually put in place (Schlickman, 2003). Tools and Techniques That Could Be Used By the Company to Underpin Continuous Quality Improvement Flowcharting The company could adopt the use of diagrams in order to graphically represent the project process. This could be quite useful in the project management. The project manager may use the charts to create the project processes. The flow chart should also include all the events that will take place during the project. When the manager analyzes the flowchart, it is easy to identify errors that may occur and thus making corrections immediately. In order for the flowchart to become effective, some output may also be included. Examples of outputs includes a baseline study that has all the objectives of the project, quality checks that will be used to ensure that the project meets standards and process improvement plans that checks the performance and steps to be taken to improve the quality. Use of a flowchart will be useful in ensuring the project quality improves continuously. The benefit of this technique is that the quality errors will be detected at very early stage and solved immediately even before they occur. This will be identified easily because the graphical representation will not rhyme and hence the possibility of errors. Nominal Group Techniques These will include procedures and structures to be put in place with a purpose of identifying problems. This procedure includes simple arithmetic analysis of projects. The problems will then be ranked or classified into groups depending on how serious they are. The major issue that needs to be resolved are then identified and dealt with. This may be a good technique for the company since it is all inclusive (Kemp, 2005). The manager may work closely with the other team members in order to identify the major problems and work out the solutions as a team. The main advantage of this method is that all employees participate in the process and thus motivated. Every employee also has a role to play and learn from other team members thus avoiding office frictions. Strengths and Weaknesses for the Quality Management Practices Sorouh Real Estate Company adopts various quality management practices which include the total quality management whereby a multi disciplinary team has been set up. This team is comprised of members from different departments who coordinate the quality management. The strengths and weaknesses are listed below. Strengths The employees morale has been boosted since they are involved in decision making which has created a sense of belonging among the. This has lead to improved services. The company has registered improvement in resource utilization and an increment in profits The coordination of departments has improved leading to shorter time in carrying out transactions. The company is greatly improving its relations with clients who are being satisfied with the services they receive. Weaknesses A lot of time is usually taken when implementing the quality management process since some employees take ling to adapt. Since the total quality management has led to low costs of operation some employees find it difficult to deal with budget cuts. Diverse cultural issues affect implementation. This is because some employees are not used to cultural diversity this presents some challenges during team work A problem within the team sometimes affects the whole process because it takes additional time to solve it. Improving Quality The method of total quality management is good for Sorouh Real Estate Company but some measures can still be used to improve the quality of the management performance. Some of the methods may include the following The company can adopt the use of the six sigma method to compliment the other processes. Repeating the basic cycle of planning, doing, checking and acting. Adopting the use of continuous quality improvement method so as to check on any errors that may occur in the process of implementation. Training the employees regularly on the quality standards concepts to avoid any reluctance that may lead to poor results. Customer focused approach should be used when implementing the quality method and a feedback mechanism developed. Conclusion Quality management practice is an important concept for Sorouh Company. This greatly improves the services being offered by the company and boosts the relationship with the client. It is also an important consideration in achieving the goals set by the organization. Quality management greatly improved the performance of Sorouh Real Estate Company with increase in profits and client satisfaction. When the quality method will be fully implemented, both the clients and the company will benefit from the process. This fact is evident according to the gains the company has realized. Minimal challenges have been experienced but cannot be compared to the gains made. The company also stands to benefit from the clients who will have more trust on the management of the company. References Mukherjee P. N. (2006). Total Quality Management. Sheffield: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., 2006 Kemp, S. (2005). Quality Management Demystified. New York: McGraw-Hill Prof Med/Tech. Nanda, V. (2005). Quality management system handbook for product development companies. NY: CRC Press. Carmona, M. & Sieh L. (2004). Measuring quality in planning: managing the performance process. London: Taylor & Francis, Schlickman, J. J. (2003). ISO 9001:2000 quality management system design. New Delhi: Artech House. Books, LLC. (2010). Property Companies of the United Arab Emirates. New Delhi: General Books LLC. Indiana University. (2008). Gulf business, Volume 13, Issues 1-6. Indiana : Motivate Pub. Surhone, M. L. & Tennoe M. T (2010). Sorouh Real Estate. VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller AG & Co. Kg. Read More