Strategy and marketing - Assignment Example

?TABLE OF CONTENTS tABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................................01 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................02 1.1 Rationale...............................................................................................................05 1.2 Hypothesis.............................................................................................................05 Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................06 2.1 Quality Theories and their Implementation…………………......................…06 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY........................................................................................17 3.1 Data Collection.....................................................................................................18 Chapter 4: CONCLUSION and recommendations........................................19 rEFERENCES.......................................................................................................................21 Chapter 1 Introduction Al Group started in the year 1980 basically as construction company contractor and later on expanded and diversified itself. Supply Areas to the construction industry include furniture, fittings and doors this comes under construction, then there is aluminium extrusion and manufacture, powder coating cutting and finishing of profiles. Future development is expected to be in manufacturing & fitting of the glass for building facades and also another new extrusion plant with powder coating procedure included. There company plans to go for international expansion in the neighbouring countries somewhere nearby in the future. The Government of Kuwaiti provides generous loans that too with easy payback periods for the developing businesses. This helps cash flow at an early stage for encouraging future growth. Seventy percent of start-up cost for any new business with an interest rate of 3.5% on these loans and the first payment is to be paid after a year. Coming back to the company as the powder coating procedure links to other features of sister companies of the group it is the most excellent place to look and begin evaluation of ways for linking these companies with one another. The aluminium process is a part of Al Groups portfolio. Al group al puts Powder Coating on aluminium profiles for building industry. The company develops relationships with the stakeholders over a long time with an informal communication. The Group will be expanding both internationally and locally. Price is the basic element for dictating who will get the contract for powder coating and extruding the profiles. The company usually manages to beat its competition yet recommends competition if it thinks that it cannot manage the workload. So by doing this we have won the trust of our customers. Time is another critical factor in delivering the product according to specs in this industry. Quality is the pride of the company and it is the one and only company in Kuwait that has ‘Qualicoat’ status. Suppliers of the company have regular communications with stock room’s managers. Recently the management has also intervened in processing in order to cut down on the waste. ALUMINIUM POWDER COATING LINE In case of aluminium powder coating the steps that were followed included the customer comparing the price with the competition that Al Group faced and then placing an order either to them or to their competition. After the placement of the order the time was to be analysed for the manufacturing process. After this the powder coat was to be applied and then the specs like cutting of the profiles and the final finishing was to be done that includes the cleaning and the quality control check etc. So if the product passed the quality control test it was shipped within a day otherwise it was reworked. Figure 1 Aluminium Powder Coating Process PROCESS AT AL GROUP ALUMINIUM The old process at Al Group AL included materials from suppliers and profiles from customers to warehouse, ordering done by stock manager and reworked profiles in store for chemical treatment in ten days, after this a aluminium chemical treatment for 30mins was given then they were moved for cleaning for removal of the paint, then there was a quality control check for ten minutes in which it was decided whether the product made is going to pass the test and will be delivered or due to poor quality will be rejected and reworked for another two hours. The quality control team used to take the products made to the laboratory to test the prepared product. Only the products that passed the test were delivered to the customer in a day. This was the process that was being followed but it was realized that there is a need to improve the quality so the process was changed to a one and a half hour plus two hours preparation and cleaning after passed through all three lines and then the quality control test was conducted. There was a need to do this to improve the quality and also increase the products passing the test in the first attempt. Figure 2 DMAIC Key Activities As through the times of success the company realised that it also need to keep a strict check on its quality and need to keep improving it continuously in order to enjoy the similar or even higher profits. The company thought that in order to obtain a strong position in the industry it needs to have updated systems and quality control programmes so that it can be the market leader. The company found out that if the Suppliers can see that the stocks are running low so by having an online warehouse the query related to fresh stock can help in improvement of the system and will save the resources like time etc. Sales & quality control were both required for agreeing parameters with clients and clearer working schedule with production managers & general management facilitates consultation process were very important things that required attention. General management required to oversee process remotely and measure productivity more accurately and by offering the customer service by giving them access information on progress of jobs things will get quite easy for the company and will thus improve the overall quality. So in order to achieve these targets a critical study on TQM was conducted to serve the purpose of continuous quality improvement and thus better performance and position of the company in the industry. An integrated effort of the organization designed for improving quality at all levels is regarded as Total Quality Management. TQM is basically about meeting the defined quality expectations by the customer and this is known as the customer de?ned quality. Though, de?ning quality happens to be difficult as different people possess different ideas for what makes up high quality. Definition of quality is dependent on people’s role who are de?ning it. Total Quality Management is the management that bases on quality and involves everybody’s participation that target customer satisfaction and improving company’s overall image. Total Quality Management is the process of optimising and integrating all the processes and functions of a business to provide for excited customers via a process of constant improvement (Medori and Steeple, 2000). There are several objectives of Total Quality Management that include process improvement, observing behaviour changes over a time period, defect prevention, developing operational definitions, priority of effort, developing improvement check forms and check lists, developing relationships of cause-effect, measuring capacity of the system, assisting teams in making better decisions and separating trivial from significant needs. TQM on the whole revolves around a few main thins that include systems for facilitating improvement, techniques and tools for improvement, Senior Management and all employees’ commitment, team work, Customer - Supplier relationships, effective vision, mission, strategy and goals, communication and most importantly trust. A systematic approach towards quality management involves components like modification of the processes and the inputs, examining of the processes performance, planning of the inputs and the processes, evaluation of the outputs, provision of inputs and operating the processes (Goetsch and Stanley, 1995). The benefits businesses are likely to derive from properly implemented Quality Assurance System include things like enabling business to compete with larger businesses on an equal basis, improving efficiency, adding credibility to business, enhancing customer satisfaction, reduction in waste and rework, improvement in effectiveness and creation of a business that is well planned (Hall, 1987). TQM Tools include Quality Improvement teams, statistical process control and benchmarking. Quality Improvement Teams are small employee’s groups who work on finding solutions to specific problems linked with productivity and quality and also with improvement stated targets. These teams are proving to be extremely flourishing at tracking down the reasons for poor quality and also taking remedial action. Then there is another tool named benchmarking. It is basically a process of identification of the best approaches and practices by doing comparison of productivity in ones’ own company’s specific areas to other organisations (William, 1999). Then there is also another tool that is the statistical process control. This tool makes use of periodic random samples that are taken during the actual production to find out if acceptable levels of quality are being met or not and also if the production should be stopped to take corrective action or not. 1.1 Rationale The reason for choosing this company is that it is very important to take care of your stakeholders at all times. If you want to assure quality and maintain it then it is extremely significant to take care of your employees and treat them the way you want them to treat your ultimate customers. If the company wants to enjoy the same fame and maintain its heights of success and quality work that it is delivering then it is very important to adopt and introduce measures for continuous quality improvement and innovation. Strict quality check measures need to be taken. It is the responsibility of the management to take care of the employees and workers of the company and assure safeguarding of their rights. The reason for all this is that the workers will only give quality work once they are satisfied. Here it is extremely important to note done that the company does not have a well defined quality management policy. Following is a detailed study of total quality management, its importance and how the implementation of a strong quality policy statement can change the fate of the organizations. 1.2 Hypothesis Al Group AL is finding difficulty in managing the priorities of the stakeholders equally. So the level of satisfaction is falling down. The delivery of high quality is held back because of non-compliance with the quality principles and also the need for innovation is a big challenge for the company. The company needs to keep a strict check on its quality to maintain its position as a leader. Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1 Quality theories and their implementation There are several quality theories that have been incorporated in Al Group’s case. These theories along with their implication in this case have been discussed ahead. As emphasized by Walter A. Shewhart that elimination of variability can improve quality. This elimination of unpredictability can be very helpful for Al Group Al and the quality control charts can facilitate in improving the quality further and finding out the areas that lack in quality. By doing this the company is likely to benefit more as it will help in reduction of wastage of time and waste material. So this finding can help the company in devising systems that will be more consistent. Another theory that can be implemented in this case is by Deming. W. Edwards. According to Deming it is very important that managers of Al Group Aluminium drive out the fear employees’ face in identification of the quality problems (Deming, 1986). Proper methods need to be taught, and detection and thus elimination of poor quality should be responsibility of everyone in the company. The 14 Points by Deming on quality emphasize that the top management must develop commitment towards quality and provide system to support this commitment that incorporates everyone like suppliers and employee. It is impossible to improve the quality without organizational change which comes from top management. The following chart can be really helpful for Al Group Aluminium quality improvement. The company needs to plan who the customers are and what is the importance of the change that they want to bring in. The time, resources etc involved are to be planned before hand and the risks involved are to be calculated too. Then the action is to be taken by assigning responsibilities and defining the process. After this a strict check needs to be done and a comparison of the previous and new process is very important. Then a continuous evaluation is very important. All these things need to be done by Al Group for winning a greater market share b improving quality and saving the resources. In case of Al Group in Kuwait it is very important that the top management of the company should show an even increased commitment towards quality improvement. The reason behind this is given by Deming and which is that if the top management is more committed towards something then the workers and employees of that organization are more focused for achieving the desired targets like that of Al Group’s. Garvin’s model on expectation of quality by the customer One extremely important quality theory for an industry in which the Al Group Aluminium operates is the one given by Garvin’s model. There are eight dimensions used at strategic level to analyse quality characteristics by David Gravin (Garvin, 1988). Some of these dimensions are jointly reinforcing, while the others are not. Garvin's eight dimensions are discussed ahead. The first dimension is performance. Performs relates to primary operating features of a product. The performance of the product aluminium coating powder line by Al Group is better in performance than its competitors or not is one very important question for the customers. The second dimension by Gravin is features. Features are additional characteristics that improve the product or service appeal to the user. In case of Aluminium powder coating it is very important to define the features that the product by Al Group will have that will make it better than the competitors. Third dimension is reliability. It is the likelihood of a product not to fail within a specified time period. How reliable is the product by Al Group is very significant for its users. The fourth dimension is conformance. Conformance shows the extent of a design and operating characteristics of a product meeting the established standards. How well has been the product been made to meet up the standards of the customers should be really important for the company. The fifth dimension is the durability. It measures the product’s life length (Garvin, 1987). As it is known that this product should have a long life as the construction stuff is not bought everyday so the factor of durability is one most important thing for anyone buying it so Al Group Aluminium powder coating line needs to be very careful about it. The sixth dimension of quality by Garvin is serviceability. It involves the ease of the customer for getting repair service, the reliability of service and the responsiveness of service personnel. The seventh dimension of quality is the aesthetics. They are the properties of a product that contribute to brand identity of a company. The eighth dimension is the perceived quality. Perception may not always be the reality. The service or product may have adequate or superior quality dimensions but still fall prey to negative public and customer perceptions. All the above eight dimensions are extremely important in Al Group’s case. The priority of the customer is to get high quality at low price with more specifications meeting the deadlines etc so by applying the above mentioned theories the goals can be achieved the company. A company that has more satisfied customers is likely to enjoy greater profits. The company needs to further enhance its image in order to overcome the problem of false and wrong perception about the company’s product quality. The suppliers need to clearly understand the requirement of the customer which is done by Al Group and which has helped it in making a good name. The company has a strong quality check and control process in which if a product fails then it is reworked for two hours and only the best quality is delivered to the customers. QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICY FOR AL GROUP ALUMINIUM POWDER COATING LINE A quality assurance policy has been devised for Al Group Aluminium in order to improve and assure quality at all times. The company should stay committed towards provision of high quality services and products for its clients in a well-defined and consistent manner. The company should recognize that order to attain this, they must be able of identify the areas causing problems, define the solutions, implement the suitable measures for correction and next review the changes effects and ensure that it is a continual process and also an integral part of the company operations. Juran "Quality Trilogy" can be implemented in this case. This trilogy consists of quality improvement, quality planning and quality control. As after the implementation of this quality trilogy it was found out that there was a need for quality improvement. Things like these came in front of the management team who was in charge of the quality improvement process. By the application of powder coat testing before to profiles saves reworking after quality control and removable spray booths facilitate quick turnaround between jobs, quality control at end of process with powder check at front of process is likely to take less time now, savings to warehouse in storage of rework and moving profiles for creating space, rework interrupts batch processing and takes up valuable time, interrupting the whole operation with a knock on effect. Exact time in delays varies but can be significantly more than 2 hours in addition to the 2 hours taken to remove powder coat. So by the help of this quality trilogy all these things can improve and thus the quality of the products produced by Al Group can be improved. According to Juran’s ten steps for quality improvement Al Group is going in the right direction and has implemented these steps. 1. Awareness of need and opportunities for improvement should be created 2. Goals for improvement should be determined 3. Organization is needed to reach the goals 4. Training must be provided 5. Initialize projects 6. Monitor progress 7. Recognize performance 8. Results reports 9. Track improvements achievements 10. Repeat The company is aware of the fact that they need to bring in changes and also improvement goals should be more precisely defined for better results. Initialization of providing trainings and monitoring of the progress is another thing that the company s paying attention to. Kaoru Ishikawa is most widely known for development of quality tools called the cause-and-effect diagrams. These diagrams are also known as Ishikawa or fishbone diagrams. These diagrams help in quality problem solving. He believed that everybody in the company was required to be united with a common goal and shared vision. In case of Al Group Aluminium Powder Coating Line this fish diagram also played an important role. Figure 3 Ishikawa or Fishbone Diagram By the help of this diagram it was found out that the causes within the procedure for problems were things like the ones mentioned ahead. Rework averages to about 3% - 5% of output. The quality control is paramount in production of first batch. The powder coating was only one part of the process in the value chain. Future growth is only possible by physical expansion of Al group. Cost of this innovation will pay for itself with 6 months of reduced rework. Constraints on output of powder coat facility due to factory space available. Main cause of rework is faulty powder coat from suppliers (also damages to profiles in transit, human error & unforeseen externalities such as power outages, sand storms & machine breakdown) so the equipment and the people error was also there and there causes were also to be found with the help of this fishbone diagram by Ishikawa. Innovation solutions are forthcoming and will reduce reworking to an estimated 1% of production time and savings from rework to be reinvested into further innovation of moving spray booths. All the problems were identified with their causes and possible effects and solutions with the help of this fishbone diagram. Ten Principles of Ishikawa for Supplier/ Customer Relations that are extremely important in Al Group’s case are discussed ahead. The first principle is that should realize that it is the responsibility of both supplier and customer to control the quality. The second principle is that both the supplier and the customer must be independent of each other and should respect this idea of independence. According to third principle by Ishikawa the company should understand that the customer’s responsible to provide the supplier sufficient and clear requirement in order to make the supplier precisely aware of what needs to be produced. After this both the customer and the supplier must enter in a non-adversarial contract with respect to quantity, quality, delivery method, price and payment terms (Cua, McKone and Schroeder, 2001). After this it is supplier responsibility to provide quality that is likely to satisfy the customer and submit essential data on request of the customer. Another principle is that both customer and supplier must take a decision about method of evaluation of the quality of the service or product to satisfaction of both the parties (Besterfield and Glen, 2003). Customer and supplier both should establish in contract the procedure through which they can reach an agreeable settlement of any clash that might arise. Both customer and supplier need to continuously exchange information, at times making use of multifunctional teams, to enhance the service or product quality. Both the supplier and the customer should carry out business activities like production, inventory planning, procurement, clerical work and systems in order to maintain a satisfactory and amicable relationship. During dealing business transactions both the supplier and the customer must always possess the best interest of the end user in mind. By strictly following these ten principles there are quite a lot of chances that Al Group Aluminium will achieve its quality improvement targets. CHAPTER 3 Methodology The best suited methodology for this research would be an interpretive inquiry paradigm, where it shows the way in which people experience the world, the ways in which they interact with one another and also the condition in which such interaction is facilitated. Interpretive inquiry requires a qualitative analysis of data which is ideal in this case. The power of qualitative research methodology lies in its capacity to present intricate textual explanations of how people experience a particular research subject. It highlights the issues on the human side, which is often - the conflicting beliefs and opinions, contradictory emotions, behaviour and the relationships among individuals. Qualitative research methodologies are also efficient in finding out the intangible factors including the impact of gender, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and cultural norms etc. Qualitative methods allow better impulsiveness and adaptation in the dealings between the participant and the researcher. For example, the interviews, which are one form of qualitative methods, enable the researcher to pose open-ended questions to the participant. It has been argued that qualitative methods have the flexibility of not following a definite structure. The participants are encouraged to answer questions freely in their own words and are these are often more elaborate responses than simply saying a yes or no. Also there is an opportunity for the researcher to develop an informal relationship with the participant – which could further encourage the participant to reply more elaborately and provide greater details than is usually the case with the quantitative research methods. Literature suggests that the interview is a very useful tool to gather data and understand someone’s perspective on an issue. Though, there are many other methods as well to gather data but qualitative interviews are the most sought after and useful method to gather data for qualitative research. Qualitative interviews are mostly unstructured or semi-structured as the purpose of carrying out these interviews is not to justify cause and effect relationship but to get an in depth insight and exploration of a phenomenon and develop research ideas on them. Qualitative interviews are generally best suited for an in-depth exploratory research when the sole purpose is to explore a phenomenon or so to say, a gap in literature. Though, qualitative interviews are not much different from day to day conversation except that researcher is very alert and attentive while listening to the answers and usually stays very responsive during the course of interviews. The questions in the interview were very straight forward pointing at their organization's marketing and operational behaviour and perceptions. The data obtained through the interviews, though may not be very descriptive due to time constraints on the employees, still it can offer a few insights on the subject being studied. 3.1 Data Collection Semi-structured interviews are intended to be used in the study. However, published materials, website, documents, meetings and trainings are intended to be studied as well. However, secondary data will also be involved in the form of journal articles, books, hospitality magazines, etc. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted because they are useful in case of analytical approach as it includes a list of questions that the researcher will cover on a particular topic; the interviewee has the liberty of answering these questions the way he/she chooses to. Chapter 4 Conclusion and Recommendations Al Group al needs to be customer-focused and bring in innovation as the customer is the one that ultimately determines the quality level. It is extremely important for the company to train its employees and integrate quality into the designing process. All employees should participate in hard work towards common goals. Total employee commitment can be only possibly be attained after the aspect of fear is driven out from the workplace, which is very important in the case of Al. One fundamental TQM part is focus on process thinking. Process thinking is a procedure that takes inputs from the suppliers and then transforms them into the outputs that are then delivered to the customers. An integrated system needs to be installed. Everyone in the company must understand the mission, guiding principles of quality policies, vision of the company and also the critical processes of the organization. Communication is one very important thing that this company should also keep in mind if it wants to maintain its heights of success. A proper, open and clear communication channel promotes in maintain the high morale of the workers and also keeps them motivated and satisfied all the time. It is strongly recommended that every member of the organisation should be committed towards the process of change. It cannot be referred as the new flavour of the month, but instead of this it should be an exciting life changing process (Zimmerman, Steinmann and Schueler, 1996). Too often enthusiasm of people wanes when they understand that the process of change in an organisation is not possible to occur overnight. People should pledge their support in the objective analysis of their job procedures and functions, and seek innovative and new ways to develop them. If necessary, inspirational speakers must be employed to stimulate and motivate the staff to a new attitude of commitment. Once again it is to be kept in mind that people are led by example. In a case where management is not committed to the change process, then the management should expect that this is the attitude the people of the company will be developing too. Management should promote the continuous training need, as it will help the employees in gaining more confidence and motivation in work, will reduce staff turnover, reduce errors, and enhance productivity and also the organisation competitiveness (Anand, Ward and Tatikonda, 2010). By the implementation of the new process the company is likely to save time, space and reworking problems. Expansion and further growth plans is a really good thing and the implementation of the related theories mentioned ahead will further help the company to be successful as always. So in the end TQM can be summarized as the management system that includes all the employees in constant improvement. By utilising TQM to a good effect and by using data, strategy, effective communications, involvement of all level employees to incorporate the quality control into the activities and culture of the organization, A1 may find it easy to fulfil its goal and objectives. References Ahire, S. L. (1997). Management Science- Total Quality Management interfaces: An integrative framework, 27 (6), 91–105.  Anand, T., Ward, M., Tatikonda, V. (2010). 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Managing Quality, New York: Free Press. Goetsch, D. L., and Stanley, D. (1995). Implementing Total Quality. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Hall, R. (1987). Attaining Manufacturing Excellence, Burr Ridge, Ill.: Dow-Jones Irwin. Juran, J. M. (1986).The Quality Trilogy, Quality Progress, 10 (8), 19–24. Juran, J. M. (1988). Quality Control Handbook, 4th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill. Lewis, W.G.; Pun, K.F.; Lall, T.R.M. (2006). Exploring soft versus hard factors of TQM implementation in small and medium sized enterprises, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 55 (7), 539-554.  Medori, D., and Steeple, D. (2000). A Framework for Auditing and Enhancing Performance Measurement Systems, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 20 (5), 520–533. William, M. L. (1999). The Management and Control of Quality, 4th ed. Cincinnati: South-Western. Zimmerman, R. E., L. Steinmann, and Schueler, V. (1996). 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