Crystal Fast Foods - Quality Tools in Implementing Total Quality Management - Example

Running head: Management Name: Course: Tutor: August 27, 2010 Letter of transmittal Address….. Mackay, Queensland. August 28, 2010 Name of the recipient……. The CEO Crystal Fast Foods Outlet Melbourne Australia Dear Sir, The following report describes the way forward that Crystal fast foods outlet shall consider to ensure that it has a total quality management. The implementation of the total quality management will take effect as from January in the year 2011 for eighteen months. This report entails the action plan that I have prepared to carry out the activity and the measures that will be put in place to test whether the implementation will be successful. It also gives a brief description on the current status of the business which shows that the business is in a position to provide total quality management. From this report, I believe it will prove that the total quality management is crucial and the support we need as the staff, both financially and in terms of management, to achieve our goal. Signature… Name……. The Manager An executive summary Crystal fast food outlet is located in Mackay, Queensland. This fast food outlet targets customers from the nearby industries, college students and workers in the businesses found within the town. It deals with the various fast foods like hamburgers, chicken, cheese, pizza and others. Crystal fast foods outlet offers quality services which are also affordable. It is a large fast food outlet with a staff of one hundred and fifty employees. It was opened in the year 2008 and for those two years it has indicated a tremendous improvement both in the number of customers and the profit from the operations. As the manager of this business, I intended to continue supporting this business and ensure that there is total quality management in this business. With this in mind I intend to ensure that quality is evident at all levels in the business; in the services and products we offer to the customers, in the employees work, and in management. Achievement of this objective of improving total quality management is going to take at most eight months. To measure whether this objective will go through the following variables will be considered; Customers’ responses. Higher returns on sales. Level of motivation of the staff. Effectiveness of management in terms of accountability. To achieve these goals, I have set the following action plan, however the action plan is flexible and may change during implementation. Create awareness on importance of the program to all stakeholders in the business. Identify the needs of our customers. Motivate the staff through various ways such as salary increase and promotions. Ensuring documentation of every transaction done in the business. Use promotion to attract our customers. A focus on the customers’ satisfaction is very crucial in implementation of the total quality management. Meeting their needs is the first thing that we shall consider. To identify these needs interaction will with them will be of major importance. This will be ensured by regularly carrying out market surveys, use focus groups and interviewing some of our customers. Along with improving the quality, we intend to win more customers. This will be possible by carrying out promotion on our business; this will be done through various methods such as introducing discounts on the products we offer, and carrying out advertisements on the press. As the business continue to prosper, I have realized that it is coming up with management challenges and thus I have decided to actively involve every member of the staff in facing the challenge. To ensure effectiveness of the employees, I will ensure that they are qualified to provide the services and by providing training on how to improve quality. Specialization of the staff will also be an important factor in implementing these objectives. I have also decided to motivate the employees by looking at their welfare by motivating them. Another way of ensuring effectiveness and commitment of the employees is to make them aware of the business vision and mission statements. This paves way for cooperation because the objectives of the business are known by all stakeholders of the business. The role of the management is to provide resources and ensure that there is a favorable working environment (Education foundation, 1996). This will encourage the employees to get on with what needs to be done to improve process and outputs without distractions. This is only going to be effective if motivation of the employees is achieved. Management is also in charge of facilitating and providing resources, monitoring activity at a strategic level, and ensuring the long-term viability of the organisation by encouraging product improvement and new product identification and development. Keeping of records on every transaction in the business is a crucial activity that will be ensured. This is important in making a follow up about the progress of the program. Records are also important for future planning and for evaluation of business performance. Documentation also encourages accountability of personnel in the business. Table of contents Letter of transmittal 2 An executive summary 3 Table of contents 6 1. Introduction 7 2. Objectives 7 Team work 8 Customers’ needs 9 Areas of improvement 9 Use of quality tools 10 Continuous improvement 12 3. Conclusion 12 4. Recommendations 13 5. List of references 14 1. Introduction Quality refers to the wanted characteristics from a service, product or a process. It can also be defined as the ability of a service or a product to meet or go beyond the expectations of a customer (Foster, 2001). Total quality management is a strategy which aims to improve the business and to manage the business since it gives way for competitiveness and efficiency (Hakes, 2000). Many good performing businesses realize the need to have quality of the goods or services they provide to their customers as one of the key values in the business. This is with the understanding that quality has an effect on virtually every aspect of a business and that it has striking cost inferences. The obvious implication is that when a product is of poor or low quality, it fails to satisfy the customers and the end results will be loss in the business. Other costs related to poor quality include quality control costs and quality failure costs. Total quality management has three major components which include, increasing customers satisfaction, lowering costs and teamwork. 2. Objectives To achieve total quality management the following steps will be used; Ensure top management commitment. Training the employees on importance of quality. Prepare a vision statement, mission statement, & guiding principles. Make use of quality tools in implementing the total quality management. Focus on giving customers satisfaction. The idea of total quality management requires changes in all departments of the business. Thus it affects decisions in operations management. This requires strategic plans in order to ensure that no department is left out. Total quality management requires use of the following features; use of quality tools, customer focus, employee motivation, product design, managing supplier quality, and product design. Team work Implementation of total quality management requires team work and management commitment in the business. To achieve a total quality management program, dedication and combined contribution of everyone in the business is important (Naagarazan, 2005 )Thus to be successful in improving the quality of our services and products, all levels of the business, starting from the executive to the subordinate employees must be involved. This is because total quality management is achievable only when all functional areas of the business including marketing, finance, information and production are efficient. To have team work in the business, awareness on importance of this program is crucial. Training on this program will be conducted for all stakeholders. This will not only create awareness among them but it will also make everyone of them to feel as part and parcel of the program. Customers’ needs The principal objective in implementing this plan is to focus on the needs of our customers. Quality management will ensure that the customers get satisfied with the services and products that we offer. Satisfaction of our customer is our first priority. If the customers get satisfied, it means they are getting quality products or services and this is what proves the business successful. To identify customers’ needs various methods are put in place which includes; use of focus groups, conducting surveys or interviewing customers. Total quality management defines the customer as any person outside or inside the business who receives services from any employee in the business. Thus, even some of the employees in the business are customers to their colleagues (Cliff notes.com, 2010). For instance, the waiter and the waitress are customers to the cook, therefore total quality management starts right from the employees. This concept encourages members of the staff to be focused on the quality and responsibility in providing quality services or products. Areas of improvement Improving the products and the services that we provide to our customers is our main area of interest. The quality of what the customers get is what gives them satisfaction. To improve the quality of the products there is need to design them in order to meet the customers’ expectations. Improvement of what is given to the customers revolves around both in introducing new ideas and in identifying and correcting quality problems. This concept of quality means that it extended to the suppliers of the products to the business. Use of quality tools There are seven quality tools used in implementing total quality management. They include histograms, Pareto charts, and cause and effect diagrams, run charts; scatter diagrams, flow charts and control charts (Hiam, 2000). These tools are fundamental in the process of improving the product’s quality. They are important in identifying problems in a product, in analyzing the process of production, in providing solutions to the problems identified and in preventing fluctuations of the quality of the product. The tools utilize statistical knowledge and techniques to provide this information. Using these tools it will thus be able to identify the problems that we have with our products or services. The flowchart will be used to show the steps used in the implementation. It will provide an easy way to understand and represent the steps (Rao, et al, 1996). A cause and effect diagram will help in determining the root cause of any problem with the quality of our products and services. It is also referred to as a fishbone diagram or an Ishikawa diagram. The purpose of this diagram is to help get to the main sources of the identified problem. The identified sources are then made the target of improvement during the implementation of the program. It is also possible to deduce the relationship between the identified sources and this provides an easy approach for improvement. Below is an illustration of a fishbone diagram. Control charts will be used when determining the variations of processes. Histograms are important in portraying the frequency at which a process is occurring; a check sheet tabulates the frequency of these occurrences. When determining which of the problems is to be tackled first, a Pareto diagram is used. It is prepared before the implementation begins so that areas that require urgent attention are focused first. They are easy to prepare and to understand. It presents the problems and their causes according to their severity (Naagarazan, R. 2005). A Pareto diagram may look as the one illustrated below. A run chart is crucial in determining the improvement of a process. It presents the variation of the process with time. A scatter diagram is important in determining relationship between any two variables. Continuous improvement This concept aims to have a never-ending improvement in the quality. It covers equipment, method, material and people. To ensure there is continuous improvement and competitiveness in the business the following will be our key values; Measurement of quality is customers’ satisfaction. Esteem everyone as a customer whether it is the suppliers, employees or the buyers. Always analyze the methods used to form the products or the services. Ensure there is cooperation among the elements in the business. Always identify the areas that need improvement. 3. Conclusion Implementation of total quality management has several benefits which range from financial, reputation and retention of customers, easy access to the global market to ability to use short time in when developing more innovation (Cliffnotes.com, 2010). Despite the high expenses required in implementation, total quality management provides a business with an advantage of being in competitive the business field. Implementation of the total quality management is said to be expensive due to the money, patience and time required to achieve the goals. There are several hindrances to achieving total quality management that any business should avoid. These include lack of commitment and efficient management, failure to have a genuine quality culture and over reliance or under reliance on statistical process control (Roberts & Bernard, 2004). Businesses with well implemented total quality management experience a culture of good quality (Naagarazan, 2005). This is because they identify the needs of the customers and concentrate on always improving the quality. They are also in a position to always meet the demands of the customers since they interact with their customers and in the process they are in a position to make the appropriate adjustments based on the feedback they get from them. 4. Recommendations To sustain the total quality management, active, consistent, and visible management by managers at all levels is a key component. This calls for team work which is achieved by breaking down of any barriers in the departments. The program requires a quality management; this refers to a process that ensures that the program runs smoothly. This is through ensuring the activities set before implementation of the program are followed. Quality management main aim is to prevent and avoid poor quality output (Naagarazan, 2005). . 5. List of references Hakes, C. 2000. Total quality management: the key to business improvement: a Pera international executive briefing. New York. Springer. CliffsNotes.com. 2010. Total Quality Management (TQM). New York. Cliff Publishers. Education foundation. 1996. Total quality management: a continuous improvement process. London. PHCC. Rao, A, Carr, LP, Dambolena, I, Kopp, RJ, Martin, J., Rafii, F. & Schlesinger, PF. 1996. Total Quality Management: A Cross Functional Perspective. New York. John Wiley and Sons. Hiam, Alexander. 2002. Closing the Quality Gap: Lessons from America's Leading Companies. New York. Prentice Hall, Inc. Roberts, Harry V., & Bernard F. Sergesketter. 2004. Quality Is Personal: A Foundation for Total Quality Management. New York. The Free Press. Foster, S. 2001. Managing Quality an Integrative Approach. New Jersey. Prentice Hall. Naagarazan, R. 2005. Total Quality Management. London. New Age International. Read More