Quality Management of McDonald - Case Study Example

Analysis of McDonald by the use of the ISO framework Name Course Lecture Date 1. Introduction Based on the American standards society quality has different meanings in organizations based on the organizational environment as well as the unique characteristics of each of the organization. For instance, Scott 2005 terms quality as the conformance to requirements. A quality management systems therefore is a set of coordinated activities that control and direct organizations with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their performance. The ISO 9001 is a global quality standard that was developed by the international organization for standardization (ISO) which is a global federation composed of national standard bodies of about 130 countries (SAI Global 2015). Since its initiation it organization have issued about 50,000 certificates and it is among the leading management system registrars and has a great team of experienced and knowledge auditors. The ISO 9001 family deals with issues that are more related to quality management. This means that the organizations always strive to fulfill the quality requirements of the customer, applicable regulatory requirements and all this is aimed at enhancing the customer satisfaction and achieving continual improvements of the organization performance. The standard can be applied in any type of organization regardless of the size that is from small firms to international and government corporations. This essays sets out to analysis McDonald by the use of the ISO 9001 2008 framework. This will be done by analyzing McDonald based on the eight quality management principles which are integrated in the requirements of the standard and they can be applied so as to improve the performance of the organization in any industry Leadership Customer focus Process approach Involvement of people Continual improvement Mutually beneficial supplier relationships System approach to management and Factual approach to decision making (SAI Global 2015). 2. Overview of McDonald McDonald is the largest chain of hamburger restaurant in the world and it serves around 68 million people on a daily basis in about 119 countries. The company headquarters are based in the United States (Derdak & Pederson 2004). The restaurant is operated as a corporation, a franchise or as an affiliate. They gain their revenue from royalties, rent and fees paid by the franchisees. The company mainly sells cheeseburgers, hamburgers, french-fries, chicken, breakfast items, milkshakes, soft drinks and deserts. With the changing consumer tastes the restaurant have included other items in their menu to include fish, smoothies, salads, fruits, wraps and seasoned fries (Horovitz, 2014). 3. Analysis 3.1 Customer Focus Customer focus is the first principle of the framework and based the principle organization depends highly on the customers and thus they need to fully understand the current as well as the future needs of the customers meet their requirements and always strive to surpass the expectation of the customers (Cianfrani, Joseph & John 2002). The main strength of the placement of McDonald, the suppliers and the franchisees which are commonly referred to as the system has been very essential to the success of McDonald over the years. By leveraging the system, McDonald is bale to implement, identify and scale their ideas with the aim of meeting the ever-changing needs and preferences of the customers. Additional McDonald focuses more on the customers by making sure that their restaurants are locally relevant and being integral parts of the various communities that their restaurants are located in. the company is also a modern and progressive company that delivers a contemporary customer experience making the customers to yearn for the next visit to the restaurant. The modern aspects of the company relates to getting the brand where it should be currently and the progressive aspect relates what the company needs to meet the needs of their customers for the future (McDonald Company Profile 2015). In realizing this commitment, McDonald is mainly focused on delivery high quality and great tasting food to their customers at the same time the company offers a world-class experience to make the customers feel values and welcomed. McDonald need to apply this principle by ensuring that they take up on a balanced approach when it comes to satisfying the customers and all the other stakeholders such as the society, local community and suppliers just to mention a few of them (Peach 2003). They also need to manage the satisfaction of the customers and take actions to improve the satisfaction levels of customers which will be beneficial in ensuring that the organization retains and attracts new customers for the business. All employees at McDonald also need to be aware of the expectations and needs to customers and this will be essential when it comes to offering the services. 3.2 Leadership Principle The leadership principle is the second principle in the framework and based on it the leaders need to establish a unity of direction and purpose for their organization. Leaders need to maintain and create the internal environment in the organization to allow all the employees to become fully involved and focused in achieving the objectives of the organization. McDonald can make use of this principle by considering all the needs of the parties involved in the business such as the owners, customers, suppliers, employees, local communities, financiers as well as the society in general. Additional McDonald need to ensure that they have a clear vision of the future of the organization (Derdak & Pederson 2004). McDonald has been able to do this through their vision statement. The vision states that the company aims at being the world best quick service restaurant experience. That is being the best when it comes to offering exceptional service, quality, value and cleanliness thus making each of the restaurants have and leave with a smile on their faces. McDonald also needs to offer their employees with all the required resources offer training and freedom to enable them to act with accountability and responsibility. McDonald believes in lifelong learning and to achieve these they offer training and development to all employees to assist in refining their skills, grow on their current position so as to offer a successful transition to new roles in the future (McDonald Official Website 2015). This is mainly done through the Hamburger University, the global mobility program, leadership development and internships. They also need to inspire encourage and recognize the contribution made by people in the organization. McDonald’s have some recognition programs in place and they are mainly designed to recognize the performers in the organization such as Presidents Award and the Circle of excellence awards (McDonald Pay & Rewards 2015). The principle will in a way ensure that the miscommunication is minimized in all departments and that the key activities are aligned, evaluated and implemented in a unified way thus leading to better results in terms of quality management. The employees will be motivated towards the achieving of the organizational objectives and goals. 3.3 Involvement of people The third principle relates to involvement of people. People working at all levels in an organization are essential and their full involvement in the organization is most likely to enable their abilities to be applied in the organization for its benefit. McDonald needs to apply this principle by making people to understand of the importance contribution and their role in the organization. Employees also need to identify the limiting factors in regard to their performance and put measures in place to ensure that they improve their individual performance. McDonald also need to ensure that the employees takes ownership of the problems and show responsibility in solving the problems to enhance their performance and achievement of the objectives that have been set on a short term or long term basis. Employees at McDonalds also need to actively seek opportunities with the aim of enhancing their knowledge, competence and experience. McDonalds also need to encourage the people in the organization to freely share their knowledge as well as experience. Through this all the employees in the organization will have adequate knowledge on how to handle the business matters. McDonalds can enhance this by making sure that they rotate their employees to work in the various departments in the organization thus all of the employees will have the knowledge on all the departments. McDonald will benefit in that it will have a wide poll of employees who are committed, motivated and involved and this is a key element to the success of a business venture such as McDonald which exceeds its national boundaries. People will also be encouraged to be creative and innovative and thus the customers will be offered with new and innovative products which are at par with their current needs (Poksinska, Jörn & Marc 2002). 3.4 Process Approach The fourth principle is more related to the process approach. The desired organizational result is mainly achieved efficiently if the related activities as well as resources in the organization are managed as a process. Through the application of this principle organization such as McDonald can focus on factors such as materials, methods and resources to improve the key activities in the organization (SAI Global 2015). A major activity that McDonald needs to improve is customer service. New methods, materials and resources need to be allocated to ensure that the customers are offered the best services during their visit to the restaurants. Based on an article on The Wall Street journal McDonald executives were at one time worried of the deteriorating customer service in their franchise. In almost all organizations performance people are an essential variance factor. Based on these McDonald needs to engage in continuous improvement of the customer service offered to their customers by the use of polite language, quick service, keeping the restaurants clean always and thanking the customers as they leave. By doing so, McDonald will create a lasting impression on the minds of the customers. McDonald also needs to evaluate the consequences, risks and impacts of their activities on the suppliers, customers and all the interested parties. By identifying the risk, impacts and challenges they will put measures in place to avert them and thus the end result will be beneficial to the whole organization. Customers are an essential part in the organizations and when affected negatively they may shift to the competitor’s camp. Thus all key parties at McDonald need to be treated well to ensure the cohesive existence and success of the business now and in the future. By making use of the quality principles McDonald is likely to benefit in that they will have consistent, improved and conventional results and lower costs as well as shorter cycle times which will be made possible by the effective use of the resources that are available (Rabbitt & Peter 1999). 3.5: System Approach The system approach to management is the fifth principle. It deals with the identification, understanding as well as the management of the interrelated processes as the system contributes to the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization when it comes to achieving the objectives (Kincheloe 2002). To achieve these quality principle McDonald needs to structure a system aimed at achieving an organizations objectives in the most efficient and effective manner. The company also need to offer the employees with a better understanding of their responsibilities and roles that are essential for achieving common objectives which will play an essential role in reducing the cross functional barriers in the organization (Dan 2001). Through this the employees will perform their duties with diligence and play an essential role in achieving the objectives, vision and mission of the organization. Through this principle an organization such as McDonald underhand their capabilities and point out any resources constraints prior to time. This will play an essential role by ensuring that the resource constraints are catered for in time so as not to affect the operations of the company. Through this principle McDonald will be able to align and integrate all the processes in their organization in order to achieve the best results (Peach 1997). It will also offer confidence to other stakeholders in the effectiveness, consistency and efficiency of an organization. 3.6 Continued Improvement The sixth principle deals with continual improvement. The continued improvement of the overall organizational performance ought to be a permanent objective in organizations. This can be attributed to the fact that we are currently living in a changing world and what worked before may have no place in the future thus the need to continued improvement over time (Johnson 2000). McDonald needs to engage in continuous improvement of their products, processes as well as system as an objective for all the individuals in an organization. McDonald has already done this by introducing new products in their menus. With time they could add new products as time goes by to enlarge their item list and mostly in their new ventures. Through this principle McDonald will be able to attain the much needed flexibility to allow them to react quickly to any emerging opportunities such as new venture or market. McDonald will also have a performance advantage and this will be achieved through the improved organizational capabilities (Naveh & Marcus 2004). 3.7 Factual approach to decision making The seventh principle deals with the factual approach in regard to decision making. Effective decision should be based on analysis of data as well as of information. The benefits associated with this principle are informed decisions, ability to challenge, review and change opinions as well as the decision made. McDonald needs to ensure that the information and data are reliable and accurate. By making use of such data and information McDonald will make informed decisions. Information and data can be useful when it is accessed by the right people and harmful if it gets in the wrong hands (James & Lindsay 2005). The managers in all the McDonald outlets need to ensure that all the decisions and action taken depends heavily on factual analysis supported by intuition and experience. Through this McDonald can make decision on issues that may damage the company reputation and know how to avert or reduce the impacts that may be caused. Through the application of this principle McDonald is likely to achieve various benefits such as the making of informed decisions, increased ability to the effectiveness of decision that have already been made through the use of factual records. The company will also attain an increased ability to challenge, review and change decision and opinions is they are not right (Murli & Nabil 2003). 3.8 Formation of mutually beneficial relationship with suppliers The eighth principle entails the formation of mutually beneficial supplier relationships. Organizations and their suppliers are in a way mutually dependent and the mutually beneficial relationship improves the ability of the two that is the organization and the suppliers to create value (Vitasek n.d). The suppliers at McDonald are mainly vested in the success of the organization. McDonald success can be based on the long term and transparent relationships that relies heavily on the belief that all people in the system can and are supposed to win. McDonald places more emphasize on the quality of their products. McDonald has set up standards for their suppliers and it is termed as the highest in the food industry. McDonald believes in the establishment of close relationship with their suppliers and everything is usually done on handshake, open accounting and trust basis. The suppliers of the company work very closely with the company to improve and develop the production and product techniques. The close interdependency is termed as a three-legged stool principle and it is composed of the franchisees, McDonald and the suppliers. The suppliers who meet the quality standards that have been set by McDonald are able to share in the success as well as growth of the company. The long term and deeply ingrained culture at McDonald and the win-win relationships that have been established with the suppliers can date back to when the company was formed when Ray Kroc developed a culture that was based on loyalty and trust (Kincheloe 2002). For instance in May 2014, McDonald gave out the Best of sustainability and through it honored about 36 suppliers. The company also have a suppliers code of conduct in place and the company works with the suppliers to implement and innovate the best practices in regard to sustainable ingredients and the suppliers are required to protect the human rights in their workplaces and they should always safeguard the food quality as well as safety through the application of best practices when it comes to animal health and welfare (Clare Mark and Boon 2003). 4. Conclusion In conclusion, it is clearly evident from the above discussion of ways in which the quality principles can be applied in McDonald. All companies irrespective of the industry that they operate in needs to make use of the quality principles to achieve the required level of success. Consumers in the market are now mainly concerned with the quality of products as opposed to the cost. Thus by coming up with quality services and products companies are bound to attract a greater number of customers than their competitors who have poor quality products and services. The principles when applied collectively can be good basis for improving the performance in an organization and ensure organizational excellence. There are numerous ways in which organizations can apply the quality management principles. An organizations nature as well as the challenges it faces will ultimately determines how each of the principle can be applied. To achieve the best organizations ought to up with a quality management systems that are based on the eight quality management principles. References Cianfrani, C, Joseph , J & John, E 2002 , The ASQ ISO 9000:2000 Handbook, ASQ Quality Press, Virginia. Clare, C, Mark, G & Boon, W 2003, ‘Does ISO 9000 certification improve business performance?’, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 936. 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