Operation Functions at Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority - Case Study Example

Introduction/company overview

Established in 1996, Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (DAFZA) has remained in history as one of the sufficient and most prominent free zones and as such, has maintained the accolade of being the world leader in innovation (Sambridge, 2015). The focus or emphasis of establishing the company was the government’s role or initiative for driving investments. Current, the company has 1500 employees and has 1600 affiliate companies in various regions in the world (CW staff, 2010). During its inception, the company was developed with the mission of ensuring that Dubai becomes the preferred investment potential or hub, fostering the innovation of creative solutions as well as using enterprise to drive commitment towards investing in the region.

Operations of the company

The DAFZA specifically focuses on importing and exportation of trade as well as providing services. Some of the operations or services provided by the enterprise are not unique to engineering and building materials, telecommunications, jewelry, pharmaceuticals aviation as well as aerospace products and services. Moreover, DAFZA provides IT services, logistics, freight, as well as cosmetics besides focusing on providing more luxury services (Sambridge, 2015). Besides, the company is tasked with administering trade licenses as well as visas to various international companies. Nonetheless, the organization offers such services as duty exemptions and tax as well helping with full business ownership.

What is the role of the Operations function in your organization? Is it?

In DAFZA, operations functions services different roles. For instance, as an implementer, the operations functions serve the role of ensuring that the company is dependable, operationalize its strategy as well as explaining the available practicalities. For instance, to make sure that the company is reliable, the operations functions with the organizations are focused on fostering a culture of innovation such that the company expands and becomes the hub for free zone services in UAE. Regarding practicalities, the company offers practical solutions to the customers, a classical example being the development of unique application for smartphones, identifying the available services for easy and convenient selection by the clients (Dafz.ae, 2015). As such, the provision of practical solutions like the mobile phone applications for interacting with the services is an indication of a company that operationalizes its strategy or putting the strategy of gaining competitive advantage into action.

Nonetheless, suggests that operations functions can play the role as a supporter if it is appropriate, there is the proper understanding of the business strategy and as such, it reflects the decisions within the company. As such, the operations functions of the company would be developed based on three different features of Windows, iOS, Android and Blackberry and this would be appropriate in meeting the needs of the millions of customers (Mccollinsmedia.com, 2015). As such, the company or the executive management exemplifies the proper understanding of the strategy since, with such an approach, there is the understanding that customers need to engage fully with the services and also be treated to a unique experience, for instance, accessing the utility costs.

Conversely, to play the role as a driver, the operations functions has to be innovative, laying the foundation of the strategy as well as developing long-term capabilities. Particular, this aspect has been exemplified in the operations functions of DAFZA with various innovation capacities for sustaining competitive advantage.

Four-stage Model of Operations contribution

The four-stage model of operations functions (Davies & Ryals, 2015)

The stage 3 of the model of operations contributions defines the contributions of operations management in DAFZA. During this phase, the company strives at all costs to link its strategy with the operations (Dafz.ae, 2015). As such, the stage also explains or identifies how the company is fairing concerning the strategic impact. Notably, the organization is particularly at the best position in the industry, because the stage 3 of the model denotes a company that is undoubtedly the best in the industry (Davies & Ryals, 2015). For instance, the move or the decision to embody the innovation strategy to the organization’s philosophy exemplifies or is a direct indication of how the company has reached the stage 3 of the model where the strategy has been linked with the operations. The basic strategy is that the firm should be in the best position to provide as well as innovate services that meet the expectations of the clients. As such, the smart employee application is one of the strategies that has been linked to the human resource management operations thus providing the opportunity to connect the HRM services with devices (Mccollinsmedia.com, 2015). On the other hand, through such application or strategy, it has been possible to use the company's resources properly since it helps with the management of the institution's mobile resources aimed at or focused on management services thus improving the extent to which the company can manage the customer service in an intelligent manner. Nonetheless, the smart innovative services provide the competitive advantage, as the focus or emphasis of the four-stage model since it helps in enhancing the operations of the existing infrastructure as well as transforming or the areas of free zones into virtual reality. Therefore, linking the innovative service strategy with the free zone operations puts the contributions of ADFZ in the stage 3 of the four-stage model.

Quality, Speed, Dependability, Flexibility and cost

In operations function, quality denotes the provision of products that are long-lasting as well as services that lead to high or unique experience with the customers. Accordingly, quality stands for the provision of the high-quality products, both mechanical and electrical materials for the customers (Khanna, 2015). On the other hand, according to the company, quality is assured when the products and services are provided in agreement with the international standards (Dafz.ae, 2015). As such, quality is a synonym for customer experience; thus, the company has been devoted to providing a unique experience to the customers. For instance, with the mobile apps and other innovate ways of interacting with the customers, the company is focusing on providing quality services (Mccollinsmedia.com, 2015). The focus or emphasis on quality provision explains the company’s extensive investment in R&D as this is the only way through which it can get the information about the client’s needs and preferences (Al Maktoum, 2015). The pursuit of follow-me-home strategy also exemplifies what the company believes to be quality because to the management, the sufficient provision of services to customers is what denotes quality. The company's commitment towards quality in service delivery is also indicated with the emphasis on monitoring how operations aimed at controlling the service quality are implemented or done and as such, providing feedback as well as proper communication between the organization and the customers.

As such, according to the executive management of the organization, speed is when the company provides the services on time. For instance, the company did honor the International Electromechanical Services for the efforts towards providing quality services promptly (CW staff, 2010). Nonetheless, according to the company, speed indicates or denotes the timely or quick response to the ever-changing international specifications so that the operations are updated as a way of providing unique services and implementing the innovation strategy. As such, accordingly, the term speed denotes the extent to which the projects are adhering to the completion frameworks, and still being able to meet the customer requirements.

Dependability is another aspect of operation functions that can contribute to the competitive advantage of the company. More so, dependability is designed to focus on reducing the possible client complaints, including the focus on reducing late deliveries, disruptions or wastage of time (Oakland, 2014). However, DAFZA has taken this aspect into consideration by ensuring that there is proper engagement with the customers, through the follow-me-home strategy where services are integrated into smartphones (Dafz.ae, 2015). On the other hand, the executive management believes that the services are only dependable when the customers have least complaints, because by communicating effectively and appropriately with the clients, their feedbacks are attended to in time. Therefore, according to DAFZA, dependable concerns how fast the company responds to the customer’s needs, and this has been enabled by integrating technology into the service provision, particularly the mobile phone applications for identifying services. For instance, with such applications, the customers have the opportunity to review their utility costs as an indication that the company believes that dependability is the extent to which clients are updated on their service management or consumption portfolio (Mccollinsmedia.com, 2015).

Nonetheless, flexibility is another aspect of operations functions that adds to the uniqueness of the services and contributes directly to competitive advantage. For instance, Khanna (2015) describes flexibility as the ability to change the products being brought to the market or the delivery time. For example, with the emphasis on quality, the executive management of DAFZA recommended a rather practical approach to keeping up to date with the current international standards and product specifications. In this case, the company believes that flexibility concerns the response to the external market forces or factors. Nonetheless, flexibility, according to the company is the ability to change the product offering. Notably, with the development of special strategy like follow-me-home, the company exemplified flexibility by relocating the service provision to the customers to mobile devices and as such, providing the services through smartphone applications.

Cost is another operations function with profound effects or influence on the extent to which the company will sustain its competitive advantage (Khanna, 2015). According to the company, cost aspect of operation functions entails proper management of the firm's resources. For instance, with the focus on changing the service provision towards operation system or mobile application, the company envisaged the avoidance of workstation usage thus saving as much costs that could be used in other areas of operations management (Dafz.ae, 2015). Besides, according to the company, operations functions leads to proper management of costs when there is proper utilization of HRM services or resources. For instance, with the introduction of ‘smart employee’ cost aspect of managing human resources was taken into consideration (Dafz.ae, 2015).

Which one provides a competitive advantage to your organization? How?

Of all the elements of operations functions, quality provides the necessary competitive advantage for DAFZA Company. The implication is that the company has focused on quality in customer experience as well as the extent to which the products are harnessed to meet the ever-changing needs of the customers. On the other hand, to ensure quality, the company has focused on adhering to the international standards such that the products or services provided are in line with the recommended international standards. The emphasis or focus on quality is a strategic advantage that leads to competitive advantage because, in every industry, the businesses can only edge out each other when they provide their services to the highest standards or quality. Besides, the company's business strategy has all been driven by the emphasis on innovation as a strategy for driving growth regarding competition as well as the proper alignment with customer expectations. Campbell, Coff, and Kryscynski (2012) argue that competitive advantage is best achieved when a business focuses on the product specifications that bring greater experience to the customers. Therefore, with the variety of the services that DAFZA offers, the best way to sustain the competitive advantage is by having a customer-centered customer service approach whereby quality, as the main concern of the clients, is provided.

Suggestions for improvements

Although the company has done all it takes to maintain its competitive advantage, all that remains is ensuring or establishing proper incentives for managing customer relationships. Therefore, the competitive advantage will only be sustained if the company embraces other approaches like Integrated Customer Relationship Management into the existing applications designed to interact and engage with the customers (Nguyen & Mutum, 2012). The implication is that ICRM is a model that advocates the integration of technology into managing the customers, including their concerns, suggestions, needs, requirements as well as what they recommend that the company should do to provide them with unique or fulfilling services. As such, with the strategies like extensive investment in R&D and innovation, the company is poised to maintain its competitive advantage.