Customer Oriented Operation Management - Report Example

Operation Management and s It is the duty of the organisation particularly its leader to implement an optimal operations managementsystem, thereby providing the employees a perfect working environment to work, resulting in optimal products and services to the fullest satisfaction of the customer. Thus, the end result or the end expectation of the operation management is the contentment of the customers. As part of Optimal operations management, the leader and the different managers should play their part in arranging the needed resources, allocating the work load perfectly, etc to come up with quality products. Quality is the key because any process completed without the expected quality will be abhorred by the intended customers, leading to problems for the organisation. Furthermore, if crucial total management programs like TQM are incorporated, then there will be optimal quality in all the processes, making organisation’s every initiative a successful endeavour. When quality products or services come out of an organisation, as a continuation of operation management, they have to be marketed aptly with effective after-sales service as well, so that the customers will be optimally enticed and they can become permanent customers of the organisation. So, this report will analyse how organisations as part of operation management should focus maximally on quality to produce and deliver products and services, that can satisfy market and customer requirements and which can provide the customer with an experience that goes beyond the point of sale Quality aspects as part of operation management We all deal with the issue of quality in our daily lives. We concern ourselves with quality when grocery shopping, eating in the restaurant, making a major purchase such as an automobile, a home, a television or a personal computer. Perceived quality is a major factor by which people make distinctions in the market place. Whether we articulate them openly or keep in the back of our minds, we all apply a number of quality criteria in every aspect of our lives. When the customer wants the end product to be of optimum quality, then all the organisational processes also need to incorporate good quality to come with the quality product. So, the basic argument is that as part of operations management, all the processes that happen inside an organisation should have quality intrinsically incorporated in it. Role of the Leaders and the Management team in managing Quality Quality can be managed optimally, only if the leader firstly imbibes it, in his/hers own functioning. Then only, he/she can set example and imbue it, in his/hers employees. The success or failure of any organization depends on the role, the leader plays. The leader is the one who can lead humans under him/her to ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’. So, if the leader follows set standards regarding quality, he/ she can “seduce” the workers to follow the same quality standards of the TQM model. Leaders’ behaviours will largely determine if core values regarding many issues particularly TQM will be diffused and will become a part of the organizational culture (Dahlgaard & Dahlgaard-Park 1999). So, if a leader follows quality programs like TQM, the employees will also follow suit and help the organization to produce quality products, which can optimally reach the customers. Managing quality by incorporating it at recruitment and training stage Quality Management Programs can be incorporated into an organization’s functioning and then can be utilized to assist the organization to improve their competitive position, only if employees who are recruited and working exhibit affinity towards quality. That is, when prospective employees are being recruited, they should be cross-checked to know their affinity to quality aspects, importantly TQM. This should be very particular for the personnel, who man the quality department. If the recruited employees fall short in the quality aspects, he/she be trained or coached or mentored to manage TQM in quality. “Impart greater know-how and effectiveness through coaching and people will work smarter. (Luecke 2004). W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran did that exactly as they coached many Japanese companies, and if ever there were a Dream Team on quality in the workplace, it would be made up of them. So, organizations should recruit “the right people,” and also train them right values and competencies regarding TQM in quality (Dahlgaard and Dahlgaard-Park 2007, p. 383). Incorporating quality as part of organization’s main vision After recruiting and training the employees and setting personal examples, leaders can further instil the importance of quality by focusing the employees on quality as one of the main visions for the organization to achieve. “The start of inspiring (literally ‘to breathe life into’) the vision of the learning organization.” (Senge 1990, p. 340). This single focus on quality as the company’s vision, mission or philosophy will surely motivate or even push the employees to achieve quality and thereby assist the organization. Juron’s philosophy of Quality Trilogy is based on this premise. That is, according to Juron, managing quality inside an organization will consists of three quality processes, Quality planning, Quality control and Quality improvement, which will be intertwined with the company’s main targets or processes Integrating the management of quality as form of organizational culture The workers like the five different fingers in one’s hand will be different from one another having different characters, attitudes, education, background etc, etc…and the unison of these different humans under a single organization to reach a target is, and will always be a difficult proposition. As these different humans could only create a different working culture, the success rate will be minimal. And, if a common and feasible working culture is ‘operationalised’, through out the organization particularly in the aspect of quality, the organization will be able to manage quality optimally. The ‘script’ for this ‘success story’ can only be scripted, by an effective leader. Normally, organizational culture is created by the shared experience of the group working, but it is the leader who initiates this process by imposing his or her beliefs, values, and assumptions at the outset. The leader as a founder of an organization will have to create a culture incorporating the quality component, and then as the MD or CEO needs to manage and implement that culture. Then importantly, if that culture has to be modified according to the needs and realities of the organization particularly in managing quality the leader has to tune it. That is, “It is clear that the implementation of a TQM initiative such as the EFQM TQM Model involves a culture change, and the cultural realities of an organisation need to be understood..” (Davies, 2007, p. 384). But, sometimes quality and thereby TQM can be managed, only if the existing but failing organizational culture is changed and replaced by an optimum one. So, the organization to implement TQM optimally has to formulate and implement an organizational culture, incorporating the set standards of TQM models. If it is done that way, the employees will follow it en masse without dissenting to it. Toyota did this by creating an optimal organizational culture based on a set of 14 principles and the 4P model. So, when the principles became practice in the organization culture, every strategy was automatically and optimally executed. Involving workers productively and managing quality optimally In organizations, the leaders or the management team should involve all the employees from lower level staff in all the processes including the quality process like TQM that may take place inside the organization. Optimum operation Management involves a process where lower management is invited to comment and come up with suggestions for improvement of the company’s strategic plan. That is, the leader or the management team should place their thoughts, strategies, targets, organizational goals, etc, for discussion among the workers. Then importantly should elicit their suggestions, ideas or even criticisms, for consideration and implementation. This way the workers as a form of group will contribute productively in making correct decisions. That is, the workers can input their gained knowledge and experience in the different steps of quality management. This strategy will have unexpected at the same time favourable results, because one may never know from where, when and importantly from whom a great idea could come. Also, participation in goal-setting was found to be an effective method for enhancing goal commitment (Latham, Locke & Erez 1998). So, involving and allowing co-workers to play a part in the different processes including in the management of quality would surely yield optimum products to fullest satisfaction of the customer. Crosbys “Basic Elements of Improvement” regarding TQM include determination, education, and implementation. Determination was used by Crosby to stress that the leader or the top management must be seriously determined about quality improvement. Even if he/she fails to understand quality improvement, it can be done through education. Finally, as discussed in this part of the paper, every member of the organization or even the management team must understand quality as part of the operation management process and be part of it. This way, the teams can be imbued with TQM aspects en masse and importantly drive them to do the work, they are currently doing with quality. “Stick to the knitting, meaning that the excellent companies stay close to the business they know (Dahlgaard and Dahlgaard-Park, 2007, p.373). American Energy Company also did this to improve his TQM, the Company has generally organized itself into multi-skilled teams to develop projects. (Grant 2008). Conclusion When all these operation management processes are carried out along these lines, the resultant product or the services will be optimum quality. As those products or services will exhibit good quality, they can be easily marketed to reach the customers. One of the key objectives of any business organisation is to reach a position where it is able to attract more customers than its competitors and give them an optimum experience. In order to gain such a competitive advantage, quality need to be incorporated. Thus, only if organizations achieve excellence in quality, it can reach the ‘minds’ of the customers, then entice them and eventually ‘push’ them to buy the organization’s products or use their services. “Quality is ensuring everything we do has the customer in mind... Quality is about building reputation, performance and an attitude of winning in everything we do.” (Zafirovski) References Dahlgaard-Park, S.M 1999, “Understanding human needs and core values – the prerequisite for building people and organisational excellence”, Proceedings of the Italian Conference on Quality in Healthcare, Keynote paper. Dahlgaard-Park, S.M. and Dahlgaard, J.J. 2007, Excellence – 25 years evolution, Journal of Management History, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 371-393, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Davies, J 2007, The effect of academic culture on the implementation of the EFQM Excellence Model in UK universities, Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 382-401 Grant, R.M, AES Corporation: Rewriting the Rules of Management, viewed on March 12, 2010 http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/grant/docs/17AES.pdf. Latham, G.P., Erez, M., & Locke, E.A. 1988, Resolving scientific disputes by the joint Goal-setting design of crucial experiments: Application to the Erez-Latham dispute regarding participation in goal setting, Journal of Applied Psychology (monograph), 73, 753-77. Luecke, R. 2004, Coaching and Mentoring: How to Develop Top Talent and Achieve Stronger Performance. Harvard Business School Senge, P., 1990, ‘The Fifth Discipline; The Art and Practice of the Learning’ Organisation, Century Business, New York Zafirovski, M, Quality and Customer Satisfaction, viewed on March 12, 2010 http://www.nortel.com/corporate/programs/gcvm/index.html Read More