Services-based processes are characterized by various features that affect the TQM implementation procedures. First, service-based processes are more of customer-focused in quality improvement than the case of manufacturing processes. In service delivery greater emphasize is laid on provision of quality or excellent services to the customer by the provider. When such services are deemed to be of low quality, then essential procedures are instituted to improve on the quality provisions (Oakland 124). Most notably is the approach employed during quality service delivery organizations such as banks, insurance firm (the case of DAV) and healthcare where quality services determines customer satisfaction levels. This is the case of Deutsche Allgemeinversicherung more emphasis is put on the CSOs (i.e. Customer Service Operations) where the management under the watch of Annette kluck considered an improvement on the delivery of insurance services among the various clienteles in Europe niche. Secondly, services-based processes may be distinguished from those in manufacturing by the virtue of the nature of TQM procedures adopted at every stage in service delivery.
For example, during formulation of quality improvement needs in services-based processes consideration are made to include those processes that will offer greater value during service delivery in an attempt to exceed customer satisfaction. Under manufacturing, quality improvement processes also include those procedures that will impact on the product quality from the supplier end till the production process is fully completed. For example, services-based processes are characterized by continuous training on employees in order to equip them with quality methods paramount in service delivery. In manufacturing during procurement procedures, considerations are made to source quality materials from recognized suppliers possibly established under partnership arrangement.
Finally, all services-based processes are characterized by performance improvement as key measure in quality service delivery. Since no tangible element can be evaluated for quality improvement purposes, the basic approach employed by service providers is to establish standards measures or thresholds that every service delivered ought to attain. In situations where services offered fails to meet such thresholds, then the offered service is deemed of poor quality necessitating the need to continuously improve (Oakland 163).For example, upon realization of the need to improve on insurance services offered by DAV, Kluck initiated lasting approach that would cater for performance improvement on various processes.
Contrary, in manufacturing-based processes performance improvement is based on both production procedures as well as to the end product that is usually tangible. For instance, when any firm wishes to improve on product quality the human capital engaged in the production processes will have to be trained in order to equip such personnel with the required skills to deliver the specified quality. Additionally, various standards have to be established in order in order to facilitate quality material sourcing as well as product delivery after manufacturing procedures. It's important to note that, while services-based processes emphasize on customer service, the manufacturing-based processes to lay emphasis on the TQM by controlling quality from sourcing to the entire supply chain under various specifications defined in every stage during production.
Q2: Improvement Tool: Appropriateness of SPC
It's undoubtedly that SPC is the best tool during quality improvement when the need to reduce in various costs is inevitable. Modern organizations have associated this tool with reduced costs as well as improved productivity on organization capacity. SPC is an applied science which assists any business to effectively collect, arrange/organize and finally interpret various information that is availed to the organization from both external and internal sources for competitive purposes. As such this tool is deemed appropriate to those organizations willing to track billing errors or even revenues in order to gauge the level of quality delivery on product or services offered. For example in organizations marred by constant errors in billing or recording after service delivery, SPC would serve a key role to ensure actual measure on quality improvement.
As drawn from the DAV case, retailing of insurance policies may be characterized by various errors due documentation procedures involved prior to and after delivering the service. As such, SPC would play a significant role in ensuring all the perceived errors related to data processing are eliminated. As echoed by Kluck, in order to offer hassle-free or even quality services, there is a need to institute a policy procedure that would minimize on mistakes witnessed during service delivery. In order to reduce on unnecessary costs associated with poor recording and inconsistency service delivery, SPC offers a statistical framework usually made possible by modern software thus minimizing on related manual errors. SPC is also appropriate where any firm wishes to reduce on rework defects while still reducing on scrap processes variables (Oakland 212). The cost having to repeat various tasks in any production procedure is enormous both on resource and expended time. For example, due to poor recording activities in DAV, a lot time was to be spent in redrafting the final records for filing purposes. This approach alone means that, at that particular moment no other productive activity may be executed for the benefit of the entire organization. Where a lot of technical work is done on hourly basis, man-hour would be reduced where scraps are reduced by employing standardized approach in various processes.
It's vital to note that, SPC would assist in reducing scrap owing to its perceived ability to regulate and curtail unnecessary production processes that would result into material wastage.
In addition, SPC is more suitable for manufacturing organizations wishing to ensure consistency in raw materials sourced from various suppliers. As such, cases of product inconsistency are eliminated as well. In order to effectively monitor any defects on various raw materials, modern manufacturing firm finds it's necessary to employ SPC in order to detect related problems and possibly assign the best solution after trouble shooting procedures. Similarly, SPC has been found to be very appropriate in those instances requiring early process performance evaluation. This is mainly achieved from the control chart, which offers solutions to various processes that exhibits average shifts or a state of chaos. Any system inborn chaos affects the entire production procedures and consequently the resulting end-product. Most likely defects are associated with chaotic processes where various variables are uncoordinated giving rises to rework or even task repetition. Finally, SPC is more appropriate in situations where the firm wishes to improve on product quality while still increasing the perceive product out-put levels. For example, any variation on the entire process during tile production will not only result into reduced revenue but also on decline in product quality if necessary measures to improve on the quality are not processed. In this case, SPC would help to eliminate such common variations by digging deep to the root cause in a more standardized approach rather than employing trial-and-error approach.
Q3: Improvement initiative: Launch
Improvement initiative are scheduled or programmed plan aimed at improving the existing quality standards either during service provision or even product manufacturing. Launching such initiative for quality improvement would require an observation of six main steps. First, one ought to indent a vivid opportunity for the launch. An opportunity is basically coined in the underlying improvement need and for such opportunity to be realized the, top management support is very vital. As evidenced from DAV case, there was a clear opportunity to launch an SPC approach in a bid to reduce on delivery costs as supported by the Kluck. Whether the entire project may be lean in nature or even six sigma tool oriented, the role played by top management in supporting the improvement initiative launch also crucial for the success of the entire procedure. For example, the top management may be engaged in orientation session in order to see help the improvement stakeholders realize positive result by deliberately aligning business strategy with the new improvement procedures.
Secondly, it's vital to rank opportunity hopper for prioritization reasons. An improved quality on one end would mean an improved quality of to a related or complementary process. In order reap key benefits from such opportunity deliberate move ought to made in altering old procedures falling under various opportunity hopper. Ranking an opportunity hoppers ought to aligned with owner/authority support in order allow for quicker adoption by having the authority take part in various activities to be introduced by the improvement launch. Any improvement initiative has various resources, data and tools needed to attain the anticipated improvement quality mark (Oakland 306)..
Various opportunity present diverse methodologies which may be applied during full-scale execution procedures. Thirdly, improvement initiate launch would require a clear project identification that will support the enduring improvement procedures. Various initiative launches are determined based on the size of the entire plan or even scope of the new improvement plan. For example, there various types of plan which be employed during this phase, such plan include six sigma, lean project, A Go Do or even an engineering project. Six Sigma project ensures that all procedures are focused on the remarkable decline in various causes' variations. For instance, as observed from DAV, common cause variations related to manual recording were to be eliminated in order to ensure consistency in service delivery.
Forth, improvement initiative launch will require an assigned leader to oversee the entire procedure to completion. Any flaws associated wit the initiatives are reported on regular basis as established in to assist the developer to build effective atmosphere during execution of the entire initiative plan. The leadership is needed in order to offer clear communication on early stages in improvement. For example, as operations department head, Kluck leaderships played a key role in indicating the need for quality important to be observed.
Fifth, during the launch it's vital to determine what form of training is necessary in order to build quality among employees prior to disseminating the same to the entire process. If prior training is not initiated, then flaws resulting from poor measures among implementers would compromise the entire process. For example, immediately after the launch of double-key approach in DAV insurance, first-pass quality was negatively affected as less attention was laid on necessary training that would communicate the stipulated accuracy levels among all parties. Training helps to offer SOP (i.e. Standard Operating Procedures) that would assist in averting any chance of recurring mistakes exhibited in double-key method (Oakland 323).Offering quality training helps in stabilizing the entire process before implementing effective solution. If this is not achieved, then improvement might be lost owing to assignable cause fluctuations. Finally, the improvement initiative is fully launched by having all the necessary procedure executed by various parties.
Q4: Control Chart Analysis: Introducing SPC to the workforce
Introducing SPC to employees would require valuable training as well as thorough data collection evaluation purposes in order determine the effectiveness of the entire process. According to Policy Extension Group data sample, it's evident that SPC was playing an important role in minimizing the perceived number of errors during service delivery. Nearly all the concerned parties enthusiastically accepted the approach in the first 4Weeks before shifting their attitude to traditional approaches as indicated by errors reported after week20.
For example, in week 1 on the 300 sample (n=300), nearly 18 errors were recorded giving rise to about 0.06 mean value (µ=0.06). By considering the time given to all employees to learn the new process operation, by week 4 the number of errors had reduced to about 6, giving rise to a mean of about 0.02 (µ=0.02). Possibly this was realized as Kluck concentrated on changing the employees behavior rather than just involving them in technical procedures. Such an approach would have worked better to alter individual behavior and attitude as exhibited by Monika Volz, who never thought that such a statistical techniques were basically theoretical in nature. Additionally, as more sampling were being taken by week 24 the tally indicated an upsurge on errors on weekly basis, thus indicating how some sample-groups had been dissatisfied with the SPC demands in service delivery. For example, on week 24 alone there were 46 cases of errors by count. This alone accounted for about for about 0.1533 mean/average errors on daily basis (µ=0.1533). This may be attributed to low emphasis on use of PSC among the workforce. Instead the management may possibly emphasize on high indices without considering the need the receptive areas where employees would have embraced PSC more comfortably.
Q5: Kluck's implementation problems
Implementing PSC was faced by a big threat owing to the nature of work in DAV among both temporal as well as permanent employees during heavy days. For example, temporal labor and / or overtime made same day processing more difficult. In spite of this statistical approach being used in DAV's services recording, some procedures such as handwritten customers' forms were basically done manually, thus influencing the resulting SPC's quality. Another notable problem is evidenced by the resistance indicated by some groups prior to accepting the new plan. Since the new process would necessitate training among employees, some employees who were nearing retirement considered this wasteful. Similarly, individuals who were primarily operating in stores found SPC unnecessary. Additionally, Kluck's implementation procedure was time consuming as well as tedious especially during the first few weeks when the plan was initiated. More time is needed to acquaint all employees with key skills in using this new tool to facilitate in quality improvement. In addition, more time was also required due to the pilot stage where the SPC was to be tested for effectiveness in DAV operations.
Another problem is demonstrated by the perceived complexity during initial implementation procedures. Individual who felt that SPC was a waste of time based thier presupposition on the idea that, SPC has failed in many organizations and therefore DAV was yet to be another statistic. Finally, the rate at which this new approach was implemented in DAV created more complications than offering instant solutions. As a result employees did not take time to familiarize with key benefits offered by this statistical tool, and consequently ended up at times ended-up misinterpreting its effectiveness due to inadequacy in measurement system.
Q6: Designing the Process Improvement Phase
In designing any improvement phase, the operations and design team is charged with various specific processes and / or component s that will be included in the final improvement phase in order to realize the anticipated quality standards. During designing phase all the team members are required to effectively examine and well as process various information in full details. During this phase, it's vital to lay down all the required CTQ (i.e. Critical-To-Quality) parameters in order to ensure that all the processes and products meet the set standards. For instance, during SPC designing Kluck's is seen to consider all the processes that will basically influence the anticipated quality under CTQ parameters consideration. Here deliberate move are mode to assign some achievable target values prior to implementing the entire design (Oakland 418). These values act as benchmarks in regulating the perceived deviation between the realized quality and the set thresh-holds. At this stage the team concerns itself with action plan that will be employed during the implementation procedures based on the collected data. In order to get the required quality more often the design team uses VA (Value Analysis) brainstorming in refining as well as identifying the specific design changes.
Meanwhile, if there is any need to include some re-design recommendations then necessary steps are taken to quantify such designs for approval purposes. As evidenced from DAV case, the necessary designs are communicated to all individuals to allow easier transition from old system during implementation. Additionally, all the necessary monitoring plans are developed at this step. Monitoring plans assist in aligning actual designs parameters with the realized results derived from improvement plan. Monitoring can take various parameters such as time cycles in offering services or even downtime in cases of machineries/equipments. It's at this phase where the actual solution on the problem is stated in actual terms.
All CTQ parameters assist in building an effective quality improvement plan inclusive of the required solutions, and processes that makes possible to continuously monitor future developments. These parameters ease the procedures used during the development phase b allowing clear guideline on the action plan.
Work Cited
Oakland, John. Total quality management: text with cases. London, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003.
