Operations Management Case Study

Operations Management Case Study Preface: Western Bainoona Group â€Å"WBG† is Transportation, Roads and infrastructure general contracting; it has been established since 1990. It has 5 internal heads sections with 5000 persons. I will implement my company â€Å"WBG† as a study case on every task. Explain the importance of effective operations management in achieving organizational objectives (A.C 1-1) The operations management which is managing the processes to produce and distribute products and services has the big effective on achieving the objectives of the company due to several important factors: Operations management is responsible for short term objectives which considered as milestones to reach the long term objectives, therefore if the operations management is close to company short objectives, definitely the company long term objectives will be targeted. Operations management considered Micro analysis â€Å" SWOT analysis† which help the company to know the strength , weakness, opportunities and threats factors which affect on achieving the goals, so if the operations management doing this analysis in correct way , the company will take the advantage of the strength and opportunities factors and take care from the threats and weakness factors. Operations management depends on detailed level of aggregation so it will be always close to deep details in the company and in the market which helps the company to win chances, to avoid bad surprises and to be prepared always so it will serve the company to achieve its objectives easily without obstructions. Operations management is the balance between company inputs and outputs so if the balance between controlling company resources and achieving customer satisfaction is achieved so the company objectives will be targeted. Evaluate the success of existing operations management processes in meeting an organization’s overall strategic management objectives. (A.C. 1-2) To evaluate WBG operations management, we have to define the operations function. If we go through WBG operations function, easily we could see that operations are supporting the company strategy because WBG capabilities are bigger than the company plan and strategy due to strong capabilities factors such as huge infrastructure, thousands of employees and different procedures comparing with WBG Mission which is providing optimum quality in a timely and cost-effective manner with care to society and the environment. So for WBG operations management evaluation, we could go through 5 factors to compare between operations management performance and WBG mission: Quality : Inside WBG, it’s famous that the things must be done twice to be in proper way so the quality of operations must be enhances to meet the company mission and strategy. Speed : Some departments inside WBG are doing the works quickly like HR and contracting but the other departments are not like Garage and heavy equipments so the speed of operations must be enhanced in some divisions. Dependability : Dependability needs to be enhanced due to double works culture inside the company. Flexibility : The flexibility is strong inside WBG due to huge resources and good leadership. Cost : Doing the things cheaply is the procedure for any work inside WBG but because of double works, the cost is becoming more and more sometimes so the operations management must taking care of the cost and prevent double works. Explain the importance of effective quality management in achieving organizational objectives. (A.C 2-1) The quality management concentrates on the savings and additional revenue that company could realize if it eliminate errors and double works throughout its operations and produce products and services at the optimal level of quality desired by its customers. In case of achieving that, the company objectives will be targeted easily. Also quality management allow the company to meet current quality levels, meet the consumer’s requirement for quality, save employees through competitive training programs, and keep up with the latest technology which help the company to compete inside the market continuously and in same time achieving its objectives. On the other hand, quality management defines the areas which need to be enhanced inside the company, specifies the time of achieving quality results which will serve company goals, makes MACRO and MICRO analysis which help the company to define the market and entire system advantages and disadvantages and deploys the quality in all company divisions in different shapes. . Evaluate the success of existing quality management processes in meeting an organization’s overall strategic management objectives. (A.C 2-2) To evaluate the current quality management of WBG, we have to go through some important elements which affect on quality: Errors and double works : Till today, the existing quality management didn’t control the errors percentages which are high and the double works culture inside the company due to careless of employees, ignoring of the procedures and less knowledge. These things cause loss in money and time always. Desired customers’ optimal level of quality WBG in the recent years has ISO 9000 and special grade approval from municipality after it was 3rd grade. This Paradigm shift is due to customer’s satisfaction, products and services optimal quality. So the existing quality management must continue developing the optimal customer level of quality to be the first line inside market. Competitive training programs for employees Unfortunately, the existing quality management didn’t make any quality training for the employees and because of that a lot of errors and double works still happened. Latest market technology The existing quality management tried to use the latest market technology in its products and services but sometimes it didn’t use this due to cost issue. So it has to reserve special budget for quality developments. The time of achieving quality results Unfortunately, the existing quality management didn’t clear the time of achieving the quality results so the company long term objectives duration are not specified or known. 3.1 Plan a strategic quality change to improve organizational performance. (A.C.3-1) WBG must use the Forced Choice Model in its planning of strategic quality change because it has good description what will be happened in the next couple of years as the construction field could be predicted. The main long term objective is to achieve the company vision which says taking WBG forward as a leading construction company in the region and move on decisively towards a wider existence. Under this vision, we can make strategic quality plan for Contracting Department .the force model can analysis the department position by SWOT and Environmental assessment by PESTE. SWOT analysis can show the following: S: Internal Strengths: Strong budget and cash flow situation, good relations between staff, strong and big structure department, ISO certificates, Professional classification approval from ADM municipality, new IT system. W: Internal weakness: No QA/QC division, Lack of proposition, shortage of discerning skilled employees, Low motivation level, lack of employee’s commitment, some unskilled managers. O: External Opportunities: Excellent relations with authorities, contractors and clients, Banks Finance support, competitors vulnerabilities such as finance issues and authorities approval. T: External Threads: A Labour law, availability of resources, taxation, new legislations, Economic crises, increased trade barriers, competitor intentions PESTE –Macro environment analysis: We will find politically that UAE has stable government. Economically, market had enhanced and developed as the projects are increased due to EXPO2020. Socially, UAE has suitable demographics and good lifestyle trends. Technologically, the infrastructure level is helping too much to establish projects. Environmentally, the climate is suitable for construction and all resources are close. Strategy option : After the Macro and Micro analysis are done, the appropriate strategy for contracting department is â€Å"Competitive tenders pricing, decrease resources wastage and increase products and services quality â€Å". Requirements for implementing strategy option : Doing continuity different Training quality courses for supervisors, staff and engineers. Recruitment of skilled pricing manager, QA/QC manager and project managers. Develop the system and the coordination between contracting division and others. Create quality assurance and quality control divisions. Making known rewards system. Contingency Plans : Asking help from third party consultancy management offices. Joint venture with main contractors. 3.2 Define resources, tools and systems to support business processes in a strategic quality change (AC 3.2) Resources: Human Resources : staff , trainers ,supervisors ,engineers and managers Material Resources: all WBG material in its asphalt plant and crushers. Transportation Resources: Fleet of cars, trucks and six wheels. Tools: Heavy and light equipments. Emails and reports. WBG Garage. WBG office. Meetings. System: Training system. Rewards system. Company systems such as oracle, primavera, etc. HR system. 3.3 Evaluate the wider implications of planned strategic quality change in an organization. (AC 3.3) The evaluation of strategic quality change application in Contracting Department could be observed through some major elements: Cost : Q: Does the cost of the past repeated works and material wastage is more than existing quality training courses cost? If yes, that means the training courses must be proceeded and evaluated monthly by observing the wastage of material on construction site and percentage of repeated works, if the percentage is going to be lower than the past, that means the training courses is doing well, but if not, the company must check the problem either from impropriate courses or employees careless. Productivity : Q: Does Contracting Department win more tenders after strategic quality change application? Q: Does daily progress becomes more than before? If yes, that means the productivity on proper way but if not, it must check the cause either from improper coordination or personnel issues. Profitability : Q: Does Contracting Department specify time to gain the benefits from strategic quality change application? If yes, that means it has to observe the profitability percentage as planed or less. But if not, it must specify planned time to gain benefits otherwise the risk is too high. Products and services Quality : Q: Do suppliers and clients satisfy from products and services? Q: Do new suppliers and clients make agreement with WBG contracting department? If yes, that means the quality in right way. But if not, it must check with QA/QC division to explain the causes. 3.4 Design systems to monitor the implementation of a strategic quality change in an organization (AC 3.4) Monitoring the Training system : After staff, supervisors and engineers are done any training course, the contracting management must measure the percentage of understanding this course by doing small technical test on papers and on sites by daily progress reports to ensure that people got the benefit from the training or not. Monitoring the Daily work system : The seniors and managers of the contracting department must observe cost _items budget and cash flow_, schedule _milestones_ and quality through arranged below steps: Daily progress report from every employee and must handed over officially by internal mail system. All daily reports must be entered to analytical program to know the strong points and problem points for every employee works. Seniors and managers must interfere directly on time to solve any problem or misunderstanding of execution the strategic quality plan or procedures. Weekly feedback report must be given to every employee to show the progress and assess the efforts. Monthly encouraged rewords to the deserved employees who did the max progress works with less mistakes to motivate the employees to use this strategic quality change plan and to be more familiar with it. Weekly progress meeting must be held to discuss about the progress and to maintain the problems. Making seminars every 2 months and show all the employees the results of execution the strategic quality change and promise all employees with good yearly bonus if they doing their best to achieve the targets. 4.1 Implement a strategic quality change in an organization (A.C.4-1) By using of process mapping as below Figure†1† which shows the current system of contracting department Source: WBG Current contracting system So the proposed process mapping which will help to implement strategy quality change is as below Figure†2† Source: WBG Proposed contracting system 4.2 Embed a quality culture in an organization to ensure continuous monitoring and development. (A.C.4-2) To embed the quality in WBG Contracting Department, the management must do the following: Training Courses in different types of quality to teach the staff how to deal with the process in quality way which means low cost, less time and best results. Share the monthly process results to all stakeholders to show them the difference between using strategic quality and without. Encourage stakeholders by giving rewords and holidays. Give the shareholders more benefits in case of they targeted more goals for the company. Use latest technology to observe the process and system inside the deprtment and the company. 4.3 Monitor the implementation of a strategic quality change in an organization (AC 4.3) Daily progress report from every senior to his project manager who is responsible to compare between the actual schedule and the planned one so easily he could mark all the millstones which were delayed or achieved in advance. Also every PM must send this report to the operation manager who will evaluate the status of all projects. Quality Assurance: the QA engineers with managers must ensure that all daily operations and processes which are developed to appropriate the strategic change are on the right way and in case of any violations such as wrong material orders; they have to take action directly. Quality Control: the QC engineers with manager must control Budget, Quality, implementation methods, etc to evaluate the processes status and give the management real feedback about it. Meetings: all the senior management must meet once weekly to discuss about the progress and to maintain the problems. 5.1 Evaluate the outcomes of a strategic quality change in an organization (AC 5.1) Budget Reviews : The Contracting Department Manager must check the budget situation according to actual progress and planned cash flow so easily he could know the all outcomes after implementing the strategic quality change are similar to before situation or going better. Employee Machinery working hours VS Progress: The Contracting Department Manager can compare between the actual employees and machineries working hours and the planned estimated working hours by time sheet. So he could know the projects used extra working hours as before or within the estimated schedule as per the strategic quality planned. Time Schedule: The Contracting Department Manager could compare between the actual schedule and the planned one as per the strategic quality planned. So easily he could mark all the millstones which were delayed or achieved in advance. So by doing Check Sheet for the previous elements in every project, the things will be easier: 5.2 Recommend areas for improvement to a strategic quality change that align with organizational objectives (AC 5.2) Client Satisfaction : The client must be satisfied with WBG projects in all items so the contracting management must be careful to satisfy the clients give more efforts and expenses even if it’s out a little bit of the main scope because if the client is satisfying, sure the company will be in his priority in the next projects. Safe the employees : The contracting management must appreciate the employee’s efforts by sending thanking mails and give some days off to relax before transfer them to the next project. And in case there is no new project, they could send the employees for open vacation without terminate them so the Staff will increase their loyalty to the company. Paper works : The contracting management must ensure that all activities and lesson leaned are registered daily to give good feedback and lessons for the future. Share the benefits : The contracting management must give Bonus to the employees which aims to increase their efforts in implementation of strategic quality plan. References Quality.co.uk, (2015).The Quality Manual Management Network. [online] Available at: http://www.quality.co.uk/ [Accessed 3 Jan. 2015]. Bsigroup.com, (2015).ISO 9001 Quality Management | BSI Group. [online] Available at: http://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/iso-9001-quality-management/ [Accessed 12 Jan. 2015]. BusinessDictionary.com, (2015).What is total quality management (TQM)? Definition and meaning. [online] Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/total-quality-management-TQM.html [Accessed 11 Jan. 2015]. Tutorialspoint.com, (2015).Basic Quality Tools. [online] Available at: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/basic_quality_tools.htm [Accessed 13 Jan. 2015]. Bia.ca, (2015).Strategic Quality Planning. [online] Available at: http://www.bia.ca/strategic-quality-planning.htm [Accessed 13 Jan. 2015]. Total Words: 2,992 [1]