Topic Engagement and Participation

Question: Discuss about theTopic Engagement and Participation. Answer: Introduction: The blog enteries has been written on topic managing for quality and performance excellence. The case study mentioned in book applying process improvement tools to an order fulfillment process has been used to make suitable references in discussion and comments section. The blog entries are self generated, however they are linked to the process improvement tools and managing quality. The comments and discussion section of the report identifies some points about the topic and it is linked with key issues discussed in case study of applying process improvement tools to an order fulfillment process. The comments and discussion has been made on the basis of Aim privacy policy. The comments have been discussed with consideration of topic. 4 self generated blog entries and 4 comments and discussion section for each has been done in the assignment. The references have been shown at the end of the document. Blog Enteries Quality Management and Customer Satisfaction According to the Snee Hoerl (2003), customer satisfaction is not associated with objective statistics but it is more an attitude or feeling. Customer satisfaction increases the buy more frequently and buy more options where a successful purchase improves the cash flow only. The major goal of quality management team in an organisation is customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is one of the major goal of an organisation because if there customers are not satified the organisation will not able to survive in the market. Customer satifaction comes in various forms, the one is asssociated with quality of product and its usability over the process and other one is associated with delievery of services. In case of product order fulfillment also comes with services in few cases such as in case of automotive car parts distribution, services would be considered the most important aspect of customer satisfaction. If a distrubution center is not able to delever the automotive parts on tim e then it would directly impact the quality of service of organisation. Comments And Discussion It is true that customer satisfaction is not always associated with product quality sometime it is associated with quality of services comes along with product. As per the case study of applying process improvement tools to an order fulfilement process, the branded automatice parts were deleivered by the distributor whose quality is signified to the consumers but how it is served to the customers makes the difference. But the question is only customer satisfaction is the goal of quality management? According to Brennan (2011), Only customer satisfaction is not the only goal of qaulity management, instead it is associated with company goals as well such as reduced operating cost Best Process Improvement Tools for order Fulfillment Process An order fulfillment process is the key to provide quality services to its customers. The quality of services in an organisation depends on this process only, if the process is not effective and efficient then it will effect quality further customer satisfaction and organisations cash flow as well. There are several tools that can be used to improve order fulfillment process such as Pareto chart, DMAIC model, Cause and effect diagram etc. A pareto chart is a vertical bar graph that helps to determine the problems need attention as the taller bar shows the variables that have maximum impact over the process. Pareto chart is based on Pareto principal who maintains 80% of the output and 20% of input. Pareto is also known as basic tool for controlling quality (Jeston and Nelis, 2006). The DMAIC model is most common six sigma approach in improving order fulfillment process, the model has 5 phases: define measure, analyze, improve and control. The cause and effect diagram is a tool that is used to analyze what are the cause and effects of a problem on order fulfillment process. The best six sigma approaches DMAIC because it is a complete framework to improve the order fulfillment process rather than just being an analysis tool. Comments and Discussion In addition to process improvement tools creative problem solving is also eseential to improvise order fulfillment process. The process improvement tools that has been disucssed in above posts are the basic tools. The cause and effects tool is the best tool to identify the creative solution. A text book solution is a non-creative solution. The case study of Applying process improvement tools to an order fulfillment process shows how automative parts distributor applied creative problem solving in study of demining cycle by going through a brainstorming session with internal stakeholders (Evans et al., 2008). Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve- Control (DMAIC Model) and Demining Cycle to Improve Order Fulfilment Process DMAIC model is based on 5 improvement steps: define, measure, analyze, improve and control. The define is the initial step where leader needs to define the current situation as well objectives of the improvement. After define stage the next step is measure where activities are measured on the basis of time and cost. Each and every activity in the order process is measured for time. Once each and every activity is measured on the basis of the time and cost the next step is improvisation. At improve stage the activities taking maximum time and cost are planned to be improved. At this stage the solution of the problem is identified. The final step of the model is control where activities changes for improvisation are controlled on the basis of set objectives (Wisner and Stanley, 2008). Demining cycle includes four stages: plan, study, do and Act. At stage of plan the situation is critically analyzed, after that relevant study to sort out the problem is conducted in order to find the best solution for the situation. The act is the last stage where planned solution is implemented (Adam, 2003). According to the case study published in Managing for quality and performance excellence the problem that was identified in order fulfillment process of the organization was associated with picking time that was because of small carts. The problem was identified at first stage and brainstorming was used to study and determine solution which was then implemented by the team. The case study shows that team has worked on DMAIC model. Comment and Discussion A best implementation of DMAIC model has been seen in book Managing for quality and performance excellence The manger identified why deliveries get delayed and which activity takes the maximum time and the measured average time of these activities and utilized creative problem solving to determine solution that was long cart to reduce picking time. How Activity Delays Affects the Order Fulfillment Process and its Quality In an order fulfillment process time and cost required by the activities plays an essential role as it defines the effectiveness and efficiency of the process. The improvement in process is always associated with activity time and cost. Activity delays in order fulfillment process affect the customer satisfaction which is one of the major concerns of an organization. There are so many impacts of delayed activity on organization such as additional operational cost, quality improvement analysis cost as the company need to carry out DMAIC activities which increases the cost (Evans et al., 2008). The internal and external customers of the organization are also impacted with such activity delays (Cumberlidge, 2007). The internal customer of the organization is employees who are running the operations and these delays can affect their working and performance as well. On other side external customers satisfaction is badly impacted by such delays as happened in case of applying process improvement tools to an order fulfillment process mentioned in Managing for quality and performance excellence. Comment and Discussion The activities as cause of delay can be anyone but the impact of activity would be same on organization. The difference will be improving and controlling stage of the DMAIC model. The solution will be different if packaging time is the core reason of delay instead of picking time. And its true that its impact on organization will be increase cost, lost customers and loss in profit. References Snee, R. Hoerl, R. (2003). Leading Six Sigma. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Brennan, L. (2011). Operations management. New York: McGraw-Hill. Jeston, J. Nelis, J. (2006). Business process management. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. Wisner, J. Stanley, L. (2008). Process management. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western. Snack, N. et al. (2006).Operations and Process Management: Principles and practice for Kanji, G. Wallace, W. (2000). Business excellence through customer satisfaction. Total Quality Management, 11(7), 979-998. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09544120050135515 Evans, J., Lindsay, W., Evans, J. (2008). Managing for quality and performance excellence. Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Adams, W.C. et al. (2003).Six Sigma Deployments.Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann. Cumberlidge, M. (2007). Business process management with JBoss jBPM. Birmingham, U.K.: Packt Publ.