Homework #1 First Draft
The first part of your answer flowed well; the last part did not flow as well and had some grammatical errors. You did fine on the ‘points’, not quite as well in supporting those points. There were some concepts not used quite correctly.
Scott
This case shows no evidence of how they arrived at their scenario for success with their product. Where is the market research? Rob and Diane have stated that their focus is on the customers’ perceived quality of both the products and service and providing unexpected value. They must involve the customer and consumer to determine their wants and needs, and values. They will have to perform surveys, and develop a way of evaluating the data, creating and implementing change based on this data. Rob and Diane need to realize the difference between customer and consumer. Customer is the person that purchases the product and a consumer is the person that will be consuming the product. As presented in the case they are only taking into account the customer. If they do not evaluate and take into account the needs of the consumer they are not including all of the stakeholders. Who are the stakeholders?
The management of this restaurant needs to realize that wants, needs, and values are dynamic and will change over time. They must be ready to recognize when change is occurring and be prepared to change with the times. The management has to anticipate the wants and needs of the customers and consumers better than the customer in order to stay ahead of competitors. The wants and needs of the customers/consumers need to be used to determine which processes need to be measured to determine which processes produce products that are exciters and which are dissatisfiers products are exciters or dissatisfiers. Exciters are the things that customer/consumer do not expect from the process and are pleasantly surprised. Dissatisfiers are things that are below the expectation of the customer/consumer Not completely correct. Dissatisfiers are product characteristics that when not included in the product, the consumer is dissatisfied, they are expected.
Before a restaurant like this is started the owners and management must know the key success factors and the main change agents of those key success factors (KSF). The restaurant must continually monitor their society and environment around them for these success factors (things we do internal to a firm that are industry specific in creating success) and change agents (internal and external) to determine if the restaurant is changing or if the environment is changing. The restaurant needs to continually take measurements to evaluate the status of success factors and change agents. The product and processes need to be constructed around these success factors and change agents so that when something happens to ether, there will be a correct process adjustment. While Rob and Diane note that this is important to them, no plan has been formulated to make this happen.
The vision stated in the case is too broad. The organizational level management needs to have the motivation to integrate the knowledge of success factors and change agents into the mission, vision and strategy statements. R&D probably have no idea of the levels within and organizaiton The organizational level management needs to perform a Strengths, Weaknesses (how they are doing relative to KSF), Opportunities, and Threats (change agents and other changes in environment) (SWOT) analysis and incorporate them into their mission, vision and strategy statements. The mission should define the restaurant’s reason for existence and should include definition of products and service, technologies to provide products and services, customer and consumer wants and needs, and expertise that sets the restaurant apart from their competition. The vision statement should reflect where the restaurant is headed and/or what the restaurant wants to be in future. The strategy should reflect how the restaurant detailed in the mission statement plans on becoming the restaurant described in the vision statement. Management must realize that the mission, vision, and strategy will change over time as the environment changes.
The production strategy of products goods and services service is a product (a product can consist of a tangible portion (a good) and/or an intangible portion (service) must have a mix of cost, flexibility, speed and quality to give a marketing edge. The characteristics of the product isare driven by each of these four components. Cost is the cost of production. The production of food must be flexible to shrink or grow as demand increases, will there be a stockpile of supplies or will inventory be delivered just in time. The production of food must be flexible enough to customize food to the individual order or will the customer only be able to order the food one way. Speed has to do with how fast can the food be produced, delivered to the customer,/ consumer. Due to awareness of what ‘high’ quality constitutes Iin today’s society the food will have to be prepared with high quality, as Rob and Diane have already expressed.
Rob and Diane have said this is important and that the employee has the authority but do the business?? and the employees have the tools to actually do it. The employees must know the boundaries, where is the line when dealing with an unsatisfied customer. If the employee crosses this boundary the employee may be let go or if the employee continues to cross it, presents a situation where the business is not making money and the management must know the bottom line as to where the limit should be drawn.
The employee doing the work should have the authority to make changes to the process with out threat of a bad evaluation or termination. Through knowledge gained from use,Tthe employee doing the work has the experience to determine if the processes are working or if there is room for improvement why, the five words I added to the sentence does not make the sentence too long and clearly expresses why a manager should listen to a line worker. The process level management should have the motivation and authority to take the knowledge of industry, business, supply chain, process and technology and integrate those into processes, good communication, and abilities. The operational level should have the motivation and authority to take the knowledge of product specification, how job relates to product, polices, and mission and vision and integrate that knowledge into the processes.
Rob and Diane have state that the restaurant should have one supplier, however the restaurant should have more than one supplier. This will allow for more competition between suppliers (why) such that price of supplies is likely to be lower. In addition, Iif one supplier were to go out of business, where would the restaurant get supplies? To insure that local needs are met on time Tthe process level management needs to work with suppliers to improve products and processes, not a central purchasing agent. The why is not connected to the preceding question, seems as though you are advancing another argument The suppliers will need advanced warning to allow for proper planning of the supplies needed. The restaurant should get a commitment to partner towards quality from the supplier. The supply chain should be managed to get information about competitors, which will help to develop key success factors and change agents???. Multiple suppliers also can create more of a competition to provide lower cost supplies. redundancy
The products and processes used to create them must allow for continuous improvement, which will create an increasing value of the products goods and services the restaurant will provide. Value is defined as what you get for what you give up. The value of the product must be higher than the competitor’s product.
The case did describe training at all levels and training managers in more than one position so they know the responsibilities of all employees. The training should include continual learning; the employees should continue to learn, which will promote continuous improvement.
There should be a feed back loop that will allow positive change to processes and products. Thus, [connect your arguments and the support to those arguments] The management needs to meet communicate more frequently than quarterly. If they meet quarterly the feedback loop may not be able to react quickly enough to capture additional profits from continuous improvement as soon as an improvement is discovered. Meetings do not require everybody to be at the same place and time. The discussions between management lines need to be continuousreal time. Thus, The different management lines of communication should discussing things as they come up. Transition
Rob and Diane must realize there are two perspectives on quality. The first is subjective and is from the subjective view of the customer / consumer relative to specifications. The only way that this can be determined is through research and surveys. The second perspective is objective, which is relative to some benchmark specifications. Total Quality Management (TQM) is based on using a scientific method of taking empirical data and measurements and analysiszing to determine if product means meets specifications.
TQM has five facets the first is Quality Management (QM), which at the organization level is more about leadership and management. QM at the process level is determining how to build the process, and at the operational level is about controlling the process. The second facet is Quality Assessment (QA), at the organizational level it is assessing the whole process internal, external and the environment. The organizational level also involves evaluating SWOT, evaluating the processes we are using to do our jobs. QA at the process level involves determining what support process do we need to support the project and service we are selling. The process level also involves looking at did we make the right decisions, are processes doing what we planned. QA at the operational level is assessing tasks, process, peers, managers, and leaders and assessing ourselves. The next facet of TQM is Quality Design, which is taking the information for from QA and making sure that you have products and processes that you haveproduces the outcome that the user needs.
The fourth part of TQM is Quality Conformance, which means is the product conforming to the design. The process must conform to continuous improvement, goal congruent, and stakeholder centric. The last part of TQM is Quality Control (QC). QC is checking the processes for conformance.; Measuring measuring to determine if we are conforming to the specifications and utilizing those measures in an effective manor to adjust the processes.
Rob and Diane have started to determine the “correct product.” After they apply the principles described above to their restaurant they will have a better understanding of what the “correct product” is. Until and unless they follow the business practices of TQM, their understanding of the market, consumer and customer wants and needs and their ability to evolve will be severely limited.
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