Reference no: EM133424649
Operational Performance Measures
Zuma Company manufactures surfboards. The controller prepares a weekly production efficiency report and sends it to corporate headquarters. The data compiled in these reports for a recent six-week period follow
Required
a. transcribe a memo to the company president evaluating the plant's performance.
There are a number of areas of concern I believe can be resolved by one or multiple on site visits. The first area of concern is percentage of manufacturing cycle efficency showing a significant decline in weeks 4 through week 6. The second area of concern is the decline in percentage of on time deliveries beginning in week 2 that continues through week 6 to an 8 percent total decline. The third area of concern is a sharp rise in customer complaints in week 6.
b.If you identify any areas of concern in your memo, indicate an appropriate action for management to take. Indicate any additional information you would like to have to make your evaluation.
Manufacturing cycle efficency includes processing, moving, storing, and inspecting. I would need more information reguarding machinery, training and staffing in all the mentioned areas.
I would like to know more about the number of employees. Especially the number doing the deliveries. Perhaps the decline in on time deliveries is due to a staffing shortage.
Zuma must examine what the bulk of complaints are coming from in order to remedy the issue.
Question: Employee Involvement
The interaction between customers and line employees is often more direct in service industries than in manufacturing firms. At the same time, we often observe that employees in many service firms (for example, in hotels and airlines) are given authority to respond to customer concerns without having to seek approval from their supervisors. Desk clerks in hotels or gate agents for airlines, for example, are often allowed to offer upgrades, early check-ins, late check-outs, special seats, and so on, as a way to apologize for or remedy problems. It is also a way to proactively build customer satisfaction.
Required
a.How can policies that allow employees to make these decisions help the organization? How might they harm the organization?
Help:
Quicker customer satisfaction.
Involving employees directly allows he or she to understand operations and policies.
Excite employees to engage in performance improvement activities and achieve higher goals.
Gives employees more confidence in their skills.
Front line employees frequently have better ideas for improving performance and policies on significant achievement considerations.
b.You observe these policies less frequently in other service organizations such as banks and other financial institutions. Why might this be the case?
From my own experience working in a bank I do know that some policies are in place that allow employees to make decisions that help the organization. Usually practices like refunding overdraft charges or waving certain fees are designated for the customer service representatives located in the bank branch or in a call center. Larger decisions such as to ban a customer or change an interest rate are designated to branch managers or district mangers. Usually, these decisions are not made by the frontline workers such as tellers.
Banks and other financial institutions are also subject to 2 party control parameters and compliance regulations that other industries such as a clothing store are not held to.