There are many theories can be used to reduce all these gaps and improve service quality. Starting from Total Quality Management (TQM) and as define by Kelemen (1995), “TQM is a philosophy and practice of management which aims to satisfy the customers by means of employee involvement, consistent leadership and continuous improvement. In so doing, it brings together a number of hard and soft technologies of quality management.” TQM features include good leadership and commitment from top management, staffs participation, customer-driven quality, continuous improvement, rapid response, actions based on facts and a TQM culture.
TQM is a way of how company works which required great deal of commitment and involvement from management in order to
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The principles of BPR includes to rethink business processes in a more cross-functional manner, position work to be around the flow of information and customers, work towards improvements in performance, tolerate risks, multi-tasking of sources and staffs empowerment. BPR can improve a company in term of profitability, corporate flexibility, measurability, quality and control, customer focus, speed of service delivery and responsiveness (Hammer 2000).However, BPR is not suitable for business that seeks stability such as hospitals because it involves radical rethinking and redesigning processes from zero. By using BPR correctly, all gaps would be significantly reduced and service quality can be improved (Powell …show more content…
The five steps of TOC is identify system constraint which is first to find out the part of a system that has the weakest link. Second, decide how to exploit the constraint which is to switch agent to get as much capability as possible from a constraining component without going through large and expensive changes or upgrades. Third, subordinate everything else which is all the non-constraint components of the system are adjusted to enable the constraint component to operate at maximum effectiveness, whole system would be evaluated to find out if the constraint component has shifted or eliminated, if the constraint has been eliminated, the change agent will jumps to step five. Fourth, elevate the constraint which means eliminate the constraint and major changes can now be considered. Fifth, return to step one, but beware of inertia that would prevent improvement (Moss,
Six Sigma is a set of tools, processes and techniques that aid in the improvement of any business processes. It has the ideal goal of perfecting the processes that may make it more efficient and effective. It needs to follow a disciplined and systematic approach to achieve the efficiency and effectiveness that it desires. Six Sigma relies a lot on the data available from the organization; hence, it is important that these data are properly stored and then can be accessed quickly and efficiently by the members of the group. The Six Sigma also tries to eliminate any faults in the process or system, in which it arrives with six standard deviations (hence, the term six sigma) just between the mean and the desired value. The Six sigma process can be applied in almost all processes from manufacturing to transactional. It also does not matter whether the business offers a product or a service.
Today’s world competition is very strong in every kind of businesses. Every organisations must provide high quality products or services in order to survive, however their competitors also providing the same or comparable products or services. An important way to an organisation to get an edge over its competitors is to provide extra service to satisfy and delight their customers, which can retain them and also gain new customers. Therefore the achievement of customer satisfaction must be a major objective in all organisations.
TQM is a company’s complete “culture of quality” approach which focuses on long-term success. It strives for continuous improvement, in all aspects of an organization, as a process and not as a short-term goal. TQM’s involves everyone in the organization to transform the organization into a forward-thinking entity by influencing attitudes, practices, structures, and systems of the entire organization (Business Dictionary, 2014). TQM was crafted by William Edwards Deming, a statistician who specialized in statistical process control after World War II. Deming outlined 14 points of TQM where all people of an organization can constantly search for ways to improve the process, product, and service. Deming developed the
Six sigma is basically a technique that provides tools to improve the capability functioning and quality of their organization. This enhances the performance of an organization that leads to less reduction and improvements in profits of an organization.
According to Strickland (1989), TQM goal is to improve the processes within an organization by emphasizing organization wide continuous quality improvement. It focuses on customer’s need and customer satisfaction. TQM proclaims the values of teamwork, employee empowerment and participative decision-making throughout the organization. Customer satisfaction is the desired outcome that drives this approach. TQM emphasized the need for teamwork ad training to implement their activities (Strickland, 1989).
Six Sigma Process Improvement is a rigorous approach to improving business processes by addressing the underlying causes of variation that lead to poor performance as experienced by the ‘customer’, who is the recipient of the outputs. The early exponents were Motorola and GE in the 1980s. Since then, many organisations ranging from manufacturing to service in all sectors, have successfully deployed Six Sigma to deliver measurable cost, quality and time based improvements.
The original SERVQUAL model was identified into ten elements of service quality; however these elements were collapsed into five factors in the later work, they are reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and
Six sigma (quality control standard), was developed by Motorola in 1986. It is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement and it is a strategy that entrepreneurs can use, either in recession or not, in order to have a successful business. It is a methodology for eliminating defects in any process (Linderman, 2003). In the business world, organizations have to compete between each other and by achieving lower rates of defects it is a way to achieve a competitive advantage. Six sigma, helps to increase customer satisfaction and build loyalties. By achieving customer satisfaction, it ensures a flow of cash even when there is a cyclical downturn in industry (Kwak and Anbari, 2006).
There were concerns regarding in terms of expectations and the significance of the ‘‘gap’’ as a way of measuring quality. Additionally, when the SERVQUAL dimensions became just five it has been reported a generalisation through the different types of services. Cronin and Taylor (1992) they created the SERVPREF scale base on the SERVQUAL, they believed that the latter was creating confusions regarding the customers satisfaction levels as the five detentions of the model should not be measured separately but as one element. Also, core elements such as price and access were mistreated in taking consideration on satisfaction level (Cronin & Taylor 1992; Karassavidou et al.
In today's competitive environment, organizations must earn the customer's trust by consistently meeting or exceeding expectations. The disparity between expectation and perception is the major determining factor in a customer's assessment of quality of service. Service quality and customer service is very important. One of the most important customer service skills you can develop is the ability to understand and effectively respond to the customer's needs and concerns. For a long time, a sale has been perceived to be mostly about trying to convince the customer that he needs the product. Excellent customer service starts by first taking the time to get to know the customer, their situation, vision, frustrations, and goals. Service quality is very important. Companies should use the strategy: Under promise and Over deliver.
The dimensions of service quality refer to the attributes which contribute to consumer expectations and perceptions of service quality, thus serving as the determinants of consumers’ quality assessment (Rowley, 1998). The most well-known, commonly used service quality scale is the SERVQUAL, a general instrument for measuring service quality developed by Parasuraman et al., (1988). It includes five dimensions of service quality: (1) tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials; (2) reliability: ability to perform the promised services dependably and accurately; (3) responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service; (4) assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence; and (5) empathy: caring, individualized attention that a firm provides its
Total quality management represents both a social revolution in the work place and a rigorously effective approach to professionalism and success. Total quality management is a management system that is an integral part of an organization's strategy and is aimed at continually improving products and service quality so as to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction and build strong customer loyalty .In other words, the true Total Quality organization will eliminate all competition other than from other Total Quality giants. Many companies have benefited from an emphasis on TQM; however, it does require a considerable amount of company wide commitment to be successful . The customer doesn't know what is technically or organizationally feasible. So the key, challenge to a competitive organization, is to raise the expectations of the market place by providing goods and services at quality levels higher than those offered by the competition.
“While Total Quality Management has proven to be an effective process for improving organizational functioning, its value can only be assured through a comprehensive and well thought out implementation process” (Packard, 1995). Implementing TQM requires large scale change. Change can be difficult in a culture where patterns have been ingrained. However, the survival of the company is dependent upon the change. Change is not just focused on the customer but also on the entire culture of the organization, its belief systems and decision making processes. Changes done according to a plan are usually successful.
Introduction Effectively integrating information technology (IT) into an organization’s business processes is critical if the organization wants to increase productivity and remain profitable. IT includes items such as the systems software, application software, computer hardware, and the networks and databases that help manage the organization’s information. When implementing quality standards and processes that are forever changing in the IT world, organizations must balance these changes while continuing to rapidly implement new systems technologies in order to stay competitive. Quality improvements in IT delivery and service support can be improved by measuring and tracking user satisfaction, integration and flexibility early on in the decision process and reinforcing them throughout the review process. Adhering to quality management best practices means ensuring that quality standards are strictly enforced and entrenched into the organization’s philosophy.
TQM is essential to be used by all the companies especially the manufacturing companies who have the responsibility to ensure about the quality of the product. TQM is being viewed as the boon and it is an approach for improving the quality and customer satisfaction in the long run and also reduces the amount of waste (www.businessknowledgesource.com). There are various components which have to be addressed in implementing the TQM they are Ethics, integrity, training, trust, teamwork, communication and recognition (www.businessknowledgesource.com).