Most organizations in their bid to increase performance plan and implement activities to improve the total quality program to achieve their set targets. Briefly discuss with practical examples, 5 techniques or tools used to DEFINE (use DMAIC model) a process that requires improvement. 

 

GLOBAL ENGINEERING STRATEGY

CASE STUDY (Write 3,000 words)

Strategic management has been widely used by all enterprises to survive aggressive market competition. The strategic planning process is considered objective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions in an organization (Breene et al. 2007, Brews et al., 2007). It allows effective decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty. The strategic management process has three stages: strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation (David, 1998). Strategy plan development is the first step and a vital element that companies should have to withstand fierce market competition and to improve its business performance.

A chemical household cleaning company located in Ghana has tried many different management methods during the last 4 years to improve its business performance.

Most manufacturing companies in the sub-saharan Africa are facing aggressive local, regional and international competition. Strategic management process equips the companies with set of capabilities that allow the companies to survive in such environment. Because of this, Ghanaian companies are forced to adopt strategic planning concepts. This will help set its vision, mission, and build strength. In addition, adopting strategic planning will help in resolving their weaknesses, exploiting opportunities, and avoiding threats. The chemical cleaning household industry is experiencing a very competitive era like many others, thus it is curial to find methods to reduce manufacturing costs, improve quality etc. Alaska Company for Chemical Industries started its operations in January 2018. It is located in the Industrial hub of the capital city of Accra. It specializes in the production of household cleaning chemicals such as dishwashing detergents, bleaching liquid, liquid laundry detergent, floor detergents, shampoo, body wash, and hairstyle gel. Currently, they supply their products to the local market.

The main objective of this strategic planning process is to develop a strategic plan for

the Alaska chemical cleaning household company. An effective strategic planning process

is achieved by developing an External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFEM) and Internal Factor

Evaluation Matrix (IFEM) followed by a Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat (SWOT) and then finally a Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) (Meredith et al., 2009). For

achieving the project’s objectives, the following methodologies were utilized and can be

summarized as follows; setting the mission and vision of the company, perform external

assessment, conduct Porter competitiveness Model, conduct Political-Economical-Social-

Technological (PESTLE) analysis, develop External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFE), perform. Internal assessment and develop Threats-Opportunities-Weaknesses-Strengths Matrix (TOWS Matrix) and combine it with GSP. Finally, construct Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) to evaluate possible strategies. Riston (2008) pointed out the benefits of external and internal analyses which can be summarized as follows;

• Increase managerial awareness of environmental change
• Improve resources allocation decision
• Facilitating risk management
• Acting as an early warning system
• Focusing attention on primary influences on strategic change

Company Information: The status of the company can be summarized as follows; The company has 24 employees, its market share is around 15% with average profit around 15.5%, it ranks 7 out of 20 among local competitors, it does not have strategic plan vision, mission statement, organization structure, or marketing techniques. It relies on labor –intensive manual processes, it does not have R&D activities, a moderate productivity is estimated with traditional inventory control, it has skilled labors with low turnover. The total sales of the company for the four years are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Total sales and profit during the period 2010-2012

                                        2018 (GHC)  2019 (GHC)  2020(GHC)  2021 (GHC)
Sales                                1,891,840     1,920,785      2,040,896    1,906,725
Cost+ Expenses               1,601,443     1,603,856      1,722,517    1,611,183
Net Profit                         290,397        316,929        318,379       295,542
Net profit as % of sales   15.35%         16.5%           15.6%          15.5%

You are approached by the Operations Manager of a small manufacturing facility where they are looking to implement self-driving vehicles known as AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) to improve material handling and inventory control (on site). You are asked to review a survey that has been drafted to elicit employee viewpoints about this operational change. The survey comprises tick boxes for staff to quickly complete, where they score their views on a numerical scale (known as a Likert Scale). Based on your studies of research methods, you feel that this quantitative research approach has limitations (and even potential downsides in terms of staff attitudes). What improvements to this field research might you propose? Provide some supporting text giving your rationale.