Continuous Improvement Plan of Latino Company †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Continuous Improvement Plan of Latino Company. Answer: Introduction Latino Company is facing a lot of problems some of which are as a result of the change in proprietorship to an investment group. As a result of Dominic quit of the business and leaving the business for the investment group, this changed the structure of the organization and decision-making was not entirely on one person shoulder. The change brought radical changes in the management of the business. Dominic was a sole proprietor, and the entire decision-making was one by him. Therefore, the decisions were quick and instant since there were no consultations. The better performance in the manufacturing and development of the engineering equipment was a result of improved work relationship with the workers (Kerzner, 2017 P.78). Also, the result of the exceptional performance was contributed to his passion and his love for designing the equipment. This improved his morale and motivation as the head and the decision maker and emphasized much on excellence that made the enterprise attract a lot of interest to investors. Identifying the root cause(s) by effective tools and techniques After the quit of Dominic Latino in the business, he left it for an investment group where later the clients raised a lot of complaints about the services provided. The complaints are alarming and need an urgent address to avoid the company losing the market share. The paper looks closely what could be the cause of the clients' complaints and provide recommendations that can help in achieving continuous quality improvement. Quality management The company had an excellent performance regarding the equipment provided to customers. This indicates that under Dominic management quality was the overall goal of the company. Therefore, to ensure that quality is provided throughout then total quality management approach is the best for Latino Engineering Company. TQM mainly focus on the process of manufacturing and development and calls all another department to work in collaboration to satisfy customers' expectations (Paliska, Pavletic, and Sokovic, 2017 P.50). Use of tools and techniques The best way to solve the problems of Latino Company is first to identify the cause of the problems that people are complaining about. If the best tools are used to identify the problems, then the best action can be developed to solve the issues. In this case, where the company is losing its popularity and clients' are complaining about the services provided, the 7QCs tools are appropriate (Salah, Rahim, and Carretero, 2010.P.23). The tools include the use of Pareto diagram, Scanner plot, check sheet, causes, effects, control chart and histogram. Therefore cause and effect will help identify the development of the problem and how big harm the causes have brought to the company. Additionally, Pareto diagram is another tool that can help to dig into the causes of problems suffered by Latino Company. Pareto diagram The use of this tool is most effective and requires different elements to be arranged to bring out the association of the elements and how much they contribute to the problem. Using this tool, it can detect which element contributes greatly to the problems identified in Latino Company. Through identification of the magnitude of the problem, the tool can also provide solutions to the problems. Pareto tool can be applied as follows: The first element is the change of proprietorship. Before Dominic sold the business, it was performing excellently as he was the only person to make a decision. Also, he was passionate about the firms' performance which was an intrinsic motivation. It was until his quit on the business as the founder that the problems started arising (Pavleti?, Sokovi?, and Paliska, 2014 n.p) The second element that could have contributed to the problems is deteriorating quality. Latino Engineering Company was better in designing and development of equipment, under the management of Dominic. The quality of the designs started worsening after the takeover. The new management could not bring together the workers in the designing team to work to the standards set by the founder, Dominic Latino. As a result, the equipment provided was defective that led to complaints from the customers (Tannock, Krasachol and Ruangpermpool, 2012 p.67). Thirdly, there was poor communication with the customers. As indicated, workers were happy with how Dominic conducted his leadership roles that developed a healthy and conducive working environment for them. As a result of this, they could quickly respond to the customers, perfect designing. Dominic leadership was habituated with high-quality services to the customers. The set standards and the culture of high-quality services to customers were ignored after the takeover. It is very normal at the current time for businesses to change ownership for reasons of expansion, growth or like Latino Company's case. Dominic Latino opted to quit since he was used in making the decision all by him and did not want to share decision-making roles with other shareholders. This was a good move to allow other people run the business after he had created an impressive image for the company. But as result of the change in management, it did not turn out to be the right thing for Latino Engineering Company. But as a result, there was quality deterioration that raised a lot of complaints from the customers and even threatens to lose the market share of the company. Therefore, the cause of the current problems suffered by Latino emerged from the new management (Yusof and Aspinwall, 2010 p.44)) It is clear from the complaints that under Dominic Latino's management, customers' needs and expectations were met. The standards set for customer satisfaction, help the company expand the customer base and made them enjoy the quality equipment of the company. The thing did not turn as the new management thought but led to making the situation more badly. The investors decided to maintain the name with the hope that operations and manufacturing process will be attained as usual. This seems to be a wrong decision made the investors. Despite retaining all the previous resources of the company, the quality of services provided to the customers was not satisfactory. Dominic had provided a high relation with the workers that translated to productivity (Powell, 2015.p.28). Under the new management, the competencies in manufacturing are not maintained that could be affected by lack of motivation from the human resource department. The problem of lack of competency can be blamed on the human resource department for failure to recruit the skilled workforce to meet the demand of the customers. Additionally, some workers were retained after the change of proprietorship bust sill underperformed in the new management of Investment group. This could as a result of lack of motivation. Another complaint that customers have is the packaging of the wrong products to the wrong destination. This signifies that the workers were intentionally disrupting the operation of the business or the staff who attended the order requests was not trained on their duties and responsibilities adequately. On the marketing and sales department, it brings a big disappointment to the investors. Therefore, human resources department is supposed to ensure that the workers in the different department are competent enough to restore the image and the operation of the company. Another problem that is witnessed in the Latino Company is the customers' relations. The employees are reluctant on responding to customers' needs and request, and in other instances, they do not respond at all. The greatest focus of any organization is the customers that make the goals and objectives of the company to achieve. Consequently, being unresponsive is disrespectful to customers and affects the business economically (McAdam, 2016 P.56). As a result, the competitors of Latino Company will out due to the company and take its market. There is a concern for the company to rectify the current problems to help them in future. Cause-effect diagram Under the use of this tool, it helps link the causes of the problems and the symptoms shown by the company. In short it the relation of the problems to the likely cause of the problems. For Latino Company, the problems are manufacturing of defective equipment and takeover of ownership. It notable there was a problem in the change of management as the cause of the problems. As a result, the overall performance of the firm is affected in all the company's department. There is lack of competence in the manufacturing sector, sales sector, and customer service sector. (Arvanitoyannis and Savelides, 2007.P.45). Similarly, manufacturing of defective equipment and poor designing of the equipment contributes to the poor performance of the firm. Defective products tampered with the quality of services to the clients. This is a result of using defective equipment in production thereby rendering the process worn. The use of the wrong process can be blamed on the employees who fail to detect the equipment before the processes. The administration of the investment group has also failed due to failure to bring change in the department that their performance is below average. The company can consider setting departmental goals that are supposed to help the organization achieve the overall plans. Through the set goals, it will be easy to detect the problems and call the organization department to measure their performance against the set goals. Also, it would be a strategy to motivate the employees to be more productive for the overall efficiency of the business (Magar and Shinde, 2014 P.34). Plan for Elimination of the cause(s) As indicated, that total quality management is the only way for Latino to eliminate their problems since customers complaints revolve around quality. It is the pride of every customer to be given quality and treated with care as they are the patrons of the company. To achieve a well total quality management approach, Latino Company can follow the following steps to overcome the challenges. Customer oriented approach Customers in the market are looking for place or businesses that can satisfy their needs. Loyalty from the customer is gained when the organization offers consistent quality products. Latino Company has to work hard to ensure that the confidence that customers had previous with the products is restored (Sallis, 2014 p.22). The company can ensure either they recruit qualified workforce or train the existing employees on the essentials in managing quality and designs. Another key consideration is upgrading computer systems, acquiring new designs and measuring tools and aligning all these activities with the company overall objectives. The operation calls all departments to participate in giving the desired result. Satisfaction of customers helps maintain loyalty and avoid shifting of customers to competitors since they can feel they are getting the best. Employees' involvement Departmental goals and operation are meant to attain the planned goal in future. Therefore employees should conduct their duties and responsibilities with the aim of achieving the wide company's direction. There are problems witnessed from employees as a way of sabotaging the company, specifically when there are wrong packaging and wrong destination of products. Employees empowerment program are the key issues that Latino Company should do to increase their morale and make them feel that they are part of the success of the company. Like in the previous business management, employees could freely and willingly obey the set standard of operations set by Dominic (Kanji, Malek and Tambi, 2015 P.45). Also, the investment group should provide a conducive environment for workers and create a platform where they can pass their complaints and improve the working relations. Appreciating, rewarding and listening to the employees can improve relationships with the management and the workers. Tea m works can be encouraged to help employees to be self-reliant and sufficient. Process-centered operations For Latino, the current process used has failed to attain the excellent performance. The process by which operations are conducted are supposed to be revised and new responsibilities and duties defined. There are supposed to be the daily goal, weekly goals that are supposed to serve as the benchmark of performance to the employees and the problems can be identified and acted upon immediately. It will be easy to detect the problems on time even when they reach to raise the alarm to customers. The concentration of process-centered operations in Latino Company will ensure that the firm will not find itself in the chambers of underperformance (McAdam, 2016 P12). System integration All the system and functions that lead to ensuring total quality management is achieved are interconnected to achieve the goal. This will ensure all the major and minor function are attended and interconnected without bias to achieve the overall purpose of producing quality. Sometimes some minor functions may be left unattended that can affect the business either in the present or future. Systematic and strategic approach Under this approach, it ensures that the mission and vision of the business are restated, and it is clear to all employees. This will be the guide of Latino workers to strictly observe their operations and determine whether they line with the decisions of the management. An integrated systematic and strategic goal will help the administration detect any inconsistencies in departments and address the issues (Porter and Parker, 2013 P.33). For Latino, the administration has been part of the company underperformance of which they are supposed to be leading in innovations and planning to solve the problems. First, the manufacturing process needs to be redesigned to ensure that quality is the key objective of the process. Also, customers' relations are supposed to be served by responding timely to their request and delivering the right products for their orders. Lastly, is tailoring the equipment to meet customer's needs. Failure to accomplish all the functions has to lead the firm to be rated as an underperformer and even scaring away parties of interest. Quality improvement The first thing that the firm is supposed to do is restore the firm to where it was positioned in the market. This is by solving the current problems. After that, the company has the mandate to ensure that there is continuity in quality production. Continuity in quality production ensures that Latino gains a competitive advantage over other competitors and gain more market share. The company can consider the standards and how Dominic achieved excellent performance. A proper decision-making system Decisions are made using information available. Therefore the information should be based on facts and reliable data. For example marketing decision is the collectors of information from customers and sales reports. Through the information, the management can be able to plan or make the decision using the data. As a result, the decision-making process will be easy, accurate and give a future outlook of the company. Through this companies can give measures to problems. Efficient communication mechanism Communication is the key in an organization since there need communication between workers and the management to help solve issues of the company If Latino creates an efficient communication mechanism, it will help listen to employees, and as a result they will respond the communication to the customers. It is through communication that employees can feel like part of the firm and work to improve on their performance and customers' satisfaction. In Latino, some problems are minor and can be corrected through communication, but since there was a change of ownership I the company, the problem of communication has taken root. All the stated principles and approaches of TQM will help Latino to get back to its glory. The approach will incorporate customers demand and lead to innovations in manufacturing and designing of engineering equipment. Continuous Improvement (CI) Plan Also, continuous improvement will ensure that the operations of Latino Company are in line with its vision and mission (Tannock, Krasachol and Ruangpermpool, 2012 P.120). The step considered include, Quality management ensures that all the engineering products and design developments are of best quality. There should be continuous revival of the production process concerning latest designs and set goals to act as a benchmark for the performance. Human resource management brings motivation to employees and encourages teamwork that includes the activities of Latino Company. The work of the HR department is to recruit, train and retain. Through training, they will equip the existing employees with relevant skills to help discharge their duties responsibly. Latino should undertake the functions of human resource department serious to help achieve total quality management even in future (Sallis, 2014 P.9). When employees performance is excellent, they are supposed to be rewarded with better remuneration, promotions, and appraisals to give them morale to continuously work hard. Efficient communication. Latino should ensure that there is a free communication policy where seniors and juniors can freely communicate. Providing such a free expression platform in the organization, it will help workers to be friendly and restore the relationship they had with their manager Dominic. Vertical and horizontal communication encourages teamwork and free expression of ideas that can be useful to the firm. Also, the information can help in future (Burke, 2013 P.23). Conclusion The management and the way of doing things under the previous proprietorship were perfect and gave light to the upcoming business. Initially, the operations were customer focused, health work relation was established, latest designs were developed that made all the customers feel the Latino products were the best (Dale, 2015 N.P). The current Latino Company, under the management of the investment group, is faced with a lot of problems as result of administration failure, failure to meet customers' needs and producing defective goods. Nevertheless, when Latino follows the outlined steps, it will restore its performance. References Arvanitoyannis, I.S. and Savelides, S.C., 2007. Application of failure mode and effect analysis and cause and effect analysis and Pareto diagram in conjunction with HACCP to a chocolate?producing industry: a case study of tentative GMO detection at pilot plant scale. International journal of food science technology, 42(11), pp.1265-1289. Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA. Doggett, A.M., 2015. 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