Unit Four

Productivity and Quality improvement

(Concept, service quality, model of service quality, customer value equation, stages in
service firm competitiveness, making continuous improvement, a competitive strategy,
walk through audit, quality and productivity, blueprint of service excellence, quality and
productivity, improvement process, quality tools for analysis and problem solving.)

Service Quality

"Quality isn't happen by accident, it is by of gentle efforts and honest

commitment."

Service Quality

 Simply prerequisite for being in business.

 Service quality is important for survival and competitiveness.
 conformance to requirements
 Balance between conformance or performance and acceptable price to
customer
 Quality cannot be achieved simply by the mechanical application of a few
quality techniques in our factories or service establishment,
 Change cannot be accomplished quickly or easily
 Must produce goods and service that are desired by customers, rather than
try to sell them what we produce.

Concept of Productivity and Quality Improvement

 Improving productivity and quality in business typically results in increased
customer and employee satisfaction. Using quality management system techniques
such as process mapping, benchmarking, and cost-benefit analysis we can achieve
regular improvement in all work-flow processes, improved productivity results in
fewer defects, fewer delays and reduced costs.

In order to improve productivity and quality analyze your processes, focus not on
the people performing the job but on the tasks they do. Standardize policies and
procedures through your company opt maximize efficiency. Train all personnel
adequately so they can, produce high quality products and take pride in their work.
Align your business processes with other companies in your industry. The
American Productivity and Quality center website provides tools, including the
process classification framework, to help you improve your company's business
performance. Develop performance measurements. Benchmark your current
processes, identify future outcomes and measure productivity in your customer
support center by measuring the time it takes to resolve customer issues and the
customer satisfaction rate for those support cases.

Build quality testing into your processes-- not at the end when it is more expensive
to fix. Perform testing on an iterative basis. Resolve defective component problems
as you encounter them without waiting for the entire testing cycle to complete,
Implement automate testing if possible, because it executes without human
intervention and results in a pass or fail outcome that is easy to interpret and act
upon. Use business strategies such as six sigma to improve quality and
productivity. Create projects that define a problem, measure the current process,
rather relevant data and analyze the data to validate the cause-and-effect relations.

Determine the root cause of issues and design interventions to improve or optimize
the processes. control production so that defects get corrected early on before they
impact your final product. Value employee. customer, supplier and business
partner feedback and input regarding solving product or service problems. Measure
quality and productivity gains by increase in customer satisfaction. Use customer
feedback to improve current products and influence the design of new ones.
Leveraging customer requirements in your process redesign efforts can help you
focus your efforts on the most lucrative areas of business in your industry. For
example, conduct surveys or focus groups to gather information to resolve top
issues with your product or service. Prepare a report summarizing findings, and
distribute the report throughout your organization to improve quality and
productivity.

Service quality: An assessment of how well delivered service conforms to the

client's expectations. Service business operators often assess the service quality
provided to their customers in order to improve their serve, to quickly identify
problems, and to better assess client satisfaction.

Service quality (SQ). in its contemporary conceptualization. is a comparison of

perceived expectations(E) of a service with perceived performance (P), giving rise
to the equations SQ=P-E. This conceptualization of service quality has its origins
in the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm.

A business with high service quality will meet or exceed customer expectations
whilst reaming economically competitive. Evidence form empirical studies
suggests that improved service quality may achieved by improving operational
processes; identifying problems quickly and systematically; establishing valid and
reliable service performance measures and measuring customer satisfaction and
other performance outcomes.
Service quality is customers thinking they're getting better service than expected.
This is often referred to as the perception gap. i.e. the gap between what the
customer expects and what they think they got. It's worth noting that both sides of
the gab are in the customer’s mind. You may actually deliver better service than
your competitors, but if the customer thinks that your service is worse than that's
all that matters. Because the perception gab is based on the difference between
what a customer expects to receive from a service and what they think they
received both sides of the gap are "soft"- they perception gap is difficult ot
measure, difficult to manage and is likely to change with time and experience
nevertheless it's vital to business success.

Models of service quality: The factors that re the level of service quality such as
security, consistency, attitude, completeness, condition, availability, and training of
service providers. Decides this, physical quality, interactive quality, and corporate
quality also affected the service quality level (Lethtienen and Let tined, 1982).
Gronroos (1984) developed the first service quality model (Figure-1) and measured
perceived service quality based on the test of qualitative methods. Technical
quality, functional quality, and corporate image were used in the model as the
dimensions of service quality. Technical quality is about customer evaluations
about the service. Functional quality which is more important variable for
consumer perceptions and service differentiation than technical quality refers how
consumers take the service. Technical quality is interested in what was delivered
whereas functional quality is interested in how the service was delivered.
Corporate image has a positive impact on customer perceptions.

Parasuraman (1985) analyzed the dimensions of service quality and constituted a

GAP model that provides an important framework for defining and measuring
service quality (Saat, 1999). They developed the GAP service quality model
(Figure-2) through the findings from exploratory research that contains in-depth
and focus group interviews. GAP service quality model showed the key insights
gained through the executive interviews and focus group interviews about the
service quality concept. The gaps revealed by the executive interviews were shown
in the marketer side (GAP 1, GAP 2, GAP 3, GAP 4, GAP), and the GAP5 which
was formed by the focus group interviews was in the consumer side of the model.
The GAP relations and names were shown below (parasuraman et al., 1985
Lovelock and Wirtz, 2011):

GAP 1: Customer expectation-management perceptions gap, the knowledge Gap.

GAP 2: management perception-service quality specifications gap, the policy Gap

GAP 3: Service quality specifications-service delivery gap, the delivery gap.

GAP 4: Service delivery-external communications gap, the communications gap.

GAP 5 : expected service-perceived service gap, the service quality gap.

GAP 6 : Service delivery and perceived service, the perceptions gap.

According to the responses of focus group participants, the judgments, the

judgments of high and low service quality depended on how consumers perceived
the actual service performance in the context of what they expected, and GP 5
showed the expected service-perceived service gap. After the gaps modeling, the
determinants of service quality that consumers used when interpreting the quality
were described. The ten service quality determinants and their descriptions have
been identified below.

Determinants of Service Quality

1. RELIABILITY: consistency of performance and dependability, accuracy in
billing, keeping records correctly, performing the service right at the designated
time.

2. RESPONSIVENESS : willingness or readiness of employs to provide service,

timeliness of service such as mailing a transaction slip immediately, calling the
customer back quickly, giving prompt service.

3. COMPETENCE: possessing of the required skills and knowledge to perform

the service, knowledge and skill of the contact and support personnel, research
capability of the organization.

4. ACCESS: approachability and ease of contact, the service is easily accessible

by telephone, waiting time to receive service is not, extensive, convenient hours of
operation, convenient location of service facility.

5. COURTESY: politeness, respect, consideration, friendliness of contact

personnel, consideration for the consumer's property, clean and neat appearance of
public contact personnel.

6. COMMUNICATION: keeping customers informed in language they can

understand and listening to them, explaining the service itself and its cost, assuring
the consumer that a problem will be handled.

7. CREDIBILITY: trustworthiness, believability, honesty, company reputation,

having the customer's best interests at hear, personal characteristics of the contact
personnel.

8. SECURITY: freedom from danger, risk or doubt, physical safety, financial

security, confidentiality.
9. UNDERSTANDING/KNOWING THE CUSTOMER: understanding
customer needs, learning the customer's specific requirements, providing
individualized attention, recognizing the regular customer.

10. TANGIBLES: physical evidence and representations of the service, other

customers in service facility.

Customer value equation:

Customer value is the perception of what a product or service is worth to a

customer versus the possible alternative. Worth means whether the customer feels
s/he got benefits and service or what she or he paid.

In a simplistic equation form customer value is benefits-cost (CV=B-C)

What the customer pays in no only price (cash, cheque, interest, payment during
use such as fuel and servicing for a car) but also non price terms such as time,
effort, energy, and inconvenience.

The approach to the customer is fundamentally one for cretin superior value for the
customer. The formula for creating superior value is as;

Value=Benefit-Effort-Risk-Price+/-Treatment

If you want to create more value for the customer then you can focus on any of
these five levers. In this post I want to focus upon the last one "Treatment".
Fundamentally "Treatment" is how you leave your customer feeling.

The customer value equation, simply put, defines value as what customers get
relative to what they pay.

What Customers Get = Desired Results of the service=process quality (read as

service Quality defined by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry)
What Customer Pay= Price (at purchase) + Customer Access Costs (for facility
services, this is departmental management costs, lowered productivity and
downtime costs form service deficiencies). Taken together, these are totaled over
the life of the contract.

Therefore the customer value equation looks like this:

Results+ Process Quality/Price=Customers Access Costs

Stage in service firm competiveness:

Service firms must constantly improve themselves about quality and productivity
in order to compete with rivals. Chase & Hayes created a table to describe the role
of operations in the strategic development of service firms. This is an illustration of
productivity and quality development. This table categorized service firms into 4
stages of development according to their competitiveness. This table does not
mean that services have to start at stage 1. A firm may start at stage 3 but may
return to stage 1 out of neglect. (TCDD) in the past & nowadays.

1. Available for service: Some service firms and often government services are in
this group. Because they think they should operate at a minimum cost. Customers
have no alternatives, so they do not need to seek for improvements in quality with
their little motivation. There is minimal investment in training, so workers have
limited skills and poor performance so they need direct supervision. They do not
invest for new technology until it is necessary for survival. In case of competition
they cannot exist.

2. Journeyman: When a service firm in stage 1 with a sheltered existence may

face a competition, so firm has to reevaluate its system. To avoid loss of market
share managers need to adopt industry practices to compete with rivals. If al
successful coach lines used the same buses, then a newcomer firm will buy the
same buses, because, they purchase the buses from the same supplier. So, they will
all look like each other, if firms don not compete on operations effectiveness, they
compete in other dimensions. Such as product line, peripheral services,
advertisement. Service providers follow standard procedures without taking any
initiative, For example "Raha hat" or express services of bus firms.

3. Distinctive competence achieved: A vision of what creates value for the

customers and understand the role that operation managers must play in delivering
the service.

4. World class service delivery:

Marking continuous improvement a competitive strategy:

The term itself -explanatory. It almost seems too simple, but this industry
buzzword is about continually improving your business, processes, and way of
working. How you go about studying, planning, implementing and evolving that
improvement is where it gets more complicated. You need to encourage a
philosophy of constant, logical, and sustainable improvement throughout your
organization. This allows continuous improvement to beyond being a slogan on a
poster, so it becomes the way your company operates at all times.

Competition is a good thing. It gives us a basis for comparisons amongst our peers
and pushes us to do better. But it also means we aren't the only ones offering a
certain product, service, or feature. When there's limited completion, you can more
easily defend your corner of the market, but in today's competitive climate, you
don’t' get a moment's rest. Followings are reasons that are why continuous
improvement is necessary.
  It's a Global marketplace:
For most industries and businesses these days, you not only have to be
concerned about local competition but also with foreign. competition. More
and more borders are coming down, and mature products and services from
other markets can catch you by surprise. If you don’t' watch what's going on
elsewhere in the world and prepare for it, you won't be prepared to deal with
is when it does arrive.
 Information is everywhere:
Consumers are connected 24/7 these days. They have access to information
at their fingertips. For example, 85% of consumers use the internet to locate
businesses that meet their needs. Whereas previously product, service or
marketing plan was designed for longevity, nowadays you need to be ready
to react to shifts and trends in the market. It's important to use the speed of
information flow to your advantage and not sit and watch if fly by.
 Dynamics are Changing:
The old walls around products and services have been torn down, and
intelligent, flexible companies are reaping the rewards. Mobile apps
returning the taxi industry upside down. Online banks are offering an
alternative to brick-and-mortar banks. Home delivery is changing the way
we buy everyday products. That doesn’t mean "traditional" businesses are
finished- it just means they need to evolve.

"Same old, same old" won't work anymore. But that doesn't have to be seen as a
bad thing. On the contrary, realizing and accepting that three is a new way of doing
business is exciting and can create many great opportunities for your and your
organization, company or group.
This is continuous improvement. It's not finding a method that works and sticking
with it. It's looking at where you are today, setting a goal and doing what needs to
be done to reach that goal. Once that goal is met, you start again, finding easy to
improve further. It doesn't matter what kind of industry or business you're in- a
continuous improvement approach is necessary to keep ahead of the game.

With the wealth of information available on the subject of continuous

improvement, it can be difficult to know where to start. What we suggest is always
starting with analyzing your current situation. You need a full understanding of
how you operate today so you can follow the principles of PDCA.

First you establish your baseline, your starting point. Then you:

 PLAN: Plan your improvements, including setting goals

 DO : Put in place the actions required for improvement
 CHECK: measure your success relative to your baseline
 ACT : Adjust or tweak your changes
 This process is often represented in the graphical form of a wheel, known as
PDAC wheel or "Deming wheel" after the creator, Dr. W. Edwards Deming
as your progress through each step, your keep the wheel moving,
representing continuous improvement. When you arrive again at your
baseline stage, you take into account your previous improvements and plan
the next improvements.

You'll find that once you have established rules and guidelines for your continuous
improvement. it will be easier to include it in all aspects of your business. And
don’t' forget your need to apply he concept of continuous improvement to your
continuous improvement system! What works today might not be adequate in the
future, so make sure you're constantly analyzing and evaluating your continuous
process improvement methods and making improvements and corrections where
necessary.

The direct benefits of your continuous improvement are often easy to predict. You
can calculate or estimate cost and time savings even before you implement the
changes. There are other significant benefits, however, that you will not realize
until your continuous improvement strategy is in place;

 Better Morale: Your collaborators and employees will benefit from the
improvements and increased dynamism that continuous improvement
provides. Continuous improvement projects are an opportunity for
employees to step outside the box and have a meaningful and rewarding
impact on their job.
 Better Acceptance of New ideas: When your organization is used to
accepting the status quo, new projects and opportunities can be seen in a
negative light. With a continuous improvement strategy deployed, your
teams will get used to and appreciate working with the notion that change is
positive.
 Increased Motivation: When those you work with know they are
empowered to observe, analyze and improve the way the work, they're more
motivated than if they're expected to simply apply the same old methods and
ways of working. They'll be more excited about their career future when
they know they can have a positive impact on it.

We have all encountered resistance to change. It happens at all levels of an

organization and needs to be managed. When your start communication your
continuous improvement strategy to your teams and employees, make sure you
focus on the benefits. Some may assume it simply means more work. They need to
know that continuous improvement isn't in addition to what they're doing today,
but rather an integral part of it. It's a new way looking at their old way of working.
The goal of continuous improvement is to make every aspect of what they're doing
better, easier, faster, cheaper and more profitable to the business.

Involve everyone: it's important to create a board, encompassing continuous

improvement strategy that can be shared and communicated across your entire
unit, company or organization, depending on the scope of your role. Treating
continuous process improvement as a one-off-project for small group is a sure fire
way for it to be forgotten as soon as the first projects are completed. Instated, make
to clear that continuous improvement is a new way to doing business and that it
should be applied by everyone and in all aspects of your business. Some great easy
to make sure everyone is on board include:

 Communicate the strategy clearly and to everyone. Create a continuous

improvement team and have them come up with a mission statement,
guidelines, scope and other details that can be shared for all to see. Let every
employee know their ongoing contribution and dedication is vital.
 Have a kick-off event. Make it clear your new continuous improvement
strategy is a big deal and that management is optimistic and 100% behind its
successful implementation. Introduced the team and make it clear who is
responsible for what and who the contact people are for different activities
and sectors. Put in place a simple and inclusive way for employees to share
ideas they have- like a suggestion box, internet forum, chat group, recurring
ideas meeting, etc.
 Give concrete examples, Continuous improvement is a very broad term, and
some people might not understand how it applies to their role, processes or
products. Find some pertinent examples for your sector or industry. Show
 examples where your company has make improvements in the past, and
explain haw that can be a springboard for continued improvement.
 Highlight the benefits. You're not implementing continuous improvement
for fun. The goal is to improve your business by removing waste, overlap,
and redundancy and coming up with creative ways to streamline and
improve the way your work. Let your employees know that continuous
improvement can be applied to every single aspect of your business.
 Create several kick-off projects. While continuous improvement should
become second nature in your workplace, in the beginning, you will need to
babysit your strategy. A few high-profile projects can help to keep your
continuous improvement strategy fresh in everyone's mind. Train and
empower team leasers to closely follow the volition of these projects, and
solicit input from as many employees as possible.

If management isn't enthusiastic about continuous improvement, to one will be.

Find ways to bringing to up often. Always highlighting the reason for it and
potential improvements. Praise even the smallest improvements, because
employees might be hesitant at first to make suggestions. Don't worry if the idea is
slow to catch on. A continuous improvement strategy has no time limit, no end
point, and no expiration date. You are looking to change the mentality of a group
of people who are more than likely comfortable and settled in how they do their
job today. Remember that continuous process improvement isn't new tsk added to
your workload, but that it permeates every single thing you do.

Walk through audit: An audit walk-through traces how your company

authorized, records, processes, and reports a sample transaction to confirm that it's
handled correctly. The walk-through starts with initial transaction and tracks every
step in your financial-reporting system until the transaction shows up in the cash-
flow statement and other key financial documents. Your firm's accounting system
can't do its job if employees don’t' do the paperwork properly.

The Purpose: when an auditor makes a walk-through, her goal is to spot the
problems in your financial reporting system: whether information is recorded
properly, how well your fraud-prevention controls work and whether the system
catches errors effectively. By studying how your company handles a single
transaction, the auditor gets a sense of how other transactions are handled. After
walk-through is done, she can tell you the weak points where mistakes are most
likely.

Testing: An audit walk-through involves several steps. The auditor watches how
you or your staff operates when writing down a transaction in your accounts. He
asks questions of everyone who handles it from the start of the transaction through
recording it in your financial statements. Whenever someone documents what's
happening, the auditor reviews the documents. If your company has controls to
reduce errors and fraud, the auditor may test the controls to see if they work.

Testing: Asking your employees question is the simplest way to make a walk-
through, but it's also the least effective. Having employees describe how the
system's controls work isn't evidence of what happens in practice. Watching
employees processing a transaction provides better evidence; going over the
paperwork and confirming its accuracy is better still. The ultimate test is when the
auditor repeats the control method herself.

Considerations:

Some controls don’t' involve paperwork. For example, the Public company
accounting oversight board notes that management philosophy qualifies a control--
for example, all employees should be honest-- but it's not easy to document. Small
companies often do things more information, without the detailed documentation a
big corporation requires. This doesn't mean they're doing it wrong. Auditors can
carry out a walk-through using non-paperwork.-evidence-- inquiry, observation,
repeating controls-- and still get a feel for whether the system works.

1. Decide which variables you want to measure, including those related to

operations, adherence to company policy and safety. Meet with other area and
retail managers, get their input to ensure that you include all the important
variables on your retail store's audit form. Divide your retail audit form into
various sections such as exterior, front-of-store operations, departments, if
applicable, back room management and safety.

2. Create certain performance standards for retail stores when composing the audit
form. Set an overall goal of 80% compliance, for example, as the standard by
which a retail store passes or fails the audit. Use a rating scale of 1 to 5, with 5
being the highest and 1 the lowest; Set an overall score of 4.0 as passing if you use
the rating scale, for example.

3. Start composing your questions for the walk-through retail store audit. Begin
with the exterior appearance and maintenance, for example. Ask questions that can
be answered by a "yes" or "no", such as "is the store's exterior clean and inviting?'
Move onto questions regarding customer service and the front registers, Include
rating questions where the auditor needs listen to several interactions between
employees and customers. Ask, for example, "How well did the customer service
department answer customer's questions on a five-point scale?" or, how would you
rate the speeds in which cashiers serviced customers?"

4. Include questions related to the presentation of merchandise: "Were the shelves

completely stocked?", "How accurate were the shelf tags with respect to specific
items?" Add questions that measure the friendliness of department employees, or
how well the store is managed.

5. Ask questions related to how efficiently shipping and receiving operate. Write
questions related to inventory, including whether the oldest food items were
displayed first for perishable foods- if the retail store sells food items. Include at
least a few questions on the accuracy of book keeping records.

6. Work safety-related questions into your audit, as they pertain to certain

occupational safety and Health administration standards, such as how to lift objects
properly. Have the auditor observe whether employees are using lifting belts or
knee pad when carrying products around.

7. Summarize the results of the audit after it is completed. Recommend areas in

which the store can make improvements. Include certain strategies that may help
the retail store improve its rating for the nest walk-through audit. Share your
results with managers and employees affected by the audit, according to the
university of Wisconsin's NIATx model, which stands for network for the
improvement of addiction.

The purpose of an audit should be to confirm that things are being done correctly -
Not to find things that are being done wrong. The customer service audit would
generally focus on discovering answers to the following key questions.

1. Who are your customers? Values, beliefs. What will they pay for?

2. Who in your company are your customer service reps/contacts?

3. Understand the current situation, expectations of customers, current sales

cycle/delivery cycle.

4. What are the customer service standards for your company today?
5. What would you like the customers' service standards to be? What can they be?
What re the barriers to get there? What are the steps? Who needs to get involved?

6. What do your customer think today about customer service in your company?
(Anecdotal stories; report on tracking delivery vs. promise).

7. Customer satisfaction survey following the new process. Is it working? How can
we improve? Customer service is a continuous improvement
program/process/project? Based on the observations in the audit. Suggested
follow-up activities might include: training for staff; changes to the physical
surroundings (such as providing more parking spots); increased communication
with staff of the importance of being a customer-focused organization; and /or
focused training around your customer service goals. Evaluation tools for customer
service storefront audit. How does your customer see your company when they
walk through the door? We observe, evaluate and report on your customer's
experience when they visit your store. When your customer shops on-line for your
products, how do your customers see your company from the internet? Our
Storefront report documents the observation of the front-of-shop activities,
including all points of contact with customer from finding a parking spot and
walking through the front door, to transacting the business and leaving the
building. Through observation, we identify and comment the experiences of your
customers and provide a report highlighting the good activities and recommending
solutions for improvement where appropriate. Our 3e-report evaluates and reports
on your website, e-mail, communication find e-commerce facilities (if applicable).
Customer service code' a more in-depth evaluation process would start with
developing a "Customer service code more in depth evaluation process would start
with developing a "Customer service code (which is different from a job
description). This process of performance testing is specific to the job and specific
to individual's performance. Customer satisfaction surveys: Customer satisfaction
surveys are also a useful tool for gathering information and testing whether your
customer service is on target with customer's expectations. Through discussion, we
determine the size of the survey required, timing and goals of the survey for your
company.

Quality and productivity:

The quality and productivity work group focused on requirements to maintain and
improve the quality of forged parts and decrease dimensional variation among
parts, while increasing all-around productivity. The ability of forgers to handle
small orders, ensure on-time delivery, and maintain parts-per million quality levels
at low selling prices will be increasingly important in successfully competing with
alternative domestic processes and off-shore competitors. The forging industry of
the future will need to develop and implement a variety of advanced technologies
to stay ahead of competitors on quality and productivity. Productivity, a simple yet
powerful ratio measures, outputs divided by inputs. The outputs are normally
measured in units with the input to include all the operating expenses of the
business such as labor, materials, capital, etc. Normally expressed as operating
unit is performing and to serve as a baseline for future improvements. so where
does quality play a role here? Quality and its related costs, (preventive, external,
internal and appraisal) reside in the denominator with other expenses. In the
manufacturing world much of the cost stems from scraps or rework of a finished
product and from the warranty costs associated with underperforming products. In
services, costs mostly stem from rework which consumes, time but does not create
value or more importantly revenue. These costs require a firm to add extra capital
and consume additional labor and materials, Time is used on re-working a product
or process that could have otherwise been utilized on producing new outputs.
Professor Yoji Akao, the founder of policy deployment (Hosin kanri) included the
need for total quality control as a fundamental strategic tool to business
performance and success. The need to drive quality into the organization to
include process ownership will impact the cost of poor quality has on business
performance and the bottom line! Whether the cause of poor quality resides in lack
of training, poor materials or non-existent processes, costs directly impact,
productivity.

The productivity metric encompasses all industries, tangible or intangible, the

opportunity to reduce and eliminate waste is a strategic objective of the firm.
Removal or the limitation of non-value added processes will decrease the
denominator in the productivity ratio and increase the units per dollar employed!
What better way to drive profits and gain market share. But it does not come
without a cot. I do not believe quality is free, rather there is cost/benefit ratio that a
savvy manager must use to determine what to do. The work is hard and the quest to
achieving a higher ratio requires time, diligence and the need to study the process.
There is no "instant pudding" when pursuing quality improvements. Rather it is a
long march that requires dedication from the entire organization.

Blueprint for service excellence:

Service is the extent to which a service meets the customer's needs and
expectations. Whereas excellent service when these experiences are surpassed and
when customers feel that they have revived that little unexpected extra in the shape
of extra effort. Sometimes that little unexpected extra can come in different shapes
and forms such as a smile, a positive remark, random acts of kindness or the
additional effort by a service professional going the extra mile. When customers
evaluate a service they will compare their perception of the actual delivered service
to what they think it should be. This process is often done at a subconscious level.
The key issue here is that quality is what the customer perceives it to be, and that
service organizations inherently must understand the needs, expectations and basic
psychology of their customers. These needs are normally defined by the decision
makers as well as the users of the reviving organization, in the form of employees,
guests, customers, patients etc. This perception-evaluation of the service-is not as it
may sound. Many things affect overall perception; some of these are even outside
the realm of the service provider. This process is often done at a subconscious level
and involves a context outside of the provider's circle of influence. For instance, a
persons who has just has had day at the office is likely to perceive the service- of
the restaurant as less favorable than if the same person had had a great day at the
office. For a company to deliver excellent service, it must be sensitive to the
situation of the individual reviving the service and be able to manage perceptions.

Quality and productivity improvement process:

Improving productivity and quality in business typically results in increased

customer and employee satisfaction. Using quality management system techniques
such as process mapping, benchmarking and cost-quality analysis you can achieve
regular improvement in all your work-flow processes. Improved productivity
results in viewer defects, fewer delays and reduced costs.

1. Analyzed processes: Focus not on the people performing the job but on the tasks
they do. Standardize policies and procedures through your company to maximize
efficiency Train all personnel adequately so they can produce high-quality
products and take pride in their work.

2. Align business processes with other companies in the industry: The American
productivity and Quality center website proves tools, including the process
classification framework, to help you improve your company's business
performance.

3. Develop performance measurements: Benchmark your current processes,

identify problems predict future outcomes and measure productivity gains suing
key performance indicators for your industry. For example, measure quality and
productivity in your customer support center by measuring the time it takes to
resolve customer issues and the customer satisfaction rate for those support cases.

4. Build quality testing into the processes: Build quality testing into the processes
not at the end when it is more expensive to fix. Perform testing on an interactive
basis. Resolve defective component problems as you encounter them without
waiting for the entire testing cycle to complete. Implement automated testing if
possible, because it executes without human intervention and results in a pass or
fail outcome that is easy to interpret and act upon.

5. Use business strategies: use business strategy such as six sigma to improve
quality and productivity, create projects that define a problem, measure the current
process, gather relevant data, and analyze the data to validate the cause-and -effect
relations. Determine the root cause of issues and design interventions to improve or
optimize the processes, control production so that defects get corrected early on
before they impact your final product.

6. Value employee, customer, supplier and business partner: Value employee,

customer, supplier and business partner feedback band input regarding solving
product or service problems. Measure quality and productivity gains by increases
in customer satisfaction. Use customer feedback to improve current products and
influence the design of new ones. Leveraging customer requirements in your
process redesign efforts can help you focus your efforts on the most lucrative areas
of business in your industry. For example, conduct surveys or focus groups to
gather information to resolve top issues with your product or service. Prepare a
report summarizing findings, and distribute the report throughout your
organization to improve quality and productivity.

Quality tools for analysis and problem solving:

A check sheet is a historical record of observations and represents the source of

data to begin the analysis and problem identification. Run chart/ histogram
presents-bar-chart-form, Pareto chart orders problems by their relative frequency in
a descending bar graph to focus on the problem that the greatest potential
improvement. Low charts are a visual representation of the process (diamonds to
represent decision points, rectangles for activities, and ovals for beginning and
ending points.) Cause-and-effect analysis (fishbone chart) increasing detail, all of
the possible causes related to a problem to discover the root cause can be used to
eliminate the causes. A scatter diagram visually shows the relationship between
two variables. Control chars are used to monitor a process. Benchmark-comparison
with the performance of other companies known for being "best in class", which is
a process known as benchmarking visiting the leading from to learn firsthand how
management has achieved such outstanding performance. Improvement programs
emphasize prevent poor quality, take personal responsibility for quality, build an
attitude that quality can be made certain, coming's 14-point program create
consistency purpose or improvement product and service. Management must stop
its preoccupation solely with the next quartier and build for the future. Innovation
in all areas of business should be expected. Adopt the new philosophy cease (stop)
dependence on mass inspection. End the practice awarding business on price tag
alone (purchasing department should are about the quality not only the price).
Constantly and or ever improve the system production and service. Institute
modern methods training on the job. Institute modern methods supervising.
Eliminate fear by encouragement of quality and productivity. Remove barriers that
hinder hourly workers. Workers need feedback on the quality of their work. All
barriers to pride in one' work must be remove. Institute a vigorous program of
education and training, Create a structure in top management that will push every
day on the above 13 points.

Baldrige National Quality Award:

The award is given annually to recognize U.S. companies that excel in quality
achievement and management.

ISO 9000

It does not prescribe specific practices doesn't say anything directly about the
quality or service itself. Certificating is provided by a highly decentralized system
of auditors and accreditation bodies. ISO itself is involved only in design and
updating of the standards, not in certification.