INTRODUCTION: Quality management is a functional discipline which primarily consists of four major components that include quality planning,

control, assurance and improvement. Quality management not only focuses on bringing quality to products and services, but also in the process which make this to happen. In this current report the essential concepts of operational management and quality management and their role in achieving the organisational objectives of Sainsburys are explained. Furthermore each aspect under strategic operations and quality management including strategic quality change are explained.

Task 1 1.a Operations management is a discipline of business management which looks in the matters of designing and reengineering business operations of organisation in the production of goods, products and services. The major responsibility of operations management involves efficient use of organisational resources in the production of goods and resources (Gitlow, 2001). It takes various inputs in the form of time, machinery, labour etc to provide final products and services as outputs. The importance of effective operations management in the achievement of Sainsburys objectives: y Effective operations management helps Sainsburys to make the required estimate of various resources in carrying out its day to day activities y It helps in the process of allocating the necessary resources to various work activities in multiple departments there by optimum use of resources is carried out by Sainsburys. y It helps to priortise the activities of the organisation based on the profit-cost analysis, which will help Sainsburys to make appropriate changes to its strategy in procurement and inventory control y Effective operations management also helps Sainsburys to develop new products or services based on the ever changing needs and expectations of its customers y Effective operations management also helps the company to come up with innovative ideas and concepts to improve the efficiency and quality of its products and services y Effective operations management will also assist Sainsburys to eliminate unnecessary expenditure on work activities and saves time taken to carry out any particular work activities y It also helps in maintaining only the required number of staff and at the same time deliver quality services
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1.b The processes of operations management adopted by Sainsburys are primarily dependent on its strategic goals and objectives. Operations management involves many processes that are required to work in tandem towards a progressive goal. Operations management at Sainsburys is carried out in a smaller scale at the retail store level and in a much bigger scale at the overall organisational level. The initial step is to ensure that depending upon the size and popularity of all its stores, a proper estimation of resources is carried out. Correspondingly resources are allocated and business reengineering and other similar techniques are used to study the optimum inventory levels at each of its store so as to reduce any wastage of resources and timely delivery of its products to its customers. The next step is to ensure that all the staff members of all stores are trained on the matters of customer services, sales management and other functional areas, which will ensure that a continuous flow of information is smoothly transmitted among staff members so that they can provide efficient and effective services to their customers. These processes of operations management will help Sainsburys in achieving its strategic objectives in the following ways y By optimum utilization of its resources, Sainsburys can be able to provide best quality food and other products at cheaper prices y It will also help in increasing its food and non-food product ranges, there by attract customers for its large range of products available under one single roof y It will also help in expanding its retail outlets to many other places, as the financial resources are properly managed and as such the additional funds can be used to build new stores. y Finally the Sainsburys supermarkets can be made more accessible to new customers by use of innovative business models

Task 2 2.a Along with effective operations management, effective quality management helps Sainsburys to achieve its organisational objectives and the importance of effective quality management in achieving the objectives of Sainsburys are y Effective quality management helps the organisation to make a clear distinction of quality in the producers perspective and customers perspective, thereby can plan for its quality management plan y Moreover with effective quality management, Sainsburys will have a firm grip on its products quality and also increase its productivity levels y Effective quality management at Sainsburys will lead to a complete overhaul of its business operations which will lead to instilling total quality culture in the organisation y In these days, business organisations are mostly customer driven, and effective quality management will ensure that the customers are completely satisfied with its products y Effective quality management will also lead to increase in sales and ultimately give rise to higher profits y It will also help the organisation in reducing the gap between performance levels and customer satisfaction levels y With effective quality management systems in place, Sainsburys will be able to do all its work activities on time and in a complete manner y Effective quality management will also help Sainsburys in providing continuous and consistent performance to its customers

2.b The quality management processes at Sainsburys in the current stages can be said to be something which is more optimistic and embraces a quality culture. The management at Sainsburys ensures that all the quality tools and techniques are being applied to ensure that its products are of best quality and meet the expectations of the customers. The quality management processes at Sainsburys can be said to be a six staged process, they are y In the first stage the organisation makes a critical analysis of the market in which it operates and also understand the expectations of customers in terms of quality y Then it bases its vision and its strategic objectives to develop a quality management plan which lists out all the essential quality matters which will help the organisation in achieving its strategic objectives y With this base, the organisation develops products, both food range and non food range which are aimed to meet the expectations of the customers are developed y Based on detailed quality inspections, the organisation then markets and sells these products from its retail outlets y Then the staff are trained on all aspects of quality so as to ensure that all the items that are held to be sold remain in best quality states y Finally regular quality audits and quality control procedures are taken up by the organisation so as to ensure that every product that it sells is of best quality in the market that are available in the market

Task 3 3.a Every organisation, irrespective of the industry that it operates in faces a continuous quest to improve the quality of its products and services. Similarly at Sainsburys an action oriented strategy quality change plan is required in order to consistently improve the quality of its products. Following is a hypothetical quality change plan which will be implemented in Sainsburys and which will include a SMART target which is satisfying over 90 percent of its customers on the products that were previously surveyed for inferior quality. The product is a Asian food ingredient that can be used in all kinds of food as a taste maker. y The organisation in the first place should take a management initiative, which must be tied to its organisational goals and the key performance indicators, so as to make any kind of real impact on improving productivity and quality y The management at Sainsburys must be committed to convert its strategic plans to quality strategies that should result in measurable gains in the organisational performance y The management should ensure that employees are provided with extensive trainings on various quality aspects y More specifically training on Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing etc should be provided to people at the managerial level y The organisation should periodically review its strategic plans, including short term and long term plans y The management at the store level should be able to take quality initiatives and also make use of any previous information on similar cases y At least once a week, feedback should be taken from customers to assess any improvements in customer satisfaction levels y In order to achieve SMART target the employees must be engaged in the quality change plan and complete support should be given to them so that they can truly participate in this whole process y Finally a continuous strategic quality change management plan should be developed and monitored

3.b Any business process that an organisation wants to involve in quality change process will need some kind of resources, tools and systems. In the following case these are y Time is one of the most critical factor which can have a direct impact on the quality of a business process, customers always expect quality from products and prefer those organisations which can produce quality products in short period of time y Land may mean here the floor space of the food retail store, the bigger the shop, the easier it becomes for the organisation to hold its products in a more convenient and neat way y People here are the most contributing resources for improving the quality of products, because when the employees are highly skilled they can contribute positively in increasing the quality of any business process y Money or other forms of financial resources help in funding for any quality programs that the organisation wants to implement, because as a famous saying goes quality never comes cheap, hence money is an important resources to improve quality of any kind of business process y Other resources include technical information, machinery etc all contribute for increasing the quality of a business process in an organisation. The greater the organisation have in technological capabilities the more quality it can incorporate in its products, business process etc y The organizations know how on the various aspects of quality management will certainly give it a competitive advantage in bringing quality in its business processes, this may include quality checklists, quality control tools, quality audit procedures, quality management framework etc

3.c Change is the most common phenomenon that will happen and will lead to a successful achievement of higher profits, greater market share and increased customer satisfaction levels among its customers. However this quality change should always be measured in order to ascertain the actual progress to the planned progress over a period of time. This will allow the organisation to find out actually whether the quality change has brought in positive effects or any adverse effects. Hence it is very important for the organisation to evaluate the wider implications of the planned strategic quality change. In Sainsburys the following are evaluated before the strategic quality changes are made and after the quality changes are made Prior to the strategic quality changes are implemented y y y Less satisfaction level among customers on certain food products of Sainsburys Lack of proper understanding on many quality aspects Lesser interaction and communication among supervisors and subordinates on quality issues After the strategic quality changes are implemented y y y Increased customer awareness on the improved quality of products at Sainsburys Greater customer satisfaction levels Improvement in the overall efficiency and productivity of the employees and the organisation as a whole because of incorporating a quality culture y External to the organisation, it has increased its presence in the market

Moreover there has been increase in the sales of the products which were seen as of inferior quality by its customers previously and there has been tremendous increase in the brand value of Sainsburys among its customers and internally good communication levels on the issues of quality has been developed between supervisors and subordinates, which will help even when similar strategic quality changes are implemented in the future by the organisation.

3.d Every organisation requires good systems to monitor the implementation of a planned strategic quality change, these systems should include all the work activities which must identify and determine various quality policies, checklists and control procedures that align with the strategic objectives of the organisation. These quality systems include aspects of quality management such as quality planning, assurance, control and audits. More specifically the quality control and audit procedures are used to monitor the strategic quality changes. In the case of Sainsburys following are the procedures that will help in designing systems to monitor the implementation of planned strategic quality change y The organisation should come up with a pre determined quality audit systems that will help in verification of work activities relating to quality management and should make a consistency in recording and processing such activities y Based on the requirements and circumstances, Sainsburys can add or remove new quality audit procedures y Sainsbury should identify, classify and analyse all its business process and ensure that everything is in order and are aligned to meet the expectation of its customers y A continuous feedback of all the business process, especially which are subjected to strategic quality change should be taken so that any necessary improvements can be made in the monitoring stage y Random checks for quality testing should be carried out so as to ensure that all the employees are serious in ensuring quality of products y Process analysis should be included in Sainsburys monitoring process, as an effective process analysis will help in outlining the progress of all the business processes in the process of producing high quality products, in this process analysis, all the constraints in the overall implementation of strategic quality change will be identified and all the non value work activities can be removed, thereby increasing the overall quality of the product as well as the business processes itself

Task 4 4.a Following are the ways in which I shall execute and monitor the strategic quality change in Sainsburys y A dedicated team comprising of professionals experienced in quality management will be selected so as to execute the strategic quality change in the organisation y Appropriate quality change templates will be selected based on the strength and success of these models in successful implementation of strategic quality change in previous similar cases y All the employees of the organisation will be informed about the proposed strategic quality change and its effects on the organisation, employees as well as on the customers y After the quality change plan is developed, the plan will be executed in stages at appropriate times, making an optimum use of available resources y During the execution phase, use of quality checklists, quality control procedures will be used to ascertain the progress, similarly use of six sigma and other quality programs will be used to avail best possible results y During the monitoring phase, the quality of products will be subjected to random checks and quality audits to ensure that the quality of products are maintained to highest standards at all times y Along with internal quality assurance and control methods, feedback on customers will also be taken so as to check whether the expected customer satisfaction levels are met y Accordingly any corrective measures will be taken, if any deviations from the actual intended purpose of strategic quality change is not met, thereby allowing for introspection on the overall quality management in the organisation\ y Finally at all the levels of the organisation, all the employees will be engaged in the process of execution and monitoring of strategic quality change so as to ensure that Sainsburys products are of best quality

4.b Every organisation should have an excellent quality culture, which will help it to be more competitive and progressive. This will also help in continuous monitoring and controlling of business processes of organisation. Moreover a continuous monitoring and controlling environment helps an organisation to sustain its growth, engage employees and develop innovative and quality products and services. The following are the ways in which I intend to induce quality culture in Sainsburys for effective and continuous monitoring and development y The first step is to develop a quality management plan which will provide a basic guideline for the organisation on the matters of quality planning and other aspects y Critically analysing the various environmental factors that can influence the organisation so that any organisational concerns on quality matters can be studied in detail y By implementing certain tols such as cost benefit analysis, the organisation can decide to what extent it may invest in quality programs y The company can also follow the benchmarking process, so that it can compare previous planned activities to actual outcomes y Completely reducing or altogether eliminating all defects, errors etc and also maintaining consistency in the production levels of the organisation y The company should also invest in terms of money, time and man power to develop more quality programs in its organisation y By appropriate selection and application of quality tools and techniques from planning stage to monitoring and controlling stage y Concentrating more on improving quality programs and training their staff on the recent developments in the areas of quality management and informing the employees on the various benefits of incorporating a quality culture in the organisation These are some of the important measures that can be taken up by the organisation in order to inculcate quality culture for effective and continuous monitoring and development of business processes.

Task 5 5.a The following are some of the important improvements that can be seen by implementing strategic quality change y Increase in the efficiency and production levels of the employees and in the organisation, which will lead to overall improvement in the organisational performance y Greater customer satisfaction levels which again will lead to better sales and expansion of its market share, along with attracting new customers/consumers y A higher degree of quality not just in the products but in the overall organisation can be seen y Employees will be well equipped on the latest information on quality management concepts and contribute more dynamically for the cause of strategic quality change y Decrease in errors or miscalculations of inventory, storage and other related things which may decrease the quality of products or services y Better integration and coordination of all business processes within the organisation including structured and procedural growth of organisation y Even operational activities of the organisation can be improved for greater consistency and accuracy, by having a strategic quality change These are some core improvements that can be seen in Sainsburys in the due process of implementing a strategic quality change.

5.b Whatever changes that an organisation brings into quality culture of an organisation, there is further scope for more improvements. This continuous improvement in quality is a concept which is more popularly referred to as Kaizen. In this context, it refers to a continuous improvement in the business process by adopting a sequence of activities, which sometimes is also referred by the PDCA cyclewhich stands for Plan, Do, Check and Act. Following are the ways in which further improvements can be made in the strategic quality management of Sainsburys in achieving the organisational objectives y By maintaining their primary focus on the customers and their expectations on companys products and services y By concentrating more on leadership activities, where its employees can be trained on specific training purposes on quality management y Increasing the involvement of all its employees in the company matters especially on the issues of quality culture y By following a systems approach to management, which guides the organisation in a step by step manner y By adopting a factual approach to decision making and following an ideology of mutual benefits that is both the organisation including employees and the customers

REFERENCES

Bank. J (1999) The essence of Total Quality Management.1st edition. Prentice Hall publications, USA Darnall R. (2004), Achieving TQM on Projects: The Journey of Continuous Improvement, Project Management Institute, PA. Douglas M. (2007), Benefits of value engineering criteria studies, Transactions of Aace International, Morgantown Evans J.R & Lindsay W. M. (2008) The Management and Control of Quality.7th edition. Thomson Corporation, USA

Goetsch D. (2007), Introduction to Total Quality; Quality Management for Production, Processing and Services, Prentice-Hall, NJ