Note: company real name changed for some legal reasons
Quality strategic planning process at mkh steel
Mkh steel
Background
Company background was established in 1972. It rented the premises in wade Ville in order for the company to conduct a small steel merchandising operations- from then, the company (mkh steel) set its sight on expanding, nationally and internationally.
‘ Vision: To be the leading steel distributor and processor in sub-Saharan Africa
‘ Mission: To be the supplier of choice by exceeding customer expectation, Living up to our customers’ needs and wants and making us part of their deliberate strategy, Providing an environmentally safe workplace for all stakeholders
‘ Values: Mkh steel is committed to producing products of highest quality standard and ensuring total conformance to specification
A wide product range of steel is being supplied throughout of South Africa and other countries through the company’s extensive steel yards, modern and comprehensive steel processing and service centers, specialty steel division and tube manufacturing plant.
Mkh steel supports the black economic empowerment(BEE) aimed at empowering the previously disadvantaged citizens of this country, in doing so declaring itself a truly south African company dedicated and in support of its citizens by being involved in activities necessary to re-address the imbalances of previous government.
MKH steel has a lot of branches all over the country, has its main operations in located in Germiston, roodekop, and other facilities in alronde, Durban, Cape Town, Rosslyn, Pinetown and Port Elizabeth.
Introducing the topic
There are a lot of books teaching about quality and procedures that should be followed to achieve quality, and there are a lot of quality philosophers or quality gurus .They (quality philosophers), have taught and researched a lot about quality and quality pursuit.
I have read about Deming’s fourteen points to quality improvement stating a lot of important activities that need to put in place to achieve quality results, activities such as ‘ceasing dependence on inspection to achieve quality ‘meaning that the work should be done right the first time by building quality into the product in the first place, if you are sure the product is of good quality then the chances of inspection and associated costs are minimizing and the time and efforts can be invested in other activities.
I have also read about the likes of Feigenbaum, Crosby, Juan and many more big contributors to the field of quality. The Juran trilogy ‘ quality planning-quality controlling-and implementation, it is appealing as the Deming’s fourteen points. It starts with planning and continues like a circle, organizations can repeat these steps in different situations and achieve good results; therefore companies do have the option of adopting this trilogy because it can benefit them in terms of quality achievement.
As much as there are plenty quality philosophies, there are also many ways in which organizations can decide to pursue their quality improvement goals. It is up to each every organization to determine which philosophy will best suit them. Some organizations might adopt the Deming’s philosophy through the use of his fourteen points to quality improvement, some might go for the Juran triology and turn their quality dreams in to reality, and some might go with the Ishikawa eleven points, there are a lot of ways of reaching quality goals.
It should be noted and at all times be remembered by all enterprises that what works for one company does not necessarily mean it will work for the next company, for example, in soccer, the formation (system) or plan used by Orlando pirates that saw them reach the finals of CAF last season does not mean that if Kaiser chiefs adopt the same system of Orlando pirates will go all the way to the final of the completion just like pirates did last season.
Another important factor with regards to formations(systems) is that the chances of success of those systems highly depends on the quality of the players and on how good is the relationship between the players and the coach(manger). Just like in any organization, communication is key. The quality department should make sure that all other departments understand that quality pursuit is happening and that cooperation of these departments is needed because quality is not just the duty of quality department, but it is the duty of the entire organization- from top management to shop floor employees.
Different organizations face different difficulties or challenges on their routes of quality quest. Some organizations have difficulties in persuading their employees to buy-in into the quality ideas, some companies have difficulties in aligning their mission, vision, and values with their quality objectives, and some challenges are experienced in the controlling phase where the defectives get separated from the non-defectives, and some organizations just lack patience. If you are impatient you are more likely to quit your quest for quality improvement before you reach them. The process of achieving good quality takes time and cost money, and some companies simply run out cash.
For these reasons, it is important that any organization that seeks to pursue quality improvements should have good solid plan in place. The plan should cover a lot of things such as: taking in to consideration the mission of the company by being able to align with the quality objectives be able to manage changes as new processes will be introduces. You might find that employees might as well resist such changes, so a change agent should be in place for smoothly facilitation of such changes by urging employees to buy-in.
employees cooperation can be obtain by ‘eliminating the fear’ as Doctor Deming called it, employees should be assured that they won’t lose their jobs as a results of the new changes that are about to be brought up (quality improvement efforts). In japan some companies do offer their employees life time employment in an effort to eliminate fear w. enough cash flow should be made available as there would be a lot of training and re-training of employees, and temporary loss of productivity might as well take place as employees would still be trying to master the new processes and systems.
The strategic quality planning process also entails the customer needs. In other words, will the customer continue to demand our products in the same rate of quantity and quality? If not, what and how will they demand in the near future? Proving answers to such questions will be helpful in the formulation the strategic quality planning.
Customer position is also important. The organization determines whether it should try and increase its customer base or just retain the current customer base. If the organization decides to increase its customer base ‘ which is always the case with most organizations, it should also be stated and clarified in the quality strategic plan that the intention is to expand.
The anticipation of future is also another important step in the strategic quality planning. The view here is to determine the quantity and quality of products that customer are likely to demand. A lot of factors area taken into consideration, such as future market conditions that might affect employment rate in the country thereby reducing the demand for the products.
Other future major infrastructural developments such as the construction of stadiums and bridges, the structures of this nature often require a high quality class of steel. With proper predictions the organizations can start investing in the production of the high class quality steel to meet the future infrastructural development of the country.
It is also important to determine the current state of the organization, whether it lives by its vision and mission, If the behavior of the company does not match its mission and vision, efforts should be made to try and follow those missions. It must be determined if the organization’s mission and vision wont clash with quality objectives.
If the mission and vision of the organization are beyond the current situation of the organization, necessary adjustments should be made to bring them closer together. Customers expect companies to follow up in their mission and visions.
Once everything is in place, the quality plan is then put in to use. From employees ‘perspective, the resistance to change by employees should be fully addressed. The plan is then monitored constantly to ensure that everything goes smoothly as possible.
There are no guarantees of success in businesses. Companies can properly formulate their strategic quality plans perfectly, and have all the necessary support functionally, have all the capital, and still fail to achieve the quality goals.
with proper marketing and good management of money and proper selection and adoption of the quality philosophies mentioned above, and following the procedures accordingly, then ones chances of reaching quality objectives improves drastically. The use of probability helps in determining the likelihood of success or failure of an activity, well adopted quality philosophies improves chances of success in quality pursuit.
The 7 strategic quality planning steps:
1. Discovering customer needs
2. Positioning of customers
3. Future predictions (anticipation)
4. Gap analysis
5. Closing /narrowing the gap
6. Alignment
7. Implementation
Organizations can get to know their customers better by talking to them about their buying patterns. Customers can be asked why they are buying a particular type of product in this particular shop (enterprise); they can also be asked why they are not buying. This will help in determining changes in their preferences and tastes..
Customer positioning is all about is about the amount of customers the organization has and whether the organization want to increase them or not. It should be remembered that only good quality products can attract more customers. Investing in quality improves the efforts improves organization’s chances of success. The balance between the two- quality and customers lies within true quality efforts.
Future prediction is helpful in determining what sort of events are likely to happen in in terms of business- buying and selling of products. It helps the organization in making major decisions such whether to expand the plant or continue using the same facility. If predictions indicate potential huge growth in the market, then expansion might be necessary.
The gap analysis is about determining your position amongst your competitors. Knowing your position help you decide how much effort is needed to maintain or improve you current position. Companies should be vigilant, study market trends, listen or read papers so as to be informed of what the competitors are up to.
This step is all about closing the gaps that appeared in step 4. Plans and strategies should then be put in place to close or at least narrow those gaps.
Alignment brings together all the objectives into one for optimally functionality. All the missions, values, visions, departments, quality objectives are aligned as one, and a single objective is then give – ‘quality improvement’. The whole company will be in same tune- ‘quality’.
Implementation stage is the final step, it also important because that is where everything that has been planned is now then being executed; all sort of real life challenges start to surface. Employees will either master or not master the new processes, quality work groups work together. Control measures also come into play, re-modification of some processes takes place as well.
Practical application of the 7 quality strategic planning at mkh steel
Discovering customer needs
CI department will call customers, record whatever the customers say (complaints, compliments, improvements suggestions etc.). The CI department will also review on how to save money, but also bearing in mind that the ultimate goal is customer satisfaction in terms of proving quality products at good price than their fellow competitors (Macsteel, Robbor, Bosal, Gastro, New concept mining, Gibsteel, etc.). Quality department visits customers regularly, and through these visits customer feedback is also obtain. Getting involved with the projects that the customers does with the products they purchase from mkh steel help the company understand its role as a supplier and ensure that it exceeds the customer expectations. Through communication the company easily finds out what the customers might need to buy in the future.
Positioning of customers
At mkh we know that everyone wants customers, with that in mind, quality is made a priority , in this case mkh try and provide customers with whatever the customer wants, and this is achieved by having a group of companies – manufacturing, water, construction, mining- to ensure that most customers need are catered for at mkh steel. Mkh steel ensures that each division in the group concentrates its effort on areas of excellence. This strategy helps the coming on expanding its customer base.
Future prediction
Mkh steel closely work with economics on consultant basis, by doing this mkh get advises on how the economic conditions will look like. The company also tries getting political views from political analysts as huge swing in politics might have huge impact on our economy.
In terms of political unrests (strikes) the company is informed on the activities of the strikes and helps them control their inventories. E.g., the metal industry will go on strike in June, which takes place every third year for salary negotiations.
In this period of strike the company should have enough inventories to continue functioning so that it can meet their customers’ demands. If you are informed of recession you will probably plan batter, Eskom load shedding is also taken into consideration, as electricity shortage might impact the company’s production.
Gap analysis
Market is studied, in terms of technology the company determines which new technology is available, and amongst of its competitors, the company finds out who has it (technology). If there is no competitor who has the technology then the company makes its move and acquire the technology, in so doing the competitive advantage of the company over its competitors will improve through better production of high quality to meet high customer requirements.
If the company’s position is already known, (let’s say the company is currently number one), having that technology will help push the company further front away from the competitors, Gap analysis is also done in the processes of the company to determine areas of improvements.
Closing the gaps
If there are gaps in the market in terms of technology, stakeholders are invited to put capital to improve the gaps Identified in the technology, this is necessary so that the company can have better machines for better products to meet or exceed the customer requirements. If the gap is in the company’s processes, plan developed to come up with ways to improve the processes.
Alignment
People involved in the strategic planning must first understand the values, mission, and vision, having identified these things will make it easy to align them with the strategic quality planning. Without the alignment it is difficult to convince the stakeholders to buy in.
Implementation
There is a documented procedure which guides the company as to what changes have been made in terms of quality improvement pursuit. With procedures in place, there must be resources readily available. Resources such as capital in the form of machines, work force, capital in the form of money, and many other resources that might be needed.it is then that authority is given as to who will be responsible for what and for how long a particular activity is supposed to last and so forth. Implementation takes time, and quality pursuit is a long process, patience is needed.
Benefits
The advantages of having been able to properly put in to use the strategic quality plan are huge. The rewards ranges from the interaction with customers when you first identify their needs to the point of actual supplying them with quality products you promised ‘ this is when quality efforts are celebrated.
In discovering customer needs, the mkh steel CI department keeps in touch with customers’ records in order to get to know their customers feeling and their expectations from the company. These customer records might pin-point areas of poor performance, and then this helps the organization to sort the problems before they get worse- before the dissatisfaction of one customer spreads to more customers.
Through visits to customers, the company gets to see the projects of their customers and then get to understand how important their supply of steel is to their customers. This lead into solid relationship between the two parties as the company wills the focus more on this type of customers and vice versa. With solid relationships, reasonable prices can be charged for the products.
The company works closely with economists, economists are professionals who are equip with knowledge related to money- inflation, deflation, recession, economic boom, buying and selling patterns, and so forth. With access to this kind of information, the mkh steel is able to determine or figure out what the future holds for the company-financially.
The mkh steel study the market continuously to determine how further ahead or further behind the company is with respect to things like technology or buying patterns of customers. This help the company determine the degree of its competitiveness amongst fellow competitors.
Companies who are first to lay their hands on new technology will always be market leaders. Mkh try to do the same by being on lookout always. Being leader comes with privileges becomes everyone wants be associated with you including customers.
Once the company knows its position, it then tries to improve its processes with a view of producing good quality products that will attract more customers. Efforts of improving processes go hand in hand with plans that need to be carried out perfectly and thereby winning more orders.
Once all the strategic quality planning steps have been completed, implementation follows. Documented procedures are in place to help guide the quality pursuit-this minimizes chances of mistakes. All other functions have come aboard now-this increase solidarity of the organization. With unity comes strength, with strength comes endless possibilities, and with possibilities all customers’ needs can be met, a happy customer pays well.
Conclusion
In the world of business quality is key, without good quality products or if you fail to provide your clients with good quality services, then your chances of operating as a business become slimmer each and every day, and before you know it you there will be nobody for you to serve, and you will be forced to shut-down your business.
There a lot of quality gurus who have written books about quality and its importance to success of businesses. Excuses of poor quality cannot be accepted anymore as those journals and books teaching about quality are easily accessible, thanks to the quality gurus for their good work, every word in those materials is a blessing in the field of quality.
It is up to each and every enterprise to take the initiative of quality quest, and adopt the necessary quality philosophies which are relevant to their operations or business. It should also be borne in minds that quality cannot be achieved overnight-it takes time. The Ernst and Young study showed that companies need an approximately 3.5 years before they can start seeing results of their quality efforts. Even then the results cannot be guaranteed that they will be positive. A high degree of patience is required on the part of the organization as quality improvement is gradual.
Bibliography
‘ Managing quality, integrating the supply chain, 4th edition, international edition
Author- Thomas S. foster
‘ Principles of operations management, 7th edition
Author(s): Barry Render, Jay Heizer
‘ Interviews-23rd of February
‘ Internet
‘ Discovering operations discipline
Author: Robert J. Walker
‘ Focused quality-managing for results
Author(s): Harvey K. Brelin, Kimberly S. Davenport, Lyell P. Jennings, Paul F. Murphy
‘ Your customer perception of quality
Authors: Baboo Kureemun, Robert Fantina