Total Quality Management Strategies for Global Competitive Advantage

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, the multinational corporate firms focus on total quality management for improving the organisational operations and developing appropriate strategic planning to run the corporate firms successfully. Total quality management is required for the multinational corporations to strengthen their position and run their operations successfully across the globe (Obeidat et al., 2016). The aim of the study is to analyse the background of the business and identify the ways through which the firm would be able to strategise their business and mange the organisational quality in establishing the brand in the international market. The study is about acknowledging the ways for the company Connor Microelectronics to run their business operations successfully and secure future sustainable development. Hereby, total quality management is necessary in Connor Microelectronics to manage their international operations and improve competitive advantage in the electronics and telecommunication market. Lastly, the study provides scope to conclude over the ways of total quality management and recommend some suitable suggestions through which, it would be possible for the organisation to manage their operations and gain high competitive advantage in the global telecommunication and electronics market.

Background of the study

Connor Microelectronics is a global semi conductor company which designs, manufactures and sales a broad range of integrated circuits and discrete devices and additionally the products of the company are such as a huge variety of microelectronics applications, including telecommunications, computer system, automotive products, automation and control system and the consumer equipment. The company won the European Quality Award at 2012 and recently, it is difficult for the company to gain competitive advantage and manage their quality of the operations and organisational process. The company Connor Microelectronics is also facing issues in strengthening their position in the market for which it decided to be merger with another body to run their operations integrated in the market. As the number of employees is decreasing due to high turnover rate as well as mismanagement of the production sites, the company Connor Microelectronics aims to be merged with another body in order to improve their operations and organisational activities to strengthen their position in future electronics and telecommunication market. It is hereby necessary for the organisation to identify efficient strategic planning to manage quality and secure future sustainable development.

Ways to improve quality management practice

Quality management is the act of overseeing the activities and all the tasks needed to maintain the desire level of excellence in the organisation. The quality management through developing appropriate strategic planning is hereby necessary to approved organisational excellence and run the operational activities more creatively and efficiently (Aminbeidokhti, Jamshidi and Mohammadi Hoseini, 2016). Quality management includes the policy and procedure to work at the organisational workplace, creating and implementing quality planning and assurance for quality improvement and control. It is essential for the company Connor Microelectronics to focus on the planning and strategic of managing total quality in the organisation in order to merge the firm with another body and develop strong corporate brand in the electronics and telecommunication market across the globe.

In order to improve the quality of the organisational operations, there are seven major principles, such as customers focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence based decision making practice, and relationship management. It is the responsibility of the organisation to manage quality through customer’s focus and relationship management. These two are the major principles to manage the customers and strengthen their consumer base of the organisation. For the firm Connor, it is necessary to manage customer’s service to improve customer’s relationship management as it provides a scope to the company to strengthen their customer’s base and improve trust and loyalty among the customers through satisfying them and delivering high quality products and services to each customers. In this regard, order management is essential, where the company Connor need to develop proper ordering process by managing the online application. Connor can improve the ordering process through one click option where the customer can place their orders easily. The company requires handling the orders online through developing cloud computing system and managing hardware at the organisations, so that the demand of the customers can be fulfilled properly through the ordering process. The payment tracking is also essential in this process to satisfy the customers, where the firm needs to develop easy payment model through online banking and transfer of finds through Google Pay and Amazon pay application. In this regard, the company must focus on managing the customer’s data through cloud computing system and protect the data under Data Protection Act 1998 and GDPR 2018, so that the company can ensure the customers about the safety and security of the data where the consumers can pay safely for their orders. On the other hand, the company Connor must focus on delivering the products at the customer’s place within proper time (Suarez, Calvo-Mora and Roldán, 2016). In this context, the placation should be developed where the customers can review the order status and identify the data of delivery accordingly. This further improves customer trust and loyalty towards the brand and this is effective strategy for Connor to retain the long run customers for their quality products.

On the other hand, it is necessary to control the sales volume and manage the customers well by developing strong corporate relationship with each customer. Tracking the sales, quality Leeds and convert the audiences into customers are beneficial for Connor to strengthen their customer’s base and run the organisational activities strategically. Support system from the customers is also necessary to be developed in Connor so that the company will provide assistance and continuous support to each of the customers. In this regard, the company’s portal of customers feedback need to be managed well as well as 24*7 services through calling and chatting option will be introduced to provide proper assistance according to the customer’s requirements (Psomas and Jaca, 2016). Marketing is another strategy for managing customers and handling the quality of the operations. In this regard the company should focus on promotional activities and placing he orders successfully across the international markets so that it would be possible for the organisation Connor to run their business successfully. Social media platform must be utilised for promoting the business of Connor and in this regard, it is necessary to develop post for social media advertisement, creating videos for YouTube and FaceBook so that the social communities can identify the products and services of Connor. On the other hand, it is necessary to place the products successfully at the right place within right time. Through managing the order processing system, handling customer’s database by computerised system and mobile application, managing warehouse and product stock. It is also necessary to implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) at the store to manage the products as well as utilise GPS system for tracking the orders successfully. The ERP system and the Computerised Database Management System (DBMS) are effective for managing product stock and maintain warehouse strategically. This is effective for total quality management, where the stock of the products is managed well and it would be possible for the organisation to manage the operations successfully.

Additionally, there are other elements such as engagement of the people, continuous improvement and operation management. Engagement with the people in the organisation is mandatory for enhancing the organisational performance and securing future sustainable development (Alhafiti et al., 2019). The employees are the major stakeholders of the firm and it is the responsibility of the leader to manage them and lead towards achieving future organisational success. It is important to fulfil commitment towards the people, where the organisational leader needs to provide monetary and non-monetary reward to enhance their performance and focus on continuous improvement. Total quality management requires proper planning of managing people through improving engagements and create values for them. As per the Herzberg’s two factors theory there are two major factors which are hygienic and motivational. For managing the performance of the people and influencing them for managing quality at the workplace, it is necessary for the company to manage the employees and other stakeholders such as suppliers, managers, distributors and other staff at the workplace to lead them towards achieving future success through continuous motivation and performance improvement (Al-Dhaafri, Al-Swidi, and Yusoff, 2016). The leader of Connor needs to provide monetary rewards through restructuring the salary for the employees, engineers and technicians at the workplace and introduce performance related pay, yearly bonus and compensation for the benefits of the people. Fulfilling the comportment and implanting the organisational policies related to data protection, managing transparency and accountability as well as management safety and security of the people are mandatory to influence the performance of the staff and enhance quality of the organisational operations. On the other hand, the leader of Connor needs to manage the merger strategy through maintaining cultural diversity, improving equality and fair treatment and developing strong engagement with all the employees and this further helps the leader to manage the staff and improve their performance in long run.

In addition to this, the leader also needs to focus on the operation management for total quality control system, where the production and distribution activities, people monument, customer’s orientation and market operations can be handled efficiently (Nicholas, 2016). As per the operation management, there are different strategies such as managing production process, controlling the operations, input output system, improving efficiency and managing oversees operations. In this regard, the leader and management team at Connor needs to handle the production process, for the production at Connor, it is necessary to utilise quality raw materials related to electronics equipment, and telecommunication system, which further helps the brand to improve the quality of the final output. For further input management, it is also necessary for the company to source the products from trustworthy suppliers and distributor, who are responsible to transfer the quality raw materials for improving the quality of the products. The company also needs to focus on the packaging system of the final output, where Connor must use proper packaging system rather than plastic usage on the packaging system in order to create green environmental footprint. It is also required to develop proper strategy of producing the final output and in this regard, the company invest more on research and development activities for creating quality products related to electronic and telecommunication as well as implement the latest technology for organisational infrastructural development (Aquilani et al., 2017). This further helps the brand to manage operations internationally and produce high quality output as per the market demand and customer’s preferences. On the other hand, the cost of the production is necessary to be out looked and reviewed well, so that cost leadership style can be implemented. In this regard, the company Connor needs to focus on cost leadership strategy to minimise the cost of the production and set effective price where the customers can afford the final products of Connor. The company also must produce a bulk amount of products at a time to improve the economies of scale and minimise the final cost of manufacturing the quality products and this would provide a scope to the company to strengthen their position in the internal electronics market where Connor would be able to deliver high quality electrics goods and services at affordable price.

Apart from the production strategy, it is also necessary of the organisation Connor to manage their operations and supply chain for total quality management, where it is necessary to create strong supply chain and distribution network for distributing the quality products at right place within right time. For total quality management, the company Connor needs to manage suppliers by providing them high return on investment, managing them efficiently, improving engagement and empowering them in supply and distribution of the raw materials and final goods. It is also important for the organisation to implement ethical leadership practice and manage the global; suppliers and distributors to enhance their operational quality management (Hartley, 2017). In order to manage their operations across the international markets, it is also helpful for Connor to retain global suppliers and develop proper distribution network in order to distribute the products safely. For successful procurement management, the organisational leader must focus on strategic sourcing, contact management, purchasing and reacquisition, payment and mange suppliers. In this regard, the company needs to analyse the data of the organisation and conduct market research for identifying the competitive brad sin the market and develop proper strategic planning. It is also essential for the organisation to enhance supplier’s performance through continuous improvement, monitoring the performance, sharing feedback and arranging training and development program.

Proper payment method is also necessary for procurement management, where the organisation Connor must pay the suppliers, incentives over their performance and make roper receipt and invoice for better management of the payment system. Financing the necessity requirements, managing the organisational resource and reallocating the resources and human capital in different production and manufacturing process are helpful for Connor to enhance their performance and manage total quality of the organisational operations (Lobova, Semkov and Semkova, 2018). The above mentioned strategic planning related to customer relationship management, employee engagement, fulfilling commitment, improvement, enhancing performance and procurement and operation management are fruitful for the company Connor to enhance their organisational performance as a whole and secure future sustainable development. Through the strategic planning, the company would also be able to strengthen their position and compete in the global electronics and telecommunication industry through continuous improvement and total quality management. The cost leadership strategy and the performance enhancement as well as efficiency management at the organisational workplace are also effective for the company to gain high competitive advantage and maximise the organisational objective in long run.

Conclusion and recommendations

It can be concluded that, for managing the organisational operations and expanding the business across the international markets, it is necessary to focus on total quality management in order to manage the performance of the firm and secure future sustainable development. Connor aims at establishing the business in the global electrics and telecommunication sector through improving their efficiency and performance in the international markets. The objective of the firm is to create values for all the stakeholders, engaged with the business and create positive impacts of the business on the society so that it would be possible for the organisation to achieve future success ethically and sustainably. The firm is suffering from lack of profitability and sales volume due to lack of efficacy and quality management. It is hereby important for Connor to develop proper strategic planning so that total quality of the organisational operations and production can be maintained. The procurement management and operational planning as per the above discussion are helpful for Connor to enhance quality their operations. Additionally, it is also necessary for the organisation to focus on lean principles and six sigma for continuous improvement of the performance and managing quality. Implementing six sigma is mandatory for the organisation to manage operational quality. Implementing the Kaizen at the workplace is one of the effective ways to manage lean and improve the quality of the organisational operations. For lean management, the company Connor must focus on managing the operations, and improve efficacy by recycling the waste. For developing electronics products and services, it is necessary for the organisation to utilise environmental sustainable raw materials to reduce waste. The use of lead and plastic covers aims harmful for the environment and thus the company should focus on alternative raw materials to develop the equipment and produce electronics equipment. For managing sustainability, it is also necessary for Connor to utilise renewable resources and this it is mandatory to implement solar panel on the rooftop of the organisation for using renewable resources and protecting natural resources. On the other hand, air wind energy and the activities of waste management through leading the waste to the landfills are effective through which Connor would be able to manage the organisational excellence in the global electronics and telecommunication sector.

On the other hand, for better management, it is require of the organisation to manage the leadership style and in this regard transformational leadership style is mandatory at Connor to accept the merger and make appropriate decision making practice. The leader of Connor must focus on empowering all the people at the workplace in the decision making behaviour as well as improve engagement through providing proper incentives and fulfilling their performance needs and preferences. In this regard, the leader must be inspirational and influence the employees to perform better. For quality improvement, it is also essential for the organisation leader to arrange training and developmental program for providing scope to the employees for personal and professional development. It is also fruitful for Connor to monitor the workplace and evaluates the performance for continuous improvement where the leader encourages the creativity of the employees, and develops suitable organisational culture successfully. This is also effective for knowledge management and ensuring quality management at Connor. Technological enhancement is also necessity in this recent era of digitalisation for better performance, where the firm needs to implement Information and Communication Technology (ICT), ERP at warehouse, developing could computerised system and execute Kaizen at the workplace which are effective for working efficiently and maximise organisational excellence. ICT is important for enhancing internal and external communication which further helps the firm to manage their performance and conduct more market research for providing the electronics equipment and attracting the customers at the international market. Hence, technological advancement as well as the knowledge management process as well as quality control mechanism are required to be implemented cooperatively where the management team can improve engagement with the people and enhance their performance through continuous improvement and motivation. Through the strategic planning, Connor would be able to secure future sustainable development and fulfil the organisational objective to run their business internationally and gain high competitive advantage.

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