A Comprehensive Business Report on Implementing

Introduction

The corresponding business report would deliberate upon the implementation of an organisational total quality improvement strategy within the working architecture of the automotive part manufacturing company of Snowball Engineering with the purpose of enabling the manufacturing company competitive on the demanding global scenario. The development of such a strategy for the Snowball Engineering organisation is meant to ensure that the survival of the company in the current globalised competitive environment could be safeguarded. In this context, the business report would assess different methods of quality improvement in the development and marketisation of the products of the company under consideration involving the business strategy of supplying automotive machine parts to various automation plants in Europe. Therefore, the salient points of the report would involve implementation of Total Quality Management, Quality Assurance processes and development of the mechanism of complete Quality Control. The implications of such mechanisms in case of the selected organisation would be also highlighted. Furthermore, the points of significance for the culmination of such a development planning would be centred on dual analytical perspectives. The first one would be the enumeration of the necessity of quality management to foster better growth prospects for the Snowball Engineering company with special emphasis on the elements of quality as a concept and the key constituents of the process of TQM. The second one would be the exploration of the strategies through which quality culture could be embedded within the functionalities of Snowball Engineering so as to ensure sustainable qualitative improvement with cost reduction.

Main body

According to Albliwi, Antony and Lim (2015), the effects of globalised market conditions constitute a hyper competitive market scenario and the requirement of radically effective product development and business strategy has become paramount in the concurrent era. In this context, as has been observed by Antony, Setijono and Dahlgaard (2016), it is extensively important for the business prospects of the Snowball Engineering company to undertake effective and successful business projection into the existing and developing markets including the to the customers, investors and suppliers. This projection purpose would be to outline the qualitative edge of the manufactured products of the company under consideration over those of the market rivals so that a qualitatively advanced brand image of the company could be formulated on which the objectives of the Snowball Engineering, in terms of organisational survival and progress on the basis of competitive advantage obtainment and sustaining the same, could be realised. In this respect, according to Aquilani et al (2017), the direct effect of global competitive business environment has been reflective of the necessity to incrementally improve the competitive performance of any business organisation so as to ensure greater profit optimisation and this process involves quality projection comprehensively. One critical effect of globalisation of the industries has been the implementation of deregulation of the national and regional markets, both within the European Union and outside the EU as well. To this effect, the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) could be comprehended from the perspective of meeting and exceeding the requirements and expectations of industrial customers, concerning the case of the Snowball Engineering. TQM, according to Calvo-Mora et al (2015), is the strategic method through which the continuous improvement of quality in production, commitment towards the improvement of quality and the customer centric focus of the business product development process are maintained. The research observations of Carvalho et al (2017), have outlined the fact that identification of the entire sets of principles of TQM and the associated practices could be beneficial for Snowball Engineering in terms of application of these principled practices into the automation parts manufacturing services. As per the research of Creese (2017), the context of implementation of TQM within the selected manufacturing organisation could involve a phase based process with particular emphasis on 12 different procedurally integrated constructs of quality management. As has

been previously pointed out by Goetsch and Davis (2014), these constructs have been validated and empirically tested over the years within different manufacturing organisations. These could be identified as Top-Management Commitment (TMC), Benchmarking of the product quality and specificities, Internal Quality Management, Employee Involvement (EI), Training provisioning, Empowerment of the Employees, Supplier Quality Management, Statistical Process Control, Design Quality Management, Customer Focus Maintenance, Supplier Performance management and Product Quality Improvement. Such key procedural practices and constructs are necessary to be maintained and implemented at every productive stage of the manufacturing of pressed automotive parts by the Snowball Engineering. In this context, Gunasekaran et al (2018) have observed that the cornerstone of Quality, concerning manufactured industrial products, could be comprehended as the degree of excellence of such products in comparison with similar components and products manufactured by others. This has been more extensively dealt with by Hartley (2017), through the perception that Quality could be understood to be the predictable measure of dependability and uniformity through which the suitability of products to the market demand could be maintained at the lowest possible incurrence of costs. Furthermore, as per the notions of Hitomi (2017), the technical perspectives of quality could be evaluated to have dual meanings and implications. The initial one could be understood as the characteristics of products or services which could have a bearing on the ability of the product or services to satisfy the explicit or the implied necessities of the customers. The second one implies to the nature of absence of any deficiency in the products or services. This could be better outlined in the form of the evaluation of the processes through which the entire factor of quality could be managed within the manufacturing practices of the Snowball Engineering. Kafetzopoulos, Psomas and Gotzamani (2015) have specified that such evaluation could lead to the key idea that TQM has to be maintained through integration of quality control in the overall automotive parts manufacturing and production. The integrated processes could involve maximisation of process repetition in terms of mass production of the pressed parts with minimisation of wastage of raw materials, the removal of the necessity for costly inspections through institution of effective manufacturing techniques through which the first attempt of qualitative manufacturing could become successful and the stringent and rigorous application of quantitative measurement of the finished products at the manufacturing centres of the Snowball Engineering prior to the sending of the ordered

components to the proper destinations of European Plants by the Local automotive plant. This specific emphasis on the quantitative measurement is oriented towards the analysis of the extent to which quality deviations could take place within the manufacturing and product designing processes within the Snowball Engineering. According to McLean, Antony and Dahlgaard (2017), the objectives of such integrated quality management processes are the prevention of redundant and unnecessary repetition of critical tasks and the conformation to the necessities of the customers through imparting the maximised fulfilment of the customer expectations. These objectives are only attainable through management of highest forms of quality. According to Para-González, Jiménez-Jiménez and Martínez-Lorente (2016), the process of embedding a quality management culture within the functionalities of the Snowball Engineering would require the institution of the following:

Maintenance of the synchronisation of the correlation between the organisational practices and the production performance. Management of the organisational functioning capability characteristics so that the alignment between quality infusion efforts and the suitability of the market based objectives could be maintained consistently. Carefully considering the impact of the various regulatory authorities such as the ISO standards on the procedural management as well as the implementation of the TQM based principles. The determination of various techniques which could be selected to better optimise the entire process of total quality management along with the maintaining of the qualitative production culture within the selected UK based manufacturing organisation. This would have to be performed in tandem with the evaluation of the proper order of manufacturing and quality control services through proper implementation of the techniques which could be available in this regard.

According to Rafailidis, Trivellas and Polychroniou (2017), the factors associated with the implementation and sustaining maintenance of the process of Quality Assurance and stringent Quality Control of the products manufactured by the Snowball Engineering company are dual in number. The first one is the accomplishment of an integrated mechanism which would have to be processes centred. This mechanism would consistently provide greater focus on the complete involvement of all of the employees of the Snowball Engineering (with special emphasis on the long standing employees who had been working within the working structure of the company since their student years and have climbed the ladder of promotion to gain higher leadership credentials) and ensuring the prioritisation of the customer centric operations and designing of the produced pressed automotive machine parts.

The second one, as per the observations of Ross (2017), is the formulation of a qualitative working culture which could be focused solely on the customers. This culture would be reflective of the consistent collection and study of the data regarding the customer profiles of the company under consideration. This would be critical in terms of the significance to ensure that the entire mechanism of maintaining customer satisfaction could be achieved. This is also vital from the perspective that in the globalised intensively competitive world, it is inherently necessary for the machinery component manufacturing organisations such as the Snowball Engineering to ensure that the existing product range could be modified and added to for the purpose of suitability achievement with the entire range of necessities of the machine plants situated at mainland Europe.

In this respect, the implementation of the quality assurance and controlling plan for effectively implementing the quality culture at the Snowball Engineering with the purpose of sustaining maximisation of quality through minim cost incurrence could be comprehended through a multi-phase based plan. This plan could be enumerated in the following manner:

The clarification of the values, mission and vision of the company

According to Saad and Khamkham (2018), it is the first priority to communicate to the employees of the Snowball Engineering organisation that whatever they have to do as their designated task assignments, would be having a consistent bearing on the organisational objective and strategic functioning. This process could as well provide the organisation with the capability to make the employees aware of the organisational direction in terms of the vision of the company so as to outline the necessity of proper implementation of the TQM principles through which the competitive performance enhancement could be achieved. Apart from this, the mission of the organisation in terms of the tangible objectives could be communicated to the employees and workers of the manufacturing organisation so as to drive home the credibility and significance of the operational principles of TQM. This would have to be performed in conjunction to the organisational values which could steer the decision formulation procedures and the prioritisation of certain functionalities within the entire manufacturing and production structure of the Snowball Engineering.

Identification of all of the Critical Success Factors (CSF)

According to Siva et al (2016), Critical Success Factors are the most significant constituent elements within the functional performance matrix of any business entity, such as the Snowball Engineering. These factors specify the areas of improvement and assist the organisational working structure to focus on the particularities which could lead to meeting the organisational objectives. Mostly, these CSF are performance related measures such as the quantitative and qualitative prospects of the manufactured products and the volume and extent of sales performance within any market sphere, be it regional, local or continental. Parida et al (2015) have determined some of these CSF as the following:

The dominant measure of financial performance of the company under consideration. The extent to which industrial customer satisfaction could be achieved by the Snowball Engineering. The consistent improvement and utilisation of the principles of Lean Manufacturing method for the Snowball Engineering services under which innovative measures could be applied to make sure that the extraction of maximised value of investment in manufacturing and total quality management could be well balanced. This critical factor of success could lead to the core objective of cost minimisation and product value maximisation.

Success measure of maintaining of market share in the machine tools and automated parts manufacturing industrial processes within the current globalised competitive environment. The employee satisfaction measure is also another of the most critical success evaluation element for any corporate entity and more so for the Snowball Engineering since the employee base of the company, as per the information gleaned from the case study, has been strong enough with profound loyalty from some of the long standing employees. The final CSF is the product differentiation measure through which the qualitative advantage of the manufactured product could be established.

Development of particular metrics to for tracking of data derived from CSF elements

According to Al-Dhaafri, Al-Swidi and Yusoff (2016), the differential methods of measurements and monitoring of data derived from the CSF as well as tracking of the company progress in terms of the overall organisational objectives, are critical to be instituted. One particular tracking method is the process of structured reporting which could be utilised to collect particular information and data so that such information could be shared with the company hierarchy management structure. Nicholas (2015) has outlined such an instance in the form of fulfilment of the objective of survey scores regarding customer satisfaction. The goal of demonstrating achievement of any measure of positive customer satisfaction could be performed through the application of customer satisfaction monitoring matrix where particular data of customer satisfaction could be entered to analyse the extent to which the plants in Europe, which could be receiving the machine parts manufactured by the Snowball Engineering, could appreciate the quality of such products.

Conclusion and Recommendation

At the conclusive stage, it is conceivable that the preceding study report has been indicative of multiplicity of perspectives, both perceptual and practical, through which the Snowball Engineering could improve competitive performance within the existing globalised market conditions. The emphasis has been so far concentrated on the prospect of projection of the capability and brand image of the company under consideration through application of the Total Quality Management prospects within the overall production planning and practices of the finalised products of Snowball Engineering. The sub-categorical factors which have been so far acknowledged to be significant in this respect have been the practices of assuring total quality and monitoring of quality measures in the finalised products prior to their delivery. The core consideration in this respect has been that the consequential increment in the overall qualitative aspect of the manufactured products of Snowball Engineering to match and outperform the competitive products of the various market rivals is of paramount significance. The rationale of such an observation, according to Mitra (2016), could be ascertained from the perspective of product differentiation and qualitative latitude obtainment on part of the company under consideration. The dual positive outcomes of these achievements could enable the engineering organisation to appeal to the most optimised numbers of customers and could as well add to the existing mostly positive brand reputation of the company. This brand reputation could, in the longer term, serve the company to sustain existing competitive advantages over the market rivals and better adapt to the tribulations of the competitive pressures of the globalised market.

From the interpretative stance of recommendations, the initial observation, from the perspective of the newly appointed Quality Director at the Snowball Engineering, the suggestions could be of multiplicity in nature. The most suitable recommendations could be comprehended in the following manner:

1: According to Lacerda, Xambre and Alvelos (2016), it would be specifically a costly blunder for any automation pressed parts automation manufacturing organisation such as the Snowball Engineering, to desist from acknowledging the employees also a key brand image projectors in the pan-European and global market domain. To this effect, the emphasis on the projection of the qualitative heritage of the manufacturing company within the new market horizons such as to the plants at Europe, could be undertaken through the utilisation of different groups of personnel who could be directly or indirectly associated with the company concerned. Such key personnel groups could be identified as organisational employees, customers, suppliers and vendors.

2: The development of the improvement plan has to be more thorough and precise. This could be achieved through two methods. The first one is the introduction of a baseline of quality management. To do this, effective market research into the customer inclination regarding the manufactured products would be required. The second one is the fostering of the improvement plan on the basis of such a benchmark. This quality development plan should utilise the gathered feedback from the leading industrial customers. The improvement plan would necessarily have to be developed on the format of S(Specific)M(Measurable)A(Achievable)R(Relevant)T(Time bound) goals.

3: The technological aspect could be recognised as another cornerstone which could formulate the basis of such recommendations on which the Snowball Engineering could work towards achievement of favourable competitive performance capability in the globalised market conditions. The technology of manufacturing automotive parts has to be consistently updated. The purpose would be threefold. The first would be to support the intended quality improvement through establishment of more precision engineering techniques within the existing current technology inventory utilised by the Snowball Engineering. The second would be to introduce and sustain the lean manufacturing methods for the production of pressed automotive parts. This would provide the added benefit of manufacturing cost reduction. The final one would be the making of such technological aspects greater user friendly for the operating personnel.

4: One of the most significant recommendations would have to be related with management of performance of the experienced and the newly inducted employees of the Snowball Engineering through setting of expectations, creation of suitable task designation and assignments and through the provisioning of support to the experienced personnel working at the manufacturing company under the organisational vision of accountability management for the staff members. This process could involve the overall approach of providing adequate recognition and rewards for managing motivation of such staff members who could demonstrate extraordinary performance since their experiences and technical and managerial capabilities would be essential to maintain and improve upon the existing quality of the products manufactured by the Snowball Engineering.

5: Monitoring of the Critical Success Factors on a monthly review basis would be also necessary since this could ensure that consistency of the progress in quality management and total quality assurance could be maintained and sustained effectively.

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