Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Project Management - Essay Example 2 weeks 5/1/11-5/15/11 (Project Manager and Owner) 4) Acquire bids from chosen suppliers for the unmodified trailers, equipment, food and general staples. 2 weeks 5/15/11-5/29/11( Project Manager and Owner-President) 5) Sign a contract with one supplier for the trailer and equipment and two suppliers for food and operational supplies.1 week 5/29/11-6/5/11(Owner-President) 6) Order trailer, equipment and materials from chosen suppliers for leasehold improvements and final trailer prototype.1 week 5/29/11-6/5/11(Project Manager) 7) Acquire bids and choose one fabrication shop for custom sub assemblies to be used in the trailer.1 week 5/29/11-6/5/11(Project Manager) 8) Choose and lease suitable commercial building for the warehouse and manufacturing area and corporate facilities for D'Angelo Pizzeria corporate headquarters. 2 weeks 5/29/11-6/12/11(Project Manager) 9) Incorporate D'Angelo Pizzeria Co. and franchise division. 2 weeks 5/29/11-6/12/11 10) Interview and hire personnel for Dà ¢â‚¬â„¢Angelo Pizzeria manufacturing and corporate operations. 4 weeks 5/29/11-6/26/11( Project Manager and Owner-President) 11) Assemble final trailer prototype and perform testing and debugging. 2 weeks 6/12/11-6/26/11( 2 x Assembly technicians ,Project Manager, Owner) 12) Choose and document final design parameters for trailer after prototype testing. 1 week 6/26/11-7/3/11 (Project Manager) 13) Research and secure two locations for the first corporate owned D'Angelo Pizzeria. 2 weeks 6/26/11-7/10/11 (Project Manager, Owner-President) 14) Establish and document all operational, training and franchisee procedures and develop the final draft for operational, franchisee, training, and employee manuals for review. 4 weeks 6/26/11-7/24/11 (Project Manager, Owner-President) 15) Develop the Strategic Marketing plan. 2 weeks 7/10/11-7/24/11 (Project Manager) 16) Assemble two ready to run D'Angelo Pizzeria trailer units to be used for the corporate owned pilot stores for the D'Angelo Pizze ria franchise. 3 weeks 7/3/11-7/24/11(2x Assembly technicians, Project Manager) 17) Finish corporate infrastructure for the launch of the D’Angelo private franchises within 6 months. 1 week 7/24/11-7/31/11(Project Manager) 18) Grand Opening of the first two corporate owned D'Angelo Franchises on 8/1/11 Project Cost and Operational Analysis As reviewed in the Time Phased Budget the project is divided in 18 tasks or deliverables which will be completed from 5/1/11 to 8/1/11, an 18 week period or 3.5 months (Kanodia, 2011). The total project cost has been streamlined to minimize project risks and maximize return of investment for the initial phase for the D'Angelo Pizzeria project launch. By limiting project scope to just building the company infrastructure and launching just the first two corporate owned D'Angelo Pizzerias; we are implementing a strategy that serves to maximize project speed, efficiency and ensures the best possibility to achieve timely completion of the projec t goals and within the allocated budget structure (Haughey, 2011). Although we originally underestimated trailer size and equipment requirements we were able to achieve significant cost savings in other project areas. By streamlining project requirements and limiting project scope to a working minimum we were able to minimize project costs and expenses and maximize the chances of a successful project completion (Projectstreamline, 2010). The total cost for the project has been revised to a total cumulative

What did my experience when I first went abroad or visited a different Essay

What did my experience when I first went abroad or visited a different culture than my own How did I overcome the cultural differences - Essay Example The plane trip was uneventful. When I arrived at the Vienna airport however I began to have a bit of culture shock. Everything was written in German—not in Russian! I heard lots of people around me speaking a language I didn’t understand. I went to a shop to buy some food and I could see all the magazines were different and there were many different types of food available that weren’t available in Russia. When I walked out of the airport I was surprised to see that the temperature was much warmer than it was in Russia. I wouldn’t be needing all the winter gear I had brought with me from Russia. I got in a taxi and explained that I wanted to go to a hotel in the downtown part of Vienna. It took quite awhile for the driver to understand what I wanted: communication with people was difficult. As we drove down the streets I noticed that there were many different models of cars on the streets. Many people had more expensive cars than they did in Russia, for ex ample. As I got to know Vienna over the next few days I realized it was a city of wonderful architecture and very friendly people. I was amazed at how clean the streets were and how green the parks were. A big difference was the quality of life of pensioners. In Russia many are very poor, but in Austria I could see they were well taken care of. Generally, people seemed to be happy and kind. I began to realize that I had been nervous about nothing. How did I deal with all of this? In the end I found my trip to be very enjoyable. In the beginning I had been nervous and unsure, but I made sure to keep an open mind. I was curious about Austria and I wanted to learn more. I didn’t necessarily think my own country was better—I wanted to learn. By keeping an open mind while traveling it is easier to adapt to a foreign

2500 words essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

2500 words - Essay Example A concert involves a live performance of music before a significant number of individuals also referred to as audience. Being held in various settings including private houses, nightclubs, entertainment centers, parks and concert halls among other places, concerts comes in different forms based on the musical genre, venue of performance and the individual performers. As an individual who is focused at improving my academic performance, I usually attend music concerts in various places in order to feel relaxed an aspect that improves my concentration. Additionally, I am focused at obtaining adequate information prior to attending the concerts. I usually obtain such information from the internet as well as bill boards that are in most cases elected in major towns and highways. This paper seeks to discuss my experience during my attendance of Rock in Rio 5 concert in September 2013. Rock in Rio is an event that originated from Brazil. Being held in series, the concerts attract large audience who come face to face with well known musicians from various countries. Rock in Rio 5 which is one of the series of Rock in Rio was held on 2013. Some of the notable musicians that participated in the concerts included Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Muse and Bon Jovi among others. Having started in Friday 13 September in Brazil, the 7 days event brought together more that 1 million people from different parts of the world. During the first day, David Guetta, Beyonce and Ivete Sangalo did their presentations during the Palco Mundo an event that attracted large audience especially among the college and university students. Majority of the people who arrived at the concerts were attracted by the performance of the three artists who are famous locally and internationally. Based on the fact that a large section of the audience were aware of the songs that were sa ng by Beyonce, the audience was able to sing along with her an aspect that made

Business entities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business entities - Essay Example The former is considered to be a prescriptive approach, and the latter an explanatory, descriptive, or predictive approach. Normative business ethics is the domain of philosophers and theologians, while empirical business ethics is considered to be the domain of management consultants and business school professors. Scholars who represent these different domains are said to be guided by different theories, assumptions, and norms which often result in misunderstanding or lack of appreciation for each others endeavors. The normative approach, rooted in philosophy and the liberal arts, focuses its attention on questions of what ought to be, and how an individual or business ought to behave in order to be ethical. The empirical approach, rooted in management and the social sciences, is generally concerned with questions of what is, assuming that the organizational world is basically objective and "out there" awaiting impartial exploration and discovery. Empiricist answer questions of what is by attempting to describe, explain, or predict phenomena in the natural world using the agreed-upon methodologies of their social scientific training. The social scientist may devalue the philosophers moral judgments because these judgments cannot be understood in empirical terms and cannot be verified by empirical testing or be used to predict or explain behavior. The social scientists statements about morality, on the other hand, are seen to be of little value to the philosopher because such statements do not address the essential questions of right and wrong. Normative ethical theories develop standards by which the propriety of certain practices in the business world can be evaluated. In contrast, the empirical approach focuses on identifying definable and measurable factors within the individual psyches and social contexts that influence individual and organizational ethical behavior. (Trevino 1994) Gary Weaver and Linda Tevino have outlined three

The long term effects of playing football Essay Example for Free

The long term effects of playing football Essay When people think about football they think its glitz, glamour, and a life of amazement because youre doing what you want and youre getting paid for it. Though that is part of football there are more parts to it that people dont really think about too much. There are three points of football that come from playing the game and they are the rich, glitzy, famous part. The part that travels to away games and has long practices that keep you away from your family. Then there is the anguish and stress factor, which is probably the biggest effect. One obvious positive that comes from playing the game of football is all the perks that come with it. As a kid there are dreams of doing something like this and then it comes true; that alone is amazing. You get paid an incredible amount of money that you really did not need to get an education for. People know and love personalities that play football and its even better if you are a well-known star. Restaurants invite you in to eat for free and clothing companies give you their merchandise in exchange for publicity. This would really seem like it is the life. Then there is the traveling aspect of this deal that is made where in a way a life is signed away. A team is competing to be the best in their sport and there are many sacrifices that have to be made in order to achieve that goal. There will be grueling practices up to 6 days a week and the day that you are not practicing you are doing your job, playing a game. That you have to travel to play away games will leave you homesick. That training with this team will take up most of your day a family could be dismantled. All this being away from family and loved ones can really take a toll on a personal life. A good effect that comes from traveling is seeing new places. Putting yourself in new environments keeps you well rounded. The last and I think most crucial effect that comes from football is the stress and anguish. That football is such a pressure game it could cause many psychological problems. Worrying about so many different things at once can cause you to stress out. For example you have to remember over 100 plays and if you start forgetting or messing them up the coach can pull you out for a couple plays or even the game. Also intermitting itself in this is the  I have to better than him motive, which means the thoughts of taking performance enhancing drugs. Taking these drugs can cause major thought and anguish in the long run. If the decision is made to take them then if caught you will be all over the news and fined which will tarnish peoples respect for you. In conclusion there are many effects that come from playing the game of football and all of them are not good as implicated in this essay. Whether it is the glamour, the traveling, and the stress. Fortunately this essay focuses more on the harder aspects so if you do want to get into pro football there are a lot more things waiting for you.

Conflict Resolution and Communication in Healthcare

Conflict Resolution and Communication in Healthcare Reflective Writing on Critical Incident in the Clinical Experience with Integration of Leadership Theories in Analysis. This write up aims at exploring a conflict that occurred in an urban private hospital concerning a patient, relatives and medical team. Its purpose is to reflect and critically study and understand a clinical incident and use it as a learning episode by use of reflective model. To identify the measures put in place to manage the conflict and the type of leadership skills and leadership theories used to resolve the conflict. Gibbs reflective cycle will be used to expound on the scenario as it unfolded. This is because Gibbs is clear and thus allows description, analysis and evaluation of the experience helping me to make sense of experiences and examines my practice (Gibbs, 1988). Conflict can be defined as disagreement in which the people involved feels that their needs, interests and concerns are threatened. Health care related conflicts are complicated because the care process is ongoing and involving a lot of emotional effort and professional relationships therefore tends to occur frequently and thus interpersonal conflicts, (Johansen, 2012) Incident description I once worked in private urban hospital and while there on my practice I encountered a scenario that left me thinking on how well our patients are informed and involved in their care. On this particular day I reported to work as usual and received the report in a high dependency unit, about the unit and the patients admitted. Special report given was that there were some pending investigative procedures on two patients to be facilitated by one consultant. This investigation were requested on the previous day therefore follow up was to be done during this shift to ensure they are done. After receiving the report we went for quick unit round and assessed the patient status and then the unit manager embarked on contacting the consultant to come and do the tests, efforts to trace him were futile since his phone was not going through. The unit manager contacted the second on call for the same and said that he was out of town thus not in a position of performing the test the same day. In this particular organization the patient and relatives are appraised on daily basis of everything that it’s to be done therefore the relatives were eagerly waiting for the test result when they came back during the visiting. When the relatives came back they wanted to know the test results unfortunately they were not available because the test had not been done, the manager and the doctor covering the unit tried to explain to them in vain. They became very furious and agitated and started using abusive language. Efforts to make them understand were futile. They walked out of the unit to have a discussion among themselves and in 30minutes they were back demanding that their patient be discharged against medical advice so that they can outsource the service elsewhere saying â€Å"you people do not care about our patient but we care about him and we are ready do anything possible to facilitate this test been done†. They signed the form for leaving against medical advice and left. From this episode a crisis meeting was convened to include the medical director, director of nursing the unit in-charge and the doctor who was covering the unit then and a critical analysis and evaluation of the scenario was done and it was resolved that this particular consultant always have an issue with his patient whenever he is on call and therefore it was agreed that the director of medical services and nursing service will meet with the doctor and have a one on one discussion in order to prevent a recurrence. It was also agreed that we follow up on this particular patient and find out what was their progress and whether they went for the test and to even apologize to them and let them understand that we care and patients interest come first and only that there was a problem on that day, the patient was traced and found to be doing well and they never went for the test on that particular day they had to wait until the next since they could not get the service where they went because it’s the same consultant who doing the procedure in that facility and therefore opted to come back to our facility for readmission and they very apologetic and remorseful for the actions â€Å"we regret our action and we want to apologize for unnecessary attention that we demanded for while your efforts was to ensure for better outcome of patient. We are sincerely sorry for the disturbance and our shameful acts† we reassured the relatives and readmitted the patient for continued care. Feelings This experience made me feel like we failed no matter how we tried explaining to the client and his relatives it never seemed to be working. I also felt that we failed to meet our goal of ensuring that patients are satisfied with the services they receive, though the unit manager was very composed throughout this situation and handled the relatives with a lot of care and caution she never seemed to be worked up by their demand. This leader portrayed very good qualities that I really admired and felt that I should emulate, she had a good charisma. Felt that she was a transformational leader because she displayed charisma and we as her juniors followed her way of instituting measures in place. She was able to reason with the relatives and explain on the events as they were unfolding even though they never paid any attention or reasoned with her, she explained of the challenge we were facing in the situation. She engaged the relative by stimulating them to understand through use of logical questions and exploring on their assumptions (Hendel, Fish Galon, 2005). I also felt the manager had some qualities of transactional leader because she was able to monitor the performance and step in to correct the situations as they arose and also utilized passive management since the problem arose unexpectedly and therefore rushed in to handle the situations (Hendel, Fish Galon, 2005). Utilization of these skills gave the manager an upper hand in handling the furious relatives and creating their understanding even though they decided to leave the hospital. Convening a crisis meeting by the management was a very important step as this created an opportunity to address the issue as it happened and come up with solutions to prevent recurrence and provide steps in handling the situation in case it recurs. The affected consultant was also give an opportunity to explain what transpired and he had a genuine reason because he was in theater doing a procedure and he called back to the facility after he was done to inquire why we were calling him them. I felt that the relatives also have role to play during care of their loved by been supportive and establishing a trusting professional relationship with the health professional to establish a common working ground. Decision to withdraw the patient from the hospital was solely made by the relative and the patient felt vulnerable and tossed around since he could not make sound decision there compromising on the patient care in the name of seeking for a service. Evaluation This episode provided a learning situation for me as I experience how difficult it might be in handling clients that you have already established a professional relationship with, and with all efforts to try and let the clients understand the situation by providing them with information. What was good about this incident is that the manager was very calm and composed all through and understood the feelings of the relatives concerning their loved one. She was able to utilize her skills optimally to handle the situation. What was bad about the situation is that the investigation was not carried out and the clients felt ignored or left out and thus opted to leave the hospital and seek services elsewhere as fate would have its way they never accessed the services on the material day because most of them are outsourced and the same consultant does the procedure in the facility they went too. They were embarrassed by their behavior and even come back to apologize on the same and we reassur ed them. Eventually they brought the patient for readmission. Study done in an Israel hospital on conflict resolution on nursing managers indicated that they mostly utilized transformational leadership style because it allows for creativity and flexibility in problem solving and scrutinizing all protocols and policies set to manage situation through critical analysis (Hendel, Fish Galon, 2005). Actions to withdraw the patient and interrupt care compromised on the patient health status and even the expected outcome. Analysis From this situation the patient’s relatives were right in demanding for action because they had been explained about the test, its importance and why the result may be needed to make decision on the way forward in patient’s management. On the same case having not done the test on the same day would not have worsened patient’s condition and still medical management would still be ongoing as we awaited the test to be done. The crisis meeting organized ensured the lasting solution is availed in order to improve on patient care and therefore a ensure quality care leading to better patient outcome. To effectively resolve a conflict a better understanding should be ensured through clear communication and understanding the crisis leading to disagreement. Therefore conflict resolution becomes an important aspect in prevention of errors occurring (Sportsman Hamilton, 2007). The unit manager utilized the transformational theory and understood that followers are an important aspect to facilitate leadership and that the follower is always accountable and with skills to critiques scenarios and issues as they unfold just like the leader does. Similar to the incident the manger took control of the situation vividly which was a learning opportunity for in the unit that day as potential leaders (Daft, 2008). Conclusion From this incident it can be concluded that the health team played their part well though an element of ineffective communication is evident since the relatives were aware that the test needed to be done in order to make decision on the management therefore emphasis had been put across thus explains their fury when it was not done. Leadership experience plays an important role in ensuring or equipping the leader with skills to handle situation in future thus creating an understanding of the theories used in leadership. For one to be effective leader one must learn whom they are what are the strengths and weaknesses establish a personal philosophy and be strong to stand firm and represent what we believe in terms of patients care and skills of conflict resolution (Daft, 2008). Action plan To work as a team is an important aspect of nursing and that effective communication is paramount in ensuring that the patient and relatives are well informed on the care provided to their loved ones. This experience has been an eye opener in me and it has made me realize that I can never be ready to solve a conflict this because each occurrence is always unique and present in a different manner, therefore utilization of leaderships skills become important. This will change the current practice because more emphasis will be on passing information to the relevant bodies. References. Daft, R.L. (2008). The Leadership experience. Mason, OH: SouthWestern. Gibbs, G., (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods, Oxford Polytechnic Further Education unit. Hendel T., Fish M Galon V. (2005) Leadership style and choice of strategy in conflict management among Israeli nurse managers in general hospitals; Journal of Nursing Management 13, 137–146 Mary L. Johansen (2012 ) Keeping the peace: Conflict management strategies for nurse managers Nursing Management: 43 ( 2) doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000410920.90831.96 Sportsman S, Hamilton P(2007;). Conflict management styles in the health professions. J Prof Nurs. 23(3):157–166.

Ryanair and GE Total Quality Management (TQM)

Ryanair and GE Total Quality Management (TQM) Quality Management : History and Purpose All businesses are concerned with quality, usually because they have come to understand that high quality can give a significant competitive advantage.[2] Good quality products and services reduce the costs of rework, waste, complaints and returns and, most importantly, generate satisfied customers. [1] It is noticed that quality is considered as one of the most important factor as a competitive tool. Total Quality Management (TQM) that became popular with all types of business in the late 1970s and 1980s has its roots in earlier work by several management thinkers. Feigenbaum popularized the term total quality management in 1957. After that it was developed through the work of several quality gurus including Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Taguchi and Crosby. TQM can be viewed as a logical extension of the way in which quality-related practice has progressed. [2] Originally quality was achieved by inspection screening out defects before customers noticed them. Then the quality control (QC) concept developed a more systematic approach to not only detecting but also solving quality problems. Quality assurance (QA) widened the responsibility for quality to include functions other than direct operations, such as Human Resources, Accounting and Marketing[2]. Quality management has also made increasing use of advanced statistical quality techniques since 1980s through Six Sigma process input-output improvement to deliver quality. Some organisations such as Ryanair, Toyota etc. suggests and favour TQM as an outstanding turn around strategy where as some organisations such as GE, GM, Honeywell etc. has attained success through laying down Six Sigma in all its functional chains and processes and they firmly believe and live Six Sigma. Executive Summary This report follows my conclusions and understanding from readings and abstract from various reliable sources mentioned in the headers, footers and the dedicated referencing part of the report. The report introduces us to the quality approaches followed by Ryanair and GE who are from different industry having different orientations. The report also suggests why Ryanair has tag on TQM and how innovations, changes in business environment and competitiveness  are affected and later it is critically discussed that improvement is necessary in Ryanairs quality management to compete. Since the fashionable peak of TQM and Six Sigma, in general there has been some decline in its status, yet, many of its ideas included in this report, have become accepted quality practice. [2] Reflection in the Report: My perception before I started my studies and research into this subject matter, the Quality, was that the quality is found only in the expensive and branded products and that the Quality Control is the out put focused single method of quality management. My tutor, Mr. Sotunde, the guide to Operations and Process Management by Slack N. and co authors, various readings from Quality and Business magazines have clarified me the concept of quality and how it can be managed effectively. Firstly, I learnt that the quality is a value in product and/or service and it can be established by the customers expectations that are to be matched with the actual product and/or service. Secondly, quality cannot be measured with price alone as price is the major factor of companies strategy to exploit or to compete in the market and it is the financial factor to affect the profitability. But, quality can be found in low price products or services as well such as in Value for Money goods and services or it is found as a value that a company can deliver in its product or services for a justifiable price. I learnt that the quality function is not limited to the out put but it can be practised through out the organisation in to all its processes to produce or provide goods and services of the consistent quality as per the expectations of the customers. As it has to be practised universally it is the responsibility of all and the value of the quality should be understood and  communicated within and outside the organisation for example to the suppliers and distributors. Additionally, there are varieties of approaches to the Quality that are practised by different organisations. Though having similar functions, organisations in the same industry or in direct competition, it is seen that two different organisations follow different quality management approach and both are successful in terms of the quality goods and services it produce or provide. Establishing quality standards and following/meeting them sincerely is not enough for the organisations to stay longer on the edge because they could be copied or imitated by our competitors or new entrants or customers quality expectation might change. So, it is very much essential for organisations that they make every effort to improve their quality aspect. I have also learnt that the quality approach developed within the organisation such as TQM by Toyota and formalised Six Sigma by Motorola are difficult to be copied exactly overnight and if concepts adopted completely than too one cant beat them in their own game because they are constantly improving their functions and process to excel the customers perceptions, keeping them always a step ahead. It is also seen that quality standards are formalised by organisations such as ISO and ISI and organisations help each other by affiliations such as EFQM to improve the quality aspects in production or provision of goods and services. RYANAIR:[3] Ryanair, currently, Europes original and still largest low-fare, no frills airline with workforce of over 5,000 employees, around fleet of 250 aircrafts including new Boeing 737-800 aircrafts provide services to around 12m passengers every year to over 1,100 low-fare routes across 26 European countries. According to the CEO, Michael O Leary, Our customer service is about the most well defined in the world. We guarantee to give you the lowest air fare. You get a safe flight. You get a normally on-time flight. Thats the package. We dont, and wont, give you anything more. Are we going to say sorry for our lack of customer service? Absolutely not. If a plane is cancelled, will we put you up in a hotel overnight? Absolutely not. If a plane is delayed, will we give you a voucher for a restaurant? Absolutely not. [The other key information about Ryanair Ltd., please refer to Appendix 1] GE: [9] GE is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the worlds toughest challenges. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. Their businesses fuel the global economy and improve peoples lives. Their global research team with more than 2,500 researchers working towards the next breakthrough, GE is positioned to continually innovate, invent and reinvent. General Electric (GE) says that its commitment to quality is based on the ideas of globalization and instant access to information, and products and services that continue to change the way its customers conduct business. Their quality mission statement reads, in part, Todays competitive environment leaves no room for error. We must meet our customers needs and relentlessly look for new ways to exceed their expectations. Ryanair v/s GE Quality Philosophy and approach: For both Ryanair and GE, quality means the consistent conformance to customers expectations by laying down the concepts of service quality, process management, quality assertion and quality perfection, but, their approach to quality management is quite different. Ryanair and TQM: Ryanair offers value for money, point-to-point air travel and aims nothing close to luxurious service. Quality provision at Ryanair is intended from their point of view giving adequate consideration to the expectations and perceptions of their targeted segment for the fare it is offering and it is seen that Ryanair is delivering these expectations by its on time journeys, passenger and baggage safety, good appearance and attitude of crews, the way it meets the industry challenges and resolves the service failures. Since 1997, it has adopted and living the total quality management to deliver its quality objectives through its Lowest Fares and Passenger Service Charter. [6] The up to date highlights (non-exhaustive, for complete list please follow Appendix 1) from this charter stating their significant commitments are: To offer the lowest fares at all time on all routes. To notify passengers of known delays, cancellations and diversions. To allow reservation changes. To respond quickly to passenger complaints and provide prompt refunds. To take measures to speed up check-in. The success and growth that Ryanair is currently enjoying is due to providing the best value for money service as right first time in all its functions from booking the ticket to the baggage handling. It is universally understood within the organisation that little extra effort will bring big results and these efforts do not require a huge investment in training. The Ryanair control its functions and processes through its industry benchmarking and setting its own internal quality standards. It uses Servicemail and other performance statistics to evaluate their position in their highly competitive aviation industry. GE and Six Sigma: Most of the GE business segments are involved in large scale manufacturing activities at a greater extent. In 1988 with a program called Work-Out, GE started focusing on quality issues that has helped them to open its corporate culture to established ideas from any quarter regarding quality management that later created an environment that eventually led to Six Sigma. Work-Out was used to identify and eliminate unneeded processes and tasks by development teams from multiple departments to find a solution to a problem. Now, Six Sigma is embedding quality thinking into every level of operation around the globe. These uses statistical tools and systems to monitor and control processes and functions to have outputs close to zero defects. The three key elements that GE focuses to their quality initiatives are customers, processes and employees. Everything the company does in its quest for world-class quality focuses on these three essential elements. Customers are at the centre of GE universe and they define quality by their expectations of performance, reliability and other factors. To attain the level of quality that their customers require, GE conducts what it calls Outside-In Thinking. Outside-In Thinking calls on GE to look at its business from its customers perspective. By understanding the transaction lifecycle from the customers needs and processes, we can discover what they are seeing and feeling. With this knowledge, we can identify areas where we can add significant value or improvement from their perspective, GEs quality statement reads. The employees are a key to the quality approach and at GE, quality is embedded as the responsibility of every employee. Keeping this in mind, all GE employees are provided training in the strategy, statistical tools and techniques of Six Sigma Quality. Variety of training courses are offered at different levels including basic awareness to Six Sigma; basic tool introduction to equip employees to participate on Six Sigma teams; Master Black Belt, Black Belt and Green Belt Training for leader managers; and Design for Six Sigma training. Summing-up: Both, Ryanair and GE are trying to deliver exceeding quality products and services to both their internal and external customers, clearly understanding that quality is a consistent versatile activity having both quantitative and non-quantitative attributes such as re-visiting customer? Yes/No. They have emphasised and communicated throughout the organisation that quality is the responsibility of every individual and through these responsibility they ensures that all processes, inputs and outputs, maintain and produce consistent confirmative level of quality products and services. Is TQM really good for Ryanair? Ryanairs business strategy is based upon the product orientation for its air travel and quality strategy as the customer orientation. Ryanair is constantly trying to keep its costs as low as possible to transfer benefits of cost savings to its passenger in the form of low fares. The common misconception is that the quality comes for price. Critically, it can be argued that quality can be delivered for the low price service as well, rather again to say simply, Quality in Price. In these past 25 years, Ryanair has well balanced the expectations and perceptions by introducing revolutionary and innovative ways of providing low fare air travel. Keeping its target market in centre, they have defined and communicated the quality of their services in their own terms. Ryanairs customers know what they will get and their job is to deliver these expectations at its best by managing each and every, direct and indirect processes that are related to the passengers which are later judged by passengers experience. Ryanairs approach to its quality management as different from other successful organisations such as GE has serious implications on its innovations, changing business environment and competition. Innovations in Ryanair: Putting an innovative thought into quick action is the core competence of Ryanair. Most of the Ryanair innovative ideas have brought the revolution in the way people perceived travelling by air. For many successful companies such as GE, innovations has cost them fortune and these costs were recovered from customers in the higher prices, but, for Ryanair innovations were implementing a simple ideas bringing additional revenues that in turn benefiting customers in lowest price tickets. Firstly, with its turn around strategy of mid 1990s, Ryanair, apart from no frills has introduced no class, single model air crafts. These fleets of hundreds of aircrafts were ordered often and bought at a heavy discount. The overhead cost of training and cleaning were brought down to nominal because of these standardised aircrafts. The focus and resources were diverted to introduce new routes, increasing customer base and harnessing quality factors in its provision of services. From 2000 and onwards it started using the e-commerce tools and websites for online booking, check-in and informing customers about the special offers on its tickets. Ryanair was first to advertise third parties advertisement on its boarding pass and flights. The customer service were improved by introduction of web application, Bing, that updates air fares directly to its customers computer and by implementing a Servicemail, a point of contact and response for customers. Servicemail is then extended to collect data regarding customer choices, preferences, trend analysis and measuring KPIs. In future: The fare charged by Ryanair reflects the price of travelling from point A to B. It offers other ancillary services such as in flight meals, drinks, baggage costs etc. at a charge for those who want it. The lasting visionary CEO, OLeary has a vision that in coming years travel by Ryanair will be free and all its revenue will be streamed by providing ancillary services, third party advertisements, holidays, insurance, hotels and connections bookings sold through Ryanair website. Change: TQM approach adopted by Ryanair is a flexible approach to a change in external circumstances as it has to just focus do new thing at its best but at lower cost. Customers: Ryanair is a focused cost leader and open to customer fatigue so it has to understand that in the long run it has to move along with the taste of the customer that might be affected by pressure groups, regulators, EU and other regional governments. Currently, Ryanair is managed by an aggressive approach to capture market and in future it might require strategic rethinking, but, its approach to quality can stay the same to entice and satisfy passengers. [Please refer to Number 1 Customer Services Statistics in the Appendix 4][8] Suppliers: The advantage to Ryanair is that within UK and Europe, each major region of the countries has more than one airport, which can accommodate Ryanair at competitive rates on landing and handling fees, leaving Ryanair with the upper hand. The traffic at these secondary airports is low increasing the quality level of airport handling services and on-time departures enjoyed by the passengers. The other suppliers are caterers, maintenance and repair contractors. It is natural that Ryanair must be managing its suppliers relationship through service level agreements with a backed hefty compensation for the breach of service term(s). EU and Local Governments: The growth of the Ryanair rooted due to EUs deregulation of the aviation industry. EU court decision can negatively impact upon the way Ryanair is functioning. For instance, Ryanair was forced to refund against its non-refund policy for flight cancellations due to Icelandic volcanic eruptions and was charged 3m Euros by Italian Government for not helping passengers after its flight cancellations. To stay in business and avoid fines Ryanair has to comply with such unavoidable regulations but it could not impair its quality approach as others too have to comply. Quality and Competitiveness: Of course, quality products and services are the competitive advantage and Ryanair keenly has laid down this aspect into it air flights and routes. The key to success of Ryanair is implementing different marketing strategies over a period of time to survive the cut throat competition in the aviation industry. Ryanair is recognised as the most punctual flight from Dublin to London and Ryanair is top rated against its close competitors such as EasyJet, Virgin and British Airways. People made it possible statement is true for Ryanair because the success of Ryanair is behind its crew members as they are in the direct contact with the passengers. Ryanair has not spent much on the training but is paying modestly to its crew and this has encouraged them to behave as pleasantly as possible on the flights. There are concerns raised from some unsatisfied customers and dissident that the ancillary services provided by Ryanair are priced high and are of poor quality. Ryanair should deal with this issue as early as possible as the success of total quality management lies upon delivering quality in all aspects of its activities. Despite all cutting corners to save on ticket prices, more and more people are flying Ryanair, which, in the end, might be the ultimate validation of OLearys assessment of what travellers really want and how Ryanair is delivering it. [Please refer to the Appendix 3: The Customer Feedbacks][7] However, TQM is not the end in itself. Ryanair should continuously strive upon improving its quality standards that can help them to further reduce costs, increase revenues, reduce risks and improve the way it helps handle complaints and dissatisfied passengers. Improving Quality in Ryanair The ultimate aim of operations and process management is the performance improvement and Ryanair should consider this as an ultimate objective to improve its quality objectives of on time flights, speed, ancillary services and dependability. Despite of all efforts to manage its quality, Ryanair is seen and blamed that it sacrifices the quality in pursuit of minimising costs and that it fails to align the interests of its passengers well. These issues could be addressed by setting the minimum performance standards and outperforming them, as well said, promise little and deliver above expectations. One way Ryanair could win its goal to become worlds biggest and cheapest airliner is by aligning all its functions within the organisations to commit to quality levels and agreeing the quality deliverables with its contractors. Kaizen aka Continuous Improvement if adopted could blend well with the current TQM approach followed by Ryanair, however, this could affect the innovations, change an d current competitive position in a favourable manner. Kaizen involves focus on small but never ending improvements that will become part of normal culture for all operations. Innovations: We are aware that since 1997 Ryanairs passenger base is growing at a tremendous 20% average every year and it still has an appetite for growth and market to expand. It has become increasingly important that Ryanair addresses the improvement issue in its quality management to satisfy this increased demand, number of new routes, destinations and growth prospects with Kaizen. Ryanair could extend or assign the responsibility towards quality improvement to the regional processes owners affecting passengers quality perception. These processes owners would identify the performance gaps and recommend actions to fulfil them by innovative actions or contribute ideas for further analysis. A close contact is required with the crew members who will bring them the stories or experience they had with customers and how they overcame the demands or problems of different customers. We have Servicemail as a point of customer contacts and correspondences, but, we may need a system for internal communications that could be called a Central Information System (CIS). Through CIS every crew teams, employees and contractors as a lean system, directly submit key ideas, stories, experience to their respective process owner, who in turn filter the messages and re-post it that shall be compulsorily viewed, shared, commented and recommended upon by all regional process owners for further analysis that may involve the PDCA cycle or DMAIC cycle approach. This simple CIS should not cost much as it could be readily available or produced upon demand by the tendering process. Assuming that majority of them are computer literate and CIS very user friendly will require bare minimum costs for informing or training. The most contributing team or processes should be measured with process excellence index aka EPI and rewarded on quarterly basis. The other direct and simple approach for improvement is to circulate a postcard size blank form on flight with two columns to list down by passengers good about and dissatisfied about travelling with Ryanair. The employees should be encouraged to identify and forward negative feedbacks only using CIS with a confidence and surety that they will not be judged in any case against negative feedbacks and that the forms will be used for general improvement of quality standards as a whole. Change and Competitiveness: The improved quality means increased revenue and profits due to increased turnover. The Kaizen approach in low cost EU and UK Airline service segment will identify, distinguish and advantage Ryanair from its competitors. If, Ryanair act now and fully implement Kaizen by December 2011 then they could become a cost-cum-service leader, a fully innovative airliner, with the cheapest fares simply covering quality cost of travel and chargeable ancillary quality efficient services with a minimum premium for those who want them. This development will help Ryanair to become a worlds popular brand and will advantage Ryanair in 2012 when the number of international passengers will increase more than double due to London Olympics. In many instances Ryanair was criticised by the regulators and competitors for not giving any or enough quality in passengers safety and ancillary services. Now, with Kaizen all will be reversed and Ryanair will be considered as the industry leader setting the industry landmarks for benchmarking. Ryanair has publicly announced that by 2014 it will enter the long haul destinations market and this will require them for a parallel strategic thinking as this segment will bring new challenges in terms of quality management. These routes are proposed to be separately managed, perhaps with most traditional form of flights and some compulsory on board services which will require Ryanair to establish new service standards. There is a scope of success in this segment if it can effectively extend and use of then well functioning Servicemail, CIS and other critical success factors such as brand, price and well established quality standards using Kaizen. Word count: Executive Summary 121 Reflection in the Report 493 Ryanair and GE Introductions 297 Ryanair v/s GE 732 Is TQM good for Ryanair 1,117 Improving Quality in Ryanair 819 Total : 3,579