Recommendations for process improvement planning

Justification
The department would want to reduce customer complaints from the current 7% to at least 1%. For the department to achieve this goal, there is a need to have a quality improvement plan that will analyze the services offered by the department from the viewpoint of the customer. The service department must establish the root cause of the customer complaints and institute measures that are aimed at reducing complaints. By focusing on what is truly value-add to the customer, the department can manage to come up with meaningful and innovative outputs that will be suitable to the customer. Using the COPIS model, the department can transform the process by focusing on what the customer would be delighted with (Brown, 2019). This way the department will then consider the new outputs that may be more effective in reaching this goal. The quality improvement plan will allow the department to change its current focus to one that is aimed at satisfying the customer or one that puts the customer needs first. This will result in improved deliverables that will be beneficial to the customer, which will, in turn, result in the reduction of customer complaints. Using a quality improvement plan, the department will be able to self-assess its performance in the service that it delivers to its customers and determine the areas that the department can implement changes that will be focused on the customer and not on the supplier. Having done a self-assessment, the department can plan for future improvements based on its goals and current operations. A quality improvement plan will give the service department an insight on what the customer truly values and this can be used to improve customer satisfaction since the focus will shift to the customer. This allows the department to have an outside-in approach of looking at a process from the customer's perspective.
Approaches to Customer Service
Customer service approaches include focusing on customer retention, detail-oriented support, and meeting the customers where they live. We will focus mainly on meeting the customer where they live. This does not mean meeting the customers in their houses literally. It implies interacting with the customer using the bases that have been selected by the customer be it social media or on call. Reaching out and responding to customers based on the medium chosen by the customer will ensure that there is a faster response to the customer query and the customer can receive the message promptly. With a focus on the customer, a business must be able to meet the customer where the customer feels most comfortable (Carvalho, Magalhaes, Varela, Sa, & Gonçalves, 2016). Some customers would prefer to interact via calls and others will prefer social media. With a presence in both these avenues, the business can be assured that it can interact with the customers and the business is able and willing to attend to customer problems or queries.
Customer loyalty will have a positive impact on output satisfaction. This is because loyal customers will become repeat customers and the business will increase its outputs. Therefore, the business will benefit since the customers will be satisfied with the services received and they will be unwilling to go elsewhere for the same services. Customer loyalty will also lead to positive reviews of the business from the customers. This will, in turn, lead to new customers willing to give the business a try, which increases the sales of the business. As has been established, it is costlier to serve new customers than serving the old customers. For this reason, a business will benefit the most from ensuring that they have loyal customers than in trying to acquire new customers.
Output-Control and Measurement
With the aim of reducing customer complaints, the department can make use of process effectiveness measurement. This measurement will measure the performance of a process to a specified customer requirement, which in our case is reducing customer complaints. It is stated that every process must have a purpose that will include a winning value proposition to the customer. With a customer-centric approach, the department can define the customer, the customer problem that is aimed to be solved, and the unique way that the department can manage to solve this problem. Being able to control the output from the process will allow the department to check and determine that the service offered to the customer to follow the guidelines laid down. With a determination of the output control, measurement should be undertaken to establish if there has been a reduction in the number of customer complaints. In case it is established that customer complaints have increased then it becomes clear that there is something not going as planned. The goal is to improve process performance, therefore, when the process performance is negative then something is not working as expected and there is a need for a review. With an approach that is focused on the customer and one that is working to solve the problems faced by the customer, it should be automatic that customer complaints should reduce.
Process-Improvement and Management Approaches
DMAIC, DMADV, and COPIS are some of the process-improvement and management approaches. DMAIC is a five-step approach that is mostly used to improve the current processes. DMAIC is an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This approach is used for optimizing, improving, and stabilizing business processes. When a business discovers that its services or products are not meeting customer expectations DMAIC can assist the business to determine the reason and develop long-term solutions to the underlying problem. DMAIC is used in all types of industries mostly by teams that are working on projects. DMADV is an acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify (Carvalho et al., 2016). DMADV is used for the creation of new processes at the Six Sigma quality level. When a business wants to implement a new strategy and initiative it will make use of DMADV instead of DMAIC. This is mostly done when the business establishes that its existing processes do not meet its required quality levels even after optimization. DMADV can be used in all types of industries and it is mostly applicable in manufacturing industries. COPIS is similar to SIPOC only that COPIS gives the company an outside-in approach, unlike SIPOC that gives an inside-out approach (Brown, 2019). COPIS stands for Customer, Output, Process, Input, and Supplier. This approach focuses on what a customer wants or their experiences and aims at working on ways to improve customer experience. Using this approach, the business does not need to make assumptions on what it thinks the customer wants. Instead, the business can focus on delivering the outputs that have been identified.
Recommended Process-Improvement Approach
The recommended process-improvement approach is the COPIS approach. This approach has been selected because the department would prefer to create new processes and it aims to reduce its customer complaints. Therefore, the department has to focus on what the customer wants and then work towards identifying the outputs that the customer wants (Brown, 2019). Initially, the department has been working with assumptions of what the customer wants and this could be the reason why the department has been having these complaints by the customers. If the department wants to reduce the complaints then there is a need to change the focus and stop making assumptions. Understanding what is important to the customers will give the department the vital information it needs to realign its outputs to meet these customer needs. Processes can then be aligned to deliver upon the required outputs. Provided the processes have been defined, it becomes easy to determine the required inputs and suppliers. This approach is meant to be used with new processes and this will mean that the department will change its focus from the initial where the suppliers determined the outputs and customer. Having an outside-in approach gives the department the vital information on how the customer perceives the products developed and how they can improve upon the products.
Input-Measurement and Management Approach
The best input-measurement and management approach would be process sigma. This approach measures the variation between a process relative to customer requirements. Defects are usually measured on a scale of defects per million opportunities (DPMO) (Shojaie, Raissi, & Dogahe, 2016). Even in the service industry defects can still be measured using DPMO. Within the service industry, any instance of not meeting the customer requirements can be considered to be a defect. Therefore, having a higher DPMO is undesirable. The service department is currently handling 7% customer complaints, and this might be an indicator that the department is having numerous unhappy customers. The department needs to improve its sigma from its current level to six sigma. This will ensure that the department can reduce customer complaints and have more happy customers. This measure can be applied to any process, which would be vital in determining the processes that need to be given priority. According to {Shojaie, 2016 #3204}Shojaie et al. (2016) the capability of a process is what is measured by process sigma. The higher the process sigma the more capable the process is. Based on the information presented, we can assume that the department is working at a lower sigma if say 4 and it should be working on a sigma level of 6. This could be the reason why it is having such a high level of customer complaints even though percentage-wise it looks little. With sigma being calculated based on DPMO, one can see that having customer complaints of 7% could mean that numerous customers have been raising complaints, and there is a need to reduce or improve upon the service being delivered.
Supplier-Management Approach
As is the case within the organization, each department deals with its aspects of the supplier. This has led to a fragmented supplier management approach. Since each department has its processes, applications, and systems supplier information is normally stored in different systems and there are numerous duplications. Without an interlinked system, it is not possible to correlate information between departments and this makes it hard to manage suppliers. Collaborating with suppliers becomes hard since each department is left to handle its supplies. To improve upon the supplier relationship and improve upon input and supplier quality, there is a need to have a centralized system for managing suppliers. Supplier relationship management is key to receiving the best quality materials and competitive pricing. Any attempt to improve upon input requires the company to have smooth operations. With multiple departments making requests to the supplier individually, the company cannot reduce its operational costs since each department is billed separately. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that all requests are channeled through the system and they are processed as coming from a single entity. This way the business can negotiate to have discounted rates that would result in reduced manufacturing costs. Suppliers can deliver inputs at scheduled times thus reducing the time taken to manufacture the goods. The right suppliers can be identified and contracted since the information is collated in one central location. With a centralized database of suppliers’ rogue suppliers can be identified and expunged from the database. This will ensure that the organization only deals with reliable suppliers who offer competitive prices to the company.
Conclusion
The service department needs to reduce the customer complaints it receives to ensure that the service or product being delivered meets the customer needs and requirements. The current focus of the department on customer assumptions can be attributed to these customer complaints. the department needs to come up with new strategies that are aimed at uncovering and identifying customer desires and requirements. This would mean the department is working by looking at the inside from outside. With this view, the department can get a clearer picture of what the customer would like and they can go ahead and make these improvements. The COPIS approach has been recommended because it offers the department an opportunity to initiate the process from the customer perspective and working with the requirements as proposed by the customers. Using this approach, the company can be assured that it will meet the needs of the customers and it can also improve its sales. Eliminating the assumptions that the team had regarding the customer allows the team to fully identify the needs of its customers and work towards meeting those needs. The team would then define the processes required to deliver those outputs and the required inputs and suppliers can be easily determined. This approach is beneficial in reducing the process sigma that is being used for input-measurement. Reducing this number will ensure that processes are working as expected and the results can be seen. Supplier management should also be incorporated. This will ensure the company reaps benefits from having a centralized supplier management system that holds all the key information regarding its suppliers. With a centralized system, the company can negotiate for better prices and also benefit from economies of scale.
References
Brown, C. (2019). Why and how to employ the SIPOC model. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning, 12(3), 198-210.
Carvalho, M. S., Magalhaes, D. S., Varela, M. L., Sa, J. O., & Gonçalves, I. (2016). Definition of a collaborative working model to the logistics area using design for Six Sigma. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 33(4), 465-475.
Shojaie, A. A., Raissi, S., & Dogahe, R. A. (2016). Impact analysis of TQM's hard aspects on sigma level in electronics and telecommunication production process. International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 18(4), 425-439.