Liance Corporation: Online Sales Program

Liance Corporation: Online Sales Program

The Topliance Corporation is a manufacturing company that makes home appliances. They have more than fifty sales agents across multiple states. The company has decided to implement an online sales program. The goal of the program is to increase sales volume and enhance the profit margin. The purposes of this paper is twofold: to present the Project Quality Management Plan and the Project Risk Management Plan, and demonstrate the importance of each to the viability of the Online Sales Program.

The Quality Management Plan is divided into three prime functions: quality planning, quality assurance and quality control. These three functions together will provide a general framework from which to guarantee satisfactory quality in our products and services.

Quality planning is the stage that determines which quality standards are necessary and how to apply them. The qualities that are seen as necessary for a successful online sales program are an easy-to-use website, prompt order processing, speedy delivery, and adequate and efficient customer service support. Now that the quality standrads have been identified we can set specific goals around each aspect. The website must be user-friendly and easy to navigate, so that customers can find the specific product they are searching for and conveniently place the order. The next goal is for all orders to be processed within twenty-four hours from the time the order was placed. The goal for delivery is for every order to be shipped within forty-eight hours of placing the order. Finally, the customer service goal is for any complaints or problems to be resolved within twenty -four hours of receiving them.

The next step in the plan is quality assurance. Quality assurance means all those planned and systematic actions necessary to rpovide adequate confidence that a product or service will satisy the given requirements for quality. Essentially this means that whatever steps are determined to be necessary for the success of the project are in place by the time the project is underway. Quality assurance are those actions that are implemented before the project is launched in order to ensure the rewuired level of quality. Therefore, the website must be designed for ease of use and high traffic volume. Test marketing should be used to determine what works or doesn't work as far as web design is concerned.

For order processing, it will be necessary to train the sales staff to enter the date and time the order was processed after the date it was placed. The warehouse staff will also need to be prepared for the changes in shipping procedures. The warehouse staff must also be taught to verify the address of the customer and the type of appliance that is to be shipped. If they are not already, the customer service department must become available twenty -four hours a day in order to handle complaints, problems or questions. The online sales program involves the potential for orders outside the company's usual demographic area (possibly anywhere in the world), asnd for this reason as well the customer service department must be avalable at all times.

Quality control is the process of monitoring specific project results to determine if they comply with the relevant standards and identifying ways to eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance. As opposed to quality assurance, quality control is meant to include those measures that are instituted for maintaining quality standards after the project has started. Foremost amongst these measures is the formation of the Project Quality Control Team. The purpose of the team is to monitor and document the information relevant to the process, such as logs of when the orders were processed, shipping logs of when the orders left the warehouse. The team is to answer directly to the Project Manager, but they are also provided an outside contact with higher management so that options are available if the Project Manager does not adequately handle problems as they arise. Quality control is also monitored thourhg the use of quality checklists that are derived directly from the project's quality goals. These checklists rpovide for documentation that can be studied in order to properly examine quality issues. For the Topliance project, this checklist can be a list of simple questions that directly relate to the quality goals: Was the order processed within twenty-four hours? Was the order shipped within forty-eight hours? Was the order delivered to the proper address? Was the order correct (make and model number)? How does the customer rate Topliance's performace (from one (lowest) to five (highest))? This information will be checked by the quality control team, conclusions will be drawn from the data, and the findings will be submitted to the Project manager, who will then decide what action or actions need to be taken, if any.