CST4310 - Group Coursework: FI Hardware Process Improvement Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of process improvement strategies for FI Hardware, a retail business in Mauritius. The report begins by introducing the context of the company, highlighting the need for improved business processes to meet organizational goals and adapt to enviro...Read More

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Student’s Name
Professor
Date

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Abstract
The need for quality and processes improvement permeates the business world. Quality
processes can be referred as the degree at which the business processes and services increase the
likelihood of meeting the company objectives at the same time optimally satisfying customer
needs. Inefficient and variable processes contribute to business complexities. Most researchers
have pointed out that most business are under functioning due to the following factors, efficient,
effective, timely and customer centered factors. The aims of the processes’ quality, efficiency
and effectiveness are targeted in improving overall performance of the company. This paper
focuses on the analysis of FI Hardware in its bid to improve the quality of its processes.

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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Background..................................................................................................................................5
Quality Problems.............................................................................................................................6
Proposed processes..........................................................................................................................7
Potential processes quality improvement........................................................................................8
Implementation................................................................................................................................9
Quality improvement implementation plan...................................................................................10
Selection of the quality improvement process...........................................................................10
Assembly of the implementation team......................................................................................11
Implementation measures development........................................................................................12
Identification of change ideas....................................................................................................12
Test change ideas.......................................................................................................................12
Sustaining process improvement...............................................................................................13
Time frame and efforts..................................................................................................................13
Quality improvement strategies.....................................................................................................14
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................15
assumptions................................................................................................................................15
Quality improvement tools............................................................................................................15

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References......................................................................................................................................17
Appendices....................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
The current performance of the firm highly depends on the business processes' collective ability
to meet the primary organizational goals. However, the extended terms of organization growth
and overall performance rely on its ability to satisfy the exogenous changes required fully.
Which include a difference in the life cycle of the product, entry of new competitors in the
market and any other environmental change that may be experienced in the market environment
(Wang 2017). Business Process Management is a structured approach that is used in modeling
the processes so as to have a clear understanding, process documentation, modeling, activities
analysis, simulation, processes execution and monitoring the continuous changes in the end to
end business process and the available resources regarding the ability of the firm to add value to
its business. It is a modern terminology that is used in encapsulating a process-driven strategy to
meet enterprise operational efficiency (vom Brocke and Mendling, 2018). BPM employs the use
of advancement in the technology in providing firms with the ability to map and remodel
operations processes. It also helps deploy the processes as new adaptations that will integrate the
new changes introduced with the existing software and equip the managers with the functionality
ability to monitor, assess, control and improve, and execute the processes in the business
operations.
Background
FI Hardware Store is retail in Mauritius selling paint and DIY hardware, and its primary
customers are tradespersons, mostly painters. The retail is currently managed by the owner, and
as employees, there are five retail attendants and a cashier. The warehouse, storing the hardware
and paints, is attached to the retail. However, all the colors sold by the retail are not currently

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stored in the warehouse. Whenever there is an order for paint, not available in the store, the
attendant request the color from the manufacturer.
Current Business Process Model
The retail attendant uses a catalog, which contains all DIY hardware available and all paint sold
by the retail, to advise the customer. The catalog is updated weekly by the attendant, after doing
inventory all available hardware in the warehouse and validating with manufacturers the
availability of paints.
FI paint is currently reviewing all its processes and system to expand its number of shops
through the following ways:
1. Scheduling, planning and assigning duties and responsibilities to the paint shop personnel
to perform the painting projects
2. Effectively plan and develop necessary work schedules, material, and equipment usage
schedules, prioritization of painting expenditures and laying out relevant procedures for
equipment maintenance
3. Estimate the cost of material and labor
4. Monitor and plan material and equipment acquisition and managing their use
5. Maintain material records, payroll, and processes time and ensure submission of acquired
reports
6. Equip employees with the necessary knowledge or inform them about the new changes,
methods, procedures, and policies relating to their work station

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Quality Problems
Although the firm can run some of the business processes based on the old system, we cannot
rule out the fact that there are functions; such as prompt decision making, operations innovation,
processes traceability function, and information visibility, that need proper maintenance using an
independent platform and cannot be effectively managed manually. Below are some of the
possible issues that FI hardware can face:
a. Inadequate reporting and processes certification: the hardware may become irrelevant and
uncompetitive in the market when facing insufficient reporting. The market conditions
are now becoming complex and extremely dynamic (Su and Cui, 2019). Accurate and
timely reporting is required for the timely and precise decision-making process. Poor
control and bad decision-making lead to missed business opportunities.
b. Insufficient planning and out of stock problems: due to smaller working margins,
managing wastage in the organization is the primary source of scoping profits. Most of
the wastage occurs due to inventory mismanagement and the available loopholes in the
supply chain channels (Jones et al., 2017). Business requires systems that will help them
in manipulating various inventory operations such as product shelf lifestyles, inbound and
outbound logistics processes, and file maintenance of overlooked inventory or under
looked prerequisites to hold premium inventory management standards (Jie and
Gengatharen, 2019).
c. Lack of timely production process updates and quality control measures: poor processes
visibility is a problem most companies are facing when managing their production
processes.

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Proposed processes
These quality processes will help the FI Hardware boost the quality of its services concerning
service delivery to the customers, suppliers, competitors, and employees. It is necessary to
increase confidence in the hardware's output. By implementing these processes, the firm can
boost the quality of deliverables, which is critical in achieving the overall success in meeting
organizational goals (Jain and Ahuja 2016). The procedures will help the firm to:
a. Set quality goals to be met in the firm
b. Define the quality measurement matrix
c. Develop and take the required actions required in measuring the overall quality
d. Point out possible quality issues and suggest improvements
e. Identify and report the whole level of quality achieved in the hardware
This important as it helps in enabling the firm to perform quality assurance, engage in quality
control, initiate quality improvement techniques, and implement quality management techniques.
Potential processes quality improvement
Processes quality improvement is made to make them useful. This is basically due to the idea
that even the most efficient processes may not be effective in meeting the objectives of the firm
(Moule et al., 2018). To ensure efficiency at FI Hardware, the following are some of the potential
quality improvements required to make its processes more effective
i. Cost-cutting. Through the overall organizational restructuring process, reorganization,
and process visualization, it is easy to identify existing redundancies and other methods that
unnecessarily increase the overhead costs in the organization. Thus, unnecessary tasks are

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dropped, which will allow the reallocation of resources making the hardware spend less while
the processes are flowing effectively.
ii. Reducing communication problems in the hardware: the overall idea of methods
improvement is to improve overall functionality in the organization by cutting on communication
issues; for example, reducing contact touchpoints between employees and the managers will lead
to an overall improvement in the communication process.
iii. Process visualization: introducing processes modeling in the business makes it easier to
make periodical processes audit and continuously make necessary improvements. Visualization
will allow the firm to effectively follow processes channels and identify the bottlenecks as they
happen or instances that can be used in making the process effective. Processes auditing is
among the most vital function in ensuring processes improvement due to the need to monitor
every single process created in the firm. Without proper operations monitoring techniques, the
firm is not in control over its processes.
iv. New generation activity-based costing to increase timeliness of decisions: business
managers agree that the typical denominator in managing organizational threats to business
sustainability is its ability to understand and manage various costs (Raja Sreedharan, Raju, and
Srivatsa Srinivas, 2017). This will lead to a reduction in activity wait time, reducing human
touchpoints in conducting different processes hence reducing the opportunity for error and
increase the quality of service delivery in the firm.
Implementation
a. New generation activity-based costing accelerates timeliness of decision support that can
be implemented through the use of activity-based costing (UBC). The strategy will help the firm

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to deliver actionable and detailed cost data throughout the process's analytic environment and
customer support line services, supplier contract modeling, and overall process improvement
(Lee, Zhao and Lee 2019).
b. Processes visualization: most of the processes in the hardware involve several
departments. To properly implement improve processes visualization, it is crucial to ensure input
from these individual departments is considered (Lasrado and Uzbeck, 2017). Sourcing insight
from these departments will make them feel part of the implementation process. Thus, they can
quickly adapt the implementation process and spearhead it to ensure success.
c. Communication management: for proper implementation of the communication process
in the hardware, it is essential to begin with the end goal in mind. The communication process
desired in the firm should be adequately understood, ways it will be implemented, and the
outcome of the process (Lewis 2017). This defines the business process needs and the reason it
needs to apply. It was leading in the establishment of clear goals and a clear vision around the
process.
d. Cost reduction: the process is effectively implemented through a party that owns the
whole process. He makes the implementation process his priority and takes charge of the
implementation process (Holweg, Staats, and Upton, 2018). At FI Hardware, it is ideal for the
member of the management to take charge of the implementation process due to the sensitivity
of the process. This is important in driving the overall adoption of the process by all departments.

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Quality improvement implementation plan
Selection of the quality improvement process
The right process is chosen. It is essential to select a method that will be successful and produce
the desired results. During the selection process, the following factors are considered:
i. Available gaps in the current operations and performance levels
ii. Is the process a strategic addition to the company's operations?
iii. Employee and customer opinion on areas that require improvement
iv. Possible implementation resistance levels from customers, employees and other
stakeholders
Assembly of the implementation team
Creating the right side is crucial for the successful quality process implementation. It is easier for
the parties in hardware to embrace the introduced change when they are part of the team
initiating the change (Brijs 2016). The choice of the team will be based on their knowledge,
participation, and processes affected by the newly introduced process. For the method mentioned
above, the most suitable team should be made up of 3-5 members. Roles of the team members
have been discussed in appendix D
Process aim statement
This will help in answering the question of what the process needs to accomplish in the firm.
Therefore, it leads to the reduction of implementation frustration, implementation failure, or
possible resource wastage (Chang 2016). It is the implementation-specific statement that will

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help in achieving the desired outcome. The process statement should take the form of the
SMART framework.
Implementation measures development
It ensures the implementation team notices changes as a result of the process adopted in the
organization. It is essential in showing process outcomes and measurement of the overall impact
of the project.
Identification of change ideas
Processes changes are monitored, and the way the process works is controlled. This is done by
assessing the places the operations are being conducted. It is vital to follow the processes'
performance against the projected performances. The following actions are taken during the
assessment of the process:
a. Documentation of the process's steps
b. Time is taken to complete each process step
c. Record time required in completing the whole process
d. Note down the activity wait time
e. Identify possible wastes observed
Test change ideas
Before the processes are rolled out on a large scale, it is essential to monitor the impact of the
change on a small scale. This is important to manage possible employee staff resistance. This is
accomplished using the plan, do, study, act, style to help in the implementation planning and
carryout test for each process introduced (Raja Sreedharan, Raju, and Srivatsa Srinivas, 2017).

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Sustaining process improvement
Once the processes have been tested and changes identified that will lead to quality improvement
in the organization, it is essential to maintain and introduce them throughout the firm. The
following are some of the areas the team has to pay close attention to:
i. Involvement of the senior management
ii. Assign processes ownership to individuals
iii. Hardwire the required improvements by ensuring the involvement of all staff
iv. Communicate the processes improv3mnt witnessed
v. Ensure continuous measurement and monitoring of the outcome of the new processes
Time frame and efforts
Efforts used by an organization in the bid to improve quality in the organization require adequate
and accurate measurement so as to determine if the desired quality is being achieved. The
rationale used in overall quality improvement measurement is the belief that optimal
performance reciprocates good quality practices and performance comparison between
department and other organization help in overall quality improvement (Chaturvedi and
Chakrabarti, 2017). In the recent past, most organizations have adopted the need to measure their
operation quality and reporting the performance levels.
Complex of the current market environment, uncertain and unpredictable future and the product
and operational differentiation among firms makes quality measurement a difficult undertaking.
One of the problems faced in measuring quality in most organization is the variability attributed
to different management cognitive reasoning, problem solving process, discretionary decision-

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making process and experimental management knowledge exercised by managers. Another
problem is an opinionated view of whether the processes near miss could have led to the
processes harm.
Quality improvement strategies
The following are some of the concept that will help improve quality in the organization
1. Establishment of quality culture in the organization: organizational practices, processes,
production procedures should be integrated with quality improvement efforts. Creation of
quality improvement culture helps create passionate team that embrace quality in the
organization. Quality improvement culture requires a different approach in each process
within the organization, thus the organization can ensure creation of a quality dedicated
team, holding occasional meetings dedicated to fostering quality improvement and
adopting various policies that foster quality improvement (Mikhailov and Razmochaeva,
2018).
2. Identify and prioritize potential areas that require quality improvement: various ways in
which quality can be improved in the organization needs to be identified. Examining
organizational practices and operation procedures can be useful in isolating areas that
require quality improvement
3. Collecting and analyzing relevant data: proper and accurate data collection forms a
backbone of quality improvement. The collected data is vital in determining how the
operations in the firm are being conducted, identify areas that require improvement and
measure quality improvement goals.

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Recommendations
In this report, I am recommending the adoption of quality improvement culture in the
organization. The culture of the organizational attitude, actions and behavior will reflect the
drive employees have in meeting the quality improvement objectives. This will be essential in
ensuring quality improvement is observed in the organization every day.
assumptions
1. Learning to lead quality improvement change: the strategy recommended assumes that
the management of the organization will readily accept to lead the organization in
ensuring that quality improvement culture is adopted.
2. The strategy also assumes that the quality improvement process be initiated right at the
first stages of the production process.
Quality improvement tools
Use of flowcharts: they describe detailed quality improvement by using graphical representation
of the strategy adopted. It illustrates all relevant processes considered by the team leading the
quality improvement. As illustrated in the Appendix E.
Pareto diagrams: this tool helps in ranking organizational data in hierarchical order which
ensures correction of significant problems. The pareto data analysis technique is used in
analyzing data improvement by evaluating non conformity in the primary data. It is the
commonly used tool in analyzing primary data in the organization, however, it can be used in
analyzing all kinds of data. The diagram is shown as Figure 2 in the appendix.

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References
Brijs, B., (2016). Business analysis for business intelligence. CRC Press.
Chang, J.F., (2016). Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC
Press.
Chaturvedi, S. and Chakrabarti, D., (2017). Operational efficiency in manufacturing process
using design of experiments. International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking,
7(2), pp.249-261.
Holweg, M., Staats, B.R. and Upton, D.M., (2018). Making process improvements stick. Kenan
Institute of Private Enterprise Research Paper, (18-22).
Jones, K.K., Zenk, S.N., Tarlov, E., Powell, L.M., Matthews, S.A. and Horoi, I., (2017). A step-
by-step approach to improve data quality when using commercial business lists to characterize
retail food environments. BMC research notes, 10(1), p.35.
Jain, S.K. and Ahuja, I.S., (2016). Evaluation of business performance measurements for ISO
9000 initiatives in Indian manufacturing industry. International Journal of Process Management
and Benchmarking, 6(1), pp.29-56.
Jie, F. and Gengatharen, D., (2019). Australian food retail supply chain analysis. Business
Process Management Journal.
Lasrado, F. and Uzbeck, C., (2017). The excellence quest: a study of business excellence award-
winning organizations in UAE. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

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Lee, C.H., Zhao, X. and Lee, Y.C., (2019). Service quality driven approach for innovative retail
service system design and evaluation: A case study. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 135,
pp.275-285.
Lewis, W.E., (2017). Software testing and continuous quality improvement. CRC press.
Moule, P., Clompus, S., Fieldhouse, J., Ellis‐Jones, J. and Barker, J., (2018). Evaluating the
implementation of a quality improvement process in general practice using a realist evaluation
framework. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 24(4), pp.701-707.
Mikhailov, Y.I. and Razmochaeva, N.V., (2018), September. The Problems of Quality
Management Automation in Retail Sales. In 2018 IEEE International Conference" Quality
Management, Transport and Information Security, Information Technologies"(IT&QM&IS) (pp.
372-375). IEEE.
Raja Sreedharan, V., Raju, R. and Srivatsa Srinivas, S., (2017). A review of the quality evolution
in various organisations. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 28(3-4), pp.351-
365.
Su, Z. and Cui, L., (2019), July. Business Practice of Service Design in New Retail Era in China.
In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 337-353). Springer, Cham.
Wang, S., (2017). Improving China department stores through total quality management. The
Chinese Economy, 50(2), pp.128-138.
vom Brocke, J. and Mendling, J., (2018). Frameworks for business process management: a
taxonomy for business process management cases. In Business Process Management Cases (pp.
1-17). Springer, Cham.

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Appendices
Appendix A
Figure 1. Current sale process

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Figure 2. The current update catalog process
Assumptions made about the current business process models:
 In case paint chosen by the customer is not available in the retail, the attendant order
from the manufacturer, and maximum waiting period for the delivery is two days.
 The customer needs to make payment once the order is confirmed.
 The payment to the manufacturer is made by the retail as soon as the paint is delivered to
the retail
 Only paint is ordered from manufacturer on request of customer.
 Only DIY hardware available in the warehouse are proposed to customer.
 The retail does not offer credit facilities.
 Manufacturer deliver paints ordered to the retail.
 The retail does not offer home delivery; therefore, customer need to collect ordered paint
from the retail once it's delivered by manufacturer.
 Sales and payments details are recorded manually on log book.
 The retail attendant requests the updated paint catalogue from the manufacturer on
weekly basis.

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 The manufacturer updates the stock available of paint already proposed in the catalogue
and also include new paint available.
Figure 1: quality improvement flowchart
Figure 2: quality improvement pareto diagram
Appendix D