A Comprehensive Management Report on EasyJet's Challenges and Quality

This management report provides an in-depth analysis of EasyJet, a leading low-cost airline. It examines the current issues faced by the company, including cost reduction, environmental concerns, consumer confidence, and the impact of Brexit. The report explores EasyJet's capabilities and competencies, such as its low-cost carrier model, point-to-point flights, short-haul focus, and online ticketing system. It then delves into the impact of quality management techniques, specifically Kaizen and benchmarking, on EasyJet's business operations. The report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of Kaizen, highlighting its role in continuous improvement and teamwork. Furthermore, it emphasizes the significance of benchmarking in maintaining quality and identifying areas for development. Finally, the report concludes with recommendations to enhance quality and achieve high productivity. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights into EasyJet's strategies and challenges within the competitive airline industry.

Management Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK .............................................................................................................................................1
Issues currently faced by easy. Jet .............................................................................................1
Easy jet capabilities and competencies to improve the quality ..................................................2
Impact of quality management techniques on Easy jet ..............................................................3
RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION ...........................................................................6
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................8
.........................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
In present scenario, the airline industry exists in an intensely competitive market among
industry. This industry itself is a major economic force, both in terms of its own operation and its
impact on related industry such as aircraft manufacturing and tourism (Glover and et. al, 2014).
One of the main aim of this industry is to engage with customer to build long lasting relationship
with them by providing effective service and fulfilling their needs and wants in order to enhance
their business growth effectively and efferently. In context to easy. Jet, one of the leading
international airline which is commenced in the year of 1995. Its headquarter in England, UK.
This report covers the current issues of firm, potentiality or capability of company to improve
their quality, impact of quality management technique on firm business operation,
recommendation to enhance quality in order to attain high productivity and add value to
customer.
TASK
Issues currently faced by easy. Jet
Easy. Jet is one of the famous airline company who is known for low-cost airline carrier
and they operates on over 820 routes across more than 30 countries with its fleet of over 250
Airbus aircraft. It is established in the year of 1995 and its headquartered in England, Germany.
Easy. Jet has dedicated workforce of over 10,000 people, including 2,865 pilots and 6516 cabin
crew members which help them to attain maximisation of profit. They contain effective and
impressive values which make them stand apart among industries i.e. safety, simplicity and one
team (Kwon, Lee and Shin, 2014). Along with this, they always try to provide information to
employees as well as to customer in a clear manner so that their will be less confusions among
them and can accomplish high productivity. Even though easy. Jet business growth is effective
which enable them to accomplish their organisational goal in an efficient manner but they have
several issues which they face in their business operation. Some of the challenges or issues faced
by easy. Jet areas follows:
 Reducing cost: Oil price trend to be a strong factor in the challenge that are faced by
EasyJet. Recently in UK, a drastic recession took place in which prices of oil increased
which effect company's business operation directly as it is one of the main part airline
existence. Along with this, it create a big challenge to them in purchasing new aircraft in
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order to cope with the demand which leads to reduce the cost of airline and it impact their
profitability.
 Environmental issues: one of the another major challenge faced by Easy Jet is ecological
concern. With natural disaster and environmental imbalance always prominent and
unpredictable. In context to Easy Jet, they simply have to embrace any unexpected
challenges. For e.g.: recently during the period of recession, volcanic cloud ashes
occurred. Due to this, issue he number of flights got cancelled which results in big losses
for company.
 Consumer Confidence: This is the major challenges from which Easy Jet business growth
got impacted and affected (Malfertheiner and et. al., 2012). In times of recession in UK,
consumer confidence is of paramount importance, as Easy Jet was in huge problem
concerning high flight cost as well as in offering good value to customer, as in result it
impacted on their customer buying behaviour and their morale.
 Impact of Brexit: Easy jet has set up an Australian subsidiary to allow it to continue fly
within Europe which enable the business to operating flights both across Europe and
domestically within European countries after the UK has left EU. However, UK
government wants to replicate existing Open Skies agreement as well as it has kept an
deadline which made them more concern regarding the fulfilment of task on agreed time.
Easy jet capabilities and competencies to improve the quality
Easy Jet is one of the EasyGroup subsidiaries which was founded inn the year of 1995
which operates domestic and international scheduled services on over 1000 routes in more than
30 countries. Some of the capabilities and competencies of Easy jet are as follows:
 Low cost carriers: EasyJet is the second no-frills airline in Europe. They uses low-cost
fares as an incentive to appeal price-conscious passengers and business consumers
segments such as leisure consumers, those who travel for family reason and entrepreneur
of small firms (Nikonov and Young, 2013). Its strategy is based on low-cost model i.e.
cost leadership which eliminate them to unnecessary costs and non-value added service,
offering minimal frills and focusing essentially on pricing as well as turning flights,
providing assurance to customer regarding service etc. Along with this, its main
competencies in this aspect is Ryanair, who is the main competitor in low cost carrier.
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Yet, Easy Jet business growth is effective as well it is financially strong which enable
them to gain competitive advantage effectively.
 Point to point flights: Easy Jet is mainly focus on point-to-point flights which enable
them to minimise the unnecessary cost on flights fuel as well as to maintain reliability. It
uses Luton airport as a major hub which is very close to central London and charged
lower airport fees than London's main airport i.e. Heathrow and Gatwick. In case of,
point to point flight easy jet main competence is British Airway which is mainly focus on
hub and spoke traffic but Easy jet always focus on low cost which enable them to sustain
among market for a longer period of time and improve their revenue.
 Short haul flight: In Europe, due to the enhancement of market, the breaking down of
trade barriers took place for which airline industry was deregulated in 1992. Because of
this, European airline can fly and land anywhere in Europe (Sevkli and et. al., 2012).
However, Easy Jet grab the opportunity as expanding their airline market among industry
by enhancing their route across the Europe and implement low cost strategies with a
greater accurate. As Easy jet is expanding day by day with the increase of size of the
market and recently takes away passengers from major airline. As well as they reduce the
price of flight with short haul air transport, where their price is elastic and more people
will fly.
 Online ticketing: Easy jet operates ticket less office as they provide the facility of book
tickets through online. The 'no frills' airline eliminates the meals who doesn't want food
which in result it reduce the cost of paper bags and other paper products to store food in
flight. By this company can enhance their infrastructure and gain the competitive
advantage in an effective and effect manner.
Impact of quality management techniques on Easy jet
In the present scenario, every business or company is manly concerned with quality
because they haven come to know that high quality provides significant competitive advantage.
As good quality products and service reduces the cost of rework, waste, complaints and returns,
most importantly it lead them to generate satisfied customer. However, quality is considered as
one of the integral element as a competitive tool in Easy Jet. In order to improve the business
efficiency, total quality management is an important component which enable them to eliminate
unnecessary wastage of product and in result it help them tom save cost, time and energy. There
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are some techniques which Easyjet follows and it has great impact on it business operation in
terms of effective quality and consist delivery which is described below:
Kaizen
It is an approach to create continuous improvement based on the idea that small, ongoing
positive changes can reap major improvement. Basically, it is mainly based on cooperation and
commitment in contrast to approaches that use radical changes or top down edicts to achieve
transformation (Venema and et. al., 2013). Kaizen is a core concept of lean manufacturing
which was developed for manufacturing sector in order to reduce defects, eliminate waste, boost
productivity, encourage worker to achieve their purpose, make them accountable as well as
promoting innovation. Kaizen technique has great influence on easy jet effectiveness as well as
on their delivery service . It enable them to attain continuous improvement in terms of meeting
and exceeding customers expectation effectively and efficiently. Even though it is considered as
a essential technique for companies in order to improve quality yet it contains several advantages
and disadvantages which are as follows:
Advantages
 Enhance targets: Kaizen method of improvement is not only beneficial to business but it
also provide effectiveness to customer, employees and organisation as a whole. This
technique enable the easy jet to recognise its employees efforts and work which build
healthy relationship between superior and subordinate. By this, employees gain positive
attitude towards company which enable them to put their full effort inn accomplishing
easy jet objectives effectively and enhance their delivery service.
 Improve teamwork: This tool is a quality improvement tool which is driven by teamwork.
It enable easy jet employees to come together and solve business or organisational
conflicts by giving valuable views, opinions etc. Thus, it allow employees to work with
fresh perspective, unbiased mind and without prejudice. However, it improves the overall
performance of Easy jet and reduce errors, duplications which enrich their quality in an
effective manner.
Disadvantage
 Difficulty in implement modification: One of the greatest disadvantages of this approach
is that people are always reluctant to change as they are convenient to follow what they
have been using. On the other hand, company also feel expensive to implement as it cost
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huge amount to introduce. In case of Easy Jet, they provide proper understanding of the
importance of change to employees which enable them to handle or manage them
effectively. By this, they are able to attain high profitability and productivity in an
efficient manner. Requirement of training: As Kaizen method requires proper training and guidance in
order to attain maximisation of profit and improve their overall performance of company.
In most cases, each individual has unique character in which some are quick learners and
others are not. So, teaching them regarding new concept contains huge risk and cost
because of that many withdraw from implementing this method within an organisation. In
case of Easy jet, they are following this method which enable them to produce effective
employees and help them to gain competitive advantage.
Benchmarking
Easy Jet is large organisation and having their various operations in many countries. It is
the prime duty of all the personnels of management to deliver their services with optimum
quality to ensure their position in market. There are many methods and techniques which have
contribution over the development of the performance standards and development of the
effective quality management. One of the technique which has significant impact upon
delivering consistent performance over the years and maintenance of quality in overall system is
known as Benchmarking (Wang and et. al., 2016).
It is the effective tool which is used by the organisation for the purpose of analysing the
effectiveness of their strategies, policies, programmes etc. This can be done with the help of
comparing with standards set in the particular industry. The main three objectives upon which
emphasis is provided while using this technique in Easy Jet is about identification of the areas
which are required continuous development, determination of the techniques that help to
improve and achieve high performance levels and in last application of those determinants to
improve the final performance. Despite of that the process which is commonly followed at all
department level of Easy Jet includes Planning, collection of information, analysis of data,
implementation and monitoring. It is quite common and effective approach cover under the
technique of Benchmarking and help to achieve the predetermined objectives.
One of the incident that actually help to ascertain the contribution of benchmarking in the
success of Easy Jet is about moving its all operation to the North Terminal in2017. This can be
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successful because of their robust planning where they do the partnership with global logistics
provider DHL. This will ensure management of its handling operations at Gatwick. The
positiveness of this move is ascertained from the point that they recently announced plans to
expand their partnership with Manchester and Bristol Airport as of February 2019.
According to this collaboration they are able to handle about 700 flights per week from
Birmingham and 500 flights from Manchester. The total upliftment that ca be seen due to this
move over the performance of Easy Jet is 6% since November 2017 (Behind the scenes of
easyJet’s ground handling operations at Gatwick Airport, 2018).
The technique of Benchmarking is wide in nature and having their wide scope. The
different determinants which are cover under this technique is about internal, competitive,
functional and Generic benchmarking. All these types of Benchmarking having their different
role and contribution in the development of the performance of an organisation. Internal
Benchmarking is the process which is used to compare same processes within the organisation to
ascertain their effectiveness and performance gaps. This help to improve internal performance
and management. Competitive Benchmarking is the concept which includes direct comparison of
different aspect of Easy Jet with their rivalries to identify the effectiveness of their current
strategies and services. This will provides an opportunity to identify the new opportunities and
frame new policies to grab the market. The main purpose of Functional Benchmarking is to
improve the internal strength and bring effectiveness in their processes. This will includes the
comparison of function outside the immediate industry. Generic Benchmarking is the technique
which help to improve their current processes and build internal strength strength more strong.
All these perspectives help to deliver consistent and quality services (Weckenmann, Akkasoglu
and Werner, 2015).
RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
From the above report it has concluded that every organisation main motive is to
provide effective service in order to achieve their goal or objective in an effective and efficient
manner. A number of leading global airline industry mainly engage in building long lasting
relationship with customers which enable them to gain competitive advantage. Along with this,
they are focused on providing effective and prestigious management service as well as ensure
safe and secure travel experience. Apart from this, it has been applied several quality
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management technique which enable them to minimise the errors or wastage in order to provide
effective and productive service.
From the above discussed report it has been recommended that for gaining competitive
advancement business or company has to maintain a practice of open communication for Kaizen
to be efficient as well as provide them equal opportunity to employees which enable them to
accomplish their goal. Along with this, many people are resist to change which cause an
hindrance in business operation. Therefore, in order to enhance growth company should make
employees understand regarding the importance of effective quality in order to attain high
profitability and productivity.
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REFERENCES
Book and journal.
Glover, W.J and et. al, 2014. Kaizen events: assessing the existing literature and convergence of
practices. Engineering Management Journal. 26(1). pp.39-61.
Kwon, O., Lee, N. and Shin, B., 2014. Data quality management, data usage experience and
acquisition intention of big data analytics. International journal of information
management. 34(3) pp.387-394.
Malfertheiner, P and et. al., 2012. Management of Helicobacter pylori infection—the Maastricht
IV/Florence consensus report. Gut. 61(5). pp.646-664.
Nikonov, D.E. and Young, I.A., 2013. Overview of beyond-CMOS devices and a uniform
methodology for their benchmarking. Proceedings of the IEEE. 101(12). pp.2498-2533.
Sevkli, M and et. al., 2012. Development of a fuzzy ANP based SWOT analysis for the airline
industry in Turkey. Expert systems with Applications.39(1). pp.14-24.
Venema, V.K and et. al., 2013, September. Benchmarking homogenization algorithms for
monthly data. In AIP Conference Proceedings. (Vol. 1552. No. 1 pp. 1060-1065). AIP.
Wang, R and et. al., 2016. Comparison between helium and argon plasma jets on improving the
hydrophilic property of PMMA surface. Applied Surface Science. 367. pp.401-406.
Weckenmann, A., Akkasoglu, G. and Werner, T., 2015. Quality management–history and trends.
The TQM Journal. 27(3), pp.281-293.
Online
Behind the scenes of easyJet’s ground handling operations at Gatwick Airport. 2018. [Online].
Available Through: <https://www.airport-technology.com/features/easyjet-ground-
handling-operations-gatwick-airport-dhl/>
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