Latino Company Case Study: Implementing a Continuous Improvement Plan

This case study examines the challenges faced by Latino Company after a change in proprietorship, leading to customer complaints and declining performance. The analysis identifies root causes using tools like the Pareto diagram and cause-effect diagrams, highlighting issues such as deteriorating quality, poor customer communication, and employee dissatisfaction. The study recommends implementing a Total Quality Management (TQM) approach, focusing on customer-oriented strategies, employee involvement, and process-centered operations to regain customer trust, improve product quality, and enhance overall business performance. The plan emphasizes training, process revisions, and the creation of a positive work environment to drive continuous improvement and achieve long-term success for Latino Company.

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Case Study Continuous Improvement Plan
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Latino Company Case Study
Introduction
Latino Company is facing a lot of problems some of which are as a result of the change in
proprietorship to an investment group. As a result of Dominic quit of the business and leaving
the business for the investment group, this changed the structure of the organization and
decision-making was not entirely on one person shoulder. The change brought radical changes in
the management of the business. Dominic was a sole proprietor, and the entire decision-making
was one by him. Therefore, the decisions were quick and instant since there were no
consultations. The better performance in the manufacturing and development of the engineering
equipment was a result of improved work relationship with the workers (Kerzner, 2017 P.78).
Also, the result of the exceptional performance was contributed to his passion and his love for
designing the equipment. This improved his morale and motivation as the head and the decision
maker and emphasized much on excellence that made the enterprise attract a lot of interest to
investors.
Identifying the root cause(s) by effective tools and techniques
After the quit of Dominic Latino in the business, he left it for an investment group where
later the clients raised a lot of complaints about the services provided. The complaints are
alarming and need an urgent address to avoid the company losing the market share. The paper
looks closely what could be the cause of the clients' complaints and provide recommendations
that can help in achieving continuous quality improvement.

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Quality management
The company had an excellent performance regarding the equipment provided to customers.
This indicates that under Dominic management quality was the overall goal of the company.
Therefore, to ensure that quality is provided throughout then total quality management approach
is the best for Latino Engineering Company. TQM mainly focus on the process of manufacturing
and development and calls all another department to work in collaboration to satisfy customers'
expectations (Paliska, Pavletic, and Sokovic, 2017 P.50).
Use of tools and techniques
The best way to solve the problems of Latino Company is first to identify the cause of the
problems that people are complaining about. If the best tools are used to identify the
problems, then the best action can be developed to solve the issues. In this case, where the
company is losing its popularity and clients' are complaining about the services provided, the
7QCs tools are appropriate (Salah, Rahim, and Carretero, 2010.P.23). The tools include the
use of Pareto diagram, Scanner plot, check sheet, causes, effects, control chart and histogram.
Therefore cause and effect will help identify the development of the problem and how big
harm the causes have brought to the company. Additionally, Pareto diagram is another tool
that can help to dig into the causes of problems suffered by Latino Company.
Pareto diagram
The use of this tool is most effective and requires different elements to be arranged to
bring out the association of the elements and how much they contribute to the problem.
Using this tool, it can detect which element contributes greatly to the problems identified in

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Latino Company. Through identification of the magnitude of the problem, the tool can also
provide solutions to the problems. Pareto tool can be applied as follows:
The first element is the change of proprietorship. Before Dominic sold the business, it
was performing excellently as he was the only person to make a decision. Also, he was
passionate about the firms' performance which was an intrinsic motivation. It was until his
quit on the business as the founder that the problems started arising (Pavletić, Soković, and
Paliska, 2014 n.p)
The second element that could have contributed to the problems is deteriorating quality.
Latino Engineering Company was better in designing and development of equipment, under
the management of Dominic. The quality of the designs started worsening after the takeover.
The new management could not bring together the workers in the designing team to work to
the standards set by the founder, Dominic Latino. As a result, the equipment provided was
defective that led to complaints from the customers (Tannock, Krasachol and
Ruangpermpool, 2012 p.67).
Thirdly, there was poor communication with the customers. As indicated, workers were
happy with how Dominic conducted his leadership roles that developed a healthy and
conducive working environment for them. As a result of this, they could quickly respond to
the customers, perfect designing. Dominic leadership was habituated with high-quality
services to the customers. The set standards and the culture of high-quality services to
customers were ignored after the takeover.
It is very normal at the current time for businesses to change ownership for reasons of
expansion, growth or like Latino Company's case. Dominic Latino opted to quit since he was

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used in making the decision all by him and did not want to share decision-making roles with
other shareholders. This was a good move to allow other people run the business after he had
created an impressive image for the company. But as result of the change in management, it
did not turn out to be the right thing for Latino Engineering Company. But as a result, there
was quality deterioration that raised a lot of complaints from the customers and even
threatens to lose the market share of the company. Therefore, the cause of the current
problems suffered by Latino emerged from the new management (Yusof and Aspinwall,
2010 p.44))
It is clear from the complaints that under Dominic Latino's management, customers'
needs and expectations were met. The standards set for customer satisfaction, help the
company expand the customer base and made them enjoy the quality equipment of the
company. The thing did not turn as the new management thought but led to making the
situation more badly. The investors decided to maintain the name with the hope that
operations and manufacturing process will be attained as usual. This seems to be a wrong
decision made the investors. Despite retaining all the previous resources of the company, the
quality of services provided to the customers was not satisfactory. Dominic had provided a
high relation with the workers that translated to productivity (Powell, 2015.p.28). Under the
new management, the competencies in manufacturing are not maintained that could be
affected by lack of motivation from the human resource department. The problem of lack of
competency can be blamed on the human resource department for failure to recruit the skilled
workforce to meet the demand of the customers. Additionally, some workers were retained
after the change of proprietorship bust sill underperformed in the new management of
Investment group. This could as a result of lack of motivation. Another complaint that

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customers have is the packaging of the wrong products to the wrong destination. This
signifies that the workers were intentionally disrupting the operation of the business or the
staff who attended the order requests was not trained on their duties and responsibilities
adequately. On the marketing and sales department, it brings a big disappointment to the
investors. Therefore, human resources department is supposed to ensure that the workers in
the different department are competent enough to restore the image and the operation of the
company.
Another problem that is witnessed in the Latino Company is the customers' relations. The
employees are reluctant on responding to customers' needs and request, and in other
instances, they do not respond at all. The greatest focus of any organization is the customers
that make the goals and objectives of the company to achieve. Consequently, being
unresponsive is disrespectful to customers and affects the business economically (McAdam,
2016 P.56). As a result, the competitors of Latino Company will out due to the company and
take its market. There is a concern for the company to rectify the current problems to help
them in future.
Cause-effect diagram
Under the use of this tool, it helps link the causes of the problems and the symptoms
shown by the company. In short it the relation of the problems to the likely cause of the
problems. For Latino Company, the problems are manufacturing of defective equipment and
takeover of ownership. It notable there was a problem in the change of management as the
cause of the problems. As a result, the overall performance of the firm is affected in all the
company's department. There is lack of competence in the manufacturing sector, sales sector,
and customer service sector. (Arvanitoyannis and Savelides, 2007.P.45).

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Similarly, manufacturing of defective equipment and poor designing of the equipment
contributes to the poor performance of the firm. Defective products tampered with the quality
of services to the clients. This is a result of using defective equipment in production thereby
rendering the process worn. The use of the wrong process can be blamed on the employees
who fail to detect the equipment before the processes. The administration of the investment
group has also failed due to failure to bring change in the department that their performance
is below average. The company can consider setting departmental goals that are supposed to
help the organization achieve the overall plans. Through the set goals, it will be easy to detect
the problems and call the organization department to measure their performance against the
set goals. Also, it would be a strategy to motivate the employees to be more productive for
the overall efficiency of the business (Magar and Shinde, 2014 P.34).
Plan for Elimination of the cause(s)
As indicated, that total quality management is the only way for Latino to eliminate their
problems since customers complaints revolve around quality. It is the pride of every
customer to be given quality and treated with care as they are the patrons of the company. To
achieve a well total quality management approach, Latino Company can follow the following
steps to overcome the challenges.
 Customer oriented approach
Customers in the market are looking for place or businesses that can satisfy their needs.
Loyalty from the customer is gained when the organization offers consistent quality products.
Latino Company has to work hard to ensure that the confidence that customers had previous
with the products is restored (Sallis, 2014 p.22). The company can ensure either they recruit

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qualified workforce or train the existing employees on the essentials in managing quality and
designs. Another key consideration is upgrading computer systems, acquiring new designs
and measuring tools and aligning all these activities with the company overall objectives. The
operation calls all departments to participate in giving the desired result. Satisfaction of
customers helps maintain loyalty and avoid shifting of customers to competitors since they
can feel they are getting the best.
 Employees' involvement
Departmental goals and operation are meant to attain the planned goal in future.
Therefore employees should conduct their duties and responsibilities with the aim of
achieving the wide company's direction. There are problems witnessed from employees as a
way of sabotaging the company, specifically when there are wrong packaging and wrong
destination of products. Employees empowerment program are the key issues that Latino
Company should do to increase their morale and make them feel that they are part of the
success of the company. Like in the previous business management, employees could freely
and willingly obey the set standard of operations set by Dominic (Kanji, Malek and Tambi,
2015 P.45). Also, the investment group should provide a conducive environment for workers
and create a platform where they can pass their complaints and improve the working
relations. Appreciating, rewarding and listening to the employees can improve relationships
with the management and the workers. Team works can be encouraged to help employees to
be self-reliant and sufficient.

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 Process-centered operations
For Latino, the current process used has failed to attain the excellent performance. The
process by which operations are conducted are supposed to be revised and new
responsibilities and duties defined. There are supposed to be the daily goal, weekly goals that
are supposed to serve as the benchmark of performance to the employees and the problems
can be identified and acted upon immediately. It will be easy to detect the problems on time
even when they reach to raise the alarm to customers. The concentration of process-centered
operations in Latino Company will ensure that the firm will not find itself in the chambers of
underperformance (McAdam, 2016 P12).
 System integration
All the system and functions that lead to ensuring total quality management is achieved
are interconnected to achieve the goal. This will ensure all the major and minor function are
attended and interconnected without bias to achieve the overall purpose of producing quality.
Sometimes some minor functions may be left unattended that can affect the business either in
the present or future.
 Systematic and strategic approach
Under this approach, it ensures that the mission and vision of the business are restated,
and it is clear to all employees. This will be the guide of Latino workers to strictly observe
their operations and determine whether they line with the decisions of the management. An
integrated systematic and strategic goal will help the administration detect any
inconsistencies in departments and address the issues (Porter and Parker, 2013 P.33). For
Latino, the administration has been part of the company underperformance of which they are

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supposed to be leading in innovations and planning to solve the problems. First, the
manufacturing process needs to be redesigned to ensure that quality is the key objective of
the process. Also, customers' relations are supposed to be served by responding timely to
their request and delivering the right products for their orders. Lastly, is tailoring the
equipment to meet customer's needs. Failure to accomplish all the functions has to lead the
firm to be rated as an underperformer and even scaring away parties of interest.
 Quality improvement
The first thing that the firm is supposed to do is restore the firm to where it was
positioned in the market. This is by solving the current problems. After that, the company has
the mandate to ensure that there is continuity in quality production. Continuity in quality
production ensures that Latino gains a competitive advantage over other competitors and gain
more market share. The company can consider the standards and how Dominic achieved
excellent performance.
 A proper decision-making system
Decisions are made using information available. Therefore the information should be
based on facts and reliable data. For example marketing decision is the collectors of
information from customers and sales reports. Through the information, the management can
be able to plan or make the decision using the data. As a result, the decision-making process
will be easy, accurate and give a future outlook of the company. Through this companies can
give measures to problems.

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 Efficient communication mechanism
Communication is the key in an organization since there need communication between
workers and the management to help solve issues of the company If Latino creates an
efficient communication mechanism, it will help listen to employees, and as a result they will
respond the communication to the customers. It is through communication that employees
can feel like part of the firm and work to improve on their performance and customers'
satisfaction. In Latino, some problems are minor and can be corrected through
communication, but since there was a change of ownership I the company, the problem of
communication has taken root. All the stated principles and approaches of TQM will help
Latino to get back to its glory. The approach will incorporate customers demand and lead to
innovations in manufacturing and designing of engineering equipment.
Continuous Improvement (CI) Plan
Also, continuous improvement will ensure that the operations of Latino Company are in
line with its vision and mission (Tannock, Krasachol and Ruangpermpool, 2012 P.120). The
step considered include,
Quality management ensures that all the engineering products and design developments
are of best quality. There should be continuous revival of the production process concerning
latest designs and set goals to act as a benchmark for the performance.
Human resource management brings motivation to employees and encourages teamwork
that includes the activities of Latino Company. The work of the HR department is to recruit,
train and retain. Through training, they will equip the existing employees with relevant skills
to help discharge their duties responsibly. Latino should undertake the functions of human

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resource department serious to help achieve total quality management even in future (Sallis,
2014 P.9). When employees performance is excellent, they are supposed to be rewarded with
better remuneration, promotions, and appraisals to give them morale to continuously work
hard.
Efficient communication. Latino should ensure that there is a free communication policy
where seniors and juniors can freely communicate. Providing such a free expression platform
in the organization, it will help workers to be friendly and restore the relationship they had
with their manager Dominic. Vertical and horizontal communication encourages teamwork
and free expression of ideas that can be useful to the firm. Also, the information can help in
future (Burke, 2013 P.23).
Conclusion
The management and the way of doing things under the previous proprietorship were
perfect and gave light to the upcoming business. Initially, the operations were customer
focused, health work relation was established, latest designs were developed that made all the
customers feel the Latino products were the best (Dale, 2015 N.P). The current Latino
Company, under the management of the investment group, is faced with a lot of problems as
result of administration failure, failure to meet customers' needs and producing defective
goods. Nevertheless, when Latino follows the outlined steps, it will restore its performance.