Analysis of Quality Management and Technology at Sainsbury's

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of quality management practices within Sainsbury's, a leading UK supermarket chain. It identifies quality management as a critical operations management practice, emphasizing the use of the PDCA cycle and Six Sigma methodologies. The report explores the positive impacts of quality management on Sainsbury's, including improved control of business processes, cost reduction, productivity improvements, enhanced customer satisfaction, defect reduction, increased revenue, achievement of objectives, and waste reduction. Furthermore, the report investigates the integration of technology, such as cloud computing and big data, to enhance quality control, data centralization, and supplier network performance. The analysis highlights how these technologies contribute to faster customer support and a competitive advantage in the retail sector. The report concludes by discussing the potential challenges and costs associated with implementing quality management practices, such as the need for employee training.

CW1 Written Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Identification of one operation management practice.............................................................1
2. impact of operation management practice on organization.....................................................2
3. Embedding technology in the process.....................................................................................4
4. supporting functions linked to this operations management practice......................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
In today’s competitive market environment, it is important for organizations to
understand the service needs of the customers.In addition to it, it is also important for the
organizations to foster administration of business practices so that highest efficiency level can be
obtained (Bordoloi, Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2019). Operations and service management
is related to the aspects which are involved in delivering services to the customers. It involves
management of various processesthat are undertaken to deliver services to the customers. This is
an important aspect for Sainsbury which is the second largest supermarket chain in the UK. The
present report will identify one operation management practice at Sainsbury and its impact on
organization. It will further evaluate the ways in which technology could beembedded in this
process. Lastly, the report will explore supporting functions linked to the operation management
practice.
1. Identification of one operation management practice
Quality management is an important operations management practice in Sainsbury.
Quality of products and services is an important aspects that Sainsbury considers to remain
competitive in the market. It is essential for the chosen retail organization to apprise quality of he
product in order to ensure that the products and services being delivered to the customers meet
the standards (Reid and Sanders, 2019). Sainsbury adopts various quality management systems
(QMS) and standards.
PDCA cycle
The Plan, Do, Check and Act cycle forms an important aspect of the quality management
systems adopted at Sainsbury. The company implements PDCA cycle for identifying areas of
continuous improvement in both the product as well as the services (Zurich and Documentation,
2018). the quality management system at Sainsbury is made up of well defined structure that
make them suitable for ensuring that quality is maintained at all levels within the organization.
Quality objectives
Sainsbury sets quality objectives which is the first step towards implementation of a
remarkable QMS.The company has a passion for providing healthy, safe, fresh and hygienic food
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to the customers. for achieving this, Sainsbury stands by its quality related objectives. Sainsbury
has been found to be outperforming its peers in the aspect of quality management. The
organization further announced to improve the quality of over 3000 products. In this way,. The
organization insists on promoting quality of its products and services.
Six Sigma
The quality management adopted by Sainsbury also takes into consideration the concept of Six
sigma. This is a set of techniques and tools that focus on process improvement (Brown, Bessant
and Jia, 2018). By using six sigma strategies, Sainsbury stores to improve the manufacturing
quality through identification of the causes of defects and removing them. This helps the
organization to minimize variability in manufacturing and business processes. It involves use iof
statistical quality management methods.
2. impact of operation management practice on organization
The chosen practice of quality management impacts Sainsbury in a significant manner.
This can be discussed in the form of positive and negative impacts of quality management on the
chosen retailorganization.
Positive impact of quality management on Sainsbury
Better control of major business processes- Quality management ensures that Sainsbury
has better control of the major business processes. This is because quality management systems
ensure to remove defects and errors from all the processes (Atasu and et.al., 2020). In this the
outcome of the processes can be better controlled by the company. This assists in improving the
efficiency of Sainsbury.
Cost reduction- The practice of Quality management helps Sainsbury to reduce costs by
improving efficiency. It can be analysed that when quality management systems are
implemented in a consistent manner over time, these can significantly help in reducing costs
throughout an organization. This can be done in the various areas of operations management
such as rework, scrap, field service and warranty cost reduction. These reductions of the costs
can flow in a straight manner and reach the bottomline profits without any additional costs
(Kasemsap, 2018). This further leads to an increase in the profitability at Sainsbury.
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Productivity improvement- Quality management practice helps in improving productivity at
various levels of organization. At Sainsbury, the productivity tends to significantly increase with
the help of quality management. This is because a lot of time of the employees is saved as they
no longer need to chase down and correct errors. Increase in productivity is associated with
increased output per employee (Grabner, 2019). This further leads to increase in the profits.
Customer satisfaction- With quality management, the organizations such as Sainsbury is able to
provide better products and services to the customers. also, the interactions that organization
develops with the customers is also error free. This helps in reducing customer complaints
significantly. In addition to this, reduction in the number of complaints further results in
reduction in the resources consumed in customer service (Kumar, Singh and Modgil, 2020). By
improving the satisfaction of customers, quality management positively impacts Sainsbury. This
not only impacts the market share and increases it, but satisfied customers go a long way in
bringing more potential customers to the organization.
Defect reduction- Quality management practice assists Sainsbury in reducing the number of
defects in the products. This is because quality management focuses on improving quality within
the processes. This leads to reduction in the time which is required for fixing errors.
Increased revenue - Quality management ensures that along with the organization, the
employees are also earning. By implementation of quality management, high customer loyalty is
ensured which indirectly leads to better business and increase in cash flow (Ali, Abdullah and
Gorondutse, 2017). Thus, there is positive impact of quality management on Sainsbury which is
able to strengthen its financial position.
Achievement of objectives- Quality management is a practice of operations management which
helps in refining the various processes within an organization. This leads to better work and the
deadlines could be met on time. In this way, quality management helps Sainsbury to achieve its
long and short term objectives. Refinement of processes and elimination of errors assisting in
completion of tasks in a successful manner. This further assists in achieving the objectives.
Reduction of waste and inventory- Quality management impacts Sainsbury positively by helping
it to reduce waste and inventory. With the help of it, the employees are able to work closely with
the suppliers. They are also able to implement “Just in time” principles to work (Patyal and
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Koilakuntla, 2017). In addition to this, quality management at Sainsbury ensures that employees
work in close coordination with each other. This helps in inculcating the culture of strong
teamwork at the workplace.
However, it can be critically analysed that quality management practice may add to the costs of
the organization as it would require significant training (Apraiz and et.al., 2020). A considerate
amount of time of employees involved in quality management may be consumed in the training
period which act as an indirect cost to Sainsbury. It can also impact the costs in short term.
3. Embedding technology in the process
At Sainsbury, technology can be embedded in the quality management processes in the following
ways:
Cloud computing
The quality control measures can be solidified by using cloud computing.This brings
various benefits for the organization such as flexibility, scalability, cost effectiveness and
security. With thehelp of cloud computing, organizations like Sainsbury are enabled to adapt
their quality control procedures to the rising demands of the industry and the organization.
Sainsbury can use cloud computing for expanding its quality management portfolio and
customers and suppliers can be included in it. in addition to this, better security is promised by
cloud computing which checks how the organization’s data is accessed (Jimoh and et.al., 2019).
It guards against security breaches on company data.
Could based quality management systems – These are efficient at providing a means to the
organizations to centralize their data. They help in better integration of the systems and provide
flexibility in the operations of Sainsbury. In addition to this, cloud based quality management
systems ensure the organizations. Cloud based quality management systems assist in better data
storage and management. It will enable Sainsbury to collect and analyse data for every step of
the business cycle (Bordoloi, Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2019). Data can be collected about
the machines are producing product as well as the consumer who is purchasing it. this large
amount of data can be efficiently managed with the help ofcloud. It provides storage and
processing power to organizations such as Sainsbury using which they can understand the areas
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where they can excel in quality assurance process. Hence, further improvement areas can be
identified with cloud based quality management systems are implemented.
Security practices- Another important aspect of quality management is to ensure that the
physical and digital safety of products is maintained. Cloud helps in ensuring the no
unauthorized personnel handles a product. It also ensures that the sensitive data about customers
is secure.
Monitoring of facilities- Quality management considers monitoring to be an important aspect.
Being a retailer, it is important for Sainsbury to ensure that unsafe and products are put off.
Quality management is also important for products which can be damaged due to environmental
conditions (Reid and Sanders, 2019). With the help of cloud enabled monitoring software,
continuous monitoring of the warehouse conditions can be done.
Enabling centralization of data - By embedding cloud based quality management systems, the
quality data of the business can be centralized by Sainsbury. Due to this, the organization is able
to achieve greater visibility into thedata. This fundamentally helps in transforming the business.
Centralization of quality data helps in establishing a shared method of interaction across the
business. This assists in eliminating confusion caused due to different locations. It also helps in
adoption of standardized operating procedures.
Utilizing big data for gaining competitive advantage
Being a retailer, Sainsbury is required to collect and analyse customer data to identify the
trends and take steps accordingly. Big data technology in the field of quality management
ensures that organizations are able to capture a large pool of data about operations as well as
customers and suppliers (Atasu and et.al., 2020). By using various tools, big data could be used
for taking advantage of the valuable asset in quality management. With the help of this,
Sainsbury can proactively monitor issues and review them to improve the quality of products and
services.
Correlating performance metrics along multiple plants- In organizations, different plants may
produce same product by using same equipment. They may also collaborate with the same
suppliers. But, there may still be significant variation in the quality performance of the different
plants. With the help of Big data Sainsbury will be able to analyse multiple plants regarding
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structured and unstructured performance of data. Following it, universal best practices can be
applied across the various plants so that the processes can be aligned in the best manner and
quality management can be improved.
Better understanding of performance of supplier network- Big data can be used to improve the
understanding of supplier network performance at Sainsbury. It provides tools which can be used
to combine supplier test data with the manufacturing performance of supplier (Kumar, Singh and
Modgil, 2020). By correlating this information with the data of the internal manufacturing
operations, insights can be gained into the true cost of supplier non- conformance. Possessing
this information will enable the organization to push it back across the supplier network. This
will lead to adoption of continuous improvement in a better manner.
Faster customer support- With the help of Big data, there will be better machine – to- machine
communication which will help the manufacturers to conduct real time monitoring of the
equipment even from a remote place. Following it, organizations like Sainsbury will be able to
implement service- level agreements which will provide added value to the customers.
Real time based alerts on manufacturing data- In operations management, one of the critical;
aspects is to provide right information to the right decision maker at the required time. This
needs access to real time data. It also requires Sainsbury to be capable to push this information to
right roles (Ali, Abdullah and Gorondutse, 2017). This can be successfully accomplished by
embedding big data into quality management.
4. supporting functions linked to this operations management practice
Following are the supporting functions linked to quality management
Quality planning
This is a supportive process which is linked to quality management. Quality planning is a
process in which quality standards and their relevance for a project are identified. Following it,
decisions are taken regarding the steps required to meet them.
Quality assurance
These comprise of the systematically planned actions which are required for offering
sufficient reliability so that specific requirements are met by a particular service or product.
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This provides a two fold assurance. Internally it is provided to the managers while externally to
the other stakeholders such as government, customers, agencies, certifiers etc.
Relationship management
This provides support to the quality management at Sainsbury. Relationship management
comprises of managing relations with interested parties so that sustained success can be achieved
(Ali, Abdullah and Gorondutse, 2017). With the help of this, their impact on the organizational
performance can be optimized. For this reason, relationship management with partner network
and with suppliers is of utmost importance.
Data management
Quality management requires analyzing data and identifying areas for improvement as
well as the errors in the process. Therefore, the support of data management function is required
for effective quality management.
Human resource management
Quality management needs the support of human resource function in order to work
successfully at Sainsbury. The various quality principles, considerations and elements an be
fulfilled only with a competent and trained workforce. It is important for the management to
make the employees understand the importance of adopting quality management systems and the
benefits of adopting them. Human resource function assists in developing a culture whereby the
employees give value to quality in each and every aspect of their work (Grabner, 2019). This
indicates the heavy reliability of quality management on the involvement of people resource of
the company. Adequate training is also required to be provided to the employees so that they can
achieve the quality related objectives of the organization. In this, human resource function
provides support to quality management by ensuring that the operation managers and employees
are adequately trained for adopting the quality management systems and procedures.
CONCLUSION
Operations management is an important aspect of every organization as it comprises of
processes involved in production and delivering services to the customers. Quality management
is an important operations management practice which is successfully implemented at Sainsbury.
PDCA cycle is adopted at Sainsbury which assist in identifying the areas for continuous
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improvement. Quality objectives and six sigma is also adopted by the chosen retail firm. The
practice of quality management impacts Sainsbury as there is better control of business process
and reduction in costs. It also leads to improvement in productivity, customer satisfaction and
defect reduction. However, this practice negatively impacts the organization by consuming
resources such as time and money in provision of training for quality management. Technology
can be embedded in quality management to make it more effective. This includes the use of
cloud computing and big data. Various other functions are required to support quality
management practice. These are relationship management, data management, quality assurance
and human resource management.
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REFERENCES
Journals and Books
Ali, G.A., Abdullah, H.H. and Gorondutse, A.H., 2017. The effect of entrepreneurial orientation,
market orientation, total quality management and organizational culture on the SMEs
performance: A theoretical framework. Journal of Business and Retail Management
Research (JBRMR), 12(1), pp.26-40.
Apraiz, J.C. and et.al., 2020. The role of competitive strategy in the performance impact of
exploitation and exploration quality management practices. European Business Review.
Atasu, A. and et.al., 2020. Sustainable operations management through the perspective of
manufacturing & service operations management. Manufacturing & service operations
management, 22(1), pp.146-157.
Barnes, D., 2018. Operations Management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Bordoloi, S., Fitzsimmons, J. and Fitzsimmons, M., 2019. Service Management: Operations,
Strategy, Information Technology, 9e.
Brown, S., Bessant, J. and Jia, F., 2018. Strategic operations management. Routledge.
Grabner, T., 2019. Operations management. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Jimoh, R. and et.al., 2019. Total quality management practices and organizational performance:
the mediating roles of strategies for continuous improvement. International Journal of
Construction Management, 19(2), pp.162-177.
Kasemsap, K., 2018. Applying lean production and six sigma in global operations. In Operations
and Service Management: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 582-
612). IGI Global.
Kumar, A., Singh, R.K. and Modgil, S., 2020. Influence of data-driven supply chain quality
management on organizational performance: evidences from retail industry. The TQM
Journal.
Patyal, V.S. and Koilakuntla, M., 2017. The impact of quality management practices on
performance: an empirical study. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Reid, R.D. and Sanders, N.R., 2019. Operations management: an integrated approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Zurich, B.L.L. and Documentation, X., 2018. Service operations and management. Master of
Science in Engineering, p.380.
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