Contemporary business arenas call upon business leaders to adopt strategies and policies that can enhance their organization’s competitiveness. Competition in the airline industry calls upon players to adopt strategies that improve their service quality and create good relations with customers.
When opening an extra terminal, terminal 4(), Changi Airport Singapore should enact improvement initiatives that increases successes and reduces failures to attain competitive excellence in today’s market (Cicerone, Hekele & Morado, 2009). This report addresses crucial operational and service excellence strategies that Changi Airports Group (CAG) should adopt to make the new terminal 4 (T4).
Critical to quality (CTQs) from passengers’ perspective
When designing, placing, and making interior decorations for the new terminal, critical to quality (CTQs) management lead by Lee Seow Hiang should consider factors/policies likely to improve customer feeling/customer experience when using the terminal. With this in mind, the management should think of the factors that customers are likely to perceive pleasant.
When a passenger jets into the country, whether returning or visiting passenger, the first impression he gets from the terminal determines the perception and attitude that he creates about the airport and probably the country. The management should ensure that the terminal has impeccable terminal arrival areas with directional signs likely to offer quality guideline to the passage.
The music playing in the terminal area should not be destructive to the minds of the passengers; it is wanted to have soothing background music. Color themes and lighting choices comes into play in the terminal areas, the choice of colors should not be screaming however they should offer a sense of harmony, peace, and are comforting. Interior design of the terminal should be attracting and accommodating.
Other than the interior design of the terminal, the management should consider having helping, loyal, attractive, smart, dedicated, and courteous staffs in the terminal. The personnel should have a wide understanding of different international languages to accommodate people of different nationalities effectively. The terminal should have some additional delicacies to passengers in the efforts of ensuring they feel welcomed in the country, for instance the terminal may have modern/highly developed baggage handling and high speed transfer system.
The time that passengers spend in the terminal is another factor that is likely to rate the terminal highly or otherwise; the management should ensure it has state of the art technology to facilitate fast clearance of customers in the terminal. Some of the areas that should be looked into include baggage handling, customs clearances, and luggage delivery from planes.
How Changi Airport Singapore has hitherto been able to fulfil the CTQs identified above
To ensure that the above CTQs have been adhered to, the management has adopted various strategic management tools that ensure the entire airport operates effectively. Changi Airports Group (CAG) has been keen on technology; the management ensures that the airport has modern state of the art technology in areas like cargo handling, clearance, passengers checking, and freight schedule arrangements.
With the technology passengers even before reaching the airport can be able to check their status via the airports website and ensure that their freight has been scheduled and what time. Security has been enhanced using state of the art technology and using other security methods. The presence of police (both uniformed and plain cloth) is evident in the art port; they are assisted by other security devises like scanners, sniffer dogs, and weapon detectors. The above measures are aimed at ensuring that the airport is safe.
The second strength of the airport management is how it has been able to manage its human capital; the management ensures it has well trained personnel who are able t control traffic in the airport. To ease on personnel management, the airport leaders have ensured they have subcontracted for some services (those services that are not in the main line of business) like learning, trolley handling, and offering direction.
The management has ensured that the serving staffs have wide knowledge of different languages to communicate well with passengers. The general outlay and infrastructure development of the airport is appealing to customers. When using the airport, one can be able to maneuver even without asking for assistance. Directional posts are situated at strategic points. Road transport within the airport is managed effectively and traffic controlled by experts; there are areas of public transport parking while others are for taxis and private cars.
This is meant to facilitate transport and communication in the airport. As a competitive tool, the management has offered some extra services to its customers, to ensure it is a step ahead of competition; the services include free internet wifi services, installing leg massage chairs near its boarding gates, or well-organized and guided hotel booking points.
To ensure that the stay that customers have in the airport is excellent, the management has ensured that it has provided some additional services like website booking/freight management and ground transportation, security and immigration service, passenger arrivals, departures and transit, terminal comfort and terminal facilities, and shopping, food and beverage (Berger, 1997).
Comparison of how Changi Airport Singapore has fared on these CTQs vis-à-vis other comparable airports
Changi Airport is one of the companies that can be accredited for the improved tourism industry in Singapore; the airport offers pleasant arrival and departure point for domestic and international users. The airport is the main port in Singapore located on 13 square kilometers (5.0 sq mi) site; to manage the airport effectively, the management has ensured that all areas have been looked into.
When comparing the airport with others in the country and international ones, the airport has fulfilled it Critical to quality (CTQs) better. For instance the average checking time in the airport is relatively lower than other airports. For ground handling, the management has contacted the service of Singapore.
Airport Terminal Services (SATS) and Dnata Singapore (dnata sg), the above two companies ensures that passengers are not stranded when in the airport and assistance is offered as fast as possible. The airport’s terminals are well manned by customs officials and equipped with immigration-processing facilities for international travel; the clearing time for passengers is much lower than the time used by other airports.
Security of the airport is another strength that the company has over its competitors; the management has ensured that there are state of the art security devises and personnel to offer intelligence and physical crime handling services. The way the management has been able to handle security in the airport is commendable than the way the same has been maintained by other airports (Tennant, 2001).
Applying Kano’s Model of customer service delight to explore which innovative features in the proposed T4 should be incorporated in its blueprint
Kano’s model of customer management points out attributes on products or services that need to be incorporated when making a particular decision. When making the terminal, the management must ensure that the following features as outlined in Kano model of customer service delight have been incorporated:
Must be requirements: these are those attributes that customers will find as normal although when they are not available the customer is dissatisfied; for example a customer might expect to have some directional sign in the terminal, this might not be different from the norm, however if the customer lacks such signs he will be dissatisfied.
The terminal should thus have well made directional signs that can be relied upon. Must-be requirements are in any case a decisive competitive factor, thus if the terminal lacks the facilities, it will not be meeting the needs and expectation of customers (Wheelen & Hunger, 1998).
One-dimensional requirements: these are services/products that the customer is keen on and is probably on the lookout for them. The management should ensure that the terminal is well equipped with such requirements; for instance being an airport terminal, passengers will be expecting to have customs and immigration people in board.
Failure to have such services will lead to high dissatisfaction to customers. With the products, the management should ensure that the experience that customers get is beyond what they would have expected. For example the rate of baggage clearing should be minimal and the clearing of passengers should be fast and efficient.
Attractive requirements: this requirement differentiates services/products offered by competitors, the management should ensure that there are some innovative services/products with the terminal; this is what the customer might remember for a long time. For instance the management may decide to have an ice-cream during summer for arriving passengers or a cup of coffee in winter. Such an innovative mind is likely to influence customer decision on the net freight terminal.
Because of differences in ages and economical well being of the airport users, the management can have each package for a particular classification of passengers. Failure to offer attractive requirements might not lead to dissatisfaction but offering them is beneficial to the airport (Dabhilkar & Bengtsson, 2004).
The following chart summarizes Kano’s Model of customer service delight:
Continuous improvement (CI) tools that may be helpful in keeping Changi Airport Singapore ahead of competition
Changi Airport Singapore business leaders should appreciate that globalization has brought numerous business opportunities to different industries but at the same time it has exposed businesses to risks and operational threats. Management gurus/professionals have continually agreed that for effective competitiveness, organizations need to focus on improving the relationship they have with their customers.
On the other hand to improve customer relation, organizations need to improve their products, services, and production styles with time. Continuous improvement paradigm is a strategic management strategy that seeks to have an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes with the aim of improving relationship between customers and the organization as efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility in the organization is facilitated. One tool of continuous improvement that the management should adopt to keep it ahead of its competition is using six sigma.
Six sigma involves making quality decisions on manufacturing, marketing, selling, branding, and customer management function. The management approach involves focusing on quality of policies, responsibilities, objectives and their implementation through quality control, quality planning and quality improvement (Hyland, Mellor, O’Mara, 2006)
Being in the service industry, Changi Airport Singapore business leaders should appreciate the competitive tool brought about by efficiency in service delivery; efficiency is a strong competition tool in businesses; it reduces the cost of production and leads to a more satisfy customers.
On the other hand, satisfied customers are an increased business to an organization; Six-sigma is implemented in business to improve the efficiency and increase the productivity of the entire organization, an effective Six Sigma implementation at Changi Airport Singapore will ensure that the airport is managed as a system where failure of one section can be reflected and probably corrected in another. When the system is implemented it not only focus on ensuring low costs of production but also looks into customer relationship management, it focuses on all areas in an organization to have a totality of good results in the organization.
Though when implemented is a project that undertakes a number of procedures, it is a continuous process that requires constant improvements and upgrading. In other terms six sigma is an ongoing process of products, processes, relationship, and operations improvement where skills are used to add value to the worth of an organization. Continuous improvement paradigm rhymes with accounting policy of going on concern where both focus on ensuring that an organization has enacted effective operational and products improvement to gain an increasing business in its industry (Bhuiyan & Baghel, 2005).
Conclusion
In contemporary competitive business environments, business leaders are focusing on quality improvement processes using approaches that yield to positive results to their final consumers. When developing terminal 4, Changi Airport Singapore management should ensure an in-depth Critical to quality (CTQs) from passengers’ perspective has been sort as it will assist when designing, staffing, and managing the terminal.
References
Berger, A. (1997). Continuous improvement and kaizen: standardization and organizational designs. Integrated Manufacturing Systems, 8(2),110-17.
Bhuiyan, N., & Baghel, A. (2005). An Overview for continuous improvement from past to present. Management Decision, 43(6), 761-772.
Cicerone, B., Hekele, A., & Morado, J. (2009). Applying Continuous Process Improvement For Managing Customer Loyalty. Agency Sales, 39 (10), 26-32.
Dabhilkar, M., & Bengtsson, L. (2004). Balanced scorecards for strategic and sustainable continuous improvement capability. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 15 (4), 350-360.
Hyland, P. , Mellor, R., O’Mara, E. (2006). A Comparison of Australian firms and their use of continous improvement tools. Measuring Business Excellence, 6(1), 52-60.
Tennant, G. (2001). SIX SIGMA: SPC and TQM in Manufacturing and Services. Aldershot: Gower Publishing.
Wheelen, L., & Hunger, J. (1998). Strategic Management and Business Policy: Entering 21st Century Global Society. Massachusetts: Addison Wesley