Introduction
In contemporary business environment, business leaders need to devise strategies that can enable the business take advantage of industrial opportunities as it mitigates against business threats and risks. Dubai Metro is a driverless metro network with its operational base in Dubai; to manage cost and improve service delivery, the company adopted total quality management strategy in its operations. This paper evaluates the decision by the company to adopt the management strategy.
Dubai Metro Integrated management system implementation procedure
When implementing the integrated management system, the management started by interpolating the operational standard of the company; the process was to have an understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and business risks.
With the understanding, the management then set on process improvement exercise which incorporated enacting management policies that addressed issues in the company. When address different challenges, the processes adopted ensured that current situation has been improved and future such challenges have been mitigated.
Some of the policies that the company incorporated to support integrated management structure of the company included international human resources management policy, integrated supply chain management, value creation, and cost minimization/revenue maximization policies.
The management did not adopt the systems single handily; they incorporated management gurus who gave different insights about their specific area of interest. The company understood improvement of the process could only be possible with the participation of every human capital regardless of his position in the company.
Human capital were continuously trained with the changes and management ensured that every step taken involved staffs. Explanations of what the company is intending to do were periodically given to enhance psychological preparedness of staffs.
Challenges that the company faced when implementing the strategy
When implementing the projects, the company was faced with some challenges; the main challenge was getting the right management gurus to be change agents in the company. With the gurus, they came at a cost that the company had to incur. People management issues in times of change are another challenge that the company had to fight with; the company needed to ensure that human capital understood and embraced the change. This meant that the company has some change resistance management issues.
Advantages of Integrated Management system
With the integrated management system, the company is able to share management information in its numerous departments; when information is shared, smooth running of the company is facilitated. The transport industry like any other service industry requires high quality services delivery; with this notion, when the company has adopted the integrated system, it boosts service quality delivery. With high quality service delivery the company will enjoy competitiveness and growth in customer loyalty will be facilitated.
Disadvantages of Integrated system
The integrated system adopted by Dubai Metro is acquired at a cost; the cost is likely to affect the cash-flow in the company creating the probability of having financial distress in the company. Other than the purchase cost, the system will call upon the management to train staffs on how the system works. This is an extra cost that the company will have to incur. Although the expenses are justifiable, the benefits from the same cannot be enjoyed in the short run (James &Lindsay, 2011).
Conclusion
With the integrated management system, Dubai Metro has been able to improve its services and reduce operational costs. Profit margin from its operations has increased creating more income to the company.
Reference
James, R., &Lindsay, M. (2011). The Management and Control of Quality, 8th edition, International Edition. South-Western: Cengage Learning.