Some of Deming’s points that can be helpful to Kingfisher Airlines during times of crisis include elimination of waste in all functional areas. This is very important because it emphasises on maximum utilisation of available resources. This means that the organisation can be able to save some money that could be used in buying resources to replace those wasted (Bedi, 2004).
The human resource department should come up with a strategy whereby employees are scheduled in a way such that to attain maximum productivity. In fact, under-utilisation of employees can be dangerous since it leads to wastage of man power. This happens when tasks are allocated more workers than required. Therefore, Kingfisher Airways should make sure that they retain just enough employees.
Another important point is consistency because it creates a sense of reliability to customers. Regardless of economic situations, Kingfisher Airlines should work hard to ensure that it remains consistent in service provision. The management should consider all options to make sure that they keep their promises to customers. In fact, they should consider outsourcing from other players in the market rather that cancelling flights without proper notices.
Inconsistency leads to frustrations among customers, and this turns out to be disadvantageous for the organisation. Since customers prefer organisations that will offer quality services at all times, they may decide to ditch Kingfisher Airlines for its competitors. This is dangerous because if customers shift their loyalty to other players in the market, chances are high that the organisation may lose its popularity hence falling.
The attitude of supervisors towards workers is another point that should be considered by Kingfisher Airlines during times of crisis. This means that employees need to be handled in a humane manner regardless of the situation facing the organisation. This means that supervisors should engage workers in dialogue regarding issues affecting their company (Berwic, 2000).
They should reach consensus on matters pertaining their compensation instead of threatening them. In addition, workers should be made aware of the importance of having them to work on shifts.
Commitment from the top management is another strong point that can help Kingfisher Airlines. This is very important because managers can save the organisation from collapsing only if they are committed. They can come up with powerful decisions aimed at making sure that the Airline survives regardless of the impact of the crisis. By doing this, Kingfisher Airlines may stand better chances of surviving and remaining profitable. They should act swiftly in order to retain their loyal customers.
Juran’s quality spiral in the context of Kingfisher Airlines
Juran’s quality spiral focuses on all aspects that organisations should consider in order to improve the quality of their products and services. This includes carrying out a market research to find out what customers expect from the organisation. For instance, Kingfisher Airlines should conduct a market research aimed at finding out what passengers expect from their company.
This is very crucial because, through accepting customer feedbacks, the company can be able to focus on areas that need improvement. Market research can help the airlines company to come up with an appropriate pricing strategy hence setting prices that are acceptable by customers. Customers prefer flying with companies that offer quality services at affordable prices.
Product development and design should be considered by Kingfisher Airlines to make sure that it comes up with services desired by customers. This helps organisations to maintain their growth trends since customers keep on returning for their pleasant services which means more money for their companies.
It is important for Kingfisher Airlines to design several products aimed at reaching customers from various segments. For instance, they may have a section for very important personnel who prefer privacy hence making sure that such individuals remain as their customers (Nembhard, 2008). On the other hand, they should have sections that can accommodate the general public hence capturing the low income earners who may wish to fly with the airlines company, as well.
Kingfisher Airlines should make sure that it has a marketing administrative support that will be tasked with marketing responsibilities. This is very important since people need to be made aware of the Airlines Company and services offered to their customers. This is very important because loyal customers will get a chance to be reminded of the company.
At the same time, new people will learn about the company, and they may decide to try the Airline whenever travelling. Marketing administrative support helps to identify types of promotion to be offered in order to attract more customers. For instance, they may decide to give discount on air tickets during given holidays hence increasing the number of customers willing to fly with them.
The company should make sure that their customer services remains very hospitable and responsive. This is important because customer issues need to be prioritised in any organisation in order to remain preferable. Kingfisher Airlines should make sure that its customer service is very effective. This means that their crew must ensure that customers remain satisfied, and customer complaints should be taken seriously. This helps in building customer loyalty hence translating to increase in profits of the organisation.
Assess if quality circles would be helpful in making the airline better in quality
Quality circles refer to groups of workers who volunteer to discuss matters affecting them in their work places. Quality circles work in some industries and fail in some others. This depends on the sensitivity of involved procedures and steps required to improve the current situation (Panella and Vanhaecht, 2011). According to the nature of Airlines industry, it is very hard for quality circles to work for this company.
This is because some issues facing Kingfisher Airlines can only be solved by decisions made my managers. Therefore, there is not much that employees can do about any situation or challenges they face. For instance, the crew can only present their challenges to their supervisors who forward them to their seniors.
This happens because they have limited abilities to impose changes to improve their working conditions. In most cases, organisations prefer involving all parties in seeking solutions for their challenges. This is important because ideas from different people are considered hence helping to come up with concrete solutions. Quality circles may not be appropriate for this organisation because they only few people are involved in discussing challenges they face in their departments.
For an organisation, running Airlines, there are many departments, and they work hand in hand. Therefore, a meeting held by few people to discuss challenges facing their department can be of no importance to the organisation. This means that challenges in any department should be addressed by all parties to ensure that they do not have impacts on other departments. Kingfisher Airlines have to make sure that managers are involved in decision making regarding challenges facing workers in various departments.
They have to consult before coming up with any conclusion regarding actions they have to take. This makes sure that all decisions made by managers represent interests of all departments hence improving on transparency and accountability. In case managers need to allocate funds to deal with the challenges, they have to consult experts for more advice.
This is because experts come up with the exact amount of cash required to make sure that the issue is solved. Although quality circles promote confidence and trust among employees, the strategy may not work out for an organisation such as the Kingfisher Airlines.
Poka-Yoke devices that can be used by Kingfisher Airlines to help its employees in avoiding errors
Poka- Yoke refers to devices or methods that can be used by people in order to avoid making mistakes. In fact, Poka-Yoke is a Japanese word which means mistake proofing. Kingfisher Airline should come up with devices that can help its workers to avoid making mistakes. This is very important because workers in the service industry need to be cautious in order to ensure that they do not make mistakes that can keep customers away (Panella and Vanhaecht, 2011).
This means that devices such as alarm clocks or cockpit communication systems should be installed in planes to remind the crew what need to be done. This is important because individuals may get tired hence losing concentration and quality services have to be rendered regardless of how tired a worker may be. Therefore, Kingfisher Airlines should make sure that there are devices programmed to remind workers to check the quality of their services.
The pilot may also use a given device to keep on reminding him of his responsibility. For instance, he may set up an alarm so that after some time he has to check the operating systems and ensure that all is fine (Foster, 2004). This is very important because he may forget to check on some aspects due to fatigue or reduced concentration. When the alarm goes, he can remember to do what he had forgotten hence avoiding making mistakes.
A mistake made by the pilot can be fatal since it can cause a plane clash leading to loss of lives. In fact, Poka- Yoke devices should be used in offices where customers book for their airlines or report for arrivals and departures. This can be set in a way such that any time a door is opened, a certain sound is produced communicating to the workers.
This may be to remind them to receive customers in a hospitable manner and offer any assistance they may require. This is very important because customers will receive humane reception every time they enter into Kingfisher Airlines’ offices hence becoming loyal to the company.
How Taguchi’s quality loss function can be applied in making sure that all the flights of Kingfisher are always on time
Taguchi came up with a function of minimizing loses by high percentages. He argued that, in many organisations, loss occur due to poor planning before beginning running the project. In fact, he argued that changes should be done at the design stage because little cost is incurred.
This means that people should take time to test their products at the design stage to minimise loss. For instance, if an organisation is designing a product and they notice some faults at that stage, they can modify it without incurring any cost (Taguchi, 1999). If they ignore such changes and introduce the product to the market, if customers notice the fault the organisation may incur a lot of expenses to rectify the error.
Therefore, Kingfisher Airlines should make sure that quality of its services and products is checked at the design stage. For instance, they should carry out a lot of tests to find out customer response to services before officially launching them. This is important because may have a chance to modify their products and services in accordance with customer expectations. This can be done after analysing customer feedbacks hence ensuring that the products and services conform to such expectations.
This is very economical for the organisation because products, which seem to be less preferred by customers, may be left out of the system hence acquiring only those that sell in the market. In fact, the Airline should make sure that they consider quality of their different products before launching them. For instance, they should test services to be offered to various classes of passengers to ensure that they meet the promised quality requirements.
This is important because it eliminates instances where customers are offered poor quality services. This may cause protests from sections of customers hence affecting credibility of the organisation (Foster, 2004). In addition, Kingfisher Airlines should struggle to make sure that it has qualified employees to make sure that they design perfect products and services for their customers. This helps in assuring managers that loss due to poor design will be kept at minimal hence increasing profitability of the Airlines Company.
References
Bedi, K. (2004). Production and Operations Management. London: Oxford University Press.
Berwic, D. M. (2000) Continuous Improvement as an Ideal in Health Care. The New England Journal of medicine, 320(27), 53-56.
Foster, T. (2004). Managing Quality: An integrative approach. New York: Prentice hall.
Nembhard, H. B. (2008).Editorial: Statistical Quality Control in Healthcare. Quality engineering, 20(4), 402-403.
Panella, M. & Vanhaecht, K. (2011). Care Pathways and the cost of poor quality. International Journal Care Pathways, 15(1), 1-3.
Taguchi, G. (1999). Role of S/N ratios in Multivariate Diagnosis. Journal of Quality Engineering Forum, 7(6), 63-69.