A Paradigm for Quality Improvement

1. a. For a company of any size to find success, it must establish for itself a mission, and an internal definition of quality that all employees buy into. Denis has some great ideas for his company, but he needs to develop a paradigm of quality if he expects to maintain any sort of client loyalty. A quality policy would be the basic starting point for developing this paradigm. The tenets of this policy define standards of quality for all areas of the company. Quality objectives take this policy and make it specific, with quantifiable targets for every aspect of the operation.
   
   b. The Six Sigma plan has some tenets that would work well for Denis’ operation. Some of the global objectives that would be useful include: intensive training – particularly for those information systems and technical areas of the landscaping firm that are causing delays – leaving no reason why any of Denis’ employees should be delaying service because they do not know how to operate equipment or handle the software. The Six Sigma has a CTQ (Critical to Quality) metric that would be useful for Denis, given the fact that just about all of his customers have some sort of complaint about either the quality or punctuality of his company’s work.
   
   And so a workable quality policy for Houndsfield Landscaping could read as follows:
   Houndsfield Landscaping is committed to the following:
   Every member of the Houndsfield Landscaping team has ownership of overall quality.
   Every member of the Houndsfield Landscaping team will be totally committed to achieving excellence. Consequently, every member will support without question initiatives designed to propagate quality and improvement.
   
   Houndsfield will address quality at the point of service. In other words, Houndsfield representatives will no longer promise deadlines that they cannot meet, or services that they cannot provide. To this end, Houndsfield will develop the highest quality of customer service representatives and procurement strategies.
   
   Houndsfield Landscaping will base its quality framework on the ISO 9000 standards, a system which has the reputation of unblemished credibility with customers, suppliers, and employees. Such metrics as those found in six Sigma will be utilized to measure ongoing advances in identified areas of quality priority. These metrics will be displayed prominently within the Houndsfield offices.
   
   c. and d. Six Sigma also seeks to create a corporate structure of “continuous improvement.” While this might sound a little ambitious for such a small business, this type of thinking certainly could not hurt Denis’ company, which seems to be foundering. The Six Sigma commitment to problem-solving from the top down could also come in handy for Denis, since many workers in landscaping are skilled technically, but not organizationally, and Denis could provide the structure his employees appear to need. Some specific goals that could be useful for Houndsfield include:
• Negotiating terms with suppliers to ensure prompt delivery of specialty items
• Reducing complaints about delays by 50% in 30 days, and by 95% in 90 days
• Reducing complaints about quality by 75% in 30 days, and by 95% in 90 days
• Implementing procedures for approving personal leave
• Implementing procedures for office management
• Implementing procedures for bookkeeping
  
2. One way that Denis could identify areas of improvement would be to design a customer satisfaction survey. Some sample questions could include:
• What do you appreciate most about the work that Houndsfield Landscaping Services has done for you?
• What, if any, is your primary area of dissatisfaction with Houndsfield?
• Do you feel that Houndsfield makes promises that it can keep, regarding quality of labor?
• Have delays in job completion been sufficient to outweigh the quality and creativity of the landscaping work?
• Is Houndsfield’s pricing structure competitive with the structure of similar companies, factoring in quality of labor and creativity of design?
• Do you find Houndsfield’s personnel to be friendly and courteous?
• Would you recommend Houndsfield to your neighbors?
  
3. Benchmarking would be one of the goals of this survey, as well as other measures. Benchmarking involves establishing which company in a network of competitors is the best, and establishing what makes that company the best. In other words, what standards would Houndsfield have to meet in order to be the elite landscaping service in its market? How did the best landscape service provider get to be the best in the business, and how can Houndsfield emulate that success? Through surveys and word-of-mouth, Denis could identify the best landscaping operation, in terms of profitability and efficiency, and develop ways to make his creative genius somewhat more structured and sound, so that he could compete with the best, and become the best. MORE..