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September 29, 2021

Crafting and Executing Strategy - Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble and Strickland - 23rd Edition, - Book Information

Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy - Summary of Chapters - Scroll Down.


Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases
23rd Edition
By Arthur Thompson and Margaret Peteraf and John Gamble and A. Strickland
ISBN10: 1260735176
ISBN13: 9781260735178
Copyright: 2022

PART 1 Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? 
Chapter 2 Charting a Company’s Direction
Chapter 3 Evaluating a Company’s External Environment
Chapter 4 Evaluating a Company’s Resources, Capabilities, and Competitiveness
Chapter 5 The Five Generic Competitive Strategies
Chapter 6 Strengthening a Company’s Competitive Position
Chapter 7 Strategies for Competing in International Markets
Chapter 8 Corporate Strategy
Chapter 9 Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy
Chapter 10 Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution
Chapter 11 Managing Internal Operations
Chapter 12 Corporate Culture and Leadership
 

PART 2 Cases in Crafting and Executing Strategy

Section A: Crafting Strategy in Single-Business Companies

1 Airbnb in 2020 
2 Competition in the Craft Beer Industry in 2020 
3 Costco Wholesale in 2020: Mission, Business Model, and Strategy 
4 Ford Motor Company: Will the Company’s Strategic Moves Restore its Competitiveness and Financial Performance? 
5 Macy’s, Inc.: Will Its Strategy Allow It to Survive in the Changing Retail Sector? 
6 TOMS Shoes: Expanding Its Successful One For One Business Model 
7 lululemon athletica’s Strategy in 2020: Is the Recent Growth in Retail Stores, Revenues, and Profitability Sustainable? 
8 Under Armour’s Strategy in 2020: Can It Revive Sales and
9 Spotify in 2020: Can the Company Remain Competitive? 
10 Beyond Meat, Inc. 
11 Netflix’s 2020 Strategy for Battling Rivals in the Global Market for Streamed Video Subscribers 
12 Twitter Inc. in 2020 
13 Yeti in 2020: Can Brand Name and Innovation Keep it Ahead of the Competition? 
14 GoPro in 2020: Have its Turnaround Strategies Failed? 
15 Publix Super Markets: Its Strategy in the U.S. Supermarket and Grocery Store Industry
16 Tesla’s Strategy in 2020: Can It Deliver Sustained Profitability? 
17 Unilever’s Purpose-led Brand Strategy: Can Alan Jope Balance Purpose and Profits? 
18 Domino’s Pizza: Business Continuity Strategy during the Covid-19 Pandemic 
19 Burbank Housing: Building from the Inside Out 
20 Boeing 737 MAX: What Response Strategy is Needed to Ensure Passenger Safety and Restore the Company’s Reputation? 
21 The Walt Disney Company: Its Diversification Strategy in 2020 
22 Robin Hood 

Section B: Crafting Strategy in Diversified Companies

23 Southwest Airlines in 2020: Culture, Values, and Operating Practices 
24 Uber Technologies in 2020: Is the Gig Economy Labor Force Working for Uber? 

Section C: Implementing and Executing Strategy

25 Starbucks in 2020: Is the Company on Track to Achieve Attractive Growth and Operational Excellence? 
26 Nucor Corporation in 2020: Pursuing Efforts to Grow Sales and Market Share Despite Tough Market Conditions 
27 Eliminating Modern Slavery from Supply Chains: Can NestlĂ© Lead the Way? 





Crafting & Executing Strategy: Concepts and Cases
22nd Edition
View Latest Edition
By Arthur Thompson and Margaret Peteraf and John Gamble and A. Strickland
ISBN10: 1260075109
ISBN13: 9781260075106
Copyright: 2020


Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases 

18 Edition, 2012
McGraw Hill



Arthur A. Thompson, Jr., The University of Alabama
Margaret A. Peteraf, Dartmouth College
John E. Gamble, University of South Alabama
A. J. Strickland III, The University of Alabama



Contents

Links are to summaries of the chapters based on various editions.

Review first Strategies, Policies, and Planning Premises - Review Notes - Chapter in Principles of Management Book: Create a link between theory of management practice and strategic management, one area of many in business management.


PART ONE

Concepts and Techniques for Crafting and Executing Strategy - Summary of Chapters


Section A: Introduction and Overview


Chapter 1: What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important?
               

Chapter 2: Charting a Company’s Direction: Vision and Mission, Objectives, and Strategy

Section B: Core Concepts and Analytical Tools


Chapter 3: Evaluating a Company’s External Environment

Chapter 4: Evaluating a Company’s Resources, Capabilities, and Competitiveness

Section C: Crafting a Strategy


Chapter 5: The Five Generic Competitive Strategies: Which One to Employ?

Chapter 6: Strengthening a Company’s Competitive Position: Strategic Moves, Timing, and Scope of Operations

Chapter 7: Strategies for Competing in International Markets

Chapter 8: Corporate Strategy: Diversification and the Multibusiness Company

Chapter 9: Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy
               

Section D: Executing the Strategy

Whereas crafting strategy is largely a market-driven activity, executing strategy is primarily an operations activity revolving around the management of people and business processes using the facilities of the organization. Hence MBA students and executives needs a good grasp of Marketing Management and Operations Management to succeed as Managers of Strategy.


Chapter 10: Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution: People, Capabilities, and Structure

Chapter 11: Managing Internal Operations: Actions That Promote Good Strategy Execution

Chapter 12: Corporate Culture and Leadership: Keys to Good Strategy Execution


What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important?


A company's strategy is the game plan management is using to stake out a market position, attract and please customers,  conduct its operations,  compete successfully, and achieve the desired performance targets.

Company has to identify a product - target marketing combination where it will be able to occupy a durable position for a long time to come. In that position, it should be able to attract the attention of potential customers, bring them to buy and use its products and satisfy their needs through its product-services combination. The customers are expected to repeat their purchases. The company needs operations function which will produce and distribute the product with features and services that the customers value. In the product-target position occupied by a company, competitors may already be there, or new competitors may emerge and try to imitate its products and services. The company must be able develop a competitive advantage that allows to it provide that something extra which will make customers loyal. The company needs a price point at which there is adequate demand and company's capability to produce and distribute the product at a required profit at that price point.


A company achieves a sustainable competitive advantage and remain in business for a long time, when it can meet customer needs more effectively or efficiently than rivals and the basis for this is durable, despite the best efforts of competitors to match or surpass this advantage.

A company is producing goods and service to meet a customer needs. The needs are felt by the customer first and these needs become wants for a specific product and brand.

A company's strategy typically evolves over time, emerging from a blend of (1) proactive and deliberate actions on the part of company managers to improve the strategy and (2) reactive, as-needed adaptive responses to unanticipated developments and fresh market conditions.

A company's business model is management's story line for how the strategy will be a moneymaker. It contains two crucial elements: (1) the customer value proposition —a plan for satisfying customer wants and needs at a price customers will consider good value, and (2) the profit formula —a plan for a cost structure that will enable the company to deliver the customer value proposition profitably. In effect, a company's business model sets forth the economic logic for making money in a particular business, given the company's current strategy.

A winning strategy will pass three tests: (1) Fit (external, internal, and dynamic consistency), (2) Competitive Advantage (durable competitive advantage), and (3) Performance (outstanding financial and market performance).

Crafting and executing strategy are core management functions. How well a company performs and the degree of market success it enjoys are directly attributable to the caliber of its strategy and the proficiency with which the strategy is executed.

18th Edition
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Updated on 30.9.2021,  31.8.2021,  14 May 2019

Corporate Culture and Leadership - Keys to Effective Strategy Execution - Review Notes

Online MBA Management Theory Handbook 


Based on Chapter of Thompson and Strickland


Assessing the Current Culture and Modifying it to Fit Strategy


The beliefs, goals, and practices called for in a strategy may be compatible with a firm’s culture or they may not. When they are not, a company usually finds it difficult to implement the strategy successfully. A close culture-strategy match that energizes People throughout the company to do their jobs in a strategy-supportive manner adds significantly to the power and effectiveness of strategy execution.

When a company’s culture is out of sync with what is needed for strategic success, the culture has to be changed as rapidly as can be managed. A sizable and prolonged strategy-culture conflict weakens and may even defeat managerial efforts to make the strategy work.

A strong culture and a tight culture-strategy alignment is a powerful lever for channeling behavior and for influencing employees do their jobs in a more strategy-supportive manner.

It is the strategy-maker’s responsibility to understand the company culture, and select a strategy compatible with the “sacred” or unchangeable parts of prevailing corporate culture. He also has to foresee how he is going to change the culture to support the strategy that he is proposing. During the strategy implementation, once strategy is chosen, it is an important task  to change whatever facets of the corporate culture that hinder effective execution.

Changing a company’s culture and aligning it with strategy are among the toughest management tasks--easier to talk about than do. Thompson and Stickland advocate that managers have to talk openly and forthrightly to all concerned about those aspects of the culture that have to be changed. The talk has to be followed swiftly by visible actions to modify the culture-actions that everyone will understand are intended to establish a new culture more in tune with the strategy.

What makes a spirit of high performance come alive is a complex network of practices, words, symbols, styles, values, and policies pulling together that produces extraordinary results with ordinary people.

What is Culture?


The meshing together of stated beliefs, business principles, style of operating, ingrained behaviors and attitudes, and work climate define a company's corporate culture.


What to Look for in Identifying a Company's Corporate Culture?


The foundation of corporate culture is the organization's beliefs and philosophy about how its affairs ought to be conducted. It is logic or reason why it does a thing the way is does. A company's culture is publicly stated in the values and business principles by many companies. The management practices, policies and procedures, its revered traditions, oft repeated stories are also part of culture.  The attitudes and behaviors of its employees, the peer pressures that exist to correct some behaviors, its approaches to people management, problem solving, relationship management practices with suppliers and customers, are also part of culture. The chemistry and the personality of various employees that permeate the work environment are also part of culture. Some of these sociological factors are readily apparent while others operate quite subtly and have to be observed and identified with special effort by trained behavioral specialists.

The role of stories: A significant part of a company's culture is transmitted through the stories that get told over and over again to newcomers to explain the value and commitment of the company.

Characterization of Corporate Cultures


Strong cultures


Three factors contribute to the development and existence of strong corporate cultures.

1. A visible genuine concern for the well-being of the organization's three biggest constituencies - customers, employees and shareholders. 

2. The founder or other strong leader establishes values, principles, and practices that are consistent and sensible in light of customer needs, competitive conditions, and strategic requirements.  Strong culture is established when its practices lead to considerable organizational success.

3. A sincere, long-standing company commitment to operating the business according to the traditions established during its extremely successful period doing incremental changes as required based strategy that is set according to the established culture. It means the company culture is more structured and is considered when strategies are decided.

Weak culture


In companies with weak culture, it is difficult to identify a company wide cultures. There are more visible subcultures extending to some limited persons.

Unhealthy culture


The following three traits are present unhealthy cultures.

1. A highly politicized internal environment. Decisions are made top man and coterie of people. There are other groups that try to take care of their personal needs. What is best for the company is not the criterion for the decisions. It is the benefit of individuals and limited groups of people.

2. There is hostility for change.

3.  People are not willing to look around and find new ways of working.

Adaptive Culture


In adaptive cultures, employing are willing to accept change and take on the challenge of introducing and executing new strategies.



10 Things Your Corporate Culture Needs to Get Right
Knowing what elements of culture matter most to employees can help leaders foster engagement as they transition to a new reality that will include more remote and hybrid work.
Donald Sull and Charles Sull
September 16, 2021

Build a high-performing organizational culture
https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/insights/organizational-culture

3 Culture Conversations Every CEO Must Have With Their Head of HR: How heads of HR and CEOs can better partner to build a culture that performs

https://hi.hofstede-insights.com/organisational-culture

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organization-blog/culture-4-keys-to-why-it-matters

https://www.strategy-business.com/feature/10-Principles-of-Organizational-Culture


Organizational Behaviour - Google Corporate Culture in Perspective
Stephan Weber
GRIN Verlag, 2008 - 68 pages
https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Organizational_Behaviour_Google_Corporat.html?id=uv5Ke9aVNqYC

Organizational Culture and Leadership
Edgar H. Schein
John Wiley & Sons, 27-Dec-2016 - Business & Economics - 416 pages
https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Organizational_Culture_and_Leadership.html?id=l2jpCgAAQBAJ



Leading the Strategy Execution Process


1. Monitoring Progress, Finding out issues which are challenging the progress of strategic activities and coming up with solutions.
2. Putting constructive directing effort to achieve good results.
3. Keeping the organization focused on operating excellence - Effectiveness and Efficiency.
4. Supporting the development of stronger core competencies and competitive capabilities.
5. Displaying ethical integrity and leading social responsibility initiatives.
6. Implementing corrective actions to improve strategy execution and achieve the planned results.


1. Communication, Monitoring Progress, Finding out issues which are challenging the progress of strategic activities and coming up with solutions.


Develop a broad network of formal and informal sources of information
Talk with many people at all levels
Be an avid practitioner of MBWA  (Management by Walking Around)
Observe situation firsthand
Monitor operating results regularly
Get feedback from customers
Watch competitive reactions of rivals

2. Putting constructive directing effort to achieve good results.


Support people who are willing to champion
Innovative ideas and products
Better services
New technologies
Promote continuous adaptation to changing conditions



3. Keeping the organization focused on operating excellence - Effectiveness and Efficiency.


Encourage people to be creative and imaginative to improve operating excellence.
Tolerate mavericks with creative ideas
Promote lots of tries and be willing to accept failures (most ideas don’t pan out)
Use all kinds of organizational forms to support experimentation (venture teams, task forces, “skunk works” and individual champions)
See that rewards for successful champions are large and visible


4. Supporting the development of stronger core competencies and competitive capabilities.


Responding to changes requires top management intervention to establish new organizational capabilities, resource strengths and competencies.

Senior managers must lead the effort because it involves planning to support current strategy as well as anticipated future strategy.

It involves significant investments in training, experimentation and trail and error attempts to produce components, products or services using the new knowledge and skills to develop the competence.

Capabilities reside in combined efforts across departments, requiring integration. New processes have to be authorised and created to provide the necessary intermediate or final products or services using the new capabilities.


5. Displaying ethical integrity and leading social responsibility initiatives.


Having “family friendly” employment practices
Operating a safe workplace
Taking special pains to protect the environment
Taking an active role in community affairs
Interacting with community officials to minimize impact of
Layoffs or
Hiring large numbers of new employees
Being a generous supporter of charitable causes and projects that benefit society

6. Implementing corrective actions to improve strategy execution and achieve the planned results.


Requires both reactive adjustments and proactive adjustments
Involves reshaping long-term direction, objectives, and strategy to unfolding events and promoting initiatives to align internal  activities and behavior with strategy




Video presentations on corporate and company culture

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Updated on  29 Sep 2021,  7 October 2016,   24 March 2016, 31.5.2012, 19 Dec 2011

September 23, 2021

Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction and Loyalty - Summary of Kotler and Keller's Chapter






Winning Customers Through Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction and Loyalty

2 Minute Summary of the Chapter - Important Points - Slide  Show - Video

____________________


____________________

Learning Objectives.

Know what are customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty?
How can companies deliver and generate them?
Know what is life time value of a customer?
How can companies maximize it?
How can companies attract customers and cultivate relationships with them?

Creating Long-Term Loyalty Relationships - Chapter 3 of Marketing Management, Kotler - Keller, 15th Edition.

Companies have to be adept at building customer relationships apart from building products that customers desire to buy.  They have to develop skills of market engineering along with product engineering.

Customer loyalty has been defined as "a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product or service in the future despite situational influences and marketing efforts by competitors having the potential to cause switching behavior."

Building Customer Value, Satisfaction and Loyalty


Creating loyal customers is at the heart of every successful business.

Managers who believe the customer is the company's only true profit center consider the person serving the customer as the most important person in the organization. The rest of only support staff to him. Some companies have been founded with the customer-on-top business world, and customer advocacy has been their strategy-and competitive advantage.

Why does a user become a loyal customer?  Why does he make the first buy from a company? Customers tend to be value maximizers or perceived value maximizers, within the bounds of search costs and limited knowledge, mobility and income. Customers evaluate various offers available to satisfy a need and estimate the perceived value of each offer. 

What is Customer Value?


Customer-perceived value (CPV) is the difference between the prospective customer's evaluation of all the benefits and all the costs of an offering.  Total customer benefit is the perceived monetary value of the bundle of economic, functional, and psychological benefits customers expect from a given market offering because of the products, accompanying services and image involved. Total customer cost is the perceived bundle of costs customers expect to incur in evaluating, obtaining, using, and disposing of the given market offering, including monetary, time, energy, and psychological costs.

If customers are perceived value maximizers, firms also have to try to increase that value. The marketers can try to increase the benefit bundle but improving the product, accompanying services and improving the image related feature of the product and their organization. They can also try to reduce the cost incurred by the customers by reducing the price (by emphasizing rational cost reduction of products and services), improving their marketing communication so that customer spend less on search and evaluation and improving their sales process so that customer spend less on purchase activity.

Companies often conduct value analysis to compare their products with competitor's products to identify areas that can be taken up for improvement.

Maximizing Customer Life Time Value


The amount of goods a customer is likely to buy from the company and thereby contribute to its profits can be estimated from the past buying behavior and anticipated trends. This gives an estimate of customer life time value. Customer acquisition cost has to be less than it and also if a customer leaves the company it is a value loss and this can be also be calculated. These calculations give the idea that company have to take actions to retain customers. Relationship marketing emerged from this finding. Companies have to take actions to retain customers.

Cultivating Customer Relationships


Customer relationship management emerged as an important marketing area once relationship marketing concept was created. One aspect of CRM is maintenance and use of detailed information about individual customers and their touch points with the company.

Customer Databases and Database Marketing


A customer database is an organized collection of comprehensive information about individual customers or prospects that is current, accessible, and actionable for marketing purposes - lead generation, lead qualification, sale of a product or service, or maintenance of customer relationships. Database marketing is the process of building, maintaining, and using customer databases and other databases to contact, transact, and build customer relationships.

Benefits of Database Marketing


1. Prospects can be identified.
2. Decisions regarding which customers should receive a particular offer can be taken.
3. Customer loyalty can be increased by sending information of particular interest to a customer.
4. Customer purchases can be reactivated by sending a timely reminder.
5. Properly maintained and used database will help in preventing some marketing mistakes or errors.

Problems in Using Databases


1. There is a significant cost involved in developing and maintaining a database.
2. Employees have to trained in using databases and taking marketing decisions.
3. Some customers may not like the database marketing initiatives.
4. The assumptions behind CRM may not always hold true.


Reference

Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management, 13 Edition

Planned Revision schedule for marketing chapters is in February and March

Updated 2021 - 24 Sep 2021,  17 August 2021
2018 - 27 January
  22 Feb 2015, 31 Jan 2015

September 21, 2021

Marketing Management Course - 15 Lessons

 


Marketing Management  - Based on Kotler and Keller's Book - Marketing Management




Marketing Concept - Kotler

Planning in the Marketing Process

Marketing Strategy - Marketing Process - Kotler's Description



Marketing Strategy - Differentiating and Positioning the Market Offering

Management of Marketing Department and Function

Determinants of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

Marketing Research and Market Demand Forecasting

Consumer Behavior

Analysis of Consumer Markets

Organizational Buying Processes and Buying Behavior

Market Segmentation and Selection of Target Segments









More





September 9, 2021

Quality Management and Total Quality Management

Topics covered in Textbook Chase, Jacobs, Aquilano  11 Edition

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT
QUALITY SPECIFICATION AND QUALITY COSTS
SIX SIGMA QUALITY
THE SHINGO SYSTEM
ISO 9000
EXTERNAL BENCHMARKING FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
SERVICE QUALITY MEASUREMENT; SERVQUAL


TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT


Total quality management may be defined as "managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer." (Chase and Aquilano, 1995).

It has two fundamental operational goals.

1. Careful design of the product or service
2. Ensuring that the organization's systems can consistently produce the design.

To achieve outstanding quality requires quality leadership from senior management, a customer focus, total involvement of the workforce, and continuous improvement based upon rigorous analysis of processes.

It has three important stages or steps.

1. Design of the product or service taking into consideration the customer expectations.
2. Designing a production system capable of delivering to design specifications and maintaining and improving the process capability on a continuous basis.
3. Controlling the production system during the execution phase so that it function according to design and any problems are highlighted so that they can be rectified or eliminated from the production system.


QUALITY SPECIFICATION AND QUALITY COSTS


Dimensions of Design Quality

1. Performance
2. Features
3. Reliability/Durability
4. Serviceability
5. Aesthetics - Sensory characteristics (look, feel, sound etc.)
6. Perceived Quality - Based on the past performance

Cost of Quality Framework

Costs associated with quality are categorized and reported as;

1. Prevention costs
2. Appraisal costs
3. Internal failure costs
4. External failure costs

While the traditional quality systems concentrated on appraisal, the Japanese quality movement focused on prevention level. Now it is understood that prevention is economical. :Philip Crosby gave a benchmark that total quality related costs can be brought down to 2.5 percent of every sales dollar from the estimated 15 to 20 percent of sales dollar.(Crosby, 1979).


SIX SIGMA QUALITY


Six Sigma Quality

Six sigma quality is achieved when the customer's specification limits of the items are twice the natural variation ( = or - 3 sigma) of the process used to produce it. In other words Six sigma (Six*sigma) of the process has to be equal to twice the range of the specification limits given by the customer.

A process that is in Six-Sigma quality control will produce no more than two defects out of every billion units. In practice it is stated as four defects per million units, as the process mean may be somewhere within one sigma of the target specification. This notation provides a common metric to compare processes - defects per million opportunities (DPMO).

Six sigma methodology results in reduction of variance of the process (sigma of the process) so that more and more items can be made with six sigma quality. In six sigma quality improvement process, the relationship between process inputs (X's) and outputs (Y's) is observed through experiments designed using Design of Experiments Methods (DOE). Hypothesis testing methods are used to find significant relations between X's and Y's. Based on this knowledge, optimal levels of X's are selected that give the least sigma. In addition levels of X that will improve Y are also estimated and engineering activity is initiated to make new X level possible.

Six Sigma methodology advocated DMAIC cycle

Define
Measure
Analyze
Improve
Control

The tools used for measuring and analyzing data on defects are flowcharts, run charts, pareto charts, checksheets, cause-and-effect diagrams, opportunity flow charts, control charts. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and design of experiments (DOE) are also used. DOE is used test the relationship between process inputs and outputs. Six Sigma emphasizes the scientific method like operations research and optimizes variance of the processes that minimizes variance of the process by developing various conjectures about the levels of input variables and variability of the process and the conjectures are converted into hypotheses that are tested using design of experiments (DOE) methods. Modern statistical software specially developed to support process analysis has reduced the drudgery of displaying and analyzing data.

Six Sigma has large number of successful applications in various companies and companies like GE claim billions of dollars of saving. Hence it is a very popular technique now in the world and more and more companies are training their employees in Six Sigma methods.

Total quality management is managing the entire organization so it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer. In today's competitive marketplace, the production and delivery of high-quality goods and services is a key element of any organization's success. Quality can be used as a competitive advantage or a strategic weapon for an organization. TQM, or total quality management is the advanced stage of quality programs, not only in Japan, but also in Europe and North America. The critical elements of a successful TQM program include leadership, employee involvement, excellence in products or processes, and customer focus.

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is a quality award sponsored by the U.S. Commerce Department to recognize organizations that have achieved excellence in their total quality management program. The Award was created in 1987 to recognize total quality management in American industry and represents the government's endorsement of quality as an essential component of a successful business strategy. The award seeks to improve quality and productivity.

The award consists of comprehensive criteria for evaluating total quality in organizations. A Board of Examiners reviews applicants. The Baldrige is designed to be flexible and it evaluates quality in various business categories including health care, educational institutions as well as manufacturing and service companies and small businesses.

The quality criteria focus on seven broad topical areas that are integrally and dynamically related. The seven areas are: Leadership, Strategic planning, Customer and Market Focus, Information and Analytics, Human Resource Focus, Process Management and Business Results. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of the quality program.

The categories addressed in the award were selected because of their importance to all businesses. Companies not applying for the award can use the criteria to assess their current operations, design a total quality system, evaluate internal relationships, and to assess customer satisfaction. Participation in the award program is declining but many state-sponsored quality programs and awards are growing. The Deming Prize recognizes quality excellence in Japanese companies. A European Quality Award exists as well and is similar to the Baldrige Award.

Leaders in the quality revolution include Deming, Juran, and Crosby. These three gurus researched and advanced the role of quality. When considering quality, the concept has many dimensions. One is the performance of a product. Another dimension is the features of a product. Still other important quality variables include reliability, conformity, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, and finally perceived quality. The customer perceives quality. That is why a customer-focus is critical to any quality implementation.

Operations Managers


Operation managers have to evaluate their designs for quality output. Do the specification of the product satisfy the customers? Is the design capable of providing satisfaction to the users? Is the production system capable of producing the specification. The operations managers are responsible for the design of processes and they have to certify that processes are capable of producing the designed specification. Even though processes are designed with the ability to produce the desired quality, there has to be control during the execution phase so that machines are reset whenever the performance deteriorates. Similarly operators must take adequate care in operating the machine. Management should not force operators to work when they are exhausted as the probability of making errors increases whenever operators feel fatigued or bored.

A key to a successful quality initiative is the use of planning and management tools and procedures to track quality progress. Both quantitative and non-quantitative measures are used to track initial quality and quantity improvements over time. An important quantitative method for monitoring a process is statistical process control. SPC allows employees to distinguish between random fluctuations in machines and processes and to determine when variations signal that corrective action is needed. Some of recent ideas that emerged in quality improvement or management field are the process of developing quality specifications by understanding customer requirements,  understanding the cost of quality concept, conformance quality concept, quality at the source, and the goal of zero defects.

Continuous improvement has its own tools and procedures including the concept of Kaizen borrowed from the Japanese, the PDCA Cycle, and benchmarking both internally and externally in the industry.


THE SHINGO SYSTEM


Shingo system

An alternative to the statistically based approach is the Shingo system, developed in Japan. It focuses on self-checks, source inspections, and successive checks to ensure quality. Key features of the Shingo system include fail safe or poka-yoke systems that prevent defects.

ISO 9000 is a series of standards agreed upon by the International Organization for Standards. Adopted in 1987 these standards consist of five primary parts and more than 100 countries now recognize the 9000 series for quality standards and certification for international trade. ISO 14000 standards cover environmental compliance by manufacturing companies. ISO 9000 standards are compared to the Baldrige Criteria in this section.


SERVICE QUALITY MEASUREMENT; SERVQUAL


SERVQUAL - service quality

SERVQUAL is a questionnaire used to poll customers about service quality. It is an important tool for customer satisfaction. Many methods are available to production practitioners to measure quality. However, quality is a strategic issue and the internal capabilities and  the external environment requirements have to be taken into consideration in decisions related to quality. Internal capability needs to be developed as required and also external commitments must be based on internal capability at any point in time.  Quality programs are valuable in all organizations -- both service and manufacturing.



Bibliography

Software Quality Management  - Narayana Rao

Handbook of Total Quality Management
Christian N. Madu
Springer Science & Business Media, 06-Dec-2012 - Technology & Engineering - 801 pages

Quality issues are occupying an increasingly prominent position in today's global business market, with firms seeking to compete on an international level on both price and quality. Consumers are demanding higher quality standards from manufacturers and service providers, while virtually all industrialized nations have instituted quality programs to help indigenous corporations. A proliferation in nation-wide and regional quality awards such as the Baldridge award and certification to ISO 9000 series are making corporations world-wide quality-conscious and eager to implement programs of continuous improvement. To achieve competitiveness, quality practice is a necessity and this book offers an exposition of how quality can be attained.

The Handbook of Total Quality Management explores in separate chapters new topics such as re-engineering, concurrent engineering, ISO standards, QFD, the Internet, the environment, advanced manufacturing technology and benchmarking

It discusses the views of leading quality practitioners such as Derning, Juran, Ishikawa, Crosby and Taguchi throughout the book.

Important strategies for quality improvement, including initiation and performance evaluation through auditing, re-engineering, and process and design innovations are explained in the book.

With contributions from 47 authors in 13 different countries, the Handbook of Total Quality Management is invaluable as a reference guide for anyone involved with quality management and deployment, including consultants, practitioners and engineers in the professional sector, and students and lecturers of information systems, management and industrial engineering.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=4UjuBwAAQBAJ

The Quality Management of New Product Design and Development
Wang, H. M.
PhD Thesis, Cranfield University
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1826/3559
Date: 1993-04
https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/3559


Ud 9 September 2021,   31 July 2021
pub 19 April 2019

Productivity Management in Operations Management Since 1886


Lesson of  Productivity Management Course Lessons





In the Eleventh edition of "Operations Management for Competitive Advantage" Chase, Jobs and Aquilano start the preface with statement "Operations Management (OM) has been a key element in the improvement in productivity in businesses around the world." Productivity growth created by operations management creates competitive advantage.

Productivity is defined in simple terms as (output of goods and services)/(input of resources) and productivity improvement results in reduction of unit cost of products of the organization. Henry Towne, in a paper presented in 1886 in the ASME Annual meeting proposed that reducing cost of production is the responsibility of engineers entrusted with shop management and works management.

"Gain Sharing" Productivity Benefit - Towne


Involving workmen in the task of improving productivity and decreasing the cost of production received attention and Towne mentioned in 1886 itself that he will present a paper shortly on the topic

In the paper presented in 1889, with the title "Gain Sharing" Towne suggested a plan of sharing the reduction of cost production with workmen and foremen. He gave his argument of the same.

The factors affecting the profit may be divided into several distinct groups, as follows :

I. Those contributed or controlled by the owner or principal, —^such as capital, plant, character of buildings, machinery and organization ; and, to a greater or less degree, the skill, experience, industry, and ability of the owner so far as he personally manages the business.

2. Those influenced by the mercantile staff, — the buyer and the selling agent in the case supposed.

3. Those determined by causes beyond the control of the principal and his agents; such as fluctuations in cost of raw material or in the market value of the finished product, the rate of interest, losses by bad debts, etc.

4. Those influenced by the workmen or operatives ; such as care of property, economy in the use of material and supplies, and, chiefly, efficiency in the use of machinery and employment of labor.

The right solution of  "gain sharing" with persons involved in increasing profit will manifestly consist in allotting to each member of the organization an interest in that portion of the profit fund which is or may be affected by his individual efforts or skill, and protecting this interest against diminution resulting from the errors, of others, or from extraneous causes not under his control. Such a solution, while not simple, is attainable under many circumstances, and attainable by methods which experience has shown to be both practical and successful.

In the case of employees it will be best solved if it can be so formulated that  as presented to the employee, it becomes an invitation from the principal that they should enter into an industrial partnership, wherein each will retain, unimpaired, his existing equitable rights, but will share with the other the benefits, if any are realized, of certain new contributions made by each to the common interest. Let us suppose that the wages of the operatives are already fairly adjusted according to the prevailing scale, so that for the employer to offer them a portion of his profits without a guaranty of return would be equivalent to his giving  them more than the fair market value of their services; while if, under this inducement, they gave him better or more work than before, they would not receive fair recompense in case, by reason of causes beyond their control, his business yielded no profit. But let us suppose, further, that the principal, wishing to enlist the self-interest of his employees to augment the profits of the business, should offer to the operatives a proposition somewhat as follows :

"I have already ascertained the cost of our product in labor, supplies, economy of material, and such other items as you can influence. I will undertake to organize and pay for a system whereby the cost of product in these same items will be periodically ascertained, and will agree to divide among you a certain portion ( retaining myself the remainder ) of any gain or reduction of cost, which you may affect by reason of increased efficiency of labor, or increased economy in the use of material, or both; this arrangement not to disturb your rates of wages, which are to continue, as at present, those generally paid for similar services."

The system for which I have adopted the designation of " Gain-sharing " The system is now in actual use as affecting some 300 employees, has been in operation more than two years and is demonstrated to be practical and beneficial. Its most obvious application is to productive industries, especially those whose product is of a simple or uniform kind ; but it may be adapted to many others, and also to the business of large mercantile houses. It is equally applicable to cases where labor is employed either by the piece, by the day, or by contract, and in no way impairs the existing freedom of the relation between employer and employee, but tends to confer substantial benefit on both sides.

The basis or starting-point of the system is an accurate knowledge of the present cost of product ( or, in the case of mercantile business, the cost of operating it ), stated in terms which include the desired factors, that is, those which can be influenced or controlled by the employees who are to participate in the result, and which exclude all other factors. In some cases the previous method of accounting or book-keeping may have been such as to supply this information, in which case the gain-sharing system can be easily and promptly organized. As a general rule it may be stated that, in the case of an account affecting the operatives in a producing or manufacturing business, the following items should be included^ viz. : labor at cost, raw material, measured by quantity only ( for which purpose an arbitrary fixed price may be assumed ) ; incidental supplies, such as oil, waste, tools, and implements at cost ; cost of power, light, and water, where means exist for correctly measuring them (for which purpose it often pays to provide local meters ) ; cost of renewals and repairs of plant ; and, finally, the cost of superintendence, clerk hire, etc., incident to the department covered by the system. In like manner the following items should be excluded^ viz. : market values of raw material ( which are liable to fluctuation ); general expenses, whether relating to management of works or to commercial administration, and, in general, all items over which the operatives can exercise no control or economy.


I will organize the system, will assume the cost of book-keeping and other expenses incident to it, and will provide all the facilities reasonably required to assist you in reducing the cost of product ; I will credit the account with the output at the cost price heretofore obtaining, namely $1 per unit, and will charge it with the items in the inclusive list ; if at the end of the year the credits exceed the charges, I will divide the resulting gain or reduction in cost, with you, retaining myself one portion — say one-half — and distributing the other portion among you pro rata on the basis of the wages earned by each during the year. " Suppose, then, that at the end of the year it was found that the cost per unit of product had been reduced from $1 to 95 cents, that the total gain thus resulting was $800, and that the aggregate wages paid during the year had been $10,000. One-half of the gain would be $400, which would equal 4 per cent, on the wages fund, so that each operative would be entitled to a dividend of 4 per cent, on his earnings during the year. This is equivalent to two weeks' extra wages, no mean addition to any income, and amounting, even in the case of a laborer earning $1.50 per day, to a cash dividend of $18 at the end of the year.

To accomplish this the Company agrees to organize the method of operation, to keep the necessary accounts, and in general to facilitate matters so far as it reasonably can ; the employees, on the other hand, agree to use their best efforts to increase the efficiency of their work, to economize in the use of supplies and material, and in general to do their share toward reducing the cost of finished products.

Hasley

Criticism of Gain Sharing

First The workmen are given a share in what they do not earn. Increased profits may arise from more systematic shop management, decreased expenses of the sales department, or many other causes with which the workmen have nothing to do. Anything given them from such sources becomes simply a gift, the result of which is wholly pernicious —in fact the entire system savors of patronage and paternalism.

Hasley Plan

The plan assumes two slightly different forms, according to the nature of the work ; one form being suited to work produced in such quantities as to be reducible to a strictly manufacturing basis, and the other form to the more limited production of average practice. In both forms the essential principle is the same, as follows : The time required to do a given piece of work is determined from previous experience, and the workman, in addition to his usual daily wages, is offered a premium for every hour by which he reduces that time on future work, the amount of the premium being less than his rate of wages. Making the hourly premium less than the hourly wages is the foundation stone on which rest all the merits of the system, since by it if an hour is saved on a given product the cost of the work is less and the earnings of the workman are greater than if the hour is not saved, the workman being in effect paid for saving time. Assume a case in detail : Under the old plan a piece of work requires ten hours for its production, and the wages paid is thirty cents per hour. Under the new plan a premium of ten cents is offered the workman for each hour which he saves over the ten previously required. If the time be reduced successively to five hours the results will be as follows :

In certain classes of work an increase of production is accompanied with a proportionate increase of muscular exertion, and if the work is already laborious a liberal premium will be required to produce results. In other classes of work increased production requires only increased attention to speeds and feeds with an increase of manual dexterity and an avoidance of lost time. In such cases a more moderate premium will suffice.


Productivity management activity was  practiced and described in a systematic manner in production shop activities by F.W. Taylor.


                                                        F.W. Taylor (Source: Wikipedia)

In the paper, "A Piece-Rate System, Being a Step Toward Partial Solution of the Labor Problem," presented to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1895. F.W. Taylor [1] described a system of management, which was rapid in attaining the maximum productivity of each machine and man. Thus, productivity management as an area of management was introduced in the published literature by Taylor in 1895. 

Evolution of Productivity Management Practice by Taylor


F.W. Taylor started the productivity improvement and management practice with the system implemented by him in the works of the Midvale Steel Company, of Philadelphia . He described the system and developed it further in number of papers and books. He also implemented the system in number of companies as an executive and consultant.

Contribution of Taylor – Piece Rate System


The system described in 1895 paper [6] had the objective of rapid attainment of the maximum productivity of each machine and man. It consisted of three principal elements: 
(i) An elementary rate-fixing department.
(2) The differential rate system of piece-work.
(3) What he believes to be the best method of managing men who work by the day.

The rate fixing department is actually an engineering department in the machine shop that determined the production processes of the goods produced and operations of the machine to get maximum productivity from the machine. The department personnel also observed large number of operators working on the machines at elementary operation levels and determined the best way of doing manual elements. The choice of the best ways of machining operations and manual operations was done on the basis of time taken. Hence time study or measuring time is an essential element of this system. But it is very important to emphasize that in machine shops and in general engineering systems, improvement of the engineering aspect is the core of the productivity improvement and management system proposed by Taylor.

Taylor – Shop Management


In Shop Management presented in 1903 [7], Taylor defined art of management "as knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way." The definition identifies two activities. Managers of business or industrial organizations have to find out what goods and services the market wants and decide what their organization can produce and sell at the prevailing market prices. The second activity is then focusing on the doing the production at the cheapest way. This is an area of productivity improvement and management. Taylor’s focus in shop management paper/book is productivity improvement and management. He elaborated the system that he described in piece rate system further in shop management. He stated that there was enormous difference between the amount of work which a first-class man can do under favorable circumstances and the work actually produced by the average man of the time. The favorable circumstances in engineering sections/departments and processes are to be created by redesigning the engineering elements. Presently, industrial engineering identifies machine, material, energy and information as the key engineering elements in engineering systems. All engineering aspects of an engineering system are to be examined by industrial engineers to create favorable circumstances that facilitate operators to get maximum productivity from the machine effort as well as human effort. 

In all man-machine systems the large increase in output is due partly to the changes, in the machines or small tools and appliances, and the total gain made is due to the redesign of the system that includes machine effort and human effort. Taylor gave number of steps in organizing the productivity improvement effort.at enterprise level. He wrote that before starting productivity improvement effort, some issues should be carefully considered: First, the importance of choosing the general type of management best suited to the particular case. Second, that in all cases money must be spent, and in many cases a great deal of money, before the changes are completed which result in lowering cost. Third, that it takes time to reach any result worth aiming at. Fourth, the importance of making changes in their proper order, and that unless the right steps are taken, and taken in their proper sequence, there is great danger from deterioration in the quality of the output and from serious troubles with the workmen, often resulting in strikes. 

Four principles were given in shop management for high productivity. There are: 

1. Standardized conditions that enable an operator to complete a task with certainty. 
2. A large definite daily task that promises extra income for higher than average output. 
3. High pay for success. 
4. Loss in case of failure.

As part of productivity management, many  details in the production shop, which are usually regarded as of little importance and are left to be determined workmen, and foremen, must be thoroughly and carefully designed and standardized as part of plan of the work and directions for actual jobs are to be given based on such designs. Some of the detail specially highlighted in cases of machine shop include the care and tightening of the belts; the exact shape and quality of each cutting tool; the establishment of a complete tool room from which properly ground tools, as well as jigs, templates, drawings, etc., are issued and received back. Each machine tool must be standardized and a table or slide rule constructed for it showing how to run it to the best advantage. Modern engineering is practiced with the help of drawings for designs. Modern shop management for productivity is also to be done similarly based on process and operation designs or instruction sheets which specify the time to be taken to complete them.

Taylor made the statement in his shop management paper that almost all shops are under-officered. He advocated increase in number of shop officers to as high as eight as part of his productivity improvement organization. The role of top management in introducing the productivity management activity was also described Taylor. They have to understand the benefits and challenges of introducing the change in management process and have to be prepared to handle the objections and complaints that are likely to arise. They have to approve the investment required to introduce the productivity management system and provide resources.

Taylor – Scientific Management


In the paper/book, Scientific Management, Taylor expressed the view that the principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee [8]. He further explained that the greatest permanent prosperity for the workman, coupled with the greatest prosperity for the employer, can be brought about only when the work of the establishment is done with the smallest combined expenditure of human effort, plus nature's resources, plus the cost for the use of capital in the shape of machines, buildings, etc. Or, to state the same thing in a different way: that the greatest prosperity can exist only as the result of the greatest possible productivity of the men and machines of the establishment--that is, when each man and each machine are turning out the largest possible output. Thus productivity focus of the paper “Scientific Management” is brought out clearly by Taylor. 

Close, intimate, personal cooperation between the management and the men is the essence of modern scientific or task management, which gives greatest possible productivity. The emphasis on machine in machine shops is to be noted.  Machine is to be improved by industrial engineer first and then effort of man to operate the improved machine operation has to be designed.  Taylor in 1911, claimed that at least 50,000 workmen in the United States were employed under the new scientific management system; and they were receiving from 30 per cent to 100 per cent higher wages daily. The companies that successfully employed the scientific management had increased the output, per man and per machine, on an average to double the earlier production.

Recent Publications on Productivity Management


Scott Sink authored the book “Productivity Management: Planning, Measurement and Evaluation, Control and Improvement in 1985 [3]. He also described the productivity management process with the starting point as productivity measurement. The steps in the productivity management process are given as: (1) measuring and evaluating productivity; (2) planning for control and improvement of productivity based on information provided by measurement and evaluation process; (3) making control and improvement interventions; and (4) measuring and evaluating the impact of these interventions. For productivity evaluation, standards are to be generated by one of the various methods as appropriate. The methods indicated include: 1. Estimation 2. Engineering approach 3. Historical information 4. Normative values. Both Sumanth and Sink indicated large number of productivity improvement methods and techniques which can be used for productivity improvement. 

Propokenko also described productivity management based on productivity measurement and analysis [13].  Recent research studies in productivity measurement are summarized in a book on productivity management authored by Phusawat in 2013 [15]. 

The literature reveals that Taylor started his productivity improvement publications with a management system applicable to the whole enterprise using piece rate system or day-payment system or both. But he highlighted in the paper that elementary rate fixing the primary tool or system. Differential piece rate helps in implementing the output specified by rate fixing section.  His subsequent works are also aimed at the enterprise application of shop management or scientific management. 

References
1.  Taylor, F.W., 1895,"A Piece-Rate System, Being a Step Toward Partial Solution of the Labor Problem," Transactions of the American society of Mechanical Engineers.16, 856-883.
2. Towne, Henry R.,1905, “Industrial Engineering” An Address Delivered at the Purdue University, downloaded from http://www.stamfordhistory.org/towne1905.htm
3. Sink, D Scott, 1985,  Productivity management: Planning, measurement and evaluation, control and improvement, Wiley New York. 
4. Sumanth, David J., 1984, Productivity Engineering and Management, McGraw-Hill, New York.

7. Taylor, F.W., 1903, Shop Management, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York 
8. Taylor, F.W., 1911, “The Principles of Scientific Management, Harpers and Brothers”, New York.

12. Mali, Paul, 1978, Improving Total Productivity : MBO Strategies for Business, Government, and not-for-profit organizations, Wiley, New York.
13. Propokenko, Joseph, 1987, Productivity Management: A practical handbook, International Labour Office, Geneva. 

15. Phusavat, Kongiti,  2013, Productivity Management in an Organization: Measurement and Analysis, ToKnowPress, Bangkok.

Updated on 9.9.2021
Pub 18.4.2019


September 5, 2021

Cognitivism - Introduction

 


 The nature and plausibility of Cognitivism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010


John Haugeland



Cognitivism: Jean Piaget's Genetic Epistemology Theory
 
Cognition is defined as "the act or process of knowing in the broadest sense; specifically, an intellectual process by which knowledge is gained from perception or ideas" (Webster's Dictionary). Hence, cognition refers to mental activity such as thinking, remembering, learning and using language.




The 1970's:
ID Models and Maturation

Cognitivism and Gagne's Model of Learning
http://faculty.coe.uh.edu/smcneil/cuin6373/idhistory/cognitivism.html

Cognitivism
Cognitivism emerged as a major paradigm of education in the 1950's, largely in response to the behaviourist paradigm which offered no satisfactory explanation to account for certain types of learning (e.g. problem solving).
https://www.paradigmsofeducation.com/cognitivism/

Chapter 11
BEHAVIORISM, COGNITIVISM, CONSTRUCTIVISM
Comparing Critical Features from an Instructional Design Perspective
PEGGY A. ERTMER AND TIMOTHY J. NEWBY
https://lidtfoundations.pressbooks.com/chapter/behaviorism-cognitivism-constructivism/