I need to get the important information from my project and from ADNEC company document to make 3 pages of posters and please flow the exact information in the attachment.
Assessment 3 BUS 4533: International Quality Management System
1. Introduction
The Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company is one the leading exhibitions companies in UAE. The companyreportrepresents the amazing steps thatthe company management has taken so as to improve the service delivery to its customers as well as leading the company subordinatesto a successful business entity. The company is devoted to performing even better in the successive years. However, the company is in need of a change process whichshould also accommodate the change in quality management for the organization (ADNEC report, 2015)
The Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company quality management rationale involves changing the quality management from thetop of the management. This rationale involves the company board of directors planned change their way of leadership, in order to tackle and accommodate a quality management section in it. From the report, the company exactly has little to no quality management traits, and thus with the planned agenda it will be better for the management when it will indulge in accommodating a department for quality managementand quality control. In this way, the department will take care of all the quality management issues affecting the company service delivery in business doing (ADNEC report, 2015).
2. Company Background
Vision
The company vision is to become the mostsuccessful exhibition, a conference and an events centre in the region.
Mission
The key organizational mission is
- To create business tourism for AbuDhabi
- To raise the emiratesregional and international profile through hosting many exhibitions and conferences.
- To create an existing and adverse calendar of the exhibition, exhibition, and sports that deliver memorable experiences.
SWOT Analysis
STRENGTH |
WEAKNESS |
1. Professional management team
2. As a semi-government initiative, ADNEC has access to financial and other resources
3. Certified to various standards like ISO 9001 and ISO 22301
4. Good location in Abu Dhabi
5. Guaranteed business from certain exhibitions like ADIPEC |
1. There may be lean periods during the year when visitors do not wish to travel to Abu Dhabi – summer season
2. Very dependent on the arrival of international travellers |
OPPORTUNITY |
THREAT |
1. Offering special deals for customers through exclusive tie ups with hotels and airlines (Etihad)
2. Create special themed events (Arabic locals or for children) to attract other visitors |
1. Strong competition from the exhibition industry in Dubai Word Trade Centre
2. Rising cost of living in Abu Dhabi for residents and tourists – lack of economical accommodation |
Other company information
The ADNEC report 2015 illustrated that the company iscurrentlywell performing in themarket, having won the Sheikh Khalifa Awards in 2012; it shows the company is on right course. The company strategic analysis for the successive years involvesa comprehensive marketing of their services, so as to attract more clients and help build the Abu Dhabi tourism sector. A comprehensive advertisingandrising of awareness is the chief strategy for the company improvement. The company, however, has many opportunities andstrengths in the market, with a little weaknessand threats(ADNEC report, 2015).
In Abu Dhabi, the company faces minimal to no competition, although the chief competitor – the Abu Dhabi OasisExhibitions Company is rising. This is the only key competitor to the ADNEC. The company strategicmanagement supports the TQM in the company in that in its strategies, the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company is able to accommodate the quality management in it while understanding the assets of quality change that are responsible for the public selling of the organization (Kanji, 2009),.
3. Overview of the TQM system
According to Kanji (2009), the following are the principles of TQM being implemented by the company.
- Producing of quality work the first time, the company has shown this by far showing a lot of activity and quality work since its start in 2005 and attracting more clients who like their work
- Focusing on the customer. The company is highly interestedin its customers, and it treats all customersin a special manner, to attract them again and influence quality in their rating.
- The company is willing and devoted to highly promote its continuityin both positive performances in the market as well as the quality management.
- Encouraging the mutual respectand teamwork. The company encourages respectall the players in their business doing, from the stakeholders to all the customers, while influencing teamwork to boost performance.
- Having a strategic approach to improvement. The company current strategic approach is to improve its service provision in the best, and most suited to encourageand influence quality management (ADNEC report, 2015).
4. TQM Principles and Quality Philosophies
How the company was able to adopt the work of Deming
The company ADNEC is able to create a constant purpose toward improvement of quality by planning for quality in the long-term, resisting the urge to react to short-term solutions, finding better things to do instead of doing the same things better plus being able to predict and prepare for future challenges. This effort from the ADNEC Company is evidence from the sustainability award (AEO Excellence Award) won by the company in 2015.
The ADNEC Company adopts a new philosophy to embrace quality throughout the organization by putting the customers’ needs first rather than reacting to competitive pressure and being able to meet the needs by designing products and services. This is identified by the fact that the company was able to achieve a GVA of 3.478 AED Billion in 2015 which was an increase of 26% from what was achieved in 2014. This increase was brought about by the company’s best treatment to the visitors that attracted more visitors who increased by 83, 000.
The company ADNEC does not depend on inspections as they are costly and unreliable as they don’t improve the quality of products. Quality should be built from start to finish. It encourages to not only identifying what you did wrong but being in a position to eliminate all the wrongs together. Therefore, the company assesses its services using a scoring methodology that rates the issues and also positions the services. The rating is done using a materiality matrix that uses a scale of 1-5.
ADNEC Company encourages the use of a single supplier for any single item noting that quality relies on consistency. Suppliers should be viewed as partners in quality and should be encouraged to spend time improving their quality. To ensure that suppliers meet the quality standards set by the company, ADNEC uses quality.
ADNEC Company improves constantly and forever. This is possible when the company encourages education and emphasizes on training as it will ensure everyone can do their job better. Since 2014, the Human Resource department introduced a training program to provide the employees with the required skills to meet the business needs of ADNEC.
The company uses training on the job for consistency to help reduce job variations as there is a foundation for common knowledge. This provides a culture and environment for effective teamwork by encouraging staff to learn from each other.
ADNEC implements leadership. The company’s managers and the supervisors understand their workers and the various processes they use. They do not only supervise but also provide support and resources so that each and every staff member can be able to perform at their best.
ADNEC eliminates fear among the employees. Employees are allowed to work at their best by ensuring that they are not afraid to express their concerns or ideas. Everyone in the company is able to understand that the main goal is to obtain high quality by doing more things right and the management is not interested in blaming people when problems or mistakes happen. The company makesthe workers feel valued and also encourages them to look for better ways on how to do things.
The company ADNEC breaks down barriers between departments. ADNEC is able to focus on collaboration and consensus rather than compromise. This is possible through the use of cross-functional teamwork to help build understanding and reduce adversarial relationships.
The company helps the employees to get rid of the slogans that are not clear. The ADNEC Company lets its staff know exactly what it wants by outlining its expectations and praising people face to face for doing great work.
The Company ADNEC eliminates the management by objectives. The company is able to look at how the process is being carried out and not just the numerical targets. According to Deming, production targets encourage high output and low quality. The company is able to achieve high levels of production and quality by providing support and the resources necessary.
The ADNEC Company removes barriers to pride workmanship. Everyone in the company is able to take pride in their work without being rated or compared. Workers are treated the same and are not made to compete with other workers for monetary or any other rewards.
ADNEC implements education and self-improvement. People are always encouraged to learn new skills in order to prepare for future changes or even challenges. ADNEC also pays every employee an allowance to support the sponsored children in education. The allowance is given to support the children learning in UAE and that are not older than 18 years (ADNEC report, 2015).
How ADNEC benefited from adopting the work of Gurus
By applying the Deming philosophy, the ADNEC Company was able to boost increased quality in both the delivering of its products and services. The relationship with its stakeholders has improved as it is able to know how to treat who as quality on how it relates to everyone is able to speak for itself. The staff members are more focused than usual as they have been made to express themselves freely as far as achieving quality is concerned. ADNEC Company was able to win different awards in 2015 from adopting the work of Gurus (ADNEC report, 2015):
- Sustainability Award – AEO Excellence Awards
- Best Congress and Convention Centre Middle East – Business Destinations 2015
- Commercial High-rise Development category with Capital Gate project for Arabia region- Capital Gate – International Property Awards
- Five Star awards for Commercial High-rise Development – Capital Gate – International
- Property Awards – 2015 Africa or ArabiaProperty Awards
5. Quality Management and Ethics
ADNEC stresses the importance of ethics in the workplace by ensuring that everyone is respected in the organization, everyone is treated fairly, encouraging people to commit to quality and also ensuring that people are honest in their dealings in order to promote a friendly environment for growth and development. Fraud can affect the relationship between the staffs. The company has the anti-fraud framework that assists in the control of any fraud in the company. The staffs are also asked to sign a declaration of compliance to a policy that controls fraud(ADNEC Sustainable report, 2015).
Without ethics, the quality of products and services is low thus the management is on the forefront when it comes to ensuring the company’s ethics are followed as far as ensuring quality is achieved (Sarisik et al., 2006).
ADNEC has implemented a Code of Conduct and Business Ethics, which has been communicated to all staff who have formally signed it. There has been no whistle blowing incident. However there was one incident when the Procurement Manager had a relative in one of the suppliers ADNEC was evaluating for a major tender. The manager excused himself from the committee due to conflict of interest.
6. Quality Culture
Quality culture helps the ADNEC Company to ensure that quality is what drives the company in all its dealings with the customers, suppliers, and staff as they go about their day to day activities in the production of goods and services and the management as it undertakes its daily work of ensuring the company’s operations and processes run smoothly.
The quality culture was introduced into the ADNEC Company through the company’s vision and values. ADNEC’s vision is to become the most successful exhibition, conference and events centre in the region where else its four values guide it in everything it does. ADNEC cannot become the most successful exhibition when the quality of its products and services is poor. The only way it can become one of the most successful exhibitionists and conference centres in the region is by ensuring a quality culture drives and is ever present in all of its operations. The culture was easily accepted by ADNEC’s employees as they too understood what the organization stood for and all they could do is help the company attain its objectives as it provides room for growth for its employees (ADNEC report, 2013).
7. Leadership status
Leadership style in ADNEC Company and how it helps in the success of the quality program
ADNEC is able to implement a different kind of leadership status depending on the situation at hand. The company coachesthe leaders. In this scenario, the leader is usually very operational as he sets standards on areas where performance requires any improvements and is more involved in helping the staff members improve the skills so as to meet the set results.
ADNEC has cross-cultural leadership. Due to the availability of diverse cultures at ADNEC, there is aneed for this kind of leadership. The company has employed a diverse group of people from around the world and thus there isthe need for this kind of leadership in order to ensure every operation runs smoothly with least or no interference in the name of difference in culture.
The ADNEC Company encourages team leadership. Usually, involves the bright picture of the company’s future and what it really stands for. The staffs work with the hearts and the minds of those involved in the working of the company’s future. It encourages teamwork and also recognizes that teamwork may not always involve cooperative relationships.
ADNEC employs a combination of democratic and participative leadership style. Employees are engaged in the decision making process. Only those people who have in-depth experience in their area of work are involved in this type of management. For example in ADNEC there is a leadership team that comprises the Managers, Directors and Heads. Whenever a decision is to be taken (like the addition of new services, expanding services to foreign countries), the CEO has sessions with the Leadership team who put together their plan and suggestions on how to execute the task. The CEO only makes a decision based on this participative consultation with key team members.
Figure 1: Management Structure at ADNEC
Source: (ADNEC, 2015)
The challenges that leaders in ADNEC faced in applying TQM
The main challenge that the ADNEC leaders faced in applying TQM was ensuring that everyone understood what the company expected of them as far as ensuring the quality of products and services is concerned. It was overcome by communicating effectively and making sure that everybody understood the role they had to play to guarantee the quality of products and services in the company (ADNEC report, 2015).
8. Employee Involvement Status
ADNECis able to achieve a motivated workforce by putting in place a trustworthy leadership. When the employees feel and know that their leaders are always looking out for them, theyturn loyal and will give their very best as they know someone already has their back. Leaders that are more transparent with their employees will find surprising results and new opportunities to develop talents since trust is a very motivational tool.
ADNEC makes sure that their employees are able to remain relevant by coming up with new ways through which they can learn, improve their skills and even invest in themselves. Employees are able to cultivate increased performance levels and loyalty when their leaders help them in increasing their relevancy.
Employees in ADNEC are always looking up to their leaders to lead by example. To be able to set the tone, a work ethic, set of values of the company and this tends to have a huge impact towards the employee’s mentality. A good example is when ADNEC leaders are able to work hard and stay optimistic even in the event of enormous challenges; employees are most likely to do the same thing.
ADNEC is able to give its employees individual attention by offering direct praise when an employee exceeds set goals or even does some very good work.
The company encourages directs feedbacks from its employees and is keen to listen to their views or even concerns. It also encourages its staff not to shy off when it comes to the decision-making process as it is through these processes the ADNEC Company might be able to pick up hints on what the employees want or expects from the organization.
The company may respond to the employee’s concerns or ideas through the various departments as different departments may experience different problems and those that are general, the company gives a time frame through which it’s going to act on them and come up with a suitable solution.
Figure 2 and Figure 3 below show the results of employee engagement. ADNEC has initiated You Speak staff satisfaction survey on an annual basis to get feedback from its employees on its employee engagement strategies. The results of the 2015 survey show that overall employee satisfaction at 79%, which was 5% higher than in 2013. The problem ADNEC faced was high employee turnover. After implementing employee engagement employee turnover in 2015 decreased from 2014 figures. It was 4.1% among women, which decreased to 2.3%. It was 3.8% in men, which and decreased to 3.3%.
Figure 2: Employee Satisfaction Survey
Figure 3: Work life balance. Fairness & equity
Source: (ADNEC, 2015)
9. Customer Satisfaction Status
The main customers of ADNEC involveorganizers, exhibitors, and visitors.
ADNEC is able to collect feedback from its customers via Customer satisfaction surveys. It involves asking the customers how happy they are, with or without a follow-up question. Maybe done through 3 variations which include: in-app surveys, post-service surveys, and long email surveys?
The company uses customer satisfaction score. ADNEC asks the customer to rate their satisfaction with the company, product or service. The customer satisfaction score is usually the average rating of the customer responses.
A key area of change by implementing a quality management system is that customer satisfaction has improved. From Figure 4 below it is clear that most of the customer complaints received have been successfully dealt with.
Figure 4: Percentage of customer complaints dealt with
Source: (ADNEC, 2015)
ADNEC Company uses net promoter score. This one measures the likelihood of a customer referring the company to another person.This method is usually considered the most appropriate way of measuring customer’s loyalty.
The Customer effort score is also used. Customers are usually asked about the effort it took them for their issues to be resolved. This uses a scale that starts from 1 (very low effort) to 7 (very high effort). The company uses this to lower the average score by ensuring the customer used the least effort for their problem to be looked into.
Social media monitoring is used in ADNEC Company. A great or a poor service is usually shared amongst friends and families and thus the company is able to gauge on how good it performed as far as a certain product or service is concerned.
Once the ADNEC Company receives the feedback from its customers, it’s able to identify areas where more need to be done in order for the company to serve the next customer better as the cycle for getting feedback repeats itself for purposes of continuous improvement.
As far as changing customer needs are concerned, the company is able to compare feedback from current and past customers and also the company monitors the different patterns and behaviour of its customers so as to know what to do when and why (Spekman et al., 1999).
10. Supplier Relationship Status
ADNEC offers a range of professional services in providing a “one-stop-shop” for all conference and event management needs. These services include Audio Visual Production, Staging & Backdrop, Shell Scheme / Stand Build, Stand Fitting, Translation, Carpeting, Draping, Power and Freight Forwarding. To achieve high levels of customer satisfaction it works with the best suppliers. For example, Thomas Bennett Exhibitions is a turnkey exhibition stand provider of high repute. By partnering with them, ADNEC offers its customers reliable service and competitive rates.
ADNEC is able to choose its suppliers based on their quality and reliability. There is no point in working with a supplier that you can’t rely on to deliver. If the customer lets the company down, the customer is let down too and this hurts the business.The quality of the supplies needs to match or exceed what the company ADNEC expects and should be consistent. Customers tend to associate poor quality with the company and not the supplier.
Strong service and clear communication is something that ADNEC Company looks for in the suppliers. The supplier needs to deliver on time and if not, communicate early enough in case of delays.
ADNEC makes sure that the supplier has enough cash flow for them to be able to supply what the company wants when it needs it. A credit check reassures that they can’t go out of business when they are needed most.
The company has a good partnership approach. The relationship benefits both the company and supplier. The reason being that in the event, the supplier fails, he is very much aware that he is failing himself and this is felt as costs are also transferred to him. It is one way of being accountable and responsible for any eventualities (ADNEC annual report, 2015).
The company looks for value for money. The lowest price mostly is not the best value for money. For reliability and quality purposes, ADNEC Company decides how much its willing to pay for the supplies and then the balance it wants to strike between cost, reliability, service and quality.
11. Team Building and Teamwork Status
Leaders at ADNEC encourage teamwork 100% as they are aware that it is the quickest way to integrate a company’s culture since it fosters creativity and learning.It also increases the productivity of the company. Since teams tend to combine efforts of many individuals working together, they can accomplish more than an individual working alone.
There is a sense of mutual support as team members can rely on other people working on the goals.The easiest way to create one big family as far as a working environment is concerned as it establishes strong relationships with co-workers thus building trust in the process.Every person working on the problem brings a different knowledge and information which results in solutions that an individual working alone wouldn’t have come up with.People working together tend to feel a greater sense of accomplishment since when a team collaborates takes a collective responsibility for outcomes.The company teaches conflict resolution skills. Since a team will involve a different kind of people, there will be conflicts and it will be solved by them.
Teamwork is encouraged in activities like seminars, various workshops, communication activities, problem-solving, lunch together, inter-departmental meetings among others.
The most common way ADNEC handles conflicts in teams is byPreparing for resolution. Being able to acknowledge a conflict exists in the first place is the first step to managing it. The team then discusses the impact the conflict is having on the team dynamics and performance. The parties then agree to a cooperative process for solving the conflict. Being able to keep the communication open throughout the process is vital in order to understand where the other person is coming from.
The company understands each person’s point of view and takesthe time to make sure that each person’s side is heard and understood. During this stage, emotions are at work here and it is important to get through this stage so as to reveal the true nature of the conflict.When all parties understand the others’ position, the team decides what the next course of action should be. When facts and assumptions are considered, it is important to reach an agreement and sees the next course of action (Cohen & Bailey, 1997).
12. ISO Certification
ADNEC has established, documented, implemented and maintained a Quality Management System (QMS), in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2008. This certification promotescustomer focus as well as a system approach to managing processes. The ISO certification has been used to increase the confidence of its customers on ADNEC’s services. ADNEC’s quality management system uses various documents like quality policy, quality objectives, audit, corrective and preventive action and management review.
The quality management system is suitable for the services and processes in the company. It has also enabled the company to analyse and understand the needs of the customers. The service characteristics have been specified meeting the customer’s requirements. ISO certification has ensured availability of the necessary resources which has supported the operations and the monitoring of the company’s processes. The monitoring, measuring, and improving the quality management system has been easy for the company from ISO certification.
Consumers are confident that the services being provided by ADNEC are reliable and cost effective.The company is able to cut costs through improved systems and processes.The company is able to access new markets through ensuring compatibility of its services. The ISO certification has increased corporate image and the market share plus the company have reduced its impact on the environment (ADNEC annual report, 2015).
One challenge ADNEC faced was that the suppliers were not following all guidelines when building exhibition stands. Therefore it initiated a stringent quality audit plan that evaluated the suppliers and rated them. Figure 5 below shows the execution of the audit plan. After the audit plan was implemented fines were issued to erring suppliers. Eventually all suppliers complied with ADNEC’s code of conduct.
Figure 5: Quality Audit Plan
Source: (ADNEC, 2015)
13. Recommendations: Implementation Plan with Justification
The company has to identify key customer group. ADNEC Company has its key customer group and has to understand who the key customer groups are vital so that products and services can be developed based on the customer groups’ requirements. The ADNEC Company can use the solicit customer feedback. This is important since it will help the company know how well they are meeting their customer requirements. The company can use a process or a structure of getting feedback from customers in order to identify what is important to them. The company can develop a survey tool. A customer survey tool is important as it will help find what is really important to customers. An example might be when ADNEC Company is busy developing a product and trying to keep the cost to a minimum yet the customers care about the quality, not the cost. Meaning the ADNEC Company could be creating a product that won’t meet the customers’ needs. ADNEC have to develop an improvement plan which will give the customer’s feedback from each group that will help build a development plan. The ADNEC Company can also do a resurvey. After sometime, the company can resurvey the key customers to see if there is an improvement in scores. Usually, customer’s needs and expectations change over time so being in-tune to their changing needs and expectations is critical to long-term success of the ADNEC Company.