Organizational Background and Objectives
Being one of the top clothing companies in Asia, a vertically-integrated firm currently has a stable market share in the region. Aside from control and cons-effectiveness of its vertical structure, its competitive advantage also comes from manufacturing expertise, branding and strategic location of its boutiques. It is also known for innovative and trend-setting designers that are very compatible with the high-level of sophistication demanded by its main market consisting of high-end consumers. However, the entry of European companies into the regional industry resulted to market stagnation and threat to current market share as globalization of apparels has significant appeal to the high-end market. In addition, major distributors of its products are also insisting stricter quality standards otherwise they will no longer carry the brand.
Due to environmental changes, the firm forced to modify and improve its current operations particularly with the focus on creating an integrated quality assurance system. Adopting a single schema for all departments to observe quality is important because of the vertical nature of the structure of the firm. Consolidated departmental effort cannot be avoided while benefits are also corporate-wide. When quality is assured, prevention about the risks on poor quality is possible while there will be improvement in the areas of productivity, operational competence and market base. Cost-savings can be obtained through quality assurance in design and innovation to avoid re-work while revenue-generation can be offered by dealing with customer satisfaction needs.
Significance of Information
In the process of developing a strategic plan to enable the implementation of an effective quality assurance objective, research should initially be conducted. Through research, a strategic plan can be obtained which can rationalize and transform the operational idealism into workable and realistic one. However, conduct of research has its own constraints especially those concerning time, budget and quality of information. With the use of secondary information, these bottlenecks can be minimized. For example, statistics about the most popular model of apparel for customers can be derived by collating data of past invoices. This is very important information because related to quality assurance objective because it will inform the firm what models require higher quality attention due to their product-line position. With secondary information provided by the invoices, conducting additional surveys will minimize the cost and time of getting the data.
As they are already documented, secondary data are easily accessible to the planners and also serve as historic evidence which can support past and current quality performance of the firm. This will enable planners in setting realistic goals, emphasizing organizational processes that require quality attention and allocating budgets to work on implementation. Secondary data will aid in building parameters and guide planners in resolving conflicting interests. For example, the planning phase concluded that substantial investment should be reserved for the acquisition of modern equipments and increased in automation. Although this is lucrative to the manufacturing department, the same is not true to accounting and perhaps some of the manufacturing workers as capital outlay will be increased while labor will be displaced.
On the other hand, the role of primary data should not be undermined especially for the purpose of conducting research to address quality issues about information which is usually limited by time and budget constraints. For example, there is no available secondary data on employee behavior about change in work description due to quality standards in non-manufacturing departments. Primary information has the capability to tackle non-recordable and ever-changing human perceptions about the company especially in the aspect of quality. Although it will take time and money to conduct primary research, the results can be used for future reference and be part of secondary data for further quality improvements. These will justify the need for primary research. Ultimately, primary and secondary research can support each other to rationalize findings and establish a valid, realistic and effective quality assurance plan.
Sources of Information
Although both internal and external source of information is a collection of data that can be arranged (i.e. already in the records) or raw nature, the former pertains to data that can be gathered to different departments and also from the directors of the firm. International quality standard audits (i.e. ISO certifications) can provide an external expert analysis about the level of quality compliance. This is useful to minimize managerial biases or subjective appraisal about quality performance. It can be the ultimate basis to determine the extent of quality conformity of every department. On the other hand, internal records can support the qualitative assessment of external quality auditors. For example, quality can be observed through the occurrence of training conducted in several events in the past. These records can also determine the capacity of the firm to have an integrated quality assurance system.
Financial statements can identify potential resources that the firm can offer for quality improvements. This will also show the effects of additional investment required from investors and recognize appropriate sources of financing. This particular engagement will serve as the basis for allocating the budget necessary for every department to act according to the plan. This will also set the boundaries on to what extent financial back-up can cover the quality efforts of the plan. Manufacturing records such as productivity, machine time and material wastes can provide data about potential source of quality improvement or sourcing of quality strength to other departments. The latter is supported by the fact that the efficiency in manufacturing is attainable through purchase of quality raw materials or recruitment of qualified machine operators.
In contrast, external source of information can be gathered from government agencies, private companies, interest groups, consultants, past studies, textbooks, media and primary research initiated by the firm. Relevant to the objective of the firm, current events in the operational environment can be foreseen through the use of media channels tackling political, economic, technological and social issues. Media such as newspapers can provide the external canning inputs necessary to minimize cost of research for general stimuli such as the future of political turmoil. However, the firm should select a trustworthy media provider to avoid false and inappropriate reports. Consultants can also endow industry reports (i.e. apparel) and trends for the benchmark-setting purposes where the quality system can assure that the targets are according to industry standards. Although consultant fees can add-up to costs, this is a more cost-effective approach to provide the most recent industry data that the firm should include in its quality assurance plan.
Government agencies such as archives and studies of different departments (i.e. Trade and Industry) can also broaden the industry inputs already provided by consultants. This external data is more relevant on the legal constraints the firm is facing when implementing the quality plan. For example, the textile material that is used should be durable and free from harmful chemicals to pass market entry. In addition, they can also provide useful updates on the current national relations of trading countries. This strategy will minimize the political risks of the firm as well increase its lobbying power for free trade when close partnership emanates. Interest groups will signal the firm if its manufacturing operations are not harmful to people as well as environment. In effect, assurance system will be aligned to the needs not only by the customers but also to the bigger public interest at stake. As a result, the firm will not have myopic view on the adoption of the system and make it more adaptive to the needs of various stakeholders aside from major importance given to its stockholders and customers in isolation.
Since the firm is operating in a cross-border stance, garnering as many information as possible especially those that are relevant to its operations should be considered. However, if time and money constraint will prevent quality from being embraced, the most important sources of information would be the above. Textbook, previous studies and studies initiated by the firm can only be tapped if the quality dimension is so vital to a certain strategic plan that resources can be released for such purpose. Otherwise, secondary data can simplify the process and provide the firm the minimum information requirements. Quality assurance system, however, is very important to the industry existence and growth of the firm that primary research is considered an integral part of objective success.
Data Collection Techniques
Pre-survey can be conducted such as interviews and group discussion to rationalize the structure and design of actual questionnaires. It can also serve as an initial research invitation for the selected participants that can serve as a tool to increase response rate and interest of the group. Pre-questionnaires can also identify the needs of target respondents about privacy, ease of language questions and generalized design of the actual questionnaires. To increase accuracy of responses, managers of the firm will be applied with interviews. This will create the framework for the research to ask only those relevant to the firm and exclude hard-to-relate factors. For customer-oriented survey, managers can provide inputs on how the market perceives their products and what are the advantages of using competitor’s products. As a result, improvement of questionnaires can be performed using different interview sessions describing the motivations of the customers in using apparel products and relation of quality in such choice.
Further, online chat-rooms can be used to survey employees/ managers of the firm who are separated by geographic constraints. There is a need to install moderator in each session to assure cooperation of online participants. The employee survey is crucial to the quality plan success because human behavior cannot be observed in secondary data. The interface will indicate the response of the employees related to a set of questions developed by the planners. Multimedia devices can also be installed to provide conducive environment for employees to feel that they are emphasized in the decision-making process of the firm. Each corporate location in Asia will be allowed to inject representative of employee/ manager membership and will be notified through a letter of recommendation by their top-level management.
The bottleneck of online char-room is that anyone can post subjective opinions and does not represent the general feeling of the population. Information can be distorted in a manipulative manner to save the interest of the participant and also the interest of their managerial supervisors. Since the research highly attributes success to information, the moderator should have the necessary tools and judgment to increase the effectiveness of the interface to prevent these occurrences. For example, they should be continuously reminded that the data that will be gathered will be used primarily to improve the performance of the company. This will result to opening of communication lines between managers and employees for efficient implementation of data-gathering tools. Online chat-rooms will make participants to share their responses with their co-employees and even managers which will increase the response activity that can lead to a more responsible, guided and rational answer.
In every questionnaire, interview, group discussions and online moderating, the planners will adopt a flexible method continuously balancing objective and subjective responses. On the contrary, communication would tend to be informal to delete any managerial outlook that employees can attach to the research that can minimize their motivation to participate. All must act as if they will all be adversely affected (i.e. hassle) by the integrated quality system but afterwards will be rewarded due to its effective implementation. Generalization should also be considered in data collection. For example, online answers can have similar responses that although inserted with different presentation approach they are referring to one general obvious answer. Deductive collection of data can simplify the work of the planners and respondents alike.
Data Analysis Techniques
The nature of grounded theory is to collect as many ideas as possible, analyze them to figure possible problems and conduct investigation for theory to emerge. In this view, not only interview but also desk research is important as to suffice the need of grounded approach to test the emergence of the theory from additional data. The researcher wanted to gain in-depth in sight about the research problem that this design becomes useful. When it comes to sample, a negative case will be excluded rather it will be the task of the researcher to find samples suited to the needs of the research to construct a relevant theory.
Common mistakes from interviews are asking in a confirmatory way in which extreme ideas of the interviewee are not accounted for and failure to ask them to maximize findings. In this view, there is a need to formalize the interview atmosphere in such a manner of avoiding limiting the findings as well as to prevent adverse attitudes during interviews. The desk research will also serve to smooth the rough edges of the interviews. It will confirm, evaluate or dispute the data gathered during interviews which are incidentally affected by distortion of answers relevant to the research problems.
Responses will be collated in the form of tallied frequencies and convert them to percentages. The information that will be gathered will be encoded in a computer and place under SPAS program. The results will be evaluated and validate the hypothesis develop throughout the research. This evaluation will then be posted in graphs, tables and text format. To analyze interviews, content analysis will be used. According to Stevens, content analysis “is the systematic description of behavior asking who, what, where, where and how questions within formulated systematic rules to limit the effects of analyst bias.” Narrative Summary Analyses will also be used to “explain views of the participants not just relying on the raw data itself.”
The quantitative data gathered from the questionnaire will be compiled and encoded in the computer. Afterwards, it will be processed in SPAS and the results of significant and insignificant factors will be presented in numerical (percentages), graphical and text forms. The text part of the research will discuss the implications of such numerical values and will be used to summarize and give conclusions. The qualitative data, as said earlier, will suggest important indications attributable to the respondents. Other relevant data got from related sources like expert will also be presented in numerical form if necessary. Important to note that their professional views is suffice to backed up any results and findings of this research.
When it comes to reliability, the study will adapt triangulation (interview and observation) technique to enhance its reliability (Anastasia, 1999, p. 71). Thus, reliability can be multiplied though mechanically recorded data during desk research. The researcher will also make sure that the steps undertaken in the interview and browsing proper will be included and made explicit for user’s reference. In terms of enhancing validity, the same technique is necessary. It can also be tested when future similar study is conducted and compared with the initial. Collaboration should also be prevented due to too much time spends with interviewees that may defeat validity. To prevent the mental modes of the researcher to distort reality, member checking can be used.
Data Storage
By using flexible research method, the researcher opted to utilize ways to gather information in simple and efficient manner. The focus group is interviewed one-by-one during their vacant periods and their answers are recorded in tape. The process avoids departure from the real statements. The conversation is informal and the researcher keeps an atmosphere of carefree to prevent irritation and disinterest of the interviewees. This supported exploratory nature of the flexible research in which the mental state of the sample is withdrawn from illusions rather personal behavior and experience. However, there is a need for the researcher to consolidate some general answers. In addition, deduction is exercised due to irrelevant and too much elaboration on the part of some interviewees. The summarized statistics and excerpts are then shown to them and solicited their consent. Further, the storage of quantitative data will be encoded to the computer database including the notes from the planners regarding the importance of them. They will tally them to the spreadsheet and will enable easy access to SPAS. Interview excerpts will be retrieved from audiotape to for content analysis.
Final Output for the Target Audience
The objective is to create a corporate-wide quality assurance system that makes the information relevant to every department. It is expected that every department has their version of their own quality standards specific to their responsibilities. This will provide the benchmark for the planners to built a relationship between then and create an integrated quality system. The sales and marketing is responsible to get the feedback of the customers regarding the quality of the final outputs. As a result, customer-related surveys can be helpful to expedite their evaluations. Engineering and R&D groups are responsible for modeling the prototype or improving the design of the existing apparel. Since development phase is the most crucial and the cause of “domino-effect” process, financial data, industry trends, and also customer survey can support their decision-making.
Manufacturing department will necessitate ISO and internal records including industry trends primarily on new technologies and purchasing partners for raw materials. In addition, government agencies and interest groups can provide legitimacy issues regarding environment and safety of plants/ equipments. They are responsible in converting raw materials into final product that historical and current records can help them evaluate their outlook on quality. Packing and delivery forms the end-phase of the quality assurance system and therefore should be aware of the threats to trade (e.g. delay due to national calamities) which makes media as the source of their quality basis. After-sales service can be handed with studies about customer queries and complaints in the apparel industry which can be gathered through consultants or journal articles. Textbooks can also be used to serve as manuals in framing services with different clients. Lastly, accounting and human resource departments can use the combination of the above information tools because they are responsible for support systems for the quality plan.
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