Task 2
Task 2
Part A: Plan and Participate in a Continuous Improvement Session (Role-Play)
Product Area Team: Good-morning/afternoon/evening. Welcome to this session. Kindly bring us up to speed with regards to the improvement session.
Me: Thank you for your time and offering me this invaluable privilege to expound on particular aspects regarding continuous improvement in the Australian Hardware. After conducting an exhaustive study on our projected quality enhancement processes and systems at the Wollongong store, I concluded that the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Act) strategy serves as the most suitable one.
Product Area Team: Wow! That sounds nice because we found that a PDCA method can work well with our firm.
Me: Great! So, we shall breakdown our systems into smaller units for better management and execution of the improvement activities to gain significant improvements as an organization. Besides, we shall strive to enhance performance of each team while utilizing statistical control to monitor and control the processes.
Product Area Team: That is good. Did you also establish a strategy for facilitating participation by involved persons?
Me: Yes. I found that it is vital to engage all the involved stakeholders in decision-making activities to gain their support and realize sound decisions.
Product Area Team: Al right. What about the aspects of mentoring, coaching and training?
Me: Well, uh, we shall integrate the continuous improvement processes to every aspect of management to ensure that leaders serve as role models for the employees. Besides, the firm should ensure regular training and development sessions for its workforce to internalize and operationalize the continuous improvement approaches.
Product Area Team: Okay. What shall we expect from the continuous improvement processes?
Me: We expect lots of benefits from the projected improvement processes. For instance, there will be:
More innovation and creativity
Increased workforce and process efficiencies
High-quality products and services
Minimized instances of process failures
Minimized operating costs
High sense of responsibility among employees and managers
Product Area Team: That is amazing. Do you have anything else to add on that?
Me: For now, that is all. But when need arises, I shall communicate with you.
Product Area Team: Thank you for sharing with us those insightful pieces of information.
Me: Thank you too for listening to me.
Part B: Follow-up Communications
Subject: Proposed Continuous Improvement Strategy
Dear all,
I believe that you are faring well. This mail strives to inform you on a session I had with the Product Area Team on matters about a proposed continuous improvement approach.
The session covered specific aspects about the proposed continuous improvement approach chosen. The selected approach for ensuring TQM is PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act). According to PDCA, the Australian Hardware organization would be conducting continued processes for analyzing areas (systems and processes) that require improvement, developing suitable plans, executing such plans, analyzing and evaluating outcomes of such operations and conducting necessary adjustments for continuous advancements.
Moreover, the firm’s workforce and management will be conducting and attending regular training and development sessions to internalize and embrace the concept of PDCA. Also, the strategy will rely on contributions from virtually every stakeholder to ensure its effectiveness and successful development and implementation. Eventually, the firm and its stakeholders will realize lots of benefits including significant reduction in operating costs, maximization of profits, higher performance and efficiency of the organization’s workforce and processes, highly-creative and innovative workforce, and better engagement and relationship among employees.
Thank you for your time
Regards,
A Session Report
It is inevitable for the Australian Hardware firm to develop and embrace a suitable continuous improvement strategy to ensure that it remains competitive in the dynamic market place. Conversely, I had a successful discussion with the Product Area Team. The session illuminated on various aspects about the proposed continuous improvement plan that would be assume the use of PDCA approach to ensure that the organization’s processes and systems remain effective and efficient to deliver the desired goals and objectives. The PDCA method will enable the organization to always review and revise its systems and processes while relying on contributions from varied stakeholders.
The organization will be conducting regular training and development sessions to ensure that its employees and managers gain adequate understanding and embrace the continuous improvement strategy. Besides, managers will serve as role models and mentors for the firm’s workforce to ensure a holistic support of the strategy. Thus, the improvement approach will embrace certain procedures that include the following:
Development of desired goals and objectives
Identification of possible processes that could be employed to realize such outcomes
Implementation of the chosen strategies
Critical evaluation and analysis of the chosen options
Measurement and evaluation of the outcomes
Development of necessary changes
Analysis and evaluation of current conditions to determine areas that require improvement.
Accordingly, a continuous improvement process will attract many benefits that may entail drastic reduction in operating costs, maximization of profits, higher performance and efficiency of the organization’s workforce and processes, highly-creative and innovative workforce, and better engagement and relationship among employees.
Part C: Written Reflection
The practice of developing a continuous improvement plan demands lots of efforts and consumption of considerate amount of time. Precisely, I had to conduct a relatively lengthy research study, and deduction and arrangement such information into appropriate sequences for proper execution during the role-play session. Besides, I had to ensure that I adequately engage all the participants for a lively session with the use of question-answer approach. Moreover, I had to develop a report for communicating with interested parties on matters about the session.
Subsequently, the practice of planning and leading a session requires lots of soft and hard skills to emerge successful. Luckily, an individual could utilize their natural soft skills to make the session livelier and engaging. Consequently, the approach of using question-answer approach makes the session more engaging and allows better communication for better understanding of the proposed approach for ensuring continued improvement in the organization.
Additionally, the practice of planning and running a team session is invaluable in revealing further efforts, skills and resources that are required for establishing and implementing a continuous improvement strategy. Among the aspects that could be learned through such a role entail the necessity for proper reporting, interaction with diversified groups of persons, and the need for sufficient understanding, analysis and evaluation of a chosen continuous improvement method to effectively convince and persuade an organization to embrace it.
