Meeting Stakeholder Needs free essay sample

Diploma in First Line Management Jackie Bowen Tutor Name: Liz Pawlowski Title: Meeting Stakeholder Needs Unit: 3003 Contents PagePage Number * Title Page1 * Content Page2 * Aim of the report3 * Identifying Stone Computers key stakeholders4 * Understand the process required to continually 8 Improve meeting stakeholder’s needs * Be able to prepare a case to support a change in meeting11 Stakeholder needs * Bibliography14 Aim of the report In this report I will be focusing on how to identify, meet and support all stakeholder requirements within my Job role, I will base this report on my role as progress controller at stone computers focusing on the following outcomes: 1. Be able to identify the stakeholders and formulate a plan to meet their needs 2. Understand the process required to continually improve meeting stakeholder needs 3. Be able to prepare a case to support a change in meeting stakeholder needs 1 Identifying Stone Computers key Stakeholders. 1. 1 Identify stakeholders in relation to the team’s objectives. A stake holder is a party or person that has an interest, direct or indirect stake in an enterprise or project, Eden and Ackermann (1998) described stake holders as â€Å"People or small groups with the power to respond to, negotiate with, and change the strategic future of the organisation† (Eden and Ackermann, 1998:117), a further reference by Heerkens (2006) stated that â€Å"a stakeholder can stand to gain or lose through the success or failure of the project, can provide funding for the project or has invested resources and is affected by the outcome and outputs of the project†. Based on my reading thus far on the subject, I have diagrammed below (figure 1) the relevant stakeholders present in an organisation or enterprise. Figure 1, Diagram showing the relevant stakeholders present to an organisation or enterprise. 1. 2 Describe how the team’s Objectives meet stakeholder requirements. My main objective as a progress controller is to achieve a customer service level agreement (SLA) of 10 working days, from receipt of order to customer acceptance of the goods. The primary objective of the role is to maintain high customer satisfaction by ensuring SLA (Service level of agreement)adherence. This is achieved through internal communications with my colleagues, which allows the customer to be kept fully updated on the progress of their order. By ensuring this happens, Stone Computers are able to keep the customer base happy ensuring future repeat orders. Working within the operations team our objectives are to work efficiently, maintain a high quality product, whist reducing costs and providing the customer satisfaction discussed previously. Below is a SWOT analysis of the current situation within the organisation. Strengths * Reputation in education * Recycling * Configuration * SLA (Service level of agreement) * Good supplier base * 4500 Customer base * Manufacture base established * Total cost of ownership * Product Quality| Weaknesses * SLA (Service level of agreement) * No software specialist * Brand recognition in the IT industry * No specialist solutions to offer * Vantage (ERP System)| Opportunities * SLA (Service level of agreement) * Technology improvements * New markets * Fluctuating dollar rate| Threats * SLA (Service level of agreement) * Competitors (Viglen, RM) * Finance * Cash flow * No branded components * Fluctuating dollar rate * ‘big ticket’ manufacturers (Dell, HP) * Stakeholders demand more returns in a contracting market. | Table 1, showing a SWOT analysis of Stone Computers As shown above in the SWOT analysis I will now point out in table 2 some of the key objectives as part of the operations team to try and meet the essential needs of the stakeholders withi n Stone Computers. Objective| Stakeholder positive| Stakeholder negative| Why| Benefits| SLA| ? | | Hit the agreed SLA to keep the customer happy which secures future orders to maintain a profit. | Continues to improve cash flow. | SLA| | ? | Don’t meet the customer SLA customers are less likely to purchase more products. | N/A| Product Quality| ? | | Keeping quality high keeps customers satisfied to secure future orders to maintain profit. | Maintaining high quality also keeps costs down to help improve cash flow and keep overhead cost to a minimum. | Table 2, showing our objectives to achieve the stakeholder’s needs within the organisation. 1. 3 Identify the work plans with the team, gaining commitment to meet stakeholder needs. The management team at Stone Computers hold weekly operational meetings to inform the operations team of the importance of maintaining the key objectives shown above in table 2, in this meeting we discuss what our current key performance indicators (KPI) are and how we can improve these to meet the customer and the stakeholder’s requirements. We set daily targets for the production line to try and meet the demand of the service level of agreement. As a progress controller I analyse the orders and prioritise the sequence in which they go down into production to be processed to try and keep our target greater 90% KPI. 1. 4 Evaluate and modify the work plans to meet the stakeholder needs. To monitor the KPI of the business a monthly report is run which gives us the percentage of orders that were shipped and delivered to the customer within their 10 working day SLA, and a percentage of orders which were shipped and delivered to the customer beyond their 10 working day SLA, we are currently achieving on average 85% SLA. Some of the key issues which affect our Service level of agreement are: * Parts arriving late * Sales trying to prioritise their orders * The time a machine takes to go through Euro soft * Sales making unachievable promises to customers To observe the Production quality, each machine to come off the assembly line goes through Euro soft which tests the components and the build quality efore packaging and shipping the order to the customer, as a team our aim is to accomplish less than 1% failure rate however we are currently achieving 1. 5%. Some of the key issues that could affect the production quality are listed below: * Poor quality on the assembly lin e * Sales Errors * Damaged product coming from supplier * Under trained assembly workers I would like to modify the operations work plan by introducing Quality Circle meetings on a regular basis to help achieve and maintain meeting our stakeholder needs. 2 Understand the process required to continually improve meeting stakeholder’s needs 2. 1 Identify improvements to meet stakeholder needs To continually achieve meeting stakeholder’s requirements I believe a business must frequently evaluate processes, through communication and analysing methods to recognise needs for improvement. I plan to hold monthly Quality Circle meetings which I believe could help the business move positively forward. The outcome of these meetings should be based on receiving customer feedback both negative and positive and put new processes in place to help us achieve better build quality and also help us reach our SLA, by putting these new procedures in place I hope it could identify the processes that need more attention within the operations department. The first process to help improve the production quality and customer SLA is a sales errors log on a excel spread sheet, to identify culprits and provide further training to help reduce the number of sales errors. An example of the spreadsheet is shown below: Date| Order QTY| Order number| Account Manager| Error| 16. 10. 12| 21| 771258| Mr | No blanking plate for CD drive| 17. 10. 12| 8| 770586| Mrs | No Hard drive on order| Table 3, showing example of sales errors log. Secondly a form to be passed out to QC operatives to fill in with any build errors so these can then be logged and evaluated regularly to identify any assembly operatives that require further training to help prevent poor quality from the production line. An example of the sheet is shown below: Date| Order QTY| Order Number| Builder| Error| Number of errors on order| 18. 10. 12| 40| 771563| Mrs | Hard drive cable not added| 1| 19. 10. 12| 15| 771578| Mr | Cable to CDROM not plugged in| 3| Table 4, showing example of build errors log. 2. 2 Identify resources and costs to support improvements. I would envisage 2 meetings per month, meeting 1 to discuss the customer SLA and meeting 2 to discuss production quality for a 6month period then review whether the meetings need to continue afterwards. With the following attendees: * QC manager to discuss new process for QC operatives * Production manager to discuss production quality Sales manager to discuss new process for sales errors * Admin assistant to take the meeting minutes * Me to conduct the meetings * A Buyer to discuss getting parts quicker The Quality Circle meetings would take place on the 1st day of every month for 1 hour in a meeting room which needs to be pre-booked. The administration assistant would send the schedul e via email calendar. The meetings of those minutes would then be emailed at the end of each session for everyone to read through and add any additional comments. The costs implications would be the hourly rate of each attendee, opportunity cost and training of employee’s if any are necessary. 2. Identify benefits obtained from improvements. I have listed below the benefits the company will attain to support the new process that I would like to put in place: Process| Benefit| Outcome| Recording and monitoring quality from assembly line. | Less errors QC operatives have to repair. | Overhead costs go down producing more profit. | Recording and monitoring sales errors. | The assembly line stops less often. | Overhead costs go down producing more profit. | Recording and monitoring quality from assembly line. | Order goes through production quicker and should then arrive with customer within their SLA. | Customer satisfaction so secure future orders. Recording and monitoring sale s errors. | Order goes through production quicker and should then arrive with customer within their SLA. | Customer satisfaction so secure future orders. | Table 5, Showing benefits from new processes. 3 Be able to prepare a case to support a change in meeting stakeholder needs. 3. 1 Identify the individuals to whom a case for change is to be made. To put my Quality Circle meetings into action I would need to run this past the Operations Director and Sales Director as these will be the 2 departments the change will effect. I would present my plan and discuss with them the benefits from the processes I propose to introduce. Once these processes are finalised and agreed we would hold a meeting with the production team to show them the new process and how to log the assembly errors. I would log the sales errors but a meeting would also need to be held with the Sales Account Managers to inform them of the new process being put in place. 3. 2 Describe the components of a case for change Forces for change Forces against change I believe the best way to describe the components for a case change is by using LEWIN’s force field analysis as shown below: Stakeholders People reluctant to change SLA for customer satisfaction Cost Competitors Better quality to keep overhead costs down Loss of staff overtime Total 3 Total 4 Vantage (ERP system) Figure 2, Showing LEWIN’s Force Field Analysis. 3. Describe how a case for change supports the team’s objectives By providing staff training and implementing the new processes I believe our customer service level of agreement (SLA) can excel 90% and a fail ure rate of less than 0. 5% of build errors. By providing individuals with extra training, producing better quality on the assembly line to reduce the time for machines to go through our testing system and reducing the number of sales errors as a team we can move positively forward to reach our stakeholder needs and continue to secure future orders from our customers. 3. 4 Describe how to monitor and review the effect of the change Review and discuss stakeholder requirements and our team’s objectives Service level of agreement and Euro Soft Failure rate targets not achieved Run the KPI report monthly to review progression of SLA Plan Quality Circle Meetings to discuss new processes to be put in place Evaluate sales error log and Euro soft failure report weekly and identify any individuals who require more training Put new processes in place Figure 3, the flow of review processes Bibliography Eden and Ackermann (1998:117) Stake holder Management [internet] http://www. karkhanisgroup. com/consulting/management/project-management/142-stakeholder-management. html? showall=1 Heerkens, Gary (2006) Project Management (The Briefcase Book Series). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-137952-5. LEWIN’s Force Field Analysis http://www. mindtools. com/pages/article/newTED_06. htm