Identification of Internal Customer Requirements and Meeting Those Requirements Through Business Process Improvement Within a Quality Management System at an Australian Electrical Manufacturer

Diplomarbeit von Astrid Rotarius

Abstract:

Increasing competition, deregulation, globalisation, and technological advancement continuously create new business realities for organisations in the marketplace. In order to cope with these structural changes, many organisations aim at improving and innovating their business processes within the implementation of a quality management System. In today's competitive environment however, it is not sufficient to implement internally oriented business process improvements. Instead, companies have to concentrate an externally focused process improvements which add value to customers and thus enhance customer relationships. Such customer value driven process improvements help to integrate marketing and operations strategies and thereby provide a significant competitive advantage.

A quality management system enables organisations to achieve a competitive edge through customer satisfaction in today's highly competitive domestic and global markets. Customer satisfaction forms an integral part of a quality management system which focuses organisations an meeting or exceeding customer expectations through outstanding product and service performance. The integrative approach of a quality management system motivates everyone in an organisation to serve the customer. Customers include the end user (external customers) as well as all employees within an organisation (internal customers). As a result, external and internal customer expectations and requirements drive business processes. Moreover, quality and customer satisfaction are defined by customers and not by internal specifications. Therefore, an organisation has to focus an adding value to products and Services from the customers' perspective. Achieving customer satisfaction by exceeding customer requirements is a growing concern to organisations throughout the entire business world. Australian companies thus have to meet increasing international competition by providing customers with better quality products and services at lower prices than competitors.

In this system, Total Quality Management represents the Overall organisational philosophy of the quality drive. Kaizen is the instrument to achieve a quality culture in an organisation, and Lean Management concentrates an the optimisation of time and cost in business processes, especially in production. A quality management System therefore aims at coordinating organisational improvement programs.

This paper aims at identifying internal customer requirements regarding customer service at an Australian electrical manufacturer. Furthermore, it intends to illustrate ways to meet the identified customer requirements through business process improvements. The implementation of a quality management System at the company builds the framework for the entire quality improvement drive. Chapter 2 to 4 of this paper provide the theoretical background for this research project. Chapter 2 provides •a general overview of quality management systems. As the project deals with customer service processes, chapter 3 discusses various service quality models and characteristics. Chapter 4 concentrates an business process improvements as the conceptual basis for the process analysis conducted at the company.

The main part of this paper (chapter 5) discusses the research project carried out at the Australian electrical manufacturer. The first part of the project involves an internal customer service survey to identify internal customer requirements and determine areas of priority for performance improvement. The second part incorporates a process analysis in order to establish ways to meet the identified internal customer requirements through Business process improvements within the quality management framework. Finally, the paper draws conclusion from the internal customer service survey and the process analysis carried out et the Australian electrical manufacturer. Moreover, it establishes recommendations for business process improvements in order to satisfy internal and external customer requirements.

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