About Part 2 The aim of this part of the coursework is to continue the top down appraisal of the quality system within the enterprise you are researching. Again you will identify some broader initiatives in each of the categories outlined but then state how it is implemented within the context area you are researching. For example if you were looking into Quality in HRM you might identify what they say about the Training and Continuous Personal Development (CPD) in their Quality policies, i.e. how this should be done, then examine your context area to check if this is really done and to what level. In other words are there gaps between what policy states and what actually happens. You might then discuss how this gap could be rectified by drawing on the materials in the VLE, or other research to suggest what they should do. You could follow this method for each of the areas you will examine.
Your second research report therefore should follow the following Format.
Introduction
Here you will describe in overview why Customer Service is important to the enterprise you are researching and in overview how they assess whether they are fulfilling their targets in this area. You should also identify how their customer service metrics link to their overall organisational quality policy. You will also identify what external partners there are e.g. suppliers of products or services to the company you are investigating.
Assurance and Quality of Service
You will discuss how they go about defining quality of service. How do they identify and rectify quality gaps? What data around the “Voice of the customer” do they collect and how do they use it in Quality Function Deployment? How do they identify cost of quality and the recovery methods from poor service? What methods do they use to assure that their product or service is of a quality standard? Here you may look at the standards they wish to achieve and the measures they use to assess this. You should discuss how the Baldridge Self Assessment method could work for them, if they are not using something similar. You should identify where possible the metrics and targets used in this assessment.
Quality in Human Resource and Partnering policies
Here you will identify how they go about identifying what skill sets are needed to develop their quality product or service. How do they identify their training requirements? How are the training initiatives developed and assessed as fit for purpose? Is the Investor in People programme important? If so why or why not? You will also look at how they assess their business partners for quality of product and service. What methods are they using and what standards they applying? Are there any accreditation schemes for assessment partner’s products and performance that they can use as benchmarks?
Developing Knowledge Transfer
How is Knowledge Transfer developed and implemented? Here you could examine the use of the quality manual, mentoring, quality circles, links with training etc. How are the areas of expertise identified and that expertise captured for future use? How do they assess their knowledge management in terms of its contribution to the quality effort? How is new information or new ways of doing things distributed to employees?
Assessing Good Customer Relations
How is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) principles deployed within the area you are looking at? How is the Customer data assessed to provide better products, services or communication channels? What customer metrics are they assessing? How can these metrics be used to develop a better product or service? Some of these are marketing issues so you may wish to look to that functional area to find the information you need.
** This section is supposed to be linked with product development
Appendices
Useful documents that you have collected to illustrate your research. You should of course submit a list of references to the sources you have used in your research.
