A lean management system targets at creating stables ways in which problems can be solved over a long period. The system must be capable of developing its performances and reducing wastage by controlling the wastage of raw materials or keeping huge stores that are not necessary for the organization to run smoothly. Researchers argue that lean systems allow a company to produce and release products when required without creating space to such losses as storage expenditure and expiry of products (Villarreal, Zhong, and Dong 13).
Most companies capable of implementing the lean systems in their management gain such advantages as reduction of cost, improvement of morale, increment of inventory turns, reduction of lead-time, creation of learning environment, increment of income, and elevated trust and loyalty among the clients (Manataki 123). Since the systems allow companies to develop their branches and operations, businesses prefer the implementation of the plan. In this respect, this essay analyses the application of lean systems in a telecommunication company within the United Arab Emirates. In a bid to develop a reliable argument for these aspects, the paper develops the issues of implementation as well as the advantages of its installation.
Du
Du is a telecommunication company started in the year 2006 to offer various services within the core of social and economic development of UAE (“Du” par. 2). Its strategic goals are to conjoin businesses, offer communication services, and supply devices to enhance such communication. Calls, text messages, TV programs, telephony, broadband connectivity, carrier and satellite services happen under the credit and watch of Du limited. The countrywide services are offered prior to the assistance of over 2000 employees from more than sixty countries (“Du” par. 5). Currently, these employees are able to service over 6.5 million clients comprising of about fifty percent of the national population. In this manner, the company is managing to reach its goal of facilitating life in all places across the globe. The company has not only paid attention to its operation management tactics, but also developed a mission to ensure that employee satisfaction is a key concept in their deliver methods.
Operations
Du operates various technical approaches to deliver its services within the expectations of the customers. As the company is sharing 50% of the market, when developing a business model particulate attention should be paid to delivery and supply of products as well as information. There are various issues that lean systems can resolve within their working system. For instance, the wastage of time associated to subscription of data services and broadband connections. The key aspect that would be considered in improving the business model would include creating awareness of the stakeholders on how the company works to make money. The lack of understanding among the stakeholders causes confusions, misinformation as well as misconception of the most vital strategic procedures. Once the information and business model flow are aligned, the next step would be to identify the issues facing the operations of Du Inc.
Du may face challenges with the advancing mobile and electronic devices depending on the advancements made in the current computer technology. Some devices sold to the market initially are affecting the relay of fast internet services since they are limited to browse using 3g and 4g networks. Lean systems may implement an approach to deliver devices at cheaper prices in order to improve the information system and speedup the web downloads (Kenneth and Dedrick 9). This aspect may encourage people to use the internet more often as compared to the current uses. Furthermore, such improvement has the capabilities of making business proficient since data can be shared among the branches. Essentially, even the branches of Du will have better access to information from its subsidiary companies. The improvement of the data speed has the capacity to save time for people within the UAE. Continuous improvement can be promoted by improving services and expanding business profits. Some non-value added activities can be boosted to attain sufficient significance in the company by reducing cost and wastage while boosting improvement and efficiency of services.
The empowerment of the employees determines how services are rendered to the clients. Lean systems set up a process of promotions and awards for various achievements made within the company. Satisfied employees warrant the satisfaction of the clients and bring more income to the company. In this perspective, quality and empowerment must work together in order to prevent incapacity of the employees when making appeals to the clients (Nzuve and Kamau 4). Furthermore, the lean system will enable Du to standardize various working conditions inclusive of the inventory, work schedules, and working time limits (Mijatovic, Cudanov, and Krivokapie 14). For instance, if Du wishes to encourages its employees to work at night, it can achieve this by increasing the payment for overtime work or special salaries for night workers especially in the support services.
Du must train the employees in order to meet their working standards. Training allows the employees to provide better services and ensure professionalism as per the training conducted. It is also vital to set strategic criteria to retain trained workforce within the company and restrict the release of company’s secrets to competitors.
Implementation Issues of Lean Systems
The implementation of the lean systems for Du may be a huge challenge. Essentially, Du has a running system set to operate against the odds presented by its planners. Its establishment and creation of a strong market was dependent on the primary need of the community where communication was slow and poor. However, the current systems are advanced, faster, efficient, and improved. The line between the prevailing communication civilizations does not align with the conditions in 2006 during the company startup.
The implementation of lean systems is set to operate and show success after a period. The time used to determine whether the process is functioning properly can be a challenge for Du. Du Company will isolate money to run the lean systems and ensure that all issues are handled as suggested by the operating specialist. It is, therefore, clear that time and money is required to implement the system and ensure its success. However, the allocation of time and money does not assure the success of the system. If the expected outcomes do not show after the allocated period, the company may be subject to loss of money and time. An author informs that the extra working hours may be a trap to prevent the company from expanding by increasing its workforce. Overworking is associated with poor working performance since employees are tired and exhausted to provide effective outcomes.
As to another issue, the promotion and empowerment of employee requires extra expenditure to cater for any cost outcome. Most companies target at improving services at the same price of products in order to remain competitive as well as increase the profits (Shah and Dalal 4). Therefore, expenditure must be reduced by avoiding such ideas suggested by the lean systems in order to save money for profits. Furthermore, most people may be resistant to changes made in respect to the requirements of lean systems. The manager is subject to progressive criticism initiated by the clients and employee unwillingness to change.
The efficacy of the lean implementation plan cannot suffice with failures from the contractors like carrier organizations, engineers, and managers. It may be affected by the quality of products being produced and poor communication among company departments. Researchers single out poor supplier integration, difference in distances, failures of systematic thinking, insufficient resources, and imprecise and unreliable plans in this respect (Heath 134). Lean system is about holistic process of achieving goals by applying systematic design of ideas and outcomes.
Research must be conducted to determine the areas that require changes in the communication company. Unsatisfactory studies may lead to under-stocking or overstocking of products and services since the demand and supply are not controlled properly. Du must study its market demand for each product and service in order to manage their production and supply. This challenges cause loss of sales and customers when there is under-stocking or unproductive stock along with its storage cost in cases of overstocking.
Strategic Advantages of Lean Systems
Lean management system targets at reducing any form of wastage including time, funds, raw materials, and activities among others. Each type of wastage has a strategic approach determining how the wastage is avoided in the most possible manner. These approaches in the TPS, just-in-time, schedule systems, and 5S of organizing the workplace. Du Company has the capacity to render wastage obsolete by installing updated machines to serve clients and boosting employees comfort via provision of good working environment. For instance, a computer assisted communication reduces movement of the workers since they do not need to collect documents from cabinets and other places. All the information they need for the organization are found within the organization’s system.
The implementation of this system incorporates the consultation with the stakeholders in order to ensure that their needs are met within the lean system. This system allows the employees to present their ideas and concerns for implementation. In this way, the employees gain a sense of ownership to the company proceedings that empower them towards organizational improvement.
Du Company can apply the just-in-time strategy to reduce wastage associated with storage of inventory. For instance, the company can produce or seek supply of the required devices as per the market stipulation. The most appropriate strategy applicable to Du is to produce and deliver the products required without keeping significant inventory. The reduction of cost in conjunction with the company efficiency must be established hand-in-hand with the Du staff members in order to boost new sales and competition.
The implementation of the lean system should not be overused like in cases where the tracking of organizational operations affects the time spent on the production of goods. Once used on the right scale, the system reduces lead time in order to improve the productivity of the employees without exhausting the working capabilities. Essentially, the plans and good working conditions leads to an eventual increment in the productivity of the workforce.
This aspect is boosted further by the efficiency of machines, flow of information and trained staff. In addition, the work-in-process inventory is reduced since inventory is produced as it is being delivered in order to reduce extra costs. The overall organizational improvement on how work is conducted promotes the quality of services and products being delivered to the clients. Essentially, the quality boosts the way the customers are appealed by the products and services of the Du Company. The sales and customer satisfaction increases leading to the popularity of the services and products. Finally, Du can reduce the space used to move along the business or staff area or the storage of unnecessary raw materials and products.
Administratively, the management reduces the case of errors in processing the calculations retained for a long period (Minato, Yoda, and Fujii 1207). This attribute may also dictate how the clients are handled and the time spent while providing any information or assistances they request. Du Company has worked to curb the use of paper work in order to reduce environmental waste while creating efficiency. Essentially, an efficient system can enable the same number of staff to handle a large number of clients within a stipulated time as compared to slow and inefficient systems. Computer technology allows the organization of information and give workforce an opportunity to concentrate on other issues in need of human workforce like the customer needs department of Du Company.
The establishment of an efficient system must be followed by creation of awareness among the target customers. Du must ensure that the clients are aware about the competitive advantages of Du as compared to other network operators in the United Arab Emirates. These clients seek the services since they are competitive within the market. For instance, the company may state that the time to provide services within the organization has reduced by a certain percentage as compared to other places. Otherwise, they may cite the quality of their services in order to bring income from the developments made in their company. However, the efficiency of the services has the capabilities to provide insight of the efficiency to the clients even with minimal advertisements. The strategic advantages of lean systems are, therefore, apparent for the Du Company.
Conclusion
The development of Du Company can be assisted greatly by the implementation of the leans management systems. These systems monitor the efficiency of employees and report the achievements being made to the management. Lean system facilitates business models by creating business model customized to reduce all forms of wastage in raw materials, resources, income, and time among others. People commisioned to implement these organizational capabilities are specialists in incorporating the recommendations made by the stakeholders and share the ownership of the company in decision-making. This paper has discussed the approaches of implementing the lean systems for various issues within Du Company in order to attain an ideal integration of its functionality. In this regard, it has been found that leans is an advantageous and yet challenging approach to succeed in business. When the system is applied properly, the outcomes can render Du limited prosperous as compared to an imprecise implementation of the plan.
Works Cited
Du 2015. Web.
Heath, Ruth. Strategic issues management: Organizations and public policy challenges. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 2002. Print.
Kenneth, Kraemer and Jason Dedrick. “Refining and Extending the Business Model with Information Technology: Dell Computer Corporation.” The Information Society 16.1 (2012): 5-21. Print.
Manataki, Areti. “A Knowledge-Based Analysis and Modeling of Supply Chain Strategies.” Journals of Informatics 1.7 (2011): 1-147. Print.
Mijatovic, Ivana, Mladena Cudanov, and Jovan Krivokapie. “Development of Co-Operation-Based Company Standards.” Innovative Management and Firm Performance 6.5 (2014). Print.
Minato, Kin, Ian Yoda, and Nel Fujii. “Distributed Operation System Model Using Directory Service in Telecommunication Management Network.” Proceedings of GLOBECOM ’93. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference 2 (2014): 1207-211. Print.
Nzuve, Stephen and Rebecca Kamau. “Perceived Relationship between Motivation and Job Satisfaction among Call Centre Agents at Safaricom Limited.” SSRN Journal SSRN Electronic Journal 3.4 (2014): 1-17. Print.
Shah, Adity and Abhinav Dalal. “The Global Laptop Industry.” Journals of Information Technology 1.1 (2009): 1-13. Print.