Summary
Quality management involves the practice of controlling and planning various organizational activities for purposes of aligning the product and service with its specifications Quality management’s critical components entails quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement. Planning involves determining the standards of quality in organizational performance before meeting them (Nazar, Ramzani, Anjum, and Shahzad, 2018, p. 290). Quality improvement involves the change of a process to improve its reliability. On the other hand, Quality assurance entails the planned and systematic set of actions that offer sufficient reliability to ensure that a given product meets the required purpose.
The traditional form of quality management involves focusing on quality control that requires inspection and finished goods testing. However, the recent approach rejects the method citing it inefficient and profit-draining. The standard tools and techniques in quality management involve total quality management, Cost of Quality (CoQ), Kaizen, and EFQM excellence model. Effective management of quality results in high-quality outputs and processes that directly impact profitability and customer satisfaction. Quality management encourages a team working culture at various levels of the organization, significant for productivity (Chigova, 2017). Human resource management is considered a key area of focus and an important asset.
Quality Management Tools and Techniques
Six Sigma
Six sigma tools are available to the Barclays bank to achieve excellence through providing a business strategy that involves applying various TQM, statistical, and project management tools. Six sigma tools originated from the statistics field as a set of practices designed to improve manufacturing processes. Later, the applications were extended to other business processes (Afruzianazar et., 2010, p. 290). The methodology is utilized in the banking industry through the DMAIC process that denotes, define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (Durakovic et al., 2018, p. 132). The define phase involves the professionals of six sigma that represent the boundaries and objectives of a given process in business through close consultation with employees in the organization and management.
Barclays bank is concerned with satisfaction of customers as the main objectives; thus, making it necessary to define its business processes that involve interaction with customers and the direct effect of customer satisfaction. The standard practices involved in customer interaction include new account openings, addressing change request processing, opening new accounts, and teller window transactions. The second phase is the DMAIC process is the measure where the six-sigma professional deploys quantitative approaches in the collection of statistical data after consulting the managers. The statistical information is significant in measuring individual processes’ impact on the banks’ concentration on improved processes and overall customer satisfaction.
In the banking industry, the amount of time taken in performing transactions influences customer satisfaction. Therefore, banks must hire observers to monitor the wait time different conditions of work. In the analysis phase, the professionals perform analysis of the collected data according to the predefined parameters. It helps in identifying the processes that need improvements at the lowest costs. Therefore, the tool could help the Barclays bank, such as the check-cashing transaction that entails customers visiting the teller windows, teller receiving the request, and manager approval to process the request.
Therefore, it is essential to perform an analysis transactions analysis to ascertain the transaction that has maximum impact on the time spent in completing a transaction. The improvement phase is where the six sigma professionals apply measures that can correct and improve the process that poses problems in consultation with managers and banking staff. Therefore, the standards of improvement should be based on statistics and facts (Mungai, 2018). Advanced tools of simulation can also be employed to study the progress initiative on various business processes. It is also essential to put the control phase of the DMAIC process in place to ensure close monitoring of the impacts resulting from improvement initiatives. Failure of a business process to perform according to levels of six Sigma involves referring the process back to the defined phase. Small problems that affect performance are corrected using specific measures without referring back to the whole process.
Lean Manufacturing
Lean manufacturing is also available for application in Barclays bank. The main focus of poor is bank office operation. When applied in the front office, it can also reduce operation risk successfully by standardized processes by giving the frontline office more power (dos Santos, do RosĂĄrio Cabrita,2016). Mostly lean has been thought to be a methodology that improves operation. Its original aspects are mostly forgotten or ignored, so only a few companies are called lean enterprises (Durakovic et al., 2018, p. 132).
According to the lean culture, every team member puts more effort to perform better each day at every level. In most cases, there is a level at which general performance needs to be improved, and, in this level, lean needs to be applied. Therefore, a planned lean approach is created by a project team toward the goal. Finally, When the project ends, nothing ensures that the initiative taken for improvement will be followed; thus, old conduct will not resume (Durakovic et al., 2018, p. 132). Communication is critical in all steps in which changes are made in the management techniques. Therefore, banks need to establish a unified goal that they want to be delivered by lean methodology. And share them with their employees.
The idea of internal customers has to be introduced to departments that do not face customers directly. It will allow them to enhance the creation of an environment, which is customer-centric at all levels inside the bank. Every skilled organizational manager will utilize most of her/his time creating ideas for improvement through observation and innovation (Wang, & Chen,2010). The application of lean methodology has been successfully used in various managements. It has been proven to increase both quality and efficiency multiple times in the bank’s levels where it is applied.
Lean Six Sigma
Lean six sigma tools are also an important tool available for use in Barclays. It will help improve bank loan processing. Every bank targets to keep the costs of operations at a minimum through increased efficiency in their processes. Lean Six Sigma will be appropriate in the reduction of expenses by enhancing operational efficiency. The method plays a vital role in getting rid of the waste derived out of analysis considered unnecessary. The approach involves a combination of six Sigma and lean methodology (Yanti and Firdaus, 2018). The focus is on reducing inefficiencies by reducing redundancy, underutilized resources, unnecessary approvals, and errors. Inefficient banking is likely to result in high risks of financial crunch.
Implementing Lean Six Sigma to loan processing reduces the levels of inefficiency to a more significant extent. It is essential to record the period taken to process loans and the subsequent periods to assess the efficiencies. The loan processing can be defined through the use of Six Sigma to ensure maximum efficiency and minimum dispersion (Madanat and Khasawneh, 2017, p. 16). The time taken in performing the loan transactions has a direct correlation to the risks and complexity involved. Therefore, appropriate measures such as giving maximum time to the complex and riskiest loans will be taken. The approach is vital in setting and defining the loan processing to ensure that the time taken does not increase with the credit size. The method is also helpful in assessing the performance of an organization’s loan processing relative to other banks which proves as an efficient indication of the existing inefficiencies. Lean six sigma methodology implementations in loan processing result in increased efficiency, as evident from reduced time and costs.
Kaizen
The Kaizen technique is also available for selection by the company. It entails a philosophy and practices focusing on improving manufacturing engineering processes, management, and supporting business practices. The cycle for Kaizen activity is defined as operation standardization, measuring the standardized operation, gauging measurements based on the requirements, innovation for increased productivity, meeting the needs, and standardization of the new and improved processes (Baidoun, Salem and Omran, 2018).
Therefore, the Kaizen tool involves a continuous process of change in small but incremental steps. It requires the involvement of detailed changes in the process that forms part of the regular cycle of work through understanding the cultural implications (Antony et al., 2018). The Kaizen tool’s essential elements include personal discipline, self-discipline, high morale, quality circles, and suggestions for continuous organizational improvement. Therefore, the approach can be applied in banks considering that the employees are flexible and well-educated (Harimurti and Suryani, 2019). It makes it possible to explain the small changes and adhere to proper documentation. However, most banks find it difficult to understand the Kaizen tool, thus failing to resolve the technical problem.
TQM Tool for Barclays Bank Business Functions
Barclays bank’s adoption of the TQM tool explains its performance in the industry for about three hundred years of experience worldwide. The banks have a strategy to increase their growth potential through continuous diversification of the business based on geography, product, and customer (Nazar, Ramzani, Anjum, and Shahzad, 2018, p. 290). TQM is utilized as a way of enduring the increasingly belligerent financial markets by maintaining a competitive edge. TQM implementation has benefited an organization, such as increased market share, customer and employee satisfaction, and amplified profitability.
High quality directly relates to the organization’s survival in the solid global competition for banking services (Sharma and Modgil, 2019). The high-end significance in implementing total quality management led to its adoption and implementation in Barclays bank. It has played an essential role in building customer confidence and competing internationally. Comprehensive quality management entails a management method used to improve productivity and quality of the operations of a business organization (Furman, KuczyĹska-ChaĹada and Poloczek, 2018, p. 529). It involves all departments and employees by extending forward and backward to include both buyers and suppliers.
The TQM model in Barclays bank involves a systematic approach that improves based on team-based workgroups, personal accountability for success, running of the processes of work, and proper communications among all the functional areas (Nyanaro and Bett, 2018, p, 234). TQM models embrace tools such as control charts, statistical processes, flowcharts, and orthogonal arrays. Quality in Barclays provides a strategic advantage owing to the increased competitive advantage for organizational survival. The organization’s strategy is based on quality for competitive advantage that usually emphasizes the strategic resources for quality enhancements.
Quality Implementation
For quality management in a company to have a successful implementation, there are many motions and models. Among these motions, there are the theoretical models which are mainly used (Centerskog, 2020). Crosby’s 14 steps to quality improvement clearly state the steps followed by the management committee and the process of quality development to the degree where the ones who achieved their missions are acknowledged.
Jordan’s 10 points for quality improvement include the process of quality planning, control of this quality, and improvements put across about this quality. W. E Deming’s 14 quality improvement points also state the importance of coming up with a strategic plan for the quality improvement process (Kyeremeh, Prempeh and Afful Forson, 2019). Barclays bank has come up with an idea of implementation approach where it gets information and ideas from all the standard approaches in the world. The bank has arranged its quality management system in a modified way.
Barclays bank uses the European foundation for quality management framework theory in its modification for total quality management. The approach involves focusing on the outcome, the customers, the purpose importance, the training of employees, and even communal control (Akpulonu, 2017). The bank has imposed this formation in the fulfillment approach. Barclays bank has also come up with many policies to help it be more lively by ensuring the way customers have been attended to improves.
The bank has also put a relentless improvement in its business activities, putting more concentration on its customers (Nassolo, 2018). When a bank focuses on the persistent improvement in customer attendance and the products makes it is advantageous (Maheswari and Padmaja, 2018, p. 65). Barclays bank has prioritized this when modifying quality management. The bank has set up its resources to operate for an extended period instead of profits which occur in a short period. The bank has put funds into quality and innovations to maintain the bank’s existence (TerziÄ, 2017). The plans for quality management fulfillment have been divided into human resource management and attendance quality, and customer fulfillment satisfaction.
Quality Service and Human Resource Management
Barclays bank puts more effort into the employee wants, although the bank is trying to upgrade its performance by allowing creative thinking, training, and Teamwork. All this effort and work’s goal is to improve the employee’s ability (Rega, 2017). Workshops and seminars are also conducted to ensure the program is efficient (Nazar et al., 2018, p. 290). A sound documentation system helps keep records of the bank, and relentless correction during work permits the upgrade of quality.
Customer Satisfaction
Barclays banks understand the need to hold both individual and corporate customers in high esteem considering their significant role in the institution’s success. Therefore, the management of Barclays bank has put in place strategies in services provision that aim to create an impressive customer appeal and endorse products and services. The strategies’ focus is to ensure constant delighting and surprise services to their competitors ahead of the competitors (Maina, 2017). The Barclays bank has targeted their esteemed customer’s ongoing purchase of their items and recommends the products to their friends and families. From the previous analysis, Barclays show a satisfactory level in customer satisfaction based on their needs. The bank has already integrated several strategies to reduce the time taken in processing its essential products and services, such as loan processing, the opening of new accounts, cheque encashment, and ATM services (Baidoun, Salem and Omran, 2018). The mobile application innovation linked with the banking services has led to a significant reduction in the wait time and periods spent in queues to perform various transactions.
The feedbacks from Barclay’s customers indicate that the company delivers its promises to them. The practices to meet the customer needs include removing the bureaucratic procedures that were deemed obstacles to providing the customers’ agreements (Alvarado-RamĂrez et al., 2018). The bank has invested heavily in creating a favorable image to its customers through proper documentation that can be depended on (Jehangiri, 2017). The bank also ensures that qualified employees undertake its quality services to improve levels of customer satisfaction.
The bank’s employees are also trained to serve the customers in a more efficient and friendly manner. On the other hand, the bank’s working hours are deemed suitable for their customers and employees. The highly skilled employees in the bank can offer quality services with quick delivery. It helps to create a sense of customer being the center of emphasis in the bank’s operations. The bank also emphasizes an efficient communication system that enables the channeling of customers’ complaints (Iyer, 2018, p. 547). This helps the bank improve its weakest areas in customer service delivery and helps the customers feel appreciated.
The bank has also focused on improving its products and services apart from customer service. Barclays offers attractive interest rates that include various charges and hidden costs, thus depicting banks’ quality of products and services (Nyangoma, 2018). Customers also make inquiries through their phones that receive prompt answers to their satisfaction. The employees have also been trained on observing good work ethics in responding to the questions and ensuring immediate response to the calls (Mararo, 2017). The bank also employs reasonable timelines and accuracy of the account statements compared to the competitors in the banking industry.
Focus on Meeting Employee Needs
Barclays bank put more effort into the employee needs even though the bank is trying to upgrade its performance by allowing creative thinking, training, and Teamwork. All this effort and work’s goal is to improve the employee’s ability (Morell-Santandreu, Santandreu-Mascarell, and GarcĂa-Sabater, 2020, p. 10622). The bank created room for employees’ opinions about the work and appreciated all the excellent work done. The bank also has put-up training which helps in the improvement of employees’ ability. Workshops and seminars are also conducted to make sure the program is efficient.
Continued Improvement
The bank has put more attempts to avoid small mistakes and improve the cost control for a proper upgrade of the quality. A sound documentation system helps keep records of the bank, and relentless correction during work also helps in the advancement of quality. Apart from putting effort into the employees, the bank also concentrates on the customers’ wants by conducting surveys (Hull, 2019, p, 5). The bank takes and gives financial advice to their employees’ wants and interests.
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