The ABC Manufacturing Company is a large, Australian company, based in Sydney. It has been operating for approximately 17 years. It manufactures good quality products which are exported to all states. It has a regular line of supply to a well-established group of customers.
The CEO is concerned and has called a meeting of department heads and on-line managers. Business has been dropping and budgetary targets will not be met if something is not done quickly. Operations and production levels are fine. Product quality is good and meeting specifications. Yet sales have dropped. You have been called together to identify and solve the problem/s. How will you go about it?
There are two obvious problems here. You will need to address the possibility of both and indicate possible root causes for each.
In finding a solution to the problems, you will need to consider:
- markets and market segments
- customers-their needs, wants and expectations and your methods of determining them
- customer focus and what that means
- competition
- promotion and advertising-promising and delivering
- in-house attitudes toward customers-training in customer service
- service levels and styles
- customer feedback and complaints management-processes and procedures for managing, recording and using customer complaints and suggestions as part of the continuous improvement process
- the impact of internal and external change factors
- any other factors you consider to be relevant
Explain how and why you think these problems have arisen and write a proposal (500-2,000 words), to be presented to the CEO outlining:
What the problems are and how you believe they can be overcome.
Your proposal should include:
- a description of the problem/s
- a list of options or alternatives for solving them
- a description of the processes used to generate these alternatives
- a suggested course of action based on the best options outlined
- strategies for resolving the issues, and justification of those strategies
- any costs involved
- the personnel who should be involved, and their roles
- the expected outcomes of the interventions
- a statement of the likely outcomes if the interventions are not implemented
- any relevant legislation