Six-sigma strategy to reduce the waste elimination
Pro-Go Pty Ltd is small and high-quality action camera manufacturer and it is based in Victoria. Australia. This privately-owned organisation was enjoying continuous growth until last year. Pro-Go has been into the innovation and technological improvement which provides an excellent quality result for a small package which would able to operate with the different technological gadget. From the perspective of production manager, Pro-Go management was thinking to use six-sigma strategy so that it can reduce the waste elimination during the production of cameras. Pro-Go was also thinking to invest more time in innovative technologies to make the low light camera. During the last stakeholder meeting, Pro-Go was thinking to use more marketing related elements like positioning, distribution and branding of the products. However, recently, Pro-Go cameras have burst into flames and the management has failed without an explanation. Pro-Go has faced the issue of losing sales in the Chinese market and domestic market. The largest customer of Pro-Go wants to cancel the contract due to the poor quality of the camera.
This assessment reflects the impact of the proposed strategy in the previous stakeholder meeting on the business after the disruption. This white paper assesses concerns and modified strategic plan after the disruption and three key themes are discussed along with providing recommendations to Pro-Go from the perspective of a production manager.
The aim of the assessment is to adjust the strategy development of production management department due to sudden crisis and it reflects the impact of the proposed strategy after the disruption.
Pro-Go Pty Ltd manufactures small and high-quality action cameras for the purpose of clicking photos and recording videos. Production Manager of Pro-Go has decided to use six-sigma strategy in production to reduce the waste in production process which would enable the overall production in low budget. Low cost of the production would also enable the firm to sell the products in lower budget and the firm will also generate higher profit. Six-sigma strategy wants to provide continuous effort for gaining well-maintained manufacturing process. Six-sigma also enables the organisation to produce the products in lower budget and using less numbers of human resources (Gee, 2016). Pro-Go cameras have burst into flames in recent time which made the customers panic. The clients wanted to cancel the contract of purchasing the products from Pro-Go as they thought they the products would be poor quality. Therefore, at present, Production Manager of Pro-Go is needed to delay the venture of six-sigma into production process as the implementation of six-sigma would cost higher for the organisation. At present, the organisation is in need to reduce the operational cost as the firm is losing the clients. Implementation of Six-sigma is designed to develop the performance of the manufacturing sector (Hakimi et al., 2018). It was originally developed to control the quality especially for the large-scale development of the product. The main purpose of six-sigma is to eliminate the defects of manufacturing process to make faster the production. In Pro-Go, Production Manager thought that six-sigma identifies and removes the defect-causing elements which reduce waste in manufacturing process and it improves the quality of the overall products. However, implementation of the six-sigma costs large investment in the production unit and the human resources of the organisation need to provide continuous effort.
Production innovation to generate more revenue
Pro-Go cameras are bursting into flames and the management does not have the explanation; implementing the six-sigma into production can improve the quality of the products as it uses the measurable metrics in manufacturing processes. Pro-Go cannot use six-sigma at present; however, the organisation can use the technique of six-sigma in near future as it uses the approach to determine the projects which best fit the business goal at present. As a Production Manager, it is needed to measure the existing system and benchmark to eliminate the defects. Therefore, in near future, after discussing with the stakeholders, Pro-Go can utilise the six-sigma to determine the root cause of issue and it would help to improve the production in optimal level. Finally, six-sigma in production of camera would be beneficial for avoiding such disruption in the market as the human resources can control the step which may modify the operating instruction, procedures and policies to prevent the defects in future (isixsigma.com, 2018).
Pro-Go has been into small and action camera manufacture industry which was doing well in the industry. The videos of the camera produce superior colour and it operates effectively in lower lighting conditions than the competitors’ cameras. The technology used in the cameras is of very good quality; however, the cameras have burst into flames in recent time. This incident led to reducing the sales of Pro-Go drastically and the clients requested to cancel the contract. In previous stakeholder meeting, Production Manager stated a plan to do the product innovation where the cameras of Pro-Go can be sold to the third-parties by contract. Product innovation is associated with the idea of making different types of cameras which can be used in Smartphone, Smart-watch and CCTV. After the disruption, Pro-Go has lost large numbers of customers as the customers do not want to buy the products which have burst into flames. Therefore, Production manager wanted to shift their camera business into product innovation where they would manufacture not just the small and action camera; however different types of cameras based on the needs of the gadgets manufacturers. The Production Manager is needed to talk to the Chinese manufacturing sector where they can sell their cameras. Product innovation is the introduction of the new goods which is significantly improved for the intended users and it refers to the implementation of the new or significantly improved production of delivery (Tokimatsu et al., 2016). Pro-Go will follow the privacy legislation along with an improved technical specification of the products to reach the wider customers with lower cost. It would be beneficial for the organisation to generate more revenue during the time of crisis. Production Manager can ask the HR to recruit more skilled employees who can manage the production of innovative products. Production Manager would make a new relationship with suppliers for the components and raw materials along with incorporated software. As stated by Purakayastha (2018), architectural innovation is taking the skills and lessons along with technology to apply them in a different market. Pro-Go would do the same as Production Manager is asking to use same camera technology to use in the different electronic gadgets manufacturing segment. The innovation is amazing to increase the new customers as the market is receptive. However, architectural innovation is associated with risk due to reintroduction and reliance on the proven technology which may require a tweak to match the requirements of the new market (Innovativetechnologies.com, 2018).
Marketing related activities of distribution, positioning and branding
Production Manager of Pro-Go focused on the marketing of the cameras so that marketing related activities like distribution, positioning and branding can be done properly. After the sudden crisis, the need of the marketing activities has become doubled. Production Manager takes the responsibilities to make the manufacturing process and manufacturing process faster which allow the operational procedure smooth. As stated by Boin et al., (2016), quality manufacturing and faster marketing was the aim of the previous meeting. Production Manager observed that manufactured products took a longer time to distribute to the clients and positioning of the products is not strategically presented in the market to reach wider customers. As stated by Zhao et al., (2016), the marketing activity of the manufactured products is very important for communicating, creating and delivering the exchanged offering which has value for the clients. After disruptions in the market, Pro-Go can make a PR team which would help the organisation to reach wider audiences and communicate the clients necessarily. Marketing activities create partners, clients and it offers society help to ensure the growth of the business. PR team enables the organisation to work for both internal and external audiences which would look to the organisation’s management team for the answers (Emana et al., 2015). PR team of Pro-Go would enable the crisis situation to be under control as the team members would have technique and equipment to intelligently respond the manner which mitigates the damage to the organisation. Disruption of the business leads to losing the clients as Pro-Go management determines to reach potential customers to make them aware of the offerings and management needs to persuade the clients to buy the products.
Conclusion
It has been observed that Pro-Go has been faced the issue of disruption of the business due to the bursting of the camera into flames. In the previous stakeholder meeting, the Production Manager has averred about the use of six sigma strategy and reduces of the waste management in the production process. Pro-Go management was thinking of diversifying the business using innovative technologies to make the high-quality cameras to be used in the manufacturing sector. Marketing activities of the organisation were trying to be improved by developing the elements of distribution, positioning and branding. Therefore, six-sigma is disciplined which is statistical base analysis and it improves the quality of the production. Six-sigma methodology helps the organisation to eliminate the defects of the production which may help in future to avoid the crisis like bursting of the cameras. Six-sigma can help in the quality control of the camera production and it would reduce the waste. Diversifying of the business will help the organisation to have extra revenue and Pro-Go needs to recruit more employees who can work better for the organisation. Diversifying of the business would not make the organisation dependent on just the cameras as the organisation can bring revenue from the different innovative cameras to be used in Smart-watch, Smartphone and CCTV. Marketing activities of the Production Manager are related to the distribution and positioning. Distribution strategy helps the organisation to reach wider clients and it can bring the revenue. After the disruption of the organisation, marketing activities would help the organisation to have branding. Crisis communication deals with the reputation of the organisation and Pro-Go takes initiative to protect the reputation of the organisation to maintain a public image.
Pro-Go has been facing loss in the market due to the camera bursting and Production Manager is thinking to improve the quality of the camera and overall manufacturing unit. Quality control of the manufacturing unit can be developed through a six-sigma strategy. Pro-Go can implement six-sigma in near future to reduce the waste elimination. Six-sigma is accomplished by limiting the number of defects in the overall manufacturing process. Quality control process works under the statistical control which can be measured through the input process and it affects the output of the process. Six-sigma can aim to maximise the speed along with the accuracy of the production which aims to minimise the overhead cost. Pro-Go will get the benefit of increasing demand along with increase the internal communication within the organisation.
Pro-Go is thinking to use innovative technologies to improve the quality of the camera to sell the manufacturing units of electronic gadgets. This innovative technology will increase the demand of the cameras in the international market. This innovation will bring more revenue for the organisation and the management needs to select the appropriate method of using the technologies. It is to ensure that information must show the representation of the organisational innovation. The firm needs to make a partnership with some of the electronic gadget manufacturing firms to which Pro-Go would sell their products. Keeping the users in mid will help to research on the innovative technologies.
Production Manager needs to use the best marketing activities to reach wider clients after the disruption. Marketing activities will smooth up the market positioning and distribution of the manufactured products in the right way. Marketing of camera will definitely create a buzz in the market by recruiting the PR team which will communicate in a crisis situation. Crisis communication will definitely improve the brand image of Pro-Go and it will also help to find new clients for the organisation. PR team and Production Manager can discuss the right use of the advertising and promotions to reach wider customers. PR team can use techniques like Cause marketing, paid marketing and relationship marketing.
Reference List
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