Background and Analysis
The report is prepared for analyzing the British Airways online booking system failure and comparing it with the Virgin Airlines online booking system. With the implementation of the total quality management in the organization the current operation of the organization can be improved. It would also help to improve the customer service provided by the airline companies. The shutdown of the IT caused problem in the organization due to the uncontrolled return of power. The British airline faced problem regarding the management of the online infrastructure due to the outdated software and hardware running in their system. Another airline company Virgin airlines manages their system with the implementation of continuous improvement and outsourcing their resources. The report is prepared for the implementation of the total quality management in the current business process of the organization. The Kaizen methodology is selected for the total quality management of the framework of the organization.
For the creation of a benchmark the Kaizen methodology is selected and the infrastructure and the management policy are analyzed for the preparation of the report. The Kaizen methodology is used for analyzing the continuous improvement followed by the organization and it helps to remove the organizational errors. The organizational policy is analyzed and it has been found that the British Airways focuses on reducing the operational cost and gain maximum amount of profit from the business (Antony et al. 2016). The benchmarking is important for an organization for the analysis of the growth of the organization and the standards maintained for the infrastructure. With the implementation of the benchmarking the defects can be overcome and a set of tools are available that can be used to analyze the best practice followed by the organization (Kumar and Sharma 2017).
The benchmarking process are not adopted singly, rather than different stages are followed such as selection of the subject, definition of the process, identification of the potential partners, identification of the sources of data, collection of the data from separate partners, determination of the organizational gaps, establishment of the differences between the process, targeting the future performance, adjustment of the goals of the organization, communicating with the stakeholders, implementation of the new business practice and reviewing the current business process of the organization.
A specific indicator is used for the measurement of the performance using cost, productivity and time. The benchmarking can be used for the measurement of the internal or the external factors influencing the organizational growth. The benchmarking can be categorized into process benchmarking, financial benchmarking, investor perspective benchmarking, performance, product, strategic, functional operation, energy and best in class benchmarking. The process benchmarking focuses on monitoring and investigating the current business practice followed by the organization (Cherrafi et al. 2016). The benchmarking can be applied in every field of the business for resigning and improving the current business strategy. The financial benchmarking is used for analyzing the financial data and comparing the result for analyzing the productivity and competitiveness of the organization. Benchmarking can be implemented from the perspective of the investor by comparing the investment opportunity on the company over the other companies currently operating on the same field.
Benchmarking
For creation of a benchmark from the public sector view point the innovation and the improvements are considered. The effort and the resources required for achievement of the quality and efficiency of the organization is also considered (Mehralian et al. 2016). The performance benchmarking is used for assessment of the current position of the business in the marketplace and the service provided by the competitive organization are compared with the service of the organization. Reverse engineering can also be applied for analyzing the strength and weakness of the organization plan for the up gradation of the current framework of the organization. The strategic benchmarking is used for analyzing the strategy followed by the other organization to maintain a competitive position in the market (Raja Sreedharan et al. 2016). Complex functionality of the business such as the accounting information system, human resource are compared with the cost and the efficiency of the system. The energy consumed by the organizational resources are also analyzed and compared with other entities for analyzing the performance of the organization.
Benchmarking is also used as a set of tool for analysis of the efficiency and gaps of the information system of British Airways and the business process of the organization are compared with the Virgin Airlines for analyzing the standards maintained in the organization. Benchmarking acts as an important factor for the deployment of continuous improvement in the organization and measure the current performance of the organization. For the airline companies the weakness can arise from different fields and it is required to be identified. The leadership and coordination of the employees is important for the success of the organization and the employees is required to be assigned with roles and responsibility for minimizing the efforts manage the total quality of the organizational system (Wang, Wang and Lee 2014).
The policy of the organization is require to be analyzed and the importance of the mobility for the airline industry is required to be understood and a strategy is required to be developed for the increasing the efficiency of the online booking system of both the companies. The employees in the organization is required to be managed and they are required to be trained for developing new opportunity in the business of the organization. The customer satisfaction is also important for analyzing the benchmark for the organization. The expectation of the customer is required to be fulfilled and the potential users are required to be selected for the development of the information system (Saroja and Sujatha 2014). The four phases included in the project management is required to be included for the implementation of the benchmarking and a continuous improvement and learning is required for increasing the efficiency of the project. The quality of the new information system implemented for the management of the online booking system is required to be analyzed for the management of the future operation of the business.
The core competency and the scope of the project is required to be managed for the mitigation of the risk arised during the development of the new information system. Measuring the competency is also an important factor for the success of the project. A research is required to be performed on the information system and the technology used by the Virgin Airlines for a successful total quality management. The virgin airlines is set as a bench mark for the British Airways for implementation of the total quality management and gain competitive advantage in the aviation industry. The benefit or the organization and the stakeholders is also required to be considered for setting a benchmark for the new information system required to be developed for the organization (Sallis 2014). There are many challenges faced by the organization for the implementation of the benchmarking. The unique entities affecting the project is required to be analyzed. The lack of the objective and inclusion of attributes like profit, effectiveness are required to be included. The management of the project is also required to be maintained and the external source of information is required to be embedded for analyzing the benchmark set for the project.
Implementation of Benchmarking for Aviation Industry
Kaizen is derived from a Japanese philosophy and it means continuous improvement in an organization. There are two types of approaches used in kaizen such as flow kaizen and process kaizen. The flow kaizen is used in the organization for the improvement of the flow of the information and the material. It is used for renovating the workplace of the organization such as the production area. The process kaizen is used for improvement of the skills and knowledge of the workers working in the organization. The other small improvement that are required in the organization comes under the process kaizen (Al-Ettayyem and Zu’bi 2015). The kaizen is different from the traditional model followed by the organization for improving the work culture and with the adoption of the kaizen the organization can improve the current business process in a shorter duration of time.
The employees of the organization are involved and their ideas for improvement are taken for implementation in the business process of the organization (O’Neill, Sohal and Teng 2016). The kaizen is used in daily basis and it can benefit the organization by increasing the productivity and create a work culture for the workplace. For the improvement of the online booking system of British Airways the organization should follow the continuous improvement as followed by the virgin airlines (Assarlind and Gremyr 2014). The new technology that are available in the market and used by the leading competitors are required to be analyzed and implemented in the current business process for gaining competitive advantage. The waste generated from the organization is required to be eliminated and humanized approach should be followed for managing the employees working in the organization and involving them in the improvement of the organization. A suggestion system is required to be followed for improvement and a group is required to be created total quality management and improve the productivity of the organization.
With the implementation of the third party application and service in British Airways would have helped the organization to not face any service disruption in their global operation. The continuous management of the IT system and improving the network would help them to handle more number of traffic and avoid congestion in the network. Implementation of new service without upgrading the infrastructure caused extra load on the internal server and the system crashed. If the organization have followed the continuous improvement in the organization and launched their application service with increasing the current infrastructure of the organization they would not face this problem (Chiarini 2013). With the implementation of the kaizen in the business process of the British Airways the organization could have implemented the new services such as the baggage handling, mobile phone application with improving the server and the data centers to handle the increased number of request from the customers.
In case of the virgin airlines the scenario was different the company managed their continuous improvement with the application of third party service provider handling the online booking system for the organization. The company has improved its current business process and upgraded the Navitaire New Skies system. The application is updated periodically and patched for removing the risk of system failure and survive in the current market place. The risk of using the third party service was required to be analyzed by the organization and a risk mitigation plan should have been prepared. A backup plan is also required to be created for handling such emergency condition and accomplish the success of the organization (Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-García and Marchante-Lara 2014). There is also a need for support and building a relation between the hardware and the resources available in the organization for the development risk mitigation plan.
Challenges for Implementation of Benchmarking
A proper communication plan is also required to be developed for communicating with the stakeholders associated with the company and maintain the growth of the organization. The communication is required to be effective and the focus is required to be given on the results expected from the analysis (Pyzdek and Keller 2014). The New skies reservation system implemented by the virgin airline is required to be customized according to the organizational policy and handle the request of the customer. Since it is a third party service it differs from the traditional system and is used for the rapid growth of the organization. The technology barrier faced by the organization can be removed and excess cost associated with the maintenance of the traditional system can be discarded with the adoption of the system (Gimenez-Espin, Jiménez-Jiménez and Martínez-Costa 2013).
It is also flexible and respond to the demands in the market and the service provided by the virgin airlines are required to be added in the system such as meals, baggage and seat selection. It can also be used for enhancing the customer service and elimination of the complexity incurred in the development of the traditional system. The standards and the quality of service used in the navitaire is required to be analyzed for adoption of it in the organization. The value of the system is required to be analyzed in terms of the production and the benefit gained with the implementation of the system (Herzallah, Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez and Munoz Rosas 2014). The application kaizen in the business process of the British Airways would help to increasing the customer satisfaction level and points to the continuous improvement of the organization.
The main starting point of the improvement of the organization is ability of the organization to forecast the requirement of improvement and aware of the current problems of the organization. With the identification of the problem it is required to be resolved immediately and the employees working in the organization is required to be involved for sharing their ideas of improvement. Each of the movement of improvement is required to be standardized and all the employees is required to strive together and the rules of the kaizen is required to be implemented such as improve, reduce the wastage and standardization (Goetsch and Davis 2014). For the improvement of the current infrastructure of the organization the production activity is required to be clearly understood and a right decision is required to be taken for the elimination of the shortcomings. Different statistical tools such as total innovation management, total service product concept can be used for analyzing the quality of the current infrastructure and the information system improvement is also required to be analyzed for resolving the problem with the booking system of the airline companies.
Analyzing the challenges faced by the two organization British Airways and Virgin Airlines it has been found that the organization should follow continuous improvement in their current business process for maintaining a leading position in the market. Some recommendations are provided that would help the organization to improve the performance and efficiency of the business such as:
Development of an information management team- A management team is required to be selected for analyzing the current hardware and information system used by the organization and develop a new solution for resolving the issues faced by the organization. The management team is also responsible for implementation of new technology and analyze the risk associated with the system. A testing is required to be done for analyzing the proper working of the system and improve the efficiency of the current framework of the organization.
Providing proper training to the employees- The employees are required to be trained for using the system. The continuous improvement of the skill and the knowledge of the employees is important for the organizational growth. Proper training is important for maintaining the flow of information in the organization.
Implementation of the Kaizen- The implementation of the kaizen helps in continuous improvement of the organization and increase the productivity and efficiency of the organization. The people at all the levels of the organization is required to be involved for improvement and improve the workplace environment and productivity.
Conclusion
British Airways current face problem regarding management of their information system and there is a requirement of total quality management in the organization. The implementation of the total quality management in each of the stage of the business process for gaining a competitive advantage and improve the current performance of the organization. The continuous improvement followed by the Virgin airlines are analyzed for implementing it in the current business policy and renovate the old information technology and replaced with latest technology for serving more number of customer at a time and increase the performance of the business process. The maintenance cost of the current infrastructure is compared with the cost of implementation of the new system and the benefit that the organization can gain with the use of the new technology. The staffs working in the organization is required to be trained for using the new system and the improvement that the business can apply for gain the leading position in the current market place is also discussed in the report. The report also discusses about the continuous improvement of all the functionality and the employees and reducing the waste generated from the business.
Reference
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