We wanted the highest level of quality. Ritz-Carlton is now working with its suppliers for quality management. The firm has developed supplier certification, by which the company not only measures how often suppliers meet specifications on time, but how well they improve their cycle time from order to delivery.
Ritz-Carlton ranks the suppliers based on a score developed from the supplier audits and user surveys. The goal is to get suppliers to advance through a certification program to become a fully integrated partner.
Ritz-Carlton completely integrates human resources and operations, so that an outside observer might be hard pressed to figure out who were the human-resources people and who were the operations people, Mene observed.
Human-resources and operations personnel work together to select, orient, train, and certify employees. They also ensure that the employees remain deeply involved in running the business, since every level of the organization is charged with the responsibility of setting goals and objectives.
Appraisal is based on the things that we told employees were important during their orientation—the gold standards. Once our employees become certified, performance appraisals are nothing more than a recertification, so that training can become a continuous process. We also ask our people to contribute to the process by identifying problems and working to solve them.
I really believe the manager of the future must be a generalist. So, we can no longer say to human-resources people that they be responsible for personnel, and to controllers that they be responsible for finances. Future managers, and employees to a different extent, have to know and be responsible for quality, relationships, and finances. To make quality work successfully, the president and senior leaders must initiate and drive the process, Mene believes.
Guidebooks and TQM seminars can be helpful. An application committee should be formed to assess the current situation and implement the TQM process. Our committee was divided into seven subcommittees based on the seven examination areas in the Baldrige application, with a senior manager as leader for each area. Developing a detailed plan or work flow similar to opening a new hotel is extremely important for the purpose of completing the Baldrige application itself.
The application process of drafting the report and then reviewing, editing, publishing, printing, and defending it is a major undertaking. I recommend using a professional editing team, because you are publishing a book, make no mistake about it.
I also suggest editing the final document in a business-center environment, like a retreat, where you get your editing team together for a week to lock yourself down and just go through the iterations.
The editing process is bigger than one might imagine. Finally, I believe you ought to challenge your organization with an extraordinary goal. The goal to improve by using the application as a guide for self-assessment and developing a quality program should outweigh the goal of wanting to win the Baldrige award. The Ritz-Carlton case demonstrates that the hotel industry can apply Baldrige-award criteria to develop a successful quality program just like other firms in the manufacturing and service industries.
The chief mechanism for ensuring the steady quality improvement required by the Baldrige award is empowering employees, which means giving them the authority to identify and solve customer problems on the spot and to improve work processes. That requires training not only in quality concepts and quality control tools and techniques, but also in how to do the job and how to work together as a team. Although many persons feel that the precisely measured Baldrige criteria favor manufacturing, the award does not require companies to use computer-generated statistical techniques.
Companies are required, however, to collect and analyze information related to customer satisfaction, quality of products and services, cycle-time reduction, and financial and employee-related performance, and to make comparisons with competitors and industry benchmarks.
In fact, measuring quality is one spot where Ritz-Carlton encountered problems. In our conversation, Patrick Mene expressed how difficult it was to find quality-related information on the industry. Except for financial data, neither single competitors nor the industry as a whole was tracking quality-assessment information. The need to change current systems of information gathering and analysis to focus more on quality and data related to customer satisfaction will be a challenge to other hotel companies in planning their quality programs.
The Ritz-Carlton experience also offers lessons for other hotel companies interested in pursuing the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. For the Ritz-Carlton, winning the Baldrige has been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the award is a crowning achievement for employees on their successful development and implementation of TQM.
Although the award winners are not required to respond to such demands, they are expected to support the quality movement by sharing what they have learned with others. Mene would change nothing, though. So we found the benefits more than outweighed any problems. A quality approach to running a business is the most cost-effective, least capital-intensive path to profitability.
Companies that seek the award merely to gain publicity or prestige will find that such pursuits usually do not withstand the scrutiny that examiners give each applicant. The hotel industry today is being challenged by a sluggish economy, increased multinational competition, and a more-sophisticated and demanding customer.
How these issues are addressed may very well determine the difference between success and failure. Lewis and Richard E. Greger and Glenn R. That is why Deming emphasized the need for training and education in his principles of TQM. The Ritz-Carlton is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.
We pledge to provide the best service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed yet refined ambience. The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
All employees will successfully complete Training Certification to ensure they understand how to perform to The Ritz-Carlton standards in their position. Train and develop employees to be able to sustain high standards for service : For example, the company provides extensive training around the three steps of service outlined in the Gold Standards, said Lutz.
Implement rewards and recognition programs for employees to sustain the expected performance in relation to service components : Lutz advises building rewards and recognition components to address the types of customer service behaviors that your organization seeks to have your employees demonstrate. If a Ritz-Carlton employee is observed doing something well, he or she can receive a First-Class Card as a form of kudos and recognition.
Such cards also give employees opportunities to win perks such as a free dinner or movie ticket through regular drawings. He affirmed that the benefit of using the Baldrige framework is more fundamental than being recognized for winning the prestigious national award. The feedback that The Ritz-Carlton got the first time it applied for the Baldrige Award was essential to building its understanding of its performance, he added. Christine Schaefer is a longtime staff member of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and current leader of the Education Team—a group of four who produce publications and communications and Blogrige The Official Baldrige Blog.
Share Facebook. The results were used to develop performance benchmarks against which future activity could be measured. With specific, quantifiable targets in place, Ritz-Carlton managers and employees now focus on continuous improvement. Employee teams determine work scheduling, what work needs to be done, and what to do about quality problems in their own areas.
In order that they can see the relationship of the specific area to the overall goals, employees are also given the opportunity to take additional training in hotel operations. Ritz-Carlton believes that a more educated and informed employee is in a better position to make decisions in the best interest of the organization.
Comment on the appropriateness of these actions based on your reading and understanding of the chapter content. Many companies say that their goal is to provide quality products of services. What actions might you expect from a company that intends quality to be more than a slogan or buzzword?
How could control charts, pareto diagrams, and cause-and-effect diagrams be used to identify quality problems at a hotel?
0コメント