Improving Competitiveness In The Telecommunication Industry

1. As a business improvement consultant, you and your team (including members from PEW) have only three (3) months to correct the situation. You would need to:

 

i. Identify the root cause(s) that lead to the problems using appropriate tools and techniques.

 

ii. Develop a continuous improvement plan to ensure the problems and issues are not repeated.

 

iii. Elaborate on the competencies required from PEW management and employees to effectively bring about the change.

The Precision Engineering Works Private Limited (PEW) is one of the largest equipment manufacturing company. The company is responsible for specialising in the process of the moulding of different parts of plastic based within the industry of telecommunication. The company is dedicated towards providing various forms of services to their business clients. PEW is dedicated towards servicing the telecommunication industry. The manufacturing company is dedicated providing various forms of services based on providing moulding services for 30 years (Hill, 2017). The customers of the company include the major form of providers of telecommunication services. In the recent age of the highly competitive market, there has been a rise in the major competitors of the market. There are different kinds of factors that are majorly forming the reason of the losing of the competitive gain the high market conditions. These form of conditions would not be accepted by PEW as they would be losing their hold within the market. Based on the current form of situations, analysis of the root cause of the current form of marketing strategies in the market have been formed. This form of analysis would be helpful for analysing the marketing strategy of the organisation (Fratocchi et al., 2014). Based on the identification of the problem, there have been major form of the development of strategies within the competitive market. These form of strategies would be able to improve the current form of marketing platforms. The required form of management within the context of the business would be helpful for the different forms of improvement within the overall section of the business context. Based on the understanding from the above report, the conclusions have been drawn for the forming of different kinds of strategies.

The primary cause of problem in relation with PEW is that the company would be losing their marketing platforms within the current manufacturing industry. The main form of profitability of the company is that the profit margins of the company have moved down till 45%. This is not desirable for such a company like PEW as they maintain a higher level of profit margins within the market (Latino et al., 2016). It could be thus discussed within the context that the various causes of degradation of the profitability of the business could be easily identified. Some of the major causes of the problem of losing competitiveness within the market is:

• Entry of new form of manufacturing based companies who would hold the same form of responsibility within the market. They would be manufacturing different forms of equipment within the telecommunication industry (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).   
• The strategy of pricing within the market would be mentioned by the new form of companies that would be effective for the company. These form of equipment would be offered at a reasonable price (Peerally et al., 2017).

The root cause analysis would prove to be extremely helpful for the purpose of the identification of the primary problem that have been identified by the company. Based on the identification of the problem, the company would be able to find different forms of relevant forms of solutions for the purpose of providing different forms of relevant solutions (Chang, 2016). Based on defining the strategy in the market, there would be a better form of management, which would be helpful for improving the sector of business within the PEW sector.

The different forms of tools that would be available for performing the analysis of the root cause of the problem is based on analysing five forms of techniques and the demonstration of the fishbone diagram.

Problem 1 – PEW is losing their hold over the current forms of the highly competitive market. Hence the profitability of the company has moved down by 45%.

Primary Tools that are used – The primary form of tool that have been used in the present context is ‘Five Why’ tool.

Tool Usage – Why is the concerned company losing their share of profitability?

The basic answer to the discussed question is that the sale of the products manufactured by the company and the equipment would be decreased by a drastic amount.

Why has the sale of products by the company been decreased?

There has been a slowdown of the process of sales of the company. This is due to the reason that based with the rise of different other kinds of companies, there have been different forms of options that are viable to the consumers. There are many new companies who are investing more within the concerned sector.

Why are people preferring for the new products of the companies?

The clients are mainly preferring different forms of products of the other companies as they are gaining hold over the products at a much low price that is mainly affordable by other buyers.

Which of the areas are being lacked based on the smart price strategy?

Based on the smart pricing strategy, PEW is lacking due to a lack in the proper form of surveying methods within the market. They are not able to cope up with the changing situations within the market.

Why is the smart pricing strategy not being implemented by PEW?

The primary cause of the concerning problem has been identified. In this particular case, the primary cause is based on the smart pricing strategy based on PEW.

Assumptions – Some of the form of assumptions that could be defined within the context of the problem are:

There has been a small chances of entry of new form of equipment within the market (Storey, 2016). The equipment developed by other companies are the major form of threats within the market. The clients who would purchase those products would always choose the lower pricing models of the equipment. The factor of quality would not be considered as the popularity of the products would not be considered. The promotion and marketing platforms based on the equipment would not affect the situations of the business in this particular case (Means, 2017). The clients are mainly concerned based on the lower pricing of the equipment.

Problem 1 – PEW has another major concern based on the increasing number of competitors within the highly developing market.

Primary Tools that are used – The tools that are primarily used are based on the ‘Fishbone’ diagram.

Tool Usage – This form of diagram is also known as the effect diagram. The main head of the diagram would be able to denote the primary form of problems. The sub arrows that have been developed within the diagram would point to the head of the diagram (Harrison & Lock, 2017). This would be the main form of causes based on the problems.

In the current context, the primary problem have helped in the increasing form of profitability of the company (Ward, 2016). The possible forms of causes for losing the gain within the market is based on the rise of the competitors within the current market of PEW. This high rise of the number of competitors within the market would not be controllable by the company. Hence, PEW would have to rethink about their current strategies and thus gain their hold within the business. The induction of the process of brainstorming would be helpful for improvement of the above kinds of situations (Jones & Jones, 2013). They brainstorming process would be able to improve the overall process of the business sector.

Assumptions – The assumptions made by the company would be focused on the bringing about the innovation and the quality within the organization.

Other kinds of tools used for the Root Cause Analysis of the Problem

Brain Storming – This is one form of process that would be helpful in the identification of the various kind of problems within the concerned organization. There are various kinds of causes, which would be helpful for the identification of the proper form of the cause of the problem (Rosenfeld, 2013). The main form of advantage of the process of brainstorming is that they would allow the members of the project for discussing the current form of problem and thus there could be a proper form of discussion about the different form of aspects within the project (Ashok Sarkar, Ranjan Mukhopadhyay & Ghosh, 2013).

Flowcharting – This form of process would also be considered as an important factor for analysing the primary form of cause of the problem. This form of chart would help in the identification of the problem with the help of a graph making process (Khalid et al., 2013). There could be various forms of occurrences of the problem. The primary kind of problem that is been faced by PEW is based on the decrease of the profitability of their business.

Current Reality Tree Analysis – The analysis of the current reality tree would be helpful for the identification of the present form of situation of the PEW. This would also include the present form of pricing strategy based within the organization (Maslach & Jackson, 2013). The tools based on the current tree analysis would be helpful for the identification of the areas in which the company would be lacking and thus would discuss about the ways in which the situations would be improved within the company. Based on the current scenario, the future analysis tree would be implemented based on the mitigation of the effect based on the strategy of pricing based within the sector of PEW (Ericson, 2015). This form of analysis based tree would be implemented based on the improvement of the present forms of situations within the organization.

Kepner-Tregoe Technique – This form of problem would be helpful for the purpose of identification of the root cause of the concerned problems. This technique would be helpful by breaking down the problem into extreme pieces based on the identification of the root cause of the problem (Andler, 2016). The concerned problem of PEW is that they are experiencing a difficulty based on the decrease of their profitability. This problem could be further broken down into various kinds of sub-problems. Hence the proper form of identification of the problem would be helpful for the suggesting of the steps based on mitigating the problem. The identification of the various causes of problem could be discovered with the impact of the brainstorming process (Saad et al., 2013). Hence the breakdown of the concerned problem within the organization would be helpful for dividing the problem into dub-problems for the purpose of identification of the main cause of problems within the concerned sector.

RPR Diagrams – This form of diagrams would be helpful for the identification of three forms of factors:

Discover – This kind of diagram would be helpful in identifying the primary causes of the problem. The problem of PEW is that there is a decrease within the profit of their business.

Investigate – This kind of phase would be associated with the primary form of analysis of the problem. The PEW would be helpful based on regarding about the kinds of problem that have been identified within the organization.

Fixing of Issues – This kind of step would be helpful for the resolving of the relevant situations of the problem.

Problems Identified – The problems that have been identified is based on the decreasing kinds of profitability of the business of PEW. There have been different kinds of competitors who are the root causes of the problem.

Actions Taken – There could be different kinds of actions that could be taken based on the identification of the problems. The actions that could be taken based on the current scenario could be classified as Long Term Actions and Short Time Actions

Resources Required – There would be a need for the allocation of resources based on the processes of mitigation of the problem. There should be a reduction of the product pricing that would be based on the short term of goals of the organization.

Follow up Actions and Status – There should be a proper form of process of the follow up of the actions. The manager of the project should ensure that the business analysts should be working based on the current pricing within the market. The management of the concerned project should ensure that there should be a proper form of pricing based on the reduction of pro=ices within the market.

Business and Strategic Management – There are different kinds of methodologies based on the form of management and planning within the company. Some of the proper form of project management methodologies are Agile and PRINCE2. The PMBOK is the form of guideline that would be helpful for providing the reference based on the implementation of the management of the planning of the project (Baer, Dirks & Nickerson, 2013). This form of guideline would be helpful for the competition for the organization. The designing and planning based on the execution would be done based on the decisions based on the practices performed by the business analyst. The project manager would be helpful for the execution of the plan of the project.

Technical Management – The improvement of the various kinds of factors would be very much beneficial for the competition within the highly competitive market (Whitney & Daniels, 2013). These different kinds of factors would be helpful for the improvement of the quality of products that have been manufactured by the organisation. The management of the technical aspects of the organisation would be helpful for the management of the emerging form of technologies within the use of the project.

Leadership – This is another important form of quality within the project management. In this particular case, the goal of the organization is to gain a share within the market. The project manager within the organization would be helpful for thinking about the forms of strategies that would be adopted by the organization. The leader would be able to discuss about the use of different forms of strategies within the market (Dombrowski & Mielke, 2013). The factor of leadership would be helpful for the process of solving different kinds of problems that are concerned within the project areas (Ellis, 2018).

Based on the discussion from the above report it could be concluded that the implementation of the various forms of improved processes would be helpful for the business plan of the PEW. The primary form of the objective based on the implementation of the business plan is to improvise the process of business of PEW. The company has a high form of reputation in the international market. They are performing better operations in the international market. However, it could has been seen that there have been major forms of changes within the market as there are different form of impact of various kinds of competitors within the international market. Hence The Company has been threatened with the impact of the competitors. The major form of challenges that have been faced by the organisation is that there have been major form of lowering of the profits of the organisation. There are certain kinds of assumptions within the market based on the decrease of the profits of the company. There have been major forms of threats. The other companies have helped in the decrease of the profits of the company. The pricing of the products is a major form of concern within the project. This is the main form of reason for the company to lose their share within the market. The main cause of analysis would be top identify the different forms of root causes based on the problem scenario. There have been certain kinds of assumptions that have been made within the sector based on increasing of the profits within the organization. However with the management of a proper kind of plan would be helpful for the identification of the problem and thus would increase the pricing strategy of the organization.

Andler, N. (2016). Tools for project management, workshops and consulting: a must-have compendium of essential tools and techniques. John Wiley & Sons.

Ashok Sarkar, S., Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, A., & Ghosh, S. K. (2013). Root cause analysis, Lean Six Sigma and test of hypothesis. The TQM Journal, 25(2), 170-185.

Baer, M., Dirks, K. T., & Nickerson, J. A. (2013). Microfoundations of strategic problem formulation. Strategic Management Journal, 34(2), 197-214.

Chang, J. F. (2016). Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. Auerbach Publications.

Dombrowski, U., & Mielke, T. (2013). Lean leadership–fundamental principles and their application. Procedia CIRP, 7, 569-574.

Ellis, K.C., 2018. Introduction. In Secular Nationalism and Citizenship in Muslim Countries (pp. 1-26). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Ericson, C. A. (2015). Hazard analysis techniques for system safety. John Wiley & Sons.

Fratocchi, L., Di Mauro, C., Barbieri, P., Nassimbeni, G., & Zanoni, A. (2014). When manufacturing moves back: Concepts and questions. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 20(1), 54-59.

Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.

Hill, T. (2017). Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Jones, G. R., & Jones, G. R. (2013). Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Khalid, I., Al Salmi, H., Qushmaq, I., Al Hroub, M., Kadri, M., & Qabajah, M. R. (2013). Itemizing the bundle: achieving and maintaining “zero” central line-associated bloodstream infection for over a year in a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia. American journal of infection control, 41(12), 1209-1213.

Latino, R. J., Latino, K. C., & Latino, M. A. (2016). Root cause analysis: improving performance for bottom-line results. CRC press.

Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (2013). A social psychological analysis. Social psychology of health and illness, 227.

Means, G. (2017). The modern corporation and private property. Routledge.

Peerally, M. F., Carr, S., Waring, J., & Dixon-Woods, M. (2017). The problem with root cause analysis. BMJ Qual Saf, 26(5), 417-422.

Rosenfeld, Y. (2013). Root-cause analysis of construction-cost overruns. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 140(1), 04013039.

Saad, N. M., Al-Ashaab, A., Maksimovic, M., Zhu, L., Shehab, E., Ewers, P., & Kassam, A. (2013). A3 thinking approach to support knowledge-driven design. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 68(5-8), 1371-1386.

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Storey, D. J. (2016). Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.

Ward, J. (2016). Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth, profitability, and family leadership. Springer.

Whitney, K. M., & Daniels, C. B. (2013). The root cause of failure in complex IT projects: complexity itself. Procedia Computer Science, 20, 325-330.