service quality management
Introduction
This case study talks about the many service quality issues faced by a local mass transport company, SMRT. The company has to still remain functional amidst mass criticism amongst the public due to inefficient communication networks, inefficient maintenance and various problems in the senior management. As a newly appointed senior manager, it is imperative that we work towards delivering a high quality service to our customers. There are many tools and quality improvement frameworks that we can use to improve existing service quality standards.
The problems faced by the company start with over 10 breakdowns that have occurred in a span of two years. Due to repetitive service disruptions, the previous CEO, Ms. Saw Phaik Hwa who has apologized publicly and offered false promises, further causing more service disruptions affecting around 127,000 passengers including 1000 passengers stranded in each of the four trains that were stalled.
Maintenance Issues
This is one of the main problems that have impacted the quality of the services provided by SMRT. Various issues such as misalignment of tracks & lack of evacuation and emergency plans have impacted the customers’ health and have caused some of them a lot of inconvenience and stress. There has been serious impact on the service’s productivity due to the same problems as they have not been able to successfully carry out their promised service. Even when the breakdowns happened, the backup power systems did not turn on and this made the people stranded very uncomfortable and claustrophobic. Excuses were given once again to quickly dismiss these accusations.
By using Deming’s 14 Points of Management, we could find out the root causes of the problem.
1. Management Commitment: The senior management had not been able to live up to the promises that they have publicly given mainly due to the inefficiency of the senior management. Had the senior management a closer involvement in the
This case study talks about the many service quality issues faced by a local mass transport company, SMRT. The company has to still remain functional amidst mass criticism amongst the public due to inefficient communication networks, inefficient maintenance and various problems in the senior management. As a newly appointed senior manager, it is imperative that we work towards delivering a high quality service to our customers. There are many tools and quality improvement frameworks that we can use to improve existing service quality standards.
The problems faced by the company start with over 10 breakdowns that have occurred in a span of two years. Due to repetitive service disruptions, the previous CEO, Ms. Saw Phaik Hwa who has apologized publicly and offered false promises, further causing more service disruptions affecting around 127,000 passengers including 1000 passengers stranded in each of the four trains that were stalled.
Maintenance Issues
This is one of the main problems that have impacted the quality of the services provided by SMRT. Various issues such as misalignment of tracks & lack of evacuation and emergency plans have impacted the customers’ health and have caused some of them a lot of inconvenience and stress. There has been serious impact on the service’s productivity due to the same problems as they have not been able to successfully carry out their promised service. Even when the breakdowns happened, the backup power systems did not turn on and this made the people stranded very uncomfortable and claustrophobic. Excuses were given once again to quickly dismiss these accusations.
By using Deming’s 14 Points of Management, we could find out the root causes of the problem.
1. Management Commitment: The senior management had not been able to live up to the promises that they have publicly given mainly due to the inefficiency of the senior management. Had the senior management a closer involvement in the