Case Study :: Bringing Back Customers to 'Just Shop Here' by OS Balaji - a Quality Management Professional with experience in implementing

Quality management systems across diversified industries. Worked along in ISO 9 001:2000, CMM, CMMi, Six Sigma & TS 16949. Click here for his blog. Pranav was a worrisome manager of Just Shop Here , after he started getting complai nts from customers at a rate of 3 complaints for every 10 customers serviced. Su permarkets are highly customer service oriented business. The complaints were ta rgeted towards deficiency in service. The state of business started giving Prana v sleepless nights. After spotting this trend for one month he called in all his departments heads, brainstormed, discussed with facts and boiled down to set of causes that were th e sources of problem. All areas spanning across - men, material, methods were pu t under introspection. He was all set to find solution for various causes underm ined. (1) This is when he roped in Veeru, a freelance consultant to help him out of troubl e. On analysis they found major causes for service deficiency: Non-availability of few of the regularly bought food packets Poor inventory management of shelf items and to be ordered items. Veeru s guidance: First analyze which are the most sought out items depending on t heir demand and cost. Segregate all items to three different classes then decide the best fit inventory control for them. (2) Inconsistent supplier performance They boiled down on this cause after collecting and plotting data of supplier s on time delivery over a period of six months for key stocks. The trend thus seen w as analyzed. (3) Veeru s guidance: ____________________________ Poor quality wallets returned by customers Inadequate inspection mechanism for wallets prior to acceptance for sale. Veeru s guidance: As wallets are purchased in lots of thousands, devise a checking mechanism so that a representative lot could be taken for inspection and accept ance rejection limits could be defined. (4) Low employee morale Veeru s guidance: Introduce a system encouraging employees to give small improveme nt suggestions akin to Japanese continual improvement system. Analyze them and i mplement them quickly and reward the employees for participation. (5) After six months things changed dramatically and it was the day, Pranav called V eeru and said "Veeru, thanks a lot. After implementing all your suggestions we a re doing very well and you know what, I am on the way to collect the Best Superm arket award for the region". Questions a. What are the five different quality techniques/tools that had been made used in various situations marked against (1),(2),(3),(4),(5) by Veeru and Pranav? b. What would have been Veeru s guidance for problem related to 'inconsistent supp lier performance'?