Thursday, September 19, 2019

Report: Documentation and recommendations in relation to the GEMS system


Definition of terms:
MRE- Maple Ridge Engineering Group
GEMS- Global Engineering Management System

Documentation and recommendations in relation to the GEMS system
a.       Documentation on MRE business processes and identification of faults
Business process improvement refers to the identification and analysis of the operations of a business with an aim to conducting a review that would lead to the improvement of the efficiency of such a business. This process must be done in accordance with the understanding of the goals and objectives of an organisation with a firm focus on the efficiency of the process. The importance of focusing on the goals of the organisation is to ensure that the process improvement does not conflict with overall organisational goals. For instance, most organisations emphasise the need to run operations profitably and in a manner that ensures the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction requires timely delivery, accurate and timely updates, and the delivery of solutions that are in line with the specifications needed (Keill and Johnson, 1994). This therefore requires good communication systems that ensure accurate interpretation of customer needs. It also requires utmost cooperation between departments with accuracy being consistent across all levels of the consultation process. As analysts would point out, profitability moves most organisations and every business process consultant should focus their attention on how to ensure that the processes cut down on unnecessary wastage and duplication, and delays arising from inefficient systems (Ahmed and Islam, 2012).


The business process at MRE’s training functions can be summarised as follows:
      i.       The customers identified are contacted to determine their needs. The needs identification culminates into the creation of a preliminary curriculum
    ii.       The training department consults with members of the technical team to generate the final curriculum which then forms the basis for training
  iii.       The department identifies the suitable trainers for the programs generated
  iv.       The capabilities of such trainers is evaluated via the established resource management systems and training conducted as per the final curriculum generated
    v.       Manuals and other deliverable necessary for successful training are prepared and delivered to the customers
  vi.       Training commences with the team leader expected to submit a project summary within 5 days of commencement. 
vii.       Once training commences, trainers are expected to provide regular feedbacks to the status of the projects. However, the frequency of such reporting is hampered by the fact that most trainers are often in remote regions and therefore not always available to provide the feedback. Matters are complicated further by the fact that the reporting cannot be done through communication with officers in the office by virtue of the fact that trainers are only available for the exercise after working hours.






An analysis of the MRE business process can be summarised using the data flow diagram below:


From the business process outlined above, a number of strengths can be picked out. To begin with, the process emphasises the importance of the flow of information between the company and the clients and between the training department and other technical departments. This emphasises the need for the organisation to work as a team with the greatest need for cooperation being between the training department and the engineering departments. The second strength relates to the simplicity of the process. The business process is easy to understand and follow through. It is therefore easy to design a management system or software that can be implemented with relative ease.



The weaknesses of the system can be itemised as follows:
      i.            The process of consultation with clients to determine their needs is unstructured. While structured enquiries may seem rigid and unyielding, their presence is important to provide guidance and introduce some form of standard in the service delivery of the company. This form of benchmark was found to be lacking.
    ii.            Inadequate reference to the financial perspective of the process. A business process is incomplete without the mention of its contribution to the bottom line. In terms of process, it should be clear who provides the information used to determine the cost of the service. The process should be clear on how and at what stage invoicing is done and by whom.
  iii.            The process of consultation within the organisation appears haphazard with no clear guidelines on the persons responsible for such consultations. It also appears that such consultations are unstructured and therefore likely to be inadequate or at the very least fail to provide the customers with the best solutions available. This places the company at the risk of failing to generate the requisite customer satisfaction levels.
  iv.            The business process was also found wanting in terms of allocating responsibility to specific individuals. The responsibility of departments seems to be well established. However, it becomes difficult to trace the cause of failure in cases where a process appears to stagnate. 
    v.             A fault was also identified in the reporting systems where trainers may be unable to record their progress on projects due to the fact that they are often stationed away from the office. The option of calling in is also hampered by the fact that remote trainers are only available for such updates long after the responsible persons are out of the office. This leaves a vacuum in reporting with the responsible persons unable to track progress and update the customers accordingly.
  vi.            It was also observed that the paper reporting system was hard to track. Reports would have to be generated through a tiring process and the organisation would therefore not be able to provide prompt updates to clients. Moreover, quick management decisions would be impossible as the figure needed would have to be generated through the time consuming process. Weekly reports are an inconvenience and better systems need to be put in place.  
vii.            It was also observed that the paper reporting system often results in information loss and inaccuracies. Papers are cumbersome and difficult to cross-reference. Where the report making process generates mistakes, such mistakes may not be easily detected hence leading to decision making based on inaccurate information.

b.      Recommendations for GEMS system
The GEMS system is supposed to be designed to resolve the issues identified in the current business process at MRE. Good business processes should eliminate redundancies, duplication and opportunities for the distortion of information. The following recommendations would see the GEMS system solve the operational issues identified at MRE:

  1. Establishment of direct reporting line. A good information management system should be able to trace given tasks to the officer directly in charge. An area that could easily benefit from this feature is the progress reporting stage by trainers. Specific trainers should provide their feedback and the system should be able to pick out promptly the officers that fail to do so. Analysts have held and continue to hold that the provision of timely updates is a crucial element in generating satisfaction among clients (Ahmed and Islam, 2012). Clients need to be kept informed and they need to be confident that the information given at any point is accurate and factual.
  2. Offsite reporting can be facilitated through the system. This can be done through granting special access to trainers where they can log into the companies intranet and update their progress as appropriate. This would eliminate the need to engage other staff members whose involvement may lead to distortion. It also gets rid of idle capacity, duplication and possible redundancy.
  3. Management decisions need to be based on facts and are in many cases made on short notice (Ngwenyama and Norbjerg, 2010). It therefore requires that the managers be able to obtain the information needed for such decisions promptly. The GEMS system is supposed to facilitate the generation of such reports at the click of a button. Information on the total number of projects pending, amounts charged for each, category of projects and other information should be produced with ease and facilitate decision making.
  4. The GEMS system is also expected to improve internal communication mechanisms. Assignment of specific duties in regards to the delivery on given projects can be facilitated with section heads able to monitor the progress of various projects with ease. This eliminates the need to have several supervisors and helps save money for the organisation. Automation could also be applied to the invoice generation processes which facilitate timely payments. This is inconsistency with the findings of Ngwenyama and Norbjerg (2010) who found that automation eliminates cases of inaccuracy, improves accountability and facilitates fast collection of fees owed by customers.

In conclusion, the GEMS system allows for the organisation to get rid of some of the operational hitches that the company has had in its business processes. It helps in the introduction of a benchmark in terms of accuracy of information and speed of consultation. It is also expected to aid in the supervisory and management function with managers given the tools to make timely and reliable decisions based accurate and easily accessible information.

References
Ahmed, D.M., Islam, S., 2012. Business process improvement of credit card department: case study of a multinational bank. Business Process Management Journal, 18(2), pp. 42-65
Keill, P., Johnson, T., 1994. Optimising performance through process improvement. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 9(1), pp. 1-9
Ngwenyama, O., Norbjerg, J., 2010. Software process improvement with weak management support: an analysis of the dynamics of intra-organisational alliances. European Journal of Information Systems. 19, pp. 303-319


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