Project Management Assignment Analysing Quality Management Problems Of Woolworths

Question

Project Management Assignment Instructions:
Analysis Of Factors Leading to Woolworths’ Quality Management Problems

Scenario:
The report focuses on the questions being raised over Woolworths’ quality management resulting in poor quality of milk supplied by the Supermarkets of Australia. The controversies related to such degraded quality of milk are also observed from the report. The models along with the theories suitable for the resolution of the issues are also observed and form part of the report as far as the providing of a comprehensive solution is concerned.

1. Introduction

The report is primarily aimed at the providing an overview of issues related to Woolworths’ quality management and poor customer feedback of the major supermarket chain in Australia. Woolworths Supermarkets was established in the year 1924 and is headquartered in Belle Vista, Australia. Since its inception it has expanded to a huge level in the Australian market. However, it has been entangled in various controversies of late thereby concerns being raised about the services it is providing to the customers (Woolworths Group, 2019). The most notable controversy which has dogged Woolworths’ quality management in the recent past is the supply of contaminated milk thereby implying the issues related to food quality in Woolworths Supermarkets to a great extent. As a result, a proper and appropriate analysis would be made in the report with regard to the marketing of degraded quality milk by Woolworths Supermarkets. In this regard, an intervention is also to be laid out relating to the steps, measures and precautions to be taken in the form of activities and procedures for the purpose of improvements to be made in order to address the issue. It would also include the suggestions and recommendations thereby capitulating upon the intervention.

2. Problem of milk quality in Woolworths Supermarkets

The supply of sub-standard milk on part of Supermarket has raised huge concerns regarding Woolworths’ quality management. In the recent past, there have been many instances where milk has been recalled form Woolworths Supermarkets and Coles Supermarkets as it has been observed that the milk marketed by such supermarket chains contain chemicals which are used for cleaning thereby implying that the milk is synthetic in nature (SBS News, 2019). The awareness is also being spread amongst the regular customers of Woolworths Supermarkets as far as checking the milk before purchase is concerned. As a result, it is imperative that if the problem relating to milk quality is not resolved by Woolworths Supermarkets at the earliest, customer complaints would rise in the future to a huge level thereby resulting in a detrimental effect over the aspect of Customer Relationship Management on part of Woolworths Supermarkets (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017). It would also lead to a negative impact over customer satisfaction in the long run as the loyal and regular customers would be driven away towards competitors. As a result, Woolworths Supermarkets would not only lose profits and revenues to a huge extent due to drop in sales of their products and services but might also lose prospective contracts in terms of Joint Venture Agreements and deals pertaining to Mergers & Acquisitions. The issues related to health and safety in terms of milk quality for Woolworths Supermarkets are also being raised to a huge extent. Poor quality management has had an effect on the brand image of Woolworths Supermarkets and may further be tarnished if such issues are not resolved at the earliest. Various kinds of milk have been recalled from Woolworths Supermarkets on grounds of contamination. Apart from containing chemicals, another reason for the recall of milk from Woolworths Supermarkets is the prevalence of E. coli bacteria in the milk thereby resulting in contamination to a massive extent.

What are some Woolworths quality management problems?

The concept related to strategic planning would have an essential role to play as far as addressing Woolworths quality management relating to milk acquisition, storage and supply. The formulation and implementation of a definite strategy would play an important role in the identification of the areas that can be improved in order to address the milk quality issues in an incredible manner. As a result, the laying out of a proper plan would help in the achievement of the goals and objectives for Woolworths Supermarkets with regard the ironing out of the flaws related to milk quality (Wolf and Floyd, 2017). An organized approach is to be followed in order to implement the strategy in an effective and efficient manner. As a result, the situational analysis model would aid in the deeper analysis of the issue related to milk quality in Woolworths Supermarkets in an incredible manner thereby resulting in favorable outcomes (McLean, 2019).

PROJECT BRIEF
You have been contracted as part of the project management team to consult as the project quality team specialist. The client’s brief is that they have recently had problems relating to the quality of their milk. The client wishes not to lose their brand advantage within the retail industry. As the project quality team specialist, you are required to create the documentation pack relating to the 3 processes which talks to improving Project Quality relating to Project Quality Planning, Project Quality Management and Project Quality Control. Use the case study to substantiate your response.

In relation to the above case study structure your response according to following framework.

Each of the three Quality Management Processes (Plan Project Quality, Manage Project Quality and Control Project Quality) can be broken down into Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Outputs.

Answer

1. Plan Quality Management

In order to look forward to the iteration of appropriate quality management with regards to the present context of project management assignment, it would be necessary for Woolworth to encompass a number of essential creations. Most of the criteria would be based on the application of "food security programs" as well as paramount focus on customer satisfaction. Application of tools and techniques such as "Food Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)" would be essentially applied with the enhancement of good manufacturing practice. 

1.1 Inputs

The five factors that would be necessarily taken into account are through appropriate assessment of minimum criterion of quality production. This is further considered with the addition of the "Food GMP Modernisation Working Group" that would help in reassuring the maximising efforts for checking on quality matrices. The inputs that would be further essential in this regard are:

1. . Project management plan that would be able to help in undermining all quality inhibitors of the natural process. This would also set a collaborative approach within the company with respect to the registration of quality governance criteria (Dasgupta, Ranjan and Ramalingam 2017)

2. Project documents would allow for the record-keeping ability for the project to undermine all the efficient factors involved within the supply chain of Woolworth's groups in countering and monitoring quality dimensions. It would also enable the stakeholders to care for an optimal process of maintaining transparent supply chain operations without the scope of quality compromise. 

3. Work performance data across the entire supply chain would enable for the entire company members to be inclusive of all the equity metrics along with transfixing quality governance standards based on international legislative bodies. It would also help in the measurement of optimal progress into the quality governance patterns within a stipulated point of time (Fiorino et al. 2019)

4. Enterprise resources and assets would enable for the company to focus on careful optimisation of all the information with the careful iteration of warehousing and storing facilities

5. Inventory management lists would enable for the company's value chain to be aligned with key performance indicators and further low for the company to utilise its warehousing facilities without any scope for contamination. This would further include the use of batch codes to keep track of its transportation, storage and distribution operations. 

1.2 Tool and Techniques

The tools and techniques that would be artfully optimised are “cause and effect diagrams' '. It would be able to produce a careful integration of ways based on which cause and roots of the food contamination could be detected. Other than that, the use of control charts and histogram would be able to measure the deviations in maintaining production standards according to the quality metrics predefined by the quality management team (Górka, ?lusarczyk and Krochmal-Marczak 2019). The use of Pareto charts would further allow for the company to be highly inclusive of deviations based on the optimal cost and timeline set by the entire project involved. 

1.3 Outputs 

A number of major outputs, as well as checklists, can be produced to measure the optimal success of the entire quality management plan. The inclusion of "quality policies'' would help shape the entirety for Woolworths to be inclusive of quality indicators and optional time required for achievement of quality. Alongside that, application of project assurance could also be applied with inclusion of quality statistics, validated deliverables and process improvement plan.

2. Manage Project Quality

2.1 Inputs

Requirements of managing the defined qualities would include exhibition of an organisation level cage strategy. This would also help for the management plan to be highly inclusive of Woolworth’s organisational statistics and project requirements. Based on the deliverables issued to the commitment of the entire system, the company would be able to produce for optimal success (Hong et al. 2019). The five key inputs required for this would be "requirement definition", "motivation driven employee", "integrated communication platform", "stakeholder reviews", and customer feedback. 

2.2 Tool and Techniques

Tools and techniques that the company can use in order to achieve a dimensional view of the overall change process would include flowcharts and control diagrams to specify on the pathway for quality plan (Hussain et al. 2019). Other than that, such as control limits and “business [process modelling” could also be taken into consideration. 

2.3 Outputs 

The outputs for the quality assurance and management of the entire pan would be better governance, better collaboration, transparent review mechanisms, lessened overhead charges and expenses for wasted milk and high corporate social responsibility. All of these factors would allow for the company to help progress within better financial and production-related goals.

3. Control Project Quality

3.1 Inputs

The inputs for control of entire project quality would inhibit exceptional inhibitors of functional goals with respect to objective-driven operations. In doing so, the company would necessarily have to take account of elements such as performance of quality assurance, control quality statistics, documentation of project process, performance measurement matrices and most importantly control team (Kevin, 2018). In doing so, the company would be able to help in assessment presented by internal and external stakeholders. That would also allow for the company to represent critical ideologies regarding mismanagement of supply chains and remodelling of milk projection processes. 

3.2 Tool and Techniques

Tools and techniques that would be required for considering such control assessment are "Pareto charts, control charts, scatter diagram and histogram as well as trend analysis". All of these tools would enable the project to be composite of deviations and calculators of nominal rates that need to be maintained for consideration of control measures (Praditya, 2020). Other than that the tools would also enable the company to highlight on potential of the company and reduce chances of any further compositional defect within the production of milk. 

3.3 Outputs 

The outputs of the control management would help the company to assess reliability and authenticity within the entire supply chain. Alongside that it would also enable the project to consider key performance indicators and assign individuals with productive capacity (Van Heerden and Jooste 2018). Apart from that the control mechanism would enable for the assessment of essential norms required to be adopted by Woolworth in accentuation of their product quality.

References 

Dasgupta, N., Ranjan, S. and Ramalingam, C., 2017. Applications of nanotechnology in agriculture and water quality management. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 15(4), pp.591-605.

Fiorino, M., Barone, C., Barone, M., Mason, M. and Bhagat, A., 2019. Quality Systems in the Food Industry. Springer International Publishing.

Górka, M., ?lusarczyk, B. and Krochmal-Marczak, B., 2019. Quality management and food safety management systems in the polish food industry.

Hong, J., Zhou, Z., Li, X. and Lau, K.H., 2020. Supply chain quality management and firm performance in China's food industry—the moderating role of social co-regulation. International Journal of Logistics Management, The.

Hussain, M., Khan, M., Ajmal, M. and Khan, B.A., 2019. Supply chain quality management and organisationalorganisational performance: empirical evidence from telecom industry in the UAE. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Kevin, K., 2018. Complex estimation of effectiveness of quality system processes at food industry enterprises. Project management assignmentFoods and Raw materials, 6(1).

Prada, R.A., 2020. Leadership, Work Motivation, Competency, Commitment and Culture: Which influences The Performance of Quality Management System in Automotive Industry?. Journal of Industrial Engineering & Management Research, 1(1), pp.53-62.

Van Heerden, M.A. and Jooste, J.L., 2018. A guide for integrating total quality management and physical asset management in the food industry. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 29(4), pp.155-170.

Appendices

Appendix 1