Free Business Dissertations - In Summary, Cloverbrook’s Business Network Could Be Characterized As Being
In summary, Cloverbrook’s business network could be characterized as being adversarial in nature, asymmetrical in influence, and somewhat transactional in terms of how the relationships are characterized.
The customer service function of business tends to be that group of people that manage the supply chain from the factory to the customer. When problems occur such as a late shipment, the wrong price or manufacturing errors, it is not the sales person that sold the order that gets the call but rather the customer service department.As such, this group is an ideal position to gather information that could be utilized in process improvement at virtually any point from pre-fabrication to post-sale service, reliability and satisfaction.
Despite this, the department at Cloverbrook resists proactive problem solving (aka, prevention) and is reactive in nature. In customer service, reactive equates nicely with expensive. Giving a batch or order away or having to do extensive rework is generally not built into costing models and eats directly into an often slim profit margin.
Similar to the idea of being resistant to internal quality efforts is the concern that Cloverbrook views process improvement collaborative efforts with suspicion also. While it is difficult to speculate on ‘motive’, this is likely due to their own perception that everything is sold on price. While price is certainly important, Cloverbrook seems to miss the point that value is not determined by price alone.
While it is somewhat understandable that is with the power that key customers have over Cloverbrook, they would be a bit reluctant to share information and that their secrets that could be used to marginalize or eliminate them at a later time, it is entirely unreasonable not to desire to improve internal processes.
Though there are many process improvement programs in existence, Cloverbrook should consider a program such as Six-Sigma. While such a program seeks to reduce errors, in practice, many companies in the various industries use this platform as a means to collaborate with supplier and vendors. Examples include such firms as General Electric, 3M and Wal-Mart among hundred of other firms. Having been in existence for several years and being well-known, there are many opportunities for employees to receive training (first green belt then black belt). As it is very quantitative in nature, the payoffs will be very apparent and easily tracked.
One especially notable aspect of the recommendation for this program, the Six-Sigma program in particular, perhaps more than most others, stresses the involvement of top levels of management to endorse the program.This issue is likely one of the most critical issues at Cloverbrook. The overall climate and culture of sub-optimal performance and general mistrust of process improvement, if it did not start at the top, is perpetuated there.
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