Case Study 2.1 HPI

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by Tiffani Zernhelt3 views·Updated Sep 25, 2023
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  1. So this is case study 2.1 the Blake company and Mush's
  2. kitchens for renovations that needed shaping up. I am Miss uh Tiffany
  3. Zhel. It's gonna take you through
  4. and we're gonna start with the organization.
  5. So the Blake company um decided to buy out the Kitchen Innovation Company.
  6. But then once they did,
  7. they realized that the margins on the jobs were
  8. not allowing for overall profits from the jobs.
  9. They also realized that it was the little details that were
  10. keeping jobs from being closed out in a timely manner.
  11. And also they had heard rumors about their
  12. overall customer service dropping within the community.
  13. So what method did they use to diagnose and address this problem?
  14. Well, let's look at the data collected.
  15. So first they interviewed the employees, the suppliers,
  16. the subcontractors and the customers to get their feedback.
  17. They also visited competitors to see what their uh
  18. processes and procedures were and how they worked.
  19. They also reviewed all the current
  20. policy and procedures within the kitchens company
  21. and they visited the work sites to see the progress in action.
  22. Well, from this, they were able to establish three goals,
  23. one to increase customer satisfaction,
  24. two to increase the profit margin for each job and
  25. three to decrease the uncertainty and the number of crises at
  26. the construction sites by putting in this six step process.
  27. First step,
  28. it would begin things with a customer selection meeting in which they would
  29. uh go through their needs.
  30. Second step is a preliminary plan would be created by the
  31. designers and the original estimate would be based off of that.
  32. The third step would be between the designer and
  33. the customer to modify that plan if needed.
  34. If they all agreed,
  35. then the fourth step would be a signed design
  36. agreement that would show a commitment between the customer
  37. and the company.
  38. Fifth step,
  39. once that would be signed is that all the individual details would be planned
  40. and put on a spec plan and a working design
  41. so that it would decrease the amount of confusion at the actual site.
  42. And then the last step would be subcontractors walking through,
  43. going over the designs so that they could create a bid
  44. and if any modifications were to be made at that time,
  45. then
  46. a change order could be created.
  47. So after diagnosing what results were found,
  48. uh lots of results found in this one.
  49. First,
  50. they decided to combine the renovation and the new
  51. build branches of the company into the same accounting program
  52. that allowed them to better track finances and expenses.
  53. There was also a development of a process manual with the employee input,
  54. this would outline the processes and procedures and put it into black and white.
  55. There was also a decrease in the stress at the construction site
  56. with the spec plans and the working designs. Things were known ahead of time.
  57. There was increased transparency between customer and subcontractors.
  58. So if a modification was needed between what the customer wanted
  59. and the subcontractor could actually do that was taken care of ahead of time.
  60. There was a decrease in the delay in ordering materials.
  61. With the completion of a spec plan, those orders could be put in in a timely manner.
  62. They also developed a customer satisfaction survey that
  63. could be completed at the end of each job
  64. to provide detailed feedback on that job. Specifically,
  65. there was a decrease in failed contracts due to just pure curiosity.
  66. So by having the agreement signed
  67. that
  68. um formed a commitment between the customer and the company,
  69. there weren't an
  70. uh wasted time creating designs for people who were really just curious about it.
  71. There was also a decrease um
  72. in administrative cost for plan changes.
  73. Since the plan is reviewed numerous times throughout the six step process,
  74. the
  75. um administrative changes were fewer far between and that
  76. required less time and effort on the committee itself.
  77. So what lessons were learned?
  78. First of all, that,
  79. the involvement with all stakeholders really does increase the buy-in
  80. and it builds an atmosphere of trust and cooperation.
  81. Although some of the designers were a little hesitant at first by involving them
  82. in the uh process, manual creation
  83. and the uh steps to the intervention,
  84. it's increased their buy in
  85. and
  86. implementation later on
  87. these processes and procedures.
  88. Since they are systematic, they can take a long time to develop.
  89. There's gonna be some trial and error in there,
  90. but that can also build in accountability.
  91. So the accountability of the customer to the company,
  92. the accountability of the designer to the customers and
  93. the accountability to the subcontractors to the company.
  94. When implementing these planned systematic changes,
  95. especially of processes and procedures like for this company,
  96. they've been in business 25 years with no pro processes.
  97. You have to be patient. It's gonna take some time.
  98. They were a little hesitant at first but be
  99. sure to monitor that progress of the changes.
  100. You don't know if anything's getting better
  101. or worse unless you're actually monitoring it.
  102. So in thinking about my own personal reflection,
  103. when there are gaps in processes and procedures,
  104. conversations with the stakeholders really do
  105. hold the most valuable information.
  106. So think of it like boots on the ground,
  107. they're gonna know that something is good or bad in the daily functioning
  108. of the organization
  109. much faster than those in management or leadership.
  110. The development of these processes can be
  111. tweaked with additional input from stakeholders.
  112. So you need a process in place to actually
  113. be able to capture that feedback and to provide
  114. them the opportunity to give it to you.
  115. Um, I do know that this is one of the weak,
  116. my personal weaknesses in my past leadership experiences when I've tried to put um,
  117. new processes or procedures in place with my department.
  118. Um, a lot of times I'll put something in place because I
  119. would think or feel that, uh I would think that I saw a need
  120. and whenever it actually comes down to it,
  121. what I would put in a place is, was not what the department needed.
  122. Um
  123. So
  124. especially in this program, with the use of needs assessments in previous um
  125. graduate courses,
  126. I have learned that
  127. you really have to get to the stakeholders
  128. themselves to find out what those needs are,
  129. not just relying on myself.
  130. And
  131. how can we apply this to our HP I project?
  132. Um In our project,
  133. we need to make sure that we have a plan for follow up and an opportunity for
  134. those stakeholders to provide feedback to us so
  135. that we can monitor the progress of implementation of
  136. our uh performance interventions.
  137. And also we really did underestimate the
  138. value of conversations with the stakeholders.
  139. Even in our team meeting,
  140. it was discussed how we wanted to talk to all of those involved
  141. pretty much except the people that were gonna be doing the work.
  142. You know, we wanted to talk to the students, we wanted to talk to the tech team.
  143. Uh But we were just gonna give the teachers a survey.
  144. Well,
  145. that might not be the best avenue for them
  146. to share the vital information of what truly is
  147. creating that need.
  148. So
  149. that is case study 2.1 on the Blake Company and the Mush
  150. kitchens.