Determining Methods to Measure and Improve Capacity

Determining Methods to Measure and Improve Capacity

The Measurements Organizations Use to Measure Capacity

According to Kay (2021), capacity is an organization’s level of productive ability. It is depicted as output volume per period. A manufacturing unit’s capacity can be expressed in the number of output units per period. In some instances, measuring capacity is more complex when multiple products are manufactured. In such instances, capacity is expressed in the form of machine or person-hours.

The main types of capacity are system, design, installed, licensed, and rated capacity. The design capacity is the engineered or planned output rate of services or goods under full or normal-scale operating settings. System capacity is the highest level of output of a precise product or the product mix the structure of machines or workers can produce as a combined whole. It is usually less than or equal to design capacity due to the limitation of quality specification, product mix, and itemizations. The actual output may be lower due to factors limiting it.

The factors include downtime caused by equipment or machine failure, actual demand, and unauthorized absenteeism. The output in system capacity is reduced by short-term impacts such as inefficiency in labor productivity, equipment breakdown, and labor inefficiency. Installed capacity is the capacity provided during the manufacturing plant’s installation. Subsequently, licensed capacity is the capacity licensed by government authorities or regulatory agencies. Lastly, rated capacity is the capacity founded on the highest rate of production founded on actual trials.

Strategies I Would Use as a Manager to Improve the Level of Quality and Timely Service to Boost Capacity.

Quality is among the things customers look for to determine whether they will purchase a product or not. According to Lee (2018), quality is the entirety of attributes and features of a service or product that affect its ability to meet inferred and specified needs. Quality is related to an offer’s value, which contributes to customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Quality plays a vital role in capacity development by increasing the rate of productive capability and avoiding the cost associated with errors and poor outcomes. The main theories that can be used to review capacity development are the theory of capacity utilization and constraints.

The theory of capacity utilization argues that improving capacity should focus on creating sustainable, rational capacity, which is defined as the greatest level of output a plant in a specific industry can maintain within the structure of a realistic work schedule considering normal downtime and assuming satisfactory availability of inputs required to operate equipment and machinery in the manufacturing plant (Wang & Zhu, 2007). The theory of constraints identifies the most critical limiting factor that hinders the achievement of a goal and then systematically improves the constraint until it is no longer a problem (Woeppel, 2010). According to the theory, there are five steps that help operations managers to plan for the whole process and focus their concentration on the resources with greater capability to be influenced by system variations.

One of the things I could do to improve the quality level and timely service for better capacity is seeking customer feedback. Providing quality and timely customer service requires understanding customers’ needs, pain points, and experiences. I could ensure that I provide my customers with different ways to share their feedback, such as email and responding to telephone surveys. I could also create a complaint system to enable customers to raise issues about the organization’s products and services. Customer complaints can help the organization eliminate customer experiences that could ruin its reputation and focus on the identified improvement areas. Seeking customer feedback could also help make customers feel valued by the organization hence establishing trust and encouraging customers to suggest ways the company can improve the quality of its products and timely service.

The second thing I could do is use customer relationship management platforms to effectively coordinate different teams in charge of promoting customer satisfaction. Customer relationship management platforms ensure that everyone is working towards achieving a shared goal, hence increasing the likelihood of establishing high customer service standards (Lee, 2018). The third thing is hiring professionals and training them to equip them with the right skills. I could organize training sessions for the staff in the organization to improve their service delivery skills by focusing on the most critical skills in customer service, such as patience, empathy, and good communication skills. I could also ensure that the staff in the organization have complete knowledge of the organization’s pricing plans, products, and services.

How the Improvements Contribute to Improvements in the Quality of Goods and Services Provided to Customers.

Seeking customer feedback, promoting proper customer relationship management, hiring professionals, and training staff to equip them with the appropriate customer relationship management skills contribute to improvements in the quality of goods and services provided to customers by ensuring that they meet specific customer needs and preferences. Customer satisfaction is founded on gathering customer feedback and acting on it. Surveys effectively measure customer satisfaction and discover the improvements that need to be made, hence facilitating the improvement in the quality of goods and services. Turning customer feedback into action includes working with the customers to monitor the progress in improving goods and services until they reach their preferred quality. The organization also needs to constantly focus on enhancing its products based on customer requests to promote customer satisfaction.

Increasing Customer Follow-Ups After Purchases Regarding Satisfaction with Goods and Services as an Indicator of the Quality of Capacity.

Follow-ups are essential because they enlighten the organization on whether it has made all the improvements requested by customers. Customer follow-ups regarding satisfaction with goods and services can be increased after purchases through different approaches. The first approach is offering multiple channels of customer support. Accessible communication between the organization and the customer increases the level of customer satisfaction, which is why the organization needs to use as many channels as possible to ensure that customers can easily reach it. However, offering customer support through multiple channels requires knowing where customers are and understanding customer demographics. For instance, the organization can communicate with younger customers via social media platforms and email to communicate with older customers.

Additionally, the organization needs to collect customer feedback regularly due to changes in customer preferences. Besides, it is important to measure customer satisfaction periodically. The primary metrics used to determine the level of customer satisfaction are Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score, and Customer Satisfaction Score (Hill et al., 2017). The Net Promoter Score focuses on how likely customers are to recommend an organization, making it easier to predict referrals and repurchases (May et al., 2010). Customer Satisfaction Score helps determine whether the customers are happy with the organization’s product or service. Customer Effort Score measures the ease of doing business with the organization. Customer follow-ups could also be improved by asking customers for their feedback by proactively carrying out the inquiries.

Furthermore, the organization should also reply to all feedback regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative. It is crucial to capitalize on positive feedback by getting more positive testimonials and reviews. Negative reviews should be viewed as an opportunity to improve the organization’s products and services and a chance to establish closer relationships with customers. There are various steps that the organization can take to respond to negative feedback effectively. The first step is always contacting the customer directly after leaving a negative review to get their perspective. The second step is to fix the issue and update the customers on the progress. The third step is replying to the negative reviews only when there is a certainty that the response will not trigger a more emotional response from the customers and ruin the organization’s reputation. The fourth step is tracing the reviews to notice any negative reviews before they catch the attention of other customers. The fifth step is letting the customers know that the organization has acknowledged the complaint and resolved it.

Survey

Demographics

1. How old are you?
2. What is your area of residence?

Product usage

3. What is your experience with our products and services?

• Good
• Bad
• Neutral

4. How often do you use our products and services?

• Daily
• Once a week
• At least thrice a month
• Rarely

5. Does the product meet your expectations?

• Yes
• No
• Neutral

6. What do you like most about our products and services?
7. What areas of improvement would you recommend?
8. Which product features do you find most valuable?
9. Which product features do you use regularly?
10. Which product features do you rarely use?
11. What challenges have you experienced using the product?
12. Which features would you recommend to improve the product’s functionality?

References

Hill, N., Brierley, J., & MacDougall, R. (2017). How to measure customer satisfaction. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315253107

Kay, A. (2021). Implementation capacity and evaluation capacity. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1377

Lee, I. (2018). Introduction of social media platforms and social media analytics for social CRM. Diverse Methods in Customer Relationship Marketing and Management, 92-108. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5619-0.ch006

May, U., Asal, R., & Hilmer, M. (2010). Customer-relationship-Management-Integration des net promoter® score. Kundenorientierte Unternehmensführung, 85-101. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-8851-5_3

Wang, S., & Zhu, L. (2007). Increasing returns to scale from variable capacity utilization. International Journal of Economic Theory, 3(3), 191-211. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-7363.2007.00055.x

Woeppel, M. (2010). Manufacturer’s guide to implementing the theory of constraints. Lulu.com.

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Title is: Week 6 – Assignment: Determine Methods to Measure and Improve Capacity

Improving Organizational Capacity
Week 6 focuses on improvement, taking a step beyond current, acceptable performance to improve the capacity performance in an organization by raising the quality and time performance of individuals in the capacity department, thus improving the department, as shown in the figure below.

Ideally, with the ability of the department to develop and deliver more and better quality goods and services, the organization will gain the capability to provide additional products and services in the markets served. The leaders and managers of the organization will thus have the opportunity to increase the product/service span of the organization, thus improving organizational productivity. Among New England brewers, expanding products has had an interesting influence on market power. Within the brewing industry, a proliferation of products has shown an important impact on the market power of a brewing organization. Berning and McCullough (2017) studied New England brewers and determined that expanding the product line reduced excess capacity and raised market power. With this discovery, relatively small firms were able to compete with larger organizations.

For this week’s assignment, you are asked to research means to measure capacity in your organization. Given the evaluation of capacity in the firm, what could you do as a manager to raise the quality and time performance of personnel in the department seeking to improve capacity?

For this assignment, consider that you are the manager of an organization of your choice and you want to know how the organization’s capacity is prepared for a likely change in marketing conditions. You plan to research the means to measure the organization’s capacity to provide goods and services. If you notice that capacity appears low in the advent of rising orders, what will you do? Will you attempt to raise the quality and time performance of individuals in the department, increase the supply of materials, or introduce other measures to improve capacity?

For this assignment, write a paper that addresses the following:

Indicate the measurements organizations use to measure capacity.
Discuss what you could do as a manager to improve the level of quality and timely service to improve capacity.
Determine how these improvements contribute to improvements in the quality of goods and services provided to customers.
Consider increasing customer follow-ups after purchases regarding satisfaction with goods and services as an indicator of the quality of capacity.
Develop a brief survey 2 weeks after purchase to inquire about suggested improvements that could be made in products and services.
In your paper, utilize the theory of constraints, the theory of capacity utilization, or another theory directly pertinent to the development or use of capacity.
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages

References: Include a minimum of 5 scholarly resources.