9-5

Quality problem in Amazon Inc. is a problem facing the company. The root causes of this problem has been highlighted as shown in the Amazon’s root effect diagram. The question is why is the quality of the company being the biggest problem? Quality of the products and services are very critical in the satisfaction of the customers and to retain their loyalty so that they can continue purchasing in the future. They also make an important contribution to the long term revenue and the profitability of the firm in general. Six sigma can be used in the initiating for control and improvements of the quality products as it involves processes which are define, measure, analyze, improve and control. This is as discussed; (Brownmiller, 2009). 

Causes

Solution

Problem statement

Problem

Problem elimination

First, poor methodology used by the organization as there is a narrower shipping lines and manual scheduling in the company. This can be improved by planning to start their own shipping and freight business that would help in expanding the company’s shipping lines. An advanced technological scheduling should also be implemented by the organization so as to improve the organizations processes (Bencheck, 2009). 

Secondly, there is improper measurements of the products in the company. Measurement in an organization is more important as a lot of aspects needs to be measured in an organization ranging from the products to the performance outcomes. This measure are even more important than the output of the firm. The organization should ensure that the measurements are right so as the management may be able to create a desired result such as the organizational performance and the product quality produced. The organization therefore has to improve on their measurement so as they can be able to get their measurement right which would help them identify the areas of weakness in the organization and the key business drivers so as a best and suitable method can be implemented to improve the organization performance (Landon, 2009). 

Another aspect is the leadership and the resilience in the organization. Good leadership is a major aspect in an organization. A good leader should be able to be committed and passionate about the work they are doing, possess a degree of honesty and integrity that would inspire others be a good communicator that would be able to handle any problems in an organization. They should also be accountable and strategic so as they can be able to handle any matter that may rise in the event of the operation in an organization. The company should therefore inspire this leadership qualities in their workforce so as they can in turn be productive. This would in the long run aid solve the problematic that’s facing the organization as it would prioritize leads and the tasks based on their importance for an organization. They would even be able to take actions that would help their team mates execute plans and the ideas for sales acceleration and quality improvement.

The environment also possess a great competition to the firm. An example being Walmart Inc. which is the major competitor of Amazon organization posing competition to the firm. The company should improve on their products quality so as they can be able to compete favorable in the market. This would also be able to increase their products sales as the organization is known t offer lower prices in the market. The company is only responsible for a smaller percentage of the retail sales in U.S and improving this the company would have to improve on their online game so as their online presence can be able to grow annually. This would also improve on their online retail sale in America (Bencheck, 2009). 

Another major problem that leads to poor quality is the materials in the organization. This materials are noted that they have a quality problem as they are of low quality and also the quality are not to specialization. Since this materials are a major factor in production, the organization should think of changing their suppliers or purchase better material that are to the specified standards of the organization. This would lead to production of better products that would be appealing to their customers (De Mast, 2012).

Services in the firm has been noted to be poor. This is as a result of poor standards of services, default of the products, and poor differentiation of products. Since customers are the ones that purchase the products in the firm, a good customer service is very important as it provides value, it would be able to retain the customers as loyal customers is much cheaper than getting new ones, it would create a positive endorsement that would strengthen the brand of the firm, it would also prevent business failure and reduce employee turnover employees would wishes to work for organizations that appreciate worker contributions. Improving on these services would improve the organization performance and at the same time improve ton sales (Lokkerbol, 2012).

The DMAIC methodology is totally credited to Amazon Inc. as the improvements in the quality of the products is made. The company can employ this process in improving the production process so as to satisfy the customer’s needs.

However this process may be costly as it may need training in events of mobilizing leadership qualities as it may require that the leaders be organized with a seminar that would be able to teach them on the possible leadership qualities they have to adopt. Customer service may also need teachings as handling of the customers in most cases possess a higher challenge to most workers. Time as a factor may also be challenge as to change all this aspects may needs a duration of more than one year as changing on the material that the company uses bearing in mind the existing stock which may lead to a bigger loss for the firm. The process would not only be time consuming but will also be costly but its profits would be long term.

This improvement also has risks that are associated with quality improvement. Researching on how the firm is doing and how to improve the quality of the products is very costly as it lowers the profit level of the organization. This costs can be minimized by using a method that would not be costly enough to reduce the profits of the organization with a large deal. Other strategies that may be used include budget variance monitoring, purchasing and product valuation, financial management strategies and also fraud minimizing schemes. All this would be able to control the risks that may arise in this case (Zhang, 2016).

All this strategies would help the company implement their principles such as the passion for innovation and the commitment to operational excellence.

References

Brownmiller, C., Bencheck, M., Tran, M. T., Branton, R., DeMoss, M., & Landon, S. (2009). U.S. Patent No. 5,864,662. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

De Mast, J., & Lokkerbol, J. (2012). An analysis of the Six Sigma DMAIC method from the perspective of problem solving. International Journal of Production Economics, 139(2), 604-614.

Zhang, Y. (2016). Selecting risk response strategies considering project risk interdependence. International Journal of Project Management, 34(5), 819-830.