Total Quality Management at Virgin Atlantic

Introduction

The transport sector is a broad industry that can be broken down based on the form of transport used and also the main entity that is being transported. This is one of the more widespread service industries thus making it an ideal place to focus on when studying about total quality management. Of the three main mediums of transportation (air, water and land), Air transport is one of the most demanding in regard to quality management, and this is most observed in the transportation of people and cargo. One of the world’s leading Airlines is Virgin Atlantic and this will be the case study to be analysed in this document.

Virgin Atlantic is a subsidiary company of the larger Virgin Group of Companies and is an international Airline. The full trade name of this airline is ‘Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited.’ This airline is based in London, England and offers international flights to about 40 destinations worldwide. It has been in operation for just under three decades. They started operations in 1984 using a leased jet but developed into Britain’s second largest long-haul airline, only second to the national carrier, British Airways. Over this period of time, the management has constantly been initiating measures to ensure its internal and external customers get to enjoy the highest possible quality of service (Gregory, 2010). The internal customers in this context are the employees while the external customers are the end-users who do the actual purchase of flights. A testament to the high quality services of this airline is the large number of awards it has received in the course of its operations.

The Main products of Virgin Atlantic Airways

This airline’s products and services are divided into two main categories namely cargo and passenger flights. The flights offered by the airline are both short haul and long haul flights. Under Passenger flights, Virgin Atlantic also offers a wide range of holiday packages to exotic destinations. The passenger flights are classified into three main levels based on the luxury that is offered. These are economy; premium economy and upper class, all bundled with state of the art entertainment technology. Of these options, economy is the cheapest and features contour-style seating for customers. Passengers are entitled to free food, drinks and also an amenity kit. Customers can check into their flights online for all destinations save for the Caribbean.

Premium Economy is an intermediate class and it features ergonomically designed seats which are wider than those of other airlines. Each seat also has a charging port for laptops and passengers are entitled to pre-flight drinks and also priority boarding on a separate

Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class suite is tagged as a package designed to be both the “world’s best bed and the world’s best seat in the air.” This signifies the high level of luxury packaged into this class. This is because it combines the benefit of a leather arm chair and an extra-long airline bed with a mattress. Passengers who use this service are also entitled to use the on-board bar as well as limousine transfers at the destination countries.

Cargo too is subdivided under various titles such as general cargo, must ride, VEX and Pets.

In general cargo, non-specialized cargo can be transported to a wide range of destinations covered. The reach of this service is enhanced through partnership with Virgin Australia. Services offered under this package are highly personalized and flexible.

Must Ride is meant for urgent cargo which gets booked on the next available flight to the customer’s desired destination for his/her cargo. As a guarantee, the airline offers to fly it free in the event that it misses the first flight.

Vex is Virgin Atlantic Cargo’s express courier service that deals with cargo passing through airports. The key elements of this service package are speed and efficiency. This is coupled by the fact that services offered are top of the range and also that their outlets have significantly later closing hours.

Pets: Since Pets too fly as Cargo, it is essential that they are transported in a careful and safe manner and this is exactly what Virgin Cargo does. This means that customers can have some peace of mind as they move their cats, dogs and other pets across the Virgin Network.

The main Customers of Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic’s customers are largely international travellers who are going on long haul flights to one of the 40 destinations where the firm’s routes cover. To further break this down, there are several segments of airline travellers who have been noted to prefer the services of this airline when they are going on flights. These include travellers who are moving with their children. Travellers who have disabilities also prefer to use Virgin Atlantic’s transportation services. Fashion conscious travellers have also been showed to prefer using Virgin Atlantic because of the ‘cool factor’ associated with it.

As for their cargo products, the main customers attracted are the business community who are often moving cargo across vast distances with limited time.

Virgin Atlantic’s Order Qualifiers

An order qualifier is a set of parameters which a customer sets and then uses to determine an organization’s minimum level of performance. There is however no correlation between superior performance in the perspective of a customer and a company’s competitive advantage. There are various dimensions to an airline’s order qualifiers. Virgin Atlantic’s order qualifiers are therefore elements that make prospective fliers and other customers to consider the airline seriously.

Being an Airline, the order qualifiers are therefore the airplanes, pilots, classification of the luxury options, pilots, the flight crew, a website, booking offices, a number of routes, promotional materials across the media, a head-office and also previous customers and possibly their reviews of the experience they had (Singh and Singh, 2009).

Virgin Atlantic’s Order Winners

Order winners on the other hand are parameters that are applied to product differentiation. In the context of Virgin Atlantic, the order winners will include elements are mainly manifested in the firm’s services. Under Virgin Atlantic’s passenger services, order winners include customer centric services, informing customers on the lowest possible air fare for each route, a state of the art in-flight entertainment system, wider seats in upper economy class and also limousine services and the longest bed in the industry for their premium class passengers (Van der Wiele, 2007).

When it comes to communications with customers, Virgin prioritizes the conveyance of relevant information to its customers on the company website and this allows them to know exactly what they are entitled to as well as the different forms of redress available in the case of delays, route changes or damage to customer baggage (Roberta et al, 2009).

In the cargo section of this firm, the main order winners are a dedicated service for pets, the late closing hours for VEX cargo and also the flexibility of general cargo.

Operational Processes necessary for the delivery of services to Virgin Atlantic’s Customers

Operational processes are the various sequenced activities that have to be carried out for the delivery of a product to be complete. For the purpose of this study, the main product of the company, flights, will be considered. For a passenger flight, whether long-haul or short-haul to take place, three processes must occur simultaneously. These are the flight itself, the hospitality conferred upon passengers on the plane and also baggage handling. Each of these processes has three distinct components, namely input resources, transformational activities and the output processes.

Passenger Flights

Passenger flights are the most visible facet of Virgin Atlantic’s services. This is because flights are the core-product of the company. However, it is important to somehow dissect the flight into the before, during and after so as to gain a better understanding of how this relates to total quality management.

Input Resources

The input resources necessary for a flight include the aircraft itself, fuel and an airport. A reliable communication infrastructure is also very important because this is what the crew uses to communicate with the control towers. At the same time, communication devices allow customers to communicate effectively and efficiently with the airline in regard to bookings and any special requests.

Transformational Processes

The input resources for flights include the cleaning of the aircrafts. This is a thorough cleaning of the plane’s interior and exterior. At the same time, the engine needs to be checked and serviced by a qualified engineer. The plane may also need to be refuelled. On the passenger side, the flight or flights need to be booked and seats allocated on the basis of availability. The online check in by passengers is another transformational process that informs the airline of their presence for the flight. The flying of the aircraft by the pilot from the departure point and subsequent landing of the aircraft in another key transformational process. This is concluded by the passenger alighting from the plane.

Output Product

The main output product of a flight is a change in the passenger’s geographical location which is essentially transportation.

Baggage handling

This is another important service offered by Virgin Atlantic Airways to its customers who are flying.

Input Resources

The main input resources for baggage handling include the conveyer-belt machine that facilitates the checking of baggage by customs. Trolleys that ease the mobility of passenger baggage also form the input resources. The airline’s vehicles which are used to transport the baggage from the terminal building to the airplanes are also essential for baggage handling to be successful. The airport’s weighing machines which are used to ascertain the weight of the passengers’ luggage too forms part of the input resources. Since the bags need to be adequately labelled, the machinery that is used to print passenger information on stickers placed on the bags also forms part of the resources.

Transformational Processes

The transfer of the baggage to the relevant aircraft, sorting them out and finally delivery of these at a time close to or before the passenger’s arrival time. In the event that there is the misplacement of a passenger’s baggage, the task of tracing and transferring the property to the rightful owner will form part of this process.

Output Product

The main result of baggage handling is the safe arrival of the passenger’s luggage.

Hospitality during the flight

Hospitality during the flight encompasses the caregiving offered by the flight’s stewards and stewardesses.

Input Resources

A variety of foods, beverages (alcoholic & non-alcoholic) and some snacks need to be prepared. Utensils such as plates, cups, glasses and spoons also have to be in place. The plane’s fridge, microwave, food storage cabinets and also trolley need to be available. The plane needs to be equipped with a kitchenette where these items are stored and prepared. A first aid kit is also very essential.

Transformational processes

The first transformational process is the preparation of the different foods that are precooked on the ground at a location separate from the airport. These foods are then delivered and stocked on the airplane. The service of the foods by the stewards and air hostesses too is a transformational process. Hostesses and stewards will also offer hospitality by directing the passengers while on the plane and providing them with different instructions such as buckling up of the seat belts and also emergency procedure instructions.

The Output

The end result of hospitality is the comfort and safety of passengers who are flying on Virgin Atlantic’s planes.

A Literature Review of Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management or TQM can be termed as a ‘new-school’ approach to the implementation and upholding of quality standards by organizations. There are several concepts under TQM which relate to the benefits, challenge, comparisons with the old-school approaches to quality and also the key stakeholders in Total Quality Management in an organization (Combe & Botschen, 2004).

Total Quality Management is therefore the coordination and control of the organization so as to ensure success in the production and supply of goods and services plus the marketing of these (Goetsch, 2010; Chopra & Meindl, 2007).

Old and New Quality

The business world’s perception of quality today is completely different from what it accepted as quality in the past. This has led to the concept of ‘old quality’ and ‘new quality.’ Old quality is based on out-dated notions that associated quality with expensiveness and exclusivity. This laid a lot of emphasis on the output of a single craftsman. The new approach to quality appraises the same by focusing on the system as a whole. The old system of quality was achieved through a limited number of skilled individuals collaborating to come up with a product made for very few end-users who were attracted by the beauty of the product. New quality on the other hand is more market oriented and strives to cut costs for the masses by combining several skills at different stages to come up with a good product (Isaaksson, 2006).

Reasons why Quality is so important to today’s average firm

With quality, the firm can greatly increase its productivity, widen the market share that it already has, increase the loyalty of existing customers, cut costs of production and therefore enable the firm to compete more effectively and sustainably in the market (Khamallah & Lingreaj, 2007).

Total Quality Management is not an Easy Affair

In a survey of 500 firms, it was established that only a third of them felt that TQM boosted their competitiveness in their markets (Lee, 2004).

In another survey by Rath and strong, half of the firms surveyed rated their efforts poorly with regard to their desire to reduce their costs of production, improving the satisfaction of customers and also boosting their market share.

Other executives such as Steve Schwartz of IBM equated the application of Total Quality Management to the manner in which people deal with losing weight or quitting smoking. It is very straightforward and easy to understand and plan but an uphill task to implement (Martinez & Martinez, 2008; Mangan et al, 2008 )

Basic concepts that apply to Total Quality management

Customer Focus: This is a scheme of operation where product development, marketing and presentation is modelled around customer preferences.

The Kaizen Principle: This is a principle of continuous improvement of an organization’s services to the market it serves. It could be a product overhaul or just minor adjustments that make a huge difference (Jacobs et al, 2008).

Employee Empowerment: all of the organization’s workers have the responsibility to ensure overall quality of the final product. This requires everyone to do their best in the different stations and also cooperate with others (Mueller and Carter, 2005; Sadikoglu and Zehir, 2010).

Benchmarking: Here, an organization strives to ensure its services match up to the industry leader locally or better still internationally (Stevenson and Hojati, 2007).

Measurement of Service Quality

Service Quality is measured appropriately by comparing the customer expectations prior to them receiving a service and their perceptions after they have received the service (Fitzsimons, 2006). Customer Satisfaction occurs when the perception is much greater than the expectation. Consequently, customer disappointment occurs when his or her perception is lower than the expectations for a given service. The intensity of both satisfaction and disappointment increase with the increase in the gap between expectation and perception as shown in the figure below (Prajogo and Sohal, 2004).

Concepts of Total Quality Management that would be expected of Virgin Atlantic Airways

The Kaizen Principle: Since Virgin Atlantic serves a large number of customers in a highly competitive market, it is imperative that Virgin Atlantic constantly reviews customer experiences by adopting an open door policy to both criticism and compliments. This can be done through customer surveys as they exit the plane or online through the company website as well as on social media which is much more vibrant (Johnston and Clark, 2008). This will provide pointers as to how the firm can better its services.

Another concept of Total Quality Management one will expect Virgin Atlantic to uphold is benchmarking. This is to be done through analysing different elements of airline competition and thereafter put in place measures that will enable them to measure up and possibly overtake the competition. In the airline industry, parameters that determine competitiveness are pricing structures, comfort, safety, and reliability, communication of information and also coverage of flight routes (Chandra et al, 2008). Though not all can be pursued at a go, it is necessary and at the same time possible to pick a few of these depending on the competition and then implement them.

Employee empowerment is another crucial concept of TQM that needs to be applied to the operations of Virgin Atlantic Airways (Hsuan & Pilkiton, 2008; Waller & Thompson 2003 The reason for this is that the services offered by the firm exposes them to a large number of company employees. Being in the service industry, it is impossible to offer uniform services to all customers due to differences such as culture, temperament and also age. Due to this, it is necessary for employees to be allowed to use their discretion wisely when handling various customers who are using the firm’s services (Hill, 2004).

Conclusion

As the world gets more globalized, businesses are getting access to a wider pool of customers due to the internationalization of the markets (Heizer& Render, 2008). This however is no shortcut to increased profitability or market shares all because competition is also on the increase. This has led to a need for high standards of quality both within and also outwardly for multinational service organizations such as Virgin Atlantic. Total quality management can only be realized if it is well planned and implemented in such a manner that everybody within the firm gets involved. Though old quality has its appeal, it is quickly fading away with changes in market tendencies. Most industries are moving from a product-oriented model to a more customer oriented model where customer satisfaction is seen as an important component of competitive advantage.

References
Chopra &Meindl 2007 GLOBAL LOGISTICS and SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL EDITION, 3rd Edition ,Financial Times/Prentice Hall ,
Combe, I. A., & Botschen, G. 2004. Strategy paradigms for the management of quality: dealing with complexity. European Journal of Marketing, 385/6, 500-523.

Fitzsimmonns J & M 2006 SERVICE MANAGEMENT –Operations, Strategy, Information technology 5th edit ion, McGraw-Hill,

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. 2010. Quality management for organizational excellence. Prentice Hall.

Gregory, M. 2010. Dirty Tricks: British Airways’ Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Digital.
Heizer & Render 2008 PRINCIPLES OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL EDITION, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 7th Edition
Hill T 2004 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT , Palgrave McMillan,2nd edition

Isaksson, R. 2006. Total quality management for sustainable development: Process based system models. Business Process Management Journal, 125, 632-645.
Jacobs, Chase & Aquilano 2009 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ALONG THE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, 12/e, McGraw-Hill International Edition,
Johnston & Clark 2008 SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, 3/e by, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 3rd Edition

Khamalah, J. N., & Lingaraj, B. P. 2007. TQM in the service sector: a survey of small businesses. Total Quality Management, 189, 973-982.

Lee, C. Y. 2004. TQM in small manufacturers: an exploratory study in China.International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 212, 175-197.
Mangan J, Lanwani C and Butcher T,J 2008 INTRODUCTION TO OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT Wiley & Sons, Ltd ,

Martínez-Costa, M., & Martínez-Lorente, A. R. 2008. Does quality management foster or hinder innovation? An empirical study of Spanish companies. Total Quality Management, 193, 209-221.

Mueller, F., & Carter, C. 2005. The scripting of total quality management within its organizational biography. Organization Studies, 262, 221-247.

Prajogo, D. I., & Sohal, A. S. 2004. Transitioning from total quality management to total innovation management: an Australian case. International journal of quality & reliability management, 218, 861-875.

Paton S, Clegg B, Juliana Hsuan, Alan Pilkington 2011OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, , McGraw-Hill ,
Roberta S. Russell & Bernard W. Taylor III 2009 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT & SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL STUDENT VERSION, 6/e, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,

Sadikoglu, E., & Zehir, C. 2010. Investigating the effects of innovation and employee performance on the relationship between total quality management practices and firm performance: An empirical study of Turkish firms.International Journal of Production Economics, 1271, 13-26.

Singh, A., & Singh, V. 2009. Innovation in services: Design and management.Afr. J. Bus. Manage, 312, 871-878.

Stevenson, W. J., & Hojati, M. 2007. Operations management Vol. 8. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Van der Wiele, A. 2007. Managing quality. B. G. Dale, & J. van Iwaarden Eds.. Blackwell Pub..
Waller D 2003 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT – A supply Chain Approach, by, Thompson, 2nd edition