If you, at the top of the organization or at the top of any function, experience the following problems and get nowhere in resolving them in a lasting way, you need Qu TMS® to support your efforts and give you a grip over management monitoring, control, and coordination that seems to be ever-elusive, for practical managers:
When you have told your second line what all they have to be doing routinely on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, half yearly and annual basis and it does not get done regularly on time, in departments like finance and accounts and HR, without your getting jittery and asking whether it has been done.
Some key one – time jobs you want to get done, takes too long to get done and, sometimes buried below the routine and therefore never gets done!
More often than not, you are chasing someone for knowing the status of tasks that you have delegated to that person.
A customer order is processed – not the way you have found useful and smooth, but in a fire-fighting mode.
Customer deliveries are delayed and not met.
Customer complaints are not attended to on-time and effectively.
When someone rejects an enquiry on your company’s services and products even without your knowledge, tenders are not getting submitted on-time, resulting in missed opportunities for revenue generation, on the grounds of no sufficient lead time, already existing overload, cannot handle etc.
Continuous improvements – a part of job for a departmental manager- with a view to avoid repetition of problems faced during any phase of order execution from raw material, sourced out parts, process within the factory right up to dispatch - are only talked but never done systematically as soon as the problem gets solved once.
Continuous improvement that should locate the root cause and eliminate any task that is returned by the internal customer to the internal supplier with a view to avoid recurring problem does not take place at all with the attitude that "somehow we have completed the job/task, now forget about what mistakes we did, we can always manage any mistake" prevails.
If you feel the throughput time for processing a customer order or for completing a routine job is more, if you feel there is no continuous improvement in reducing the through put time.
If value addition is needed by you in parameters such as by customer, process, specific customer order, with a view to know which adds more value per day to your organization and thus to focus on those more.
If you feel the performance rating of your employees is biased and non-deserving employees are getting increases and promotions overlooking the deserving ones. If you think the performance rating should contain rewards for individual performance (quantity or deadline and quality), punishment for individual botching up performance, and both rewards and punishment for working as a team or not working as a team.
If you think your manpower utilization in a department, and throughout the organization is not uniform but some are overloaded and some under-loaded and there is need to even out the workload over people.
If you do not have information of any task or work order on-line and the expected date of completion of any task or work order, truly reflective of actual at any time irrespective of where you are.
If you have multiple units or branch offices to manage and do not know and so do not have grip over what is going on in these remote locations and how closely what is going on reflects what you want to go on.
Even though the features described here may look like relevant to the manufacturing sector alone,Qu TMS® can be used for all functions and practically for all verticals for management and monitoring of any small Office/ branch/unit however small the unit / branch may be. Yes,it is scalable upward to any size of the organization. Qu TMS® is a must wherever the CEO or a senior manager wants to have a grip over the operational management of several units / offices / departments/ branches, whether small or big -particularly when he/she has to manage effectively many far flung units/branches remotely. When a new work order is received from Sales:
* Accepting customer desired delivery dates:
For sales coordinators (who coordinate between Sales and Plant):
When a request for commitment on delivery date from Sales is received:
Qu TMS® suggests a series of steps to manage the peak work load. Working along with the manager of the department in which the peak workload occurs, if it is found infeasible to manage the peak, the sales coordinator tries to pre-pone the new work order completion date, by as few days as possible with a view to avoid the peak load in that department.
If this also fails, he postpones the work order completion date by as few days as are required to avoid the peak. He then gets the sales approval for the same. In consultation with Sales, whatever the customer desired delivery date emerges is put into the system and Qu TMS® calculates the start date and end date of all the tasks required to meet this customer desired delivery date and presents the workload picture for this. This way the coordinator will say yes to a delivery request rather than turning it down because the required fixed lead-time specified for execution of the order is not available. This maximizes the orders that the Plant can process i.e., the throughput of the Plant.
Qu TMS® has powerful "What if" features, along with a package of suggestions, enabling the organization to accept the customer desired delivery date.
* Monitoring work orders and taking pro-active, corrective action:
Once a delivery date is accepted upon between Sales and Sales coordinator, the latter releases the work order to the Plant.
Qu TMS® marks the various tasks in the customer order process by red, green and amber colors, based on criticality to meet the delivery date, to all concerned to pro-actively see and act to ensure that the end dates of the various tasks are met.
*Helping the departmental managers making things happen:
As soon as sales coordinator releases a work order, the relevant departmental managers get the intimation automatically by instant messaging and thru email. Now the departmental manager has to allocate this new work order task to one of his employees. To enable him to even out the distribution of work load in his department, Qu TMS® displays the work load picture of each employee, with a bunch of suggestions, if required, to even out the peak work load for the employee. By default the task goes to the employee who is normally assigned that task.
* Assigning Priority to various tasks of every doer:
Qu TMS® helps managers by assigning priorities to the jobs handled by each of their employees, Qu TMS® uses an algorithm to do this so that maximum number of orders are completed on or before the customer desired delivery dates. This system assigned priority changes dynamically with the actual progress of the work order.
The system puts all the tasks in progress of every employee in 4 buckets: Top, High, Normal and Low. Inside each bucket the tasks are arranged in the descending order of priority.
The manager has the authority to change the system assigned priority to any employee but he runs the risk of delaying more jobs if he attempts to speed up any one job by assigning a higher priority to it.
Also, each bucket has a holding capacity in terms of the number of jobs/tasks and the manager cannot fill more than the capacity of a bucket: This means that all jobs cannot be assigned the top priority and become most urgent as it happens quite often! The manager has to decide which task to take out of the Top priority for example, if the Top priority bucket for an employee is already full and the manager wants to put one more task into the Top priority bucket.
Qu TMS® insists and gets the status of tasks handled by any employee at dates pre-decided by Qu TMS® . This avoids the manager from inadvertently becoming a victim of bad delegation.
Qu TMS® does this by requiring each employee to input the actual status of every task of work order for which he is the doer, on predetermined dates. If the employee fails to give this input – it takes hardly 2 to 3 minutes for him to give this input- it is reflected on his/her appraisal. Moreover the manager is informed of this lapse on the part of the employee the very next morning. This way all employees would be giving the status of the work they are handling. This is in complete contrast to the situation today where managers spend most of their time in following up with / chasing their employees to get the status of tasks delegated by them.
Many times we delegate – at all levels of management- and, over a period after delegation, we lose grip on the status of the delegated tasks and the relative priorities. People one level below us tend to believe that the task the boss asked about that day is the top most priority job, which they should take up and complete. Bosses – otherwise very effective managers and entrepreneurs – become chasers of the delegated tasks day in and day out. Obviously their time management goes awry and instead of their managing their time, the time starts managing them! After sometime, they all start thinking that effective follow-up is effective management! Very high calibre gets wasted in doing very low level job of chasing which – to euphemize- come to be called effective coordination, Qu TMS® solves these practical problems by insisting on the doer to give periodic status of each task handled by him – and making sure he does report the status!
Every time an employee reports status on any task, Qu TMS® recalculates the start and end dates of all tasks up to and including dispatch of a work order- fully taking into account the holidays and the week ends. Thus the projected dispatch date of any work order calculated by Qu TMS® indicates the latest outlook on dispatch of that work order. This again is relayed to all people who are concerned with progressing that work order and their immediate superiors.
Qu TMS® also recalculates instantly the system generated priority for all employees affected by the latest task status given by an employee.
If any task is either delayed or speeded up, all the people involved will be alerted by Qu TMS® . We have named this feature Next Higher Authority( NHA) alert This alert takes place right up to the CEO level but only if the immediate employee below a level fails to accomplish the task in the given time or speeds up the task significantly. In the case where the job is progressing as per expectation, nobody including the immediate superior of the doer is disturbed with a surfeit of progress reports/meetings.
The sales coordinator also monitors progress at every stage of every open work order on an on-line, real-time basis right from his work table. He is also able to see the developing peaks in advance and initiates pro-active action to resolve the peaks and keep/ bring the work/job order on track.
Sales is able to see the latest projected end dates of work orders and get back to their customers with the latest status – instead of the customers following up with the suppliers as prevalent in most situations.
Over a period of time, the sales coordinator is able to say yes to sales on customer desired delivery dates and make it happen!
* Time Management of managers:
In the time saved on follow-ups on delegated tasks and on fire-fighting, Qu TMS® ensures that the managers spend time in Q2 by focusing on the delays of just concluded work orders and quality issues and making them accountable for their non-repetition.
Qu TMS® achieves this by spotting delays of tasks beyond permissible limits, and converting this one-time "Root cause Location and elimination" project and releasing a "root – cause work order" for implementing- for which the manager concerned is responsible.
Qu TMS® does the same for tasks completed significantly early also – in an effort to find how it was accomplished and preserving it for future work orders / tasks.
Qu TMS® also releases root – cause work orders for locating root cause and eliminating it on receipt of a customer complaint on any dispatched work order; GM or CEO is responsible for finding the root cause and eliminating it in future orders.
Qu TMS® releases a root cause location and elimination work order if a completed task is returned to the internal supplier by an internal customer for reasons of poor quality.
The root cause location and elimination work order incorporates tasks that will ensure the finding of the genuine root cause and not any cause! This method is unique and is not available outside of Quest System Pvt. Ltd.
This focuses the middle level managers on continuous, relevant and significant improvements in processes and tasks for which they are responsible and addresses the "middle management apathy" that is a complaint today from most top managements.
For employees (doers) of tasks:
* Empowerment through Open system:
Qu TMS® improves the effectiveness of all employees by giving them instantly and on-line, real time, all the information they need to do their job effectively. Qu TMS® is an open system and nothing is confidential to the employee except the information he/she does not need to do the job effectively.
Qu TMS® presents the current and future work load picture so that he/she can resolve the peaks imaginatively. As the employee knows the on-coming work load picture, he/she can work more hours every day, schedule leave, and decide to work during weekends if required. All this the employee can decide instead of being asked by his manager. The employee gets credit in the appraisal if he/she converts a red or amber task to green!
Qu TMS® presents the work load graph and the priorities of work orders assigned to the employee are available to the employee on line. Qu TMS® gives the employee a system generated priority so that he/she can complete most work orders on time for which he/she gets a credit in the appraisal. The employee is also fed with the priority changes effected by his/her immediate superior. If there are too many changes in priority, it does disturb the employee and he/she can take this up with his manager. The system generated priority changes dynamically with the actual status of the progress of any task of the work order.
The employee gets information as soon a task is assigned to him/her, as soon as his predecessor gives status on his job and definitely as soon as his/her predecessor starts or completes his job. This gives the employee enough time to think innovatively and take pro-active steps to push the orders out of the Plant on time.
The employee is required to give status of all his/her jobs on predetermined dates. Giving timely status gives the employee credit and failure to do so gives him/her debit in his appraisal.
The employee is given significant credit for co-operating with his/her internal suppliers and customers in a team effort to push the order out of the Plant on time.
The employee’s performance is recorded and is open to him/her. More importantly the employee’s performance rating is totally objective- as it is system given (as opposed to human!) and based only on the status given on time, on-time completion and the quality of the tasks assigned to him/her.
Coordination between all concerned:
* Qu TMS® ensures coordination between all relevant people and departments by giving on-line, real-time information to the doers and managers of all the internal suppliers and customers and next-in-line departments. This information is not just when the task of one department ends but continuous- even as the task is in progress- as Qu TMS® extracts actual status on dates pre-decided by the system. The Sales Coordinator monitors the progress on all work orders and the individual department managers monitor progress on the tasks relevant to them. This often gives them a chance to (Qu TMS® expects them to) take pro-active corrective steps by linking these to their performance.
*Performance appraisal of the doers of tasks:
Qu TMS® automatically pumps out performance indices of tasks completed by an employee as soon as he/she completes a task. This is done for a team if the team works on the same task. Qu TMS® also gives credit in performance to the whole team of a work order if the work order is completed on or before time and debit to all the members if the dispatch is delayed This is effected as soon as the work order is completed. This is done without disturbing the individual performance indices for the tasks done by the individual for the same work order.
As the performance rating is system generated based on actual performance of the employee, the appraisal is completely objective.
The employee performance is open to him/her and to the hierarchy of managers vertically above and not to anyone else.
The performance index is made available by employee, by department, by division, by location, by company and by organization for any given period with comparisons of this month, this month YTD, last year this month and last year YTD.
According to our knowledge, no system in the world gives performance rating of the employee based on his/her actual performance so ruthlessly objectively. As the employee’s normal routine covers most of expected results from him/her, this indeed indicates genuine performance.
Qu TMS® combines the power of practical management expertise with the power of IT (information technology) to give significant benefits to the company.
Qu TMS® aims to increase the contribution (Sales value minus variable cost) per day of the manufacturing unit (Plant), thus maximizing the profits of the organization over the year. Qu TMS® achieves this by continually decreasing the time of order execution and by streamlining the support and indirect departments as well so that the company is enabled to process more orders in a given year. Qu TMS® takes care of both the doers and the managers as it progresses the customer orders to completion on or near-about (but before) the customer desired delivery date. Over a period of time, Qu TMS® ensures that the customers of the company, based on actual experience, will come to rely on the company as a supplier who sticks to the delivery dates desired by them. Basically Qu TMS® increases the throughput of the whole Plant.
Not for customer order processing alone:
There is a chain of tasks and processes that has to start and be managed the moment we receive a customer order. But there are other processes and tasks that have to be managed whether or not we receive a customer order, such as Personnel dept., accounts department etc. These departments have to complete certain tasks by certain date every month or at a given frequency. If not done by the stipulated date, it may entail legal action by the Govt. depts. concerned. The management does not have much to do with these routines except to know that the progress is smooth and the end dates are being met! Qu TMS® does help to monitor these as well, in much the same way as customer order processing. In addition, Qu TMS® releases automatically "work orders" for such fixed period processes and tasks. Qu TMS® can be effectively used to monitor any department of a company, small medium or big.
This way any remote office or branch office operations can also be monitored effectively.
Personal:
Qu TMS® can be used by all employees and managers logged on to the system for reminding them on things to be done on their personal front also. This includes reminders of gas cylinder replacement at home, financial reminders like fixed deposit renewals, credit card renewals, insurance premiums to be paid etc., medical tests to be taken, driving license renewal, passport renewal etc. Qu TMS® starts reminding the employee a specified lead time before the due date. It keeps reminding every day until the job is reported done by the employee. This part of Qu TMS® does not have the NHA (Next Higher Authority) feature as these concerns only with the personal aspects of the employee or the manager.
MIS:
* Qu TMS® gives extensive MIS with action reports for areas covered by it. Thus Qu TMS® gives performance by employee, by department, by function, by division, by location/unit, by company and lastly by organization (group of companies). These parameters are given by this month, this year and this month last year timeframes and for a given "From-To" time frames.
Qu TMS® also gives value added (contribution = sales value minus variable cost)/day by customer order, work order, process or by customer, thus making the management of the company more aware of where the route to increased profits lies.
Software design:
* Qu TMS® is designed for web as well as LAN application. If it is hosted on the web, people on the move also will not only be able know the latest progress and likely completion dates for customer orders but also will be able to give status of their own task etc and similar information that they have to give to Qu TMS® from any where in the world.
Not for manufacturing Plants alone:
Qu TMS® can be used effectively for management and monitoring of any small Office/ branch/unit however small the unit / branch may be. Yes, it is scalable upward to any size of the organization. Qu TMS® is a must wherever the CEO or a senior manager wants to have a grip over the operational management of several units / offices / departments/ branches, whether small or big -particularly when he/she has to manage effectively many far flung units/branches remotely.
Qu TMS® is also of immense use where progressing the normal routine work to schedule is tough such as the Government offices or departments. The politicians and beauracrats who want to tone the administration of their departments or parts thereof will find Qu TMS® a boon.
Implementation/Availability:
Unlike most systems of this kind, Qu TMS® does not interfere with the normal tasks /processes/formats currently in use in the organization. Qu TMS® does not involve change of habits on the part of the people of the organization; Qu TMS® therefore takes far less time to implement. Once the preparatory work (template preparation for all processes and input of organization structure) is over, when we will be working with you, not involving too many people from your organization, the system itself takes not more than a week to implement and train people in its operations. Moreover Qu TMS® does not disrupt the routine operations of the company in any way during its implementation.
Support by Quest:
We at Quest Systems will be with you to train your people on operations of Qu TMS® and in implementation of this system in your company/organization.