Total Quality Management (TQM) in Hospitality Industry:

Total Quality Management (TQM) in Hospitality Industry: A study of the application of TQM ina hotel'sengineering department and itseffects onhotel performance

ByMark Chan

A DISSERTATION

Submitted toThe University of Liverpool

in partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree of

MASTER OF Project Management

2011

A Dissertationentitled

Total Quality Management (TQM) in Hospitality Industry: A study of the application of TQM ina hotel'sengineering department and itseffects onhotel performanceByMark Chan

We hereby certify that this Dissertation submitted by Mark Chan conforms to acceptable standards, and as such is fully adequate in scope and quality. It is therefore approved as the fulfillment of the Dissertation requirements for the degree of Master of Project Management.

Approved: Dissertation Advisor Date

The University of Liverpool2011

CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

I hereby certify that this paper constitutes my own product, that where the language of others is set forth, quotation marks so indicate, and that appropriate credit is given where I have used the language, ideas, expressions or writings of another.

Signed Mark Chan

ABSTRACT

Total Quality Management (TQM) in Hospitality Industry:A study of the application of TQM ina hotel'sengineering departmentand itseffects onhotel performance

by

Mark Chan

Total Quality Management (TQM) methodology can help organizations to achieve business excellence. This methodology is also useful for the hospitality industry; almost all hotels focus on quality management to improve their business by enhancing customer satisfaction, competitive advantage and retaining guest loyalty. TQM is teamwork; every functional department must work cohesively together and support each other in order to achieve business excellence. Different departments in a hotel have different roles in delivering the service to hotel guests. This dissertation is aimed to find out how the Engineering Department, a back-of-house department in a hotel, supports the hotel goal of quality management together with the factors and practices that could impact the department both positively and negatively to achieve the quality.

In addition to the literary review, which reviewed existing knowledge, a qualitative approach was adopted for this research to collect primary data; structured interviews were conducted in Hong Kong and Beijing in China. Fourteen hotel engineers, with at least 5 years working experience in 5-star chain hotels, were interviewed. This research revealed that the major role of the engineering department is to ensure the efficient operation of all physical plants including electrical, mechanical, fire, hygiene and safety systems as well as production equipment; it plays a key role in providing a comfortable and safe environment for occupants including guests and staff. Comfort and safety are the essential factors in the decision making when people select hotels; therefore, the effectiveness of engineering department will affect the overall performance of the hotel. Quality tools are essential for the control, management, measurement and analysis of engineering tasks; they are important in maintaining the efficiency and improving the performance of the department. The top five critical success factors include: support from senior management, an effective team, leadership and management skills, communication, and clear quality requirements, whereas the top three barriers are: inadequate support from senior management, unfair work environment and bureaucratic policy traditional financial practice.In conclusion, the engineering department is one of the major internal service providers in a hotel; it supports other departments to complete the final product delivered to hotel guests.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my appreciation for my dissertation advisor, Dr. Dimitris Folinas, and my general dissertation advisor, Dr. Rathin Basu, for their support and guidance. I would also like to thank the following fellow engineers for their participation in the interviews and the contribution of their knowledge and experiences Mr. James Gao Mr. Desmond Lau Mr. X.M. Ma Mr. M.Z. Li Mr. Jack Li Mr. Sun Mr. Tom Zhang Mr. C.Y. Choi Mr. Winston Suen Mr. Raymond Ng Mr. Ivan Cheung Mr. Mark Li Mr. W.P. Wong Mr. Adam Jin

Table of Contents

Table of Tables9Table of Figures10Chapter 1: Introduction111.1Background111.2Research Questions121.3Aims and Objective131.4Structure of the Dissertation141.5Conclusion15Chapter 2: Literature Review162.1Introduction162.2Role of the Engineering Department172.3The link between Engineering and the hotel quality performance222.4Quality methodology and tools282.5Performance measurement312.6Critical success factors332.7Negative factors362.8Summary37Chapter 3: Methodology393.1Introduction393.2Research Design and Approach393.3Objectives of the Research403.4Justification for using Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches403.5Data Collection Methods413.6Interview design423.7Conclusion43Chapter 4: Results and Analysis444.1Introduction444.2Interviewees444.3Key findings444.4Key concepts of the study67Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendation695.1Introduction695.2Recommendations for hotel engineers and general managers695.3Recommendations for future research745.4Summary and Concluding Remarks75References:76Appendices80Appendix A : Declaration of interviewee81Appendix B : Interview Questions82Appendix C: Interviewee information85

Table of TablesTable 2.1 Types of asset management.17

Table 2.2 Performance measurement framework33

Table 4.1 Links of engineering roles to TQM performance52

Table 4.2 Common quality tools used by engineering department of hotels..54

Table 4.3 Computer software for hotel engineering department.55

Table 4.4 Performance Measurement..58

Table 4.5 Critical success factor.....60

Table 4.6 Common barriers.63

Table of FiguresFigure 2.1 Hotel accommodation package..15

Figure 2.2 Typical hotel organization chart....26

Figure 4.1 Electricity consumption per room-night58

Figure 4.2 Required competency of hotel engineer.68

Chapter 1:Introduction1.1 BackgroundIn todays highly competitive business environment, a companys capability to sustain its competitive advantage is crucial for the continuity of the business (Calingo, 1996). Quality is the most important factor for sustaining the competitive advantage. It is the measurement of how well a company can meet or exceed its customers requirements and expectations (Oakland, 2003). Competition is extremely high in a free market. Mitchell (n.d.) supports that customer satisfaction is essential in a free market due to the following reasons:- The products or services from the service providers are similar; Customers within the market are price-sensitive; Customers have stronger bargaining power as the cost to switch to another service is considered as low.The hospitality industry has strong market competition; therefore, customer satisfaction and retaining loyalty will be crucial for a hotels success. The Total Quality Management (TQM) methodology can help organizations to achieve business excellence by improving customer satisfaction (both internal and external), cost effectiveness and competitive advantage (SME Toolkit, 2011). This methodology is useful for the hospitality industry. In a hotel, any quality problem will induce guest complaints; the impact is direct and immediate without any time delay. Also, a hotel serves human beings and no two people are alike. People have different preferences and requirements which makes it more difficult to control quality in a hotel.

For successful TQM practice, organizations have to integrate the quality management into the business strategy and to align the goals both horizontally and vertically throughout the various levels within the organization. In a typical hotel, there are three vertical levels - the senior management level, the business level (middle management) and the functional level (shop floor). Horizontally, there are departments front office, food and beverage (F&B), housekeeping, sales and marketing, human resources, accounting, engineering and culinary.Nowadays, almost all hotels focus on quality management to improve their business. Oakland (2003) emphasizes that TQM is about teamwork; every functional department must work cohesively together and support each other in order to achieve business excellence. The effectiveness of teamwork determines the success of TQM in each hotel; this is why some hotels have better performance than others.However, the focus of the most recent research on TQM in the hospitality industry is only on the service from front-line departments such as front office and F&B (Saunders et al, 1992; Harrington & Keating ,2006); they ignore the efforts from back-of-house departments. 1.2 Research QuestionsAlthough technicians and engineers in a hotel seldom contact hotel guests directly, it does not mean they are excluded from providing quality service. The engineering department, a back-of-house department, ensures the efficient operation of all physical plants and all fire and safety systems; its role appears to be crucial in providing a comfortable and safe environment for guests such as temperature control, lighting and air quality, and monitoring fire prevention.

Also, engineering department supports the front-line staff by ensuring the proper operations of hotel production equipment; so that front line department can provide its services to hotel guests on time. Oakland (2003) points out that teamwork is one of the important success factors; a smooth work process will require multiple departments working together and supporting each other. TQM can improve the performance of the Engineering Department in a hotel, and the department contributes its improvements to the overall hotel performance. The main objective of this research is to discover the factors that affect the engineering department in hotels to achieve the quality goals. In this regard, the dissertation intends to find answers to the following questions How does the engineering department in hotels support the goals of quality management? What are the most critical factors that will impact the engineering department both positively and negatively to achieve the quality? What kind of quality tools and techniques can be used to improve the efficiency of engineering departments in hotels? How do hotels measure the performance of the engineering department?

1.3 Aims and ObjectiveDifferent departments in a hotel have different roles in delivering the service to hotel guests. Also, front-ofhouse and back-of-house departments play different roles in the quality chain.The engineering department, a back-of-house department, plays a key role in ensuring the efficient operations of all physical plants including fire, hygiene and safety systems; it also maintains normal operation of production equipment such as kitchen food production equipment, laundry machinery, and cooler and freezers. They are important in maintaining the service standards. Therefore, its effectiveness will affect the overall performance of the hotel. This dissertation intends to find out the roles and responsibilities of the engineering department in hotels, and how the department supports the overall hotel quality performance. The findings will provide useful information for hotel technical professionals and hotel general managers to further improve their efficiency and effectiveness in quality management. Also, this knowledge can be shared within other hotel engineers as best practices reference and for benchmarking performance.1.4 Structure of the DissertationThis dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapters are arranged so that readers can understand the objective of the research and how the research is developed. Chapter one is the introductory chapter, it provides the general information of TQM and TQM in the hospitality industry. It also explains why the author is interested in the research topic; therefore, it outlines the research questions as well as the aims and objectives of this dissertation.Chapter two deals with the review of related literature; it is to study the published work that other researchers have done in order to find the knowledge related to the research questions. The purpose is to define the gap of knowledge. Chapter three describes the research method. This chapter presents the research design of this dissertation which includes the justification of the research methods, objective and the design for the data collection.Chapter four is the result and analysis. This chapter analyzes the data and provides the summary of the research result. The main objective is to combine the existing knowledge with new findings to form new knowledge.Chapter five is the conclusion and recommendations. This chapter concludes the new knowledge and its benefits. This chapter also recommends the benefits to hotel engineers and general managers. For the shortages in the research, recommendations are included for future investigations.

1.5 ConclusionIn summary, this dissertation is to find out the relationship between the engineering department in a hotel and Total Quality Management (TQM). Four research questions were developed to better understand this relationship. Throughout the five chapters, these questions are investigated as conclusions and recommendations are drawn.

Chapter 2: Literature Review2.1 IntroductionQuality management is an approach that enables a company to gain market share and price advantage. This is a company-wide effort; teamwork and commitment from all staff cannot be under-emphasized (Oakland, 2003).Traditionally, people believe that hotel engineers roles are just to keep the machinery running, such as boilers, air conditioners, elevatorsetc; their job is to repair the furniture and ensure the supply of water, air-conditioning and lighting for hotel guests (Rutherford, 1987). However, this impression is not realistically true in todays hospitality industry. Rutherford (1987) points out that the role of hotel engineers has been changed from traditional technical tasks to more embracement of management oriented functions. Their effort to support the organizational strategy and achieve hotel TQM goals is also essential.To identify the gap of the knowledge for this topic, it is necessary to conduct a literature review (White, 2002). This chapter is to review the existing knowledge about the engineering department of hotels; the study includes:- The role of an engineering department in a hotel; The link between the engineering department and the hotel quality performance; Success critical factors supporting performance; Negative factors impacting performance; Quality tools for hotel engineers; Performance measurement for the engineering department. The purpose of this chapter is to review different sources that provide the functionality of hotel engineers to support the quality performance of a hotel and identify factors that could affect the performance of engineering department.

2.2 Role of the Engineering DepartmentQuality management starts with the realization of the requirements from the customers (Oakland, 2003). To study how the Engineering department in a hotel supports the overall quality performance, it is necessary to learn the role of the department and its responsibilities. Hotel engineers are responsible for the operations and management of facilities and assets in the hotel (Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2001). Durodola & Oloyede (2011) advise that there are four styles of asset management maintenance management, property management, facilities bench marking and facilities management. Table 2.1 shows the definition of these four asset management types.Table 2.1 Types of asset management

Asset Management typeDefinition

Maintenance managementThis is to upkeep a facility so that the facility can support the core business of the building (Arditi and Nawakorawit in Durodola & Oloyede, 2011)

Property managementIt is more than maintenance management; it also aims on the financial return on focusing on leasing, tenant selection and property portfolio management (Nwankwo in Durodola & Oloyede, 2011)

Facilities benchmarkingThis is the application of benchmarking which identifies best practices to the building operation and management (Milohnic and Cerovic in Durodola & Oloyede, 2011).

Facility managementThis is defined as an integrated approach to operating, maintaining, improving and adopting the buildings and infrastructure of an organization in order to create an environment that strongly supports the primary objectives of that organization (Barett, 2000).

Durodola & Oloyede (2011), in their research of hotels in Nigeria, found out that all five-star hotels adopt facility management which they believe is the most effective and the latest style of hotel assets management.Facilities management includes the following responsibilities (Lewis, 1999 ; Cotts, 1998): Preventive maintenance for building physical plants; Work requests handling; Enforcement of fire and life safety policies; Energy conservation; Control of maintenance expenses; Promotion of community social responsibility (CSR); Project management.Building physical assets include:- Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning plants; Electrical distribution; Plumbing and drainage; Vertical transportation; Safety and surveillance systems; Building structure; Furniture and fixtures.In addition to the physical assets, hotels also consist of the following production equipment:- Kitchen equipment; Laundry equipment; Coolers and freezers..Preventive maintenance Physical assets are subject to wear and tear; proper maintenance is required to ensure the efficient operation of these assets. This includes regular inspection, lubrication, adjustment, calibration, minor repair, replacement and cleaning. The objective is to minimize the deterioration and prevent unscheduled machinery breakdown; proper maintenance can extend the life span of the assets (Cotts, 1998; Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2001). The study by Kuo, Chiang & Chiang (2008) for the air quality of hotels in Taiwan proved that proper operation of air-conditioning system provides a comfortable air temperature and air quality for hotel guests. Proper maintenance for the air-conditioning plant ensures the normal provision of cooling in summer and heating in winter; inadequate maintenance would affect the air quality. The study indicated that poor indoor air quality would affect the health of tourists; for example, insufficient circulation of fresh air could cause air-bone diseases. Chan, Lee & Burnett, (2001) also confirmed that efficient maintenance of building systems is essential in order to provide a healthy and comfortable environment for hotel guests. For example, Lewis (1999) points out that preventive maintenance is to provide proper lighting, good air quality, clean water supply and sound vertical transportation for the building occupants. This service requires professional and technical knowledge from the hotel engineer. Work request handling No matter how well a hotel can perform its regular maintenance, there are still some minor problems. For example, noise from fan coil units, requests for temperature adjustments due to personal preferences, unexpected water pipe leakageetc. These guest requests or complaints would impact the customer satisfaction negatively; a quick response to these work requests is an effective recovery action for these deficiencies (Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2001). Calingo (1996) advises that guest complaints are a useful source for analyzing the quality deficiency. How quickly the organization could improve determines its success in meeting the customers satisfaction. Life and safety policies - Hotels have high occupancy loads; most occupants hotel guests, are not familiar with the building. During an emergency situation such as a fire or blackout, ensuring the safety of these people becomes very difficult. Fire Safety Engineering (2006) points out that even with comprehensive safety codes, fires still cause death and injuries in hotels; this is mainly due to unprofessional crisis management. Knowledge in maintaining an effective emergency plan is essential. Hotel engineers are the key people to ensure the effectiveness of this plan; this includes not only the normal maintenance of firefighting equipment, but also the training of all staff in fire drill and evacuation practice. Crowell, C. (2009) further elaborates the importance that having a well thought out emergency action plan and a staff that knows how to execute it is just as important as all of the building codes. Guests would assume that staff in the hotel is well trained and prepared to assist guests in case of emergencies.Therefore, conducting fire drills and emergency evacuations is one of the important safety practices in hotels; all the staff in the building is expected to be well trained and capable of guiding guests to leave the hotel building in the case of an emergency. The objective is to avoid fatal injuries during the outbreak of incidents and accidents. Energy conservation Promoting energy conservation is not only inclusive in the hospitality industry; it is a world-wide green effort. Controlling the utilities in a building such as electricity, gas, steam, fuel oil and water requires technical knowledge; hotel engineers are the experts to promote this awareness. Reducing the energy consumption or minimizing the wastage could reduce environmental pollution; it can also save on utility expenses (Chan, 2007). Rutherford (1987), in his study of the responsibilities of hotel chief engineers, pointed out that energy conservation and management came in second in the list of his study results. Control of expenses - Another function of the engineering department is the control of maintenance expenses. Hotel engineers need to be sensitive in controlling the spending of expenses in order to meet the financial budgets (Cotts, 1998). Chan (2007) points out that maintenance cost is as high as 8-12 %; while the utility cost is as high as 5-12% of the total hotel expenses. Engineering is to support the profit margin by controlling the expenses of utilities by implementing energy conservation programs, and the outsource expenses by selecting competent contractors. Chan (2007) also suggested that an effectively planned maintenance framework could minimize the cost, as it prevents the breakdown of equipment which could cause an interruption in business. Planned maintenance allows for the minimization of emergency repair and the loss of production capacity.Community social responsibility (CSR) - Chan & Ho (2006) advise that Green practice, such as ISO14001 accreditation, promotes the brand image; Samuel (2008) also urges hotel engineers to go green as this is the new way of doing business. Most CSR activities involve technical knowledge; e.g. environmental protection, reducing of CO2 emission, use of energy efficient products, elimination of contaminated substances and education for staff for the awareness. Engineers play a significant role in a hotel to drive for participation. Hawkins (2009) emphasizes that hospitality operators must be able to prove that their sustainable business practices make a difference in order to win consumers for whom CSR matters. Project management Hotel areas need to be refurbished at regular interval in order to maintain the contemporary (Sohail et al, 2007). For example, guest rooms are renovated once every five to seven years; typical score of work includes replacement of furniture and fixtures, redecoration and some minor modifications (Langdon, D & Everest, 2002). Hotel engineers need to plan and coordinate these projects. Wysocki (2009) advises that the goal of project management is to complete the project within the budgeted timeframe and cost as per the determined quality requirements.

2.3 The link between Engineering and the hotel quality performance

Although hotel technicians and engineers are seldom in contact with hotel guests directly, it does not mean that they are excluded from contributing to the overall hotel quality performance. Engineers role and responsibilities are important to maintain a comfortable and safe environment for hotel guests, controlling the expenses to meet the financial budget and to promote the hotel image. In other words, engineers need to meet the stakeholders needs. Stakeholders include hotel guests, internal departments, and property owners.Hotel guests - Cotts (1998) suggests that effective maintenance of facilities is important in supporting the business. Each business has a philosophy about the facility; facility management is part of the business function. Therefore, hotel engineers/facility managers are also business managers. They need to align the departmental goals with the hotel business goals.

Sohail at el (2007), in their research for the determinants of service quality in Malaysian hotels, point out that people consider factors like comfort, cleanliness and safety in selecting hotels. Quality in services and facilities are equally important for sustainable competitive advantage. Engineering department is responsible for the facility management. Therefore, its effectiveness would affect the overall performance of the hotel. For example, they pointed out that outdated and worn out furnishings could de-value the appearance of the hotel.Durodola & Oloyede (2011) have conducted a research on 57 hotels in Nigeria regarding the importance of asset management. They concluded that the goal of facility management is to support the core business; an effectively planned maintenance program to upkeep the assets is one of the important ways for improving hotel business. Effective preventive maintenance enables the physical plants to provide a comfortable and safe environment; proper upkeep of fixtures and furniture provides a cozy and warm atmosphere. Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) have conducted a study of maintenance performance for hotels in Hong Kong. They concluded that proper maintenance of physical assets is important to provide a healthy and comfortable atmosphere for hotel guests. The working condition of the building service systems have a direct and significant effect on the customers impression of the hotel; for example, improper air temperature from air-conditioning, leaking from ceiling water pipes and disturbance from improper control of construction noise could disturb guests and cause guest dissatisfaction. Gruman, Chhinzer,& Smith, (2011) support that handling disasters in the hospitality industry is difficult due to the high volume of occupants in the building; hotels should be well prepared for possible crisis and emergencies. Their study showed that experience and knowledge could enhance crisis readiness. Hofmann (2005) pointed out that a comprehensive crisis management policy could promote the brand image of the hotel. Wai (in Okoroh, Jones and llozor, 2003) in his study of facility management and hotel renovation in Hong Kong suggested that effective facility management strategies could be applied in renovation projects in order to minimize the disturbances to hotel guests. Chan (2007) also suggests that engineering staff are required to work in shift, so that most repair work could be arranged in the day time when most guests are out of the hotel. Middle and night shift technicians are mainly for emergency repair. This arrangement is mainly to minimize the disturbances to hotel guests. Okoroh, Jones and llozor (2003), in their study of the benefits of facilities management in the hospitality industry, suggested a model of hotel accommodation package to satisfy customer needs. Figure 2.1 shows the details of the model. The model indicates that hotel guests look for feeling of well-being, high standard of hygiene, cleanliness, health and safety, appropriate lighting and air quality, protection from environmental hazards, hot food and beverage and cozy fixtures and furniture. It suggests that while hotels focus on tangible service such as room check-in, food service; hoteliers should also realize that customer satisfaction must be balanced with intangible services such as security, a feeling of well beingetc.

Figure 2.1 Hotel accommodation package (Okoroh, Jones and llozor, 2003)

In view of above, the engineering department plays a key role in maintaining a comfortable, healthy and safe environment for hotel external guests through effective facility management; this includes sufficient lighting, good air quality, and a quiet and warm environment with a well-prepared safety policy. These factors contribute directly to the customer satisfaction.Property Owners Property owners focus on investment returns. A proper maintenance program maintains a good physical condition of the property; it can extend the life span of the assets. Therefore, proper maintenance will increase the investment return for the property owner (Durodola & Oloyede, 2011). The property owner is one of the important customers. His satisfaction could ensure the employment of the hotel management team.

Internal customers - Most processes in a hotel involve multiple departments. To be successful in practicing TQM, organizations have to integrate the quality management into the business strategy and to align the goals horizontally and vertically throughout the various levels within the organization (Oakland, 2003). In a typical hotel, there are three levels vertically - the senior management level, the business level (middle management) and the functional level (shop floor). The senior management level includes owner and his representations and the hotel general manager. The middle management is the department head such as front office manager, accountant, chief engineeretc, and the shop floor staff is rank and file employees such as receptionists, waiters and techniciansetc. Horizontally, there are departments front office, food and beverage (F&B), housekeeping, sales and marketing, human resources, accounting, engineering and culinary. Figure 2.2 shows a typical hotel organization chart.

Figure 2.2 Typical hotel organization chart (Baker, Bradley & Huyton in Fleseriu & Fleseriu, 2010)

TQM is to satisfy the customers needs; internally, this can be achieved successfully by executing every process and activity carefully from the first supplier to the last customer; this is the quality chain. Managing quality requires effort at all levels of the organization and, importantly, at all steps in the quality chain (Oakland, 2003). Meeting the requirement of the internal customers in the quality chain is critical in delivering the final product to the final external customer in a hotel. Hotel engineers need to support the hotel accountants in achieving the financial goal. Achieving the financial goals is one of the important tasks for managers as a balanced scorecard is still a popular performance measurement (Oakland, 2003). For hotel engineers, controlling energy and maintenance costs needs proper planning. Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) points out that in estimating the energy cost, the outdoor weather condition, guestroom occupancy rate and food covers should be taken into consideration as they will affect the energy consumption. Chan (2007) also advises that energy consumption can be reduced by implementing energy conservation programs; e.g. replacing old equipment with new energy efficient equipment and machinery, educating staff to minimize energy wastage such as turning off the lighting and air-conditioning when the office is not occupied.Planning of cost control is a bottom-up process which requires front line operator involvement (Campbell, 1995). Input from engineering staff for proper spending of expenses will increase the effectiveness of engineering operations. Research by Chan (2007) confirmed that health and safety, energy consumption and guest expectation have been the major influential factors for maintenance decision making in hotels in Hong Kong.

2.4 Quality methodology and tools To drive quality improvement, use of proper methodologies such as quality frameworks and tools is necessary as they can assist the organization to effectively manage quality (Oakland, 2003).Quality framework - A quality framework can provide a high-level guideline to assist a company to manage quality. It works as a road-map to guide the employees (Oakland 2003).Oakland (2003, p21) suggested a TQM framework with four Ps (planning, people, process and performance) and 3Cs (culture, communication and commitment). He suggests that planning, people and process are the key factors in the quality framework to deliver performance (4 Ps); while culture, communication and commitment (3Cs) support and link the 4Ps to produce the result. Therefore, competent people, clear processes, comprehensive plans, and effective tools are essential for managing quality.EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) is a popular quality framework for business excellence in Europe; it guides organizations to self assess nine key areas of the business. The first five aspects are called enablers; they are: leadership, people, policy and strategy, partnership and resources, and result. Another four areas are referred as result; they are: people results, customer results, society results and key performance results. The main advantage of the framework is that it drives for the continuous improvement (EFQM, 2003). Home and Personal Care-Europe (HPCE) has adopted EFQM quality framework for quality improvement. The successful deployment of the framework changed the culture of the company, improved the efficiency of the workforce and increased the business revenue and profit by 20% (Oakland, 2003).

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (2011) indicates that ISO is a standard which is recognized internationally. This framework provides a set of standardized requirements for a quality management system. This accredited certification needs to be certified by external auditor. Currently three types of framework are available; they are ISO 14001(environmental management system), ISO18001 (workplace safety management system) and ISO 9001(quality management system). The organization claims that these certifications can increase the brand image of the company.Chan & Ho (2006) advised, in their research about the environment management systems in hotels, that most hotels have had some sort of in-house environment conservation programs with different degrees of intensity; however, proper tools such as ISO 14001 would provide a more effective guideline.Interestingly, Harrington & Keating (2006) have studied hotels in Ireland. They found out that only 28.2 percent of Irish hotels had adopted a formal quality management system, although most Irish hoteliers indicated that they were familiar with quality certification. However, the research did not provide the reasons for this phenomenon.Quality ToolsFlowchart - Reding, Ratiiff & Fullmer (1998) believe that flow charting is one of the useful quality tools. Process mapping and flow charting allow a proper documentation of work processes and provide a clear picture of business process, which allows better understanding of business processes and enables easy identification of inefficiencies and problem solving.Standardised operating procedures Harrington & Keating (2006) state that standardised operating procedures is one of the important tools to maintain product consistency. Their research indicated that 77.7% of hotels in Ireland had documented operation policy and procedures. Sohail et al (2007), in their research of Malaysian hotels, supports that the hotels standard operating procedures should be constantly reviewed to maintain the consistency of quality and efficiency of service. Effective supervision is the answer to ensure that employees are following the procedures.Statistical process control (SPC) - DACS (n.d.) introduces that SPC is popular in managing the process performance; it can be used to monitor the consistency of processes. For example, upper and lower limits can be set, so that inconsistency can be monitored if the process result exceeds the limits. SPC also make use of the seven tools of quality check sheet, histogram, Pareto chart, cause and effect diagram, scatter diagram, control chart and graph. DACS (n.d.) recommends that STC is effective for industrial application. This is suitable for electrical and mechanical system performance monitoring in a hotel.Audit is one of the effective tools to evaluate the effectiveness of quality management; there are internal and external audits. The assessment allows organizations to view their strengths and to identify areas for improvement (Oakland, 2003). Technology IT technology is important in todays business. Griswold (2003) points out that an effective automated work order response system can assist hotels to quickly respond to work request and track the completion status. The system also provides data for management to make decisions for performance improvement; for example, reports can be generated for top incidents, recurring problems and trend analysis. Ptak & Schragenheim (2004) support that the rapid development of technology has enabled management information systems to become powerful aids for improving business performance; e.g. enterprise resource planning (ERP) system enables integration of core business processes. It can help reshape businesses and align organizational structures and processes with industry best-practices.

Karatasou, Geros & Santamouris (2008) suggested that integrating the existing building system with emerging IT technology could develop a new internet based energy and environment services. This allows remote control and monitoring of cooling equipment. Energy for cooling is the biggest energy consumption for buildings; this technology facilitates the monitoring and analysis in order to control and reduce the energy consumption.Strategy deployment Turing strategy into action is a bottom-up process which requires front line operator involvement, shop floor staff are the owners of each work processes (Campbell, 1995). This is in line with the suggestion from Oakland (2003) that bottom-up approach is effective in executing strategies while a top-down approach is more effective in the policy deployment as instructions are always from the top. Bottom- up process requires motivation so that operations staff will suggest creative and innovative solutions for the implementation of processes. Since hotel engineers have to operate electrical and mechanical systems in the hotel to ensure the guest comfort and safety; it will be useful to find out how the quality tools can assist hotel engineers in their operation and work processes.

2.5 Performance measurement Performance measurement is important to be able to indicate the effectiveness of the quality strategy implemented. This is a reiterate process; continuous monitoring allows organization to check if the standards of quality are being met and identify problems for rectification (Oakland, 2003)People have been arguing that performance is difficult to measure in the service industry. This is due to the fact that people are not aware that service is also a product (Deming in Saunders et al, 1992). Also, service is delivered at the time it is produced; any performance measurement taken will be too late to avoid an error when in contact with the customer. Furthermore, personal preference is different from person to person; hotels have to tailor the service for different individuals. This makes the measurement criteria difficult to define (Saunders et al, 1992). However, a study from Saunders et al (1992) pointed out that service quality is the balance between the expectations that the customer had and their perception of the service received. It is possible, by focusing on the processes and identifying appropriate quality measures, to obtain data to measure the performance in the hospitality industry. Zimmerman & Enell (in Saunders et al, 1992) suggested four categories to measure service performance: timeliness, integrity, predictability, customer satisfaction. Timeliness refers to the response time for the guest request. Integrity refers to the completeness of the service. Predictability refers to the consistency of the service, and customer satisfaction refers to the appreciation of the service from the customer.Van Schalkwyk (1998) suggests that organizations should develop their own unique set of key indicators for measuring their products. The performance measurement should strongly focus on the customer satisfaction. The measurement result should be available freely at all levels for the process owners who need to maintain and improve the quality; this is to encourage employee employment. This information is a good learning opportunity for employees to perform continuous improvement with the application of benchmarking. Engineering department is responsible for maintaining a comfortable and safe environment for hotel guests; the internal audit measures the effectiveness of facility management. The major objective of preventive maintenance is to minimize machinery breakdown; Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) introduce a method, urgent repair request index (URI), to measure the machine breakdown. URI = UR/ (UR + GR)where UR is the number of urgent repair requests arising from guests and in-house staff, and GR is the number of normal request for repair of building facilities. The equation states that the fewer the urgent requests from guests, the lower the URI. This indicates high preventive maintenance efficiency. The second priority of the engineering department is to control the utility cost. For facility management, it is common to measure the energy efficiency index. This is the annual equivalent energy consumption normalized over the gloss floor areas. The research by Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) shows that the average energy efficiency index for hotels in Hong Kong is 457kWh/M2.Oakland, (2003) also proposed a performance measurement framework. He believes that performance measurement, to be effective, should focus on 4 levels as shown in table 2.2.

Table 2.2 Performance measurement framework (Oakland, 2003)

LevelDescriptionMeasurement

Level 1Strategy development and goal deployment;Key performance outcomes and targets

Level 2Process managementProcess performance measures

Level 3Individual performance measurementPerformance appraisal

Level 4Review performance Self Assessment, surveys, benchmarking etc.

2.6 Critical success factorsOakland (2003), in his TQM model, emphasizes the importance of competent people, clear processes, comprehensive plans, and effective tools. He believes that these factors are the components forming the TQM framework.Yang (2006) studied and compared the practices for quality management for different service industries in Taiwan, namely hospitals, hotels, insurance companies, banks, department stores and airlines. The study revealed that hotels devoted stronger attention on the following practices: top management support, market segment and positioning, customer focus, design service process, training, standardize policy and procedures, leadership, customer satisfaction and measure, internal customer measure, performance audit and continuous improvement. The study also pointed out that employee motivation, input control, and empowerment were insufficient in the hospitality industry. Sila and Ebrahipour (2003) identified 76 validated TQM success factors and their impacts; the top twenty factors are: top management commitment, leadership, customer focus, information and analysis, training, supplier management, strategic planning, employee involvement, human resource management, process, management, teamwork, product and service design, process control, benchmarking, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, quality assurance, social responsibility, and employee satisfaction. These factors could be considered as the most universally applied factors.Most international chain hotels believe that top management commitment is important. This is why most hotel groups provide a clear mission statement as a business direction. For example, Shangri-La Hotels mission is To be the first choice for guests and colleagues, shareholders and business partners (Shangri-La.com, 2011). Oakland (2003, p58) suggests that the top-down approach is more effective for new policy deployment as instructions are always from the top. However, bottom-up approach is more effective as ideas for how to implement the policy should be encouraged in the departmental and shop-floor level. This opinion is supported by Wheeler and Sillanpaa (in Tantawy & Tanner, 2001) that top-down control and command should be balanced with bottom-up spirit for promoting continuous improvement. Since engineering is a technical department, knowledge of building systems is necessary to ensure the safe operation of the facility. Therefore, engineering staff should poses the required competence and commitment together with passion for the work (Trkman, 2010)Tantawy & Tanner (2001) recommends factors for implementing business excellence model, i.e. EFQM. The factors are proper leadership style in the different stage of the implementation; clear objective of change leading to comfortable change; favorable company culture; use of system thinking for diagnosis; proper method of prioritization; and the approach for managing the change. Calingo (1996) points out that continuous improvement is a must in TQM. Instead of following common quality norms, organizations should consider matching or exceeding competitors quality. Oakland (2003) recommends that the E-P-D-C-A (evaluate, plan, do, check and amend) is an effective model for continuous improvement. Chan (2007) also suggests another two factors for increasing the efficiency of the engineering department. Traditionally, technicians are of mono-skill; e.g. electrician with electrical trade qualifications, carpenters with woodwork knowledgeetc. Promotion of having technicians with multiple skills in the hotel engineering department could improve the overall quality and reduce labor costs. Another recommendation is hiring specialized contractors for equipment with high technological needs as the technicians in the hotel may not have the proper knowledge to maintain these pieces of equipment, and contractors are needed to sustain the quality requirements. Some of these machines may include generators, boilers, chillers, and fire detection systems. The factors mentioned above could be considered as the most universally applied factors. The priority of these factors still need further investigation even though it is still the same when applied to an engineering department.

2.7 Negative factorsRecent research emphasizes the importance of critical factors for practicing TQM. Scholars believe that there are also factors affecting the performance negatively. For example, TQM is to change the culture of an organization (Oakland, 2003); there are always barriers affecting the change. Van Schalkwyk (1998) pointed out that use of a traditional financial policy to set goals may affect the output level negatively; e.g. focusing heavily on financial data for monitoring and controlling may reduce the focus on the customers needs. This has a direct impact on a hotel engineering department as the engineering department is considered to be a money spending department. Any financial limit may limit the performance of the department. Calingo (1996) also advises that trying to maximize profit and ignoring the value on customer loyalty would not help to improve the profitability; conversely, it will negatively impact the performance of an organization rather than positively. The proper way to reduce the cost is by improving the process such as re-engineering, making use of technology to improve efficiency and eliminate waste (Kerzner, 2010). Harrington & Keating (2006) also carried out a study on quality management initiatives in Irish Hotels. They found out that one of the barriers for the success of quality management has been the ingrained attitude of staff. They reported that over 25.5 % of respondents stated that staff did not pay attention to quality requirements; and 23 % respondents reflected the staffs lack of enthusiasm. Wong (2007) believes that staff behavior is influenced by both internal and external factors; for example, Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of human needs model suggests that behavior is affected by factors within an individual. Herzbergs dual factor suggests that employment factors could also influences staff behavior; this is further supported by Maroudas, Kyriakidou & Vacharis (2008), in their study of employees motivation in hotel industry, that human resources polices, practices and provision of incentives are important for the creation of a workplace environment which ultimately affects staff behaviors. Carbone (in Harrington & Keating, 2006) points out another reason of TQM failures is that organization have focused on the production improvement, they have neglected the importance of empowerment in the service industry. In addition, Andy Helmore, director of engineering at the Four Seasons Hampshire, pointed out that one of the difficulties in the hotel is that Everyone who stays here wants to experience a quality product, but no one wants to be bothered by maintenance work". For the proper preventive maintenance, machines have to be scheduled and suspended for service and overhaul. For example, elevators have to be put out of service during the oiling or change of cables. Sometime, even the general manager does not like to see the suspension of the service. Looking for a suitable time for the suspension of different systems for overhaul has been one of the challenges for hotel engineers. This kind of problem may not happen in other types of buildings such as office towers (Janet, 2010). Finding out of these barriers could help the engineering department to pay close attention to these barriers; so that the department can improve its quality management performance.2.8 SummaryChapter 2 presented a literature review on the role and responsibilities of hotel engineers in supporting the hotel to achieve customer satisfaction. It also reviews the existing knowledge in measuring the performance of a hotel engineering department and the factors affecting the performance of the department both positively and negatively.The engineering department is the key department in a hotel to maintain the physical plants, safety systems and production equipment; in return, it provides a comfortable and safe environment for guests in a hotel. Engineering department also need to support other departments (internal customers), so that these departments can achieve their business goals. Except few fragmented research studying the performance of maintenance such as research by Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001); no study was prevalent on how the hotel engineering department links its effort to the hotel TQM. This study focus on how engineering department, a back-of-house department, contributes its effort to support the overall hotel performance. The next section - Chapter 3, presents the methodology employed in this study for the research.

Chapter 3: Methodology3.1 IntroductionThis chapter presents steps of how the research was carried out. This chapter includes the following sections: the research design and approach, objectives of the research, justification for the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches, data collection method, interview design and conclusion. 3.2 Research Design and ApproachA qualitative approach was adopted for this research; structured interviews were conducted to collect data in response to the research questions. The result of the analysis is presented by inductive (descriptive) method; knowledge from the interviewer, interviewees and previously researched results was incorporated into the report. The author selected two qualified hotel engineers to pilot test the questionnaire, the purpose was to: Check if each question could measure the desired objective; Check for any misunderstanding of the questions; Check if interviewees felt comfortable answering the questions; Measure the time that was required for the interview.

3.3 Objectives of the ResearchThe main objective of this research was to study how a hotel engineering department, a back-of-house department, supported the hotel TQM and the factors that affected its performance. To achieve the objective, the dissertation intended to find answers to the following questions: How does the engineering department in hotels support the goals of quality management? What are the most critical factors that will impact the engineering department both positively and negatively to achieve the quality? What kind of quality tools and techniques can improve the efficiency of engineering departments in hotels? How do hotels measure the performance of the engineering department?

3.4 Justification for using Qualitative & Quantitative ApproachesQuantitative research this approach is considered to be systematic scientific research as it makes use of mathematic calculation and statistics; the process is termed inferential statics (White, 2002). It is believed that this approach is more objective in supporting or rejecting a hypothesis or a theory with minimum bias. Therefore, quantitative research is for testing hypotheses and ideals for scientific research; this technique is suitable for collecting data including questionnaires and experiments (McGuigan, 2011). Qualitative research Qualitative research is a descriptive, non-numerical way to collect and interpret information. The data collecting techniques include interview, observation, use of diaries, case study, and action research. In this type of research, research questions or arguments are proposed; data is collected and interpreted to support the research questions (White, 2002). Therefore, this approach is suitable for business management subjects; e.g. exploring behavior and business practices (McGuigan, 2011). However, McGuigan (2011) warns that this approach is more subjective as it could have been influenced by the personal opinions of the interviewer and the interviewees, and their opinions could have been biased. The interviewer has to properly plan the interview and ensure that the feedback from interviewees were justifiable. In consideration of the nature of this dissertation and the analysis of both research approaches; the qualitative approach was a suitable choice for this dissertation.

3.5 Data Collection MethodsFourteen (14) hotel engineers were interviewed either in groups, individually, or by telephone/e-mail in Beijing and Hong Kong of China. Engineers were selected from international brand 5-star chain hotels in China; they all had worked / have been working as a hotel chief engineer/director of engineering for at least 5 years and have worked in different cities in China. Participation was on a voluntary basis, and the interviewing time was approximately two hours. Participants offered primary data from their own experiences; they were not representing any particular hotel, therefore, no consent from any organizations was required; this arrangement was to encourage interviewees to express their opinions freely without concern for specific organizational restrictions regarding the release of organization information. Interviewees were asked to sign a declaration form; the form is shown in Appendix A. The advantage of using interviews was to minimize and clear any misunderstandings of the research questions immediately during the face-to-face discussion. This allowed the interviewer to ensure that answers from the interviewees were related to the research questions. Also, the interviewer could have made use of the opportunity to discuss in-depth for particular issues if the interviewee showed interest (White, 2002). A description of this research together with the objectives and questions was sent to participants two weeks in advance; this was to allow the participant to prepare for the interview.

3.6 Interview designDuring the interview, interviewees were encouraged to contribute their experiences with TQM practices in hotels. They were expected to offer the following information:- A description of functions that the department supports the hotel service quality; The correlation between departmental performance and overall hotel TQM performance; A subjective opinion on the most important critical success factors supporting the engineering department to achieve the quality goals; A subjective opinion on the most important critical factors affecting the performance of the department negatively; A description of the quality methodologies, tools and techniques used to improve the efficiency/quality of engineering departments.Since a structured interview approach was used in this research, a question list was prepared as shown in appendix B. The advantage of preparing the questions is that these questions could have been sent to the interviewees in advance together with the introduction of this dissertation so that interviewees could prepare for the information before the interview. Also, discussion questions were consistent for all interviewees.3.7 ConclusionIn summary, a qualitative approach was adopted for this research. Structured interviews were conducted in Hong Kong and Beijing, China to collect primary data from experienced hotel engineers.

Chapter 4: Results and Analysis

4.1 IntroductionThis chapter provides a summary of the results of the interview; it also analyzes the interviewees opinions with key concepts and relates the findings with the research questions.

4.2 IntervieweesA total of 14 hotel engineers were interviewed. Two individual interviews were conducted to pilot test the questionnaire; the test revealed that the interviewees showed interest to the discussion topic and the questions can measure the desired objective within the targeted timeframe of 2 hours. Interviews were conducted either in groups or individually. One group interview was conducted in Beijing with 3 engineers; another group interview was conducted in Hong Kong with 4 engineers. Four individual interviews were conducted in Beijinganother 3 engineers were interviewed by telephone or e-mail in Beijing. Two of the interviewees are regional engineers for China region; one interviewee is the regional facility manager for China region. The others are either chief engineers or directors of engineering of 5-star chain hotels. They all had worked / have been working as hotel engineers for more than five years. The interviewees information and location of hotels are summarized and shown in appendix C.

4.3 Key findings4.3.1 Roles and responsibilities of the hotel engineering department

Roles and responsibilities - All interviewees confirmed that their major roles in the hotel are same as those listed in section 2, they are:- Preventive maintenance for building physical plants; Work requests handling; Enforcement of fire and life safety policies; Energy conservation; Control of maintenance expenses; Promotion of community social responsibility (CSR); Project managementLeadership In addition to the above roles and responsibilities, hotel engineers interviewed also pointed out that a hotel engineer is also a department head; he needs to build and maintain a high performance and effective working team to carry out the daily routines and projects. Engineers have to lead and manage their subordinates professionally and ethically; this includes the training of staff, motivation, creating a fair working environment, planning and supervision of work, effective use of resources, handling complaintsetc. They are facing these challenges on a daily basis. Therefore, effective management and leadership skills are important for hotel engineers; management skills enable engineers to properly plan the tasks while leadership skills assist them to influence the emotion and intellect of staff (Wong, 2007).Engineers are business managers However, all interviewees advised that using the traditional way, such as a production-oriented approach, to carrying out the above duties is not enough to meet todays customer expectation. Hotel engineers have to be service-oriented as well as customer-oriented, much like a businessman. Interviewees pointed out that all senior management members in a hotel including hotel engineers are business persons and they needed to closely participate in the sales and marketing activities due to the high market competition in the hospitality market. For example, engineers have to attend sales meetings with clients for their technical needs. Customers always have special needs; this includes, but is not limited to: special lighting effect in a banquet event, additional demand of electricity for their display of new products, live time broadcasting of meetingsetc. Saunders et al (1992) advised that service quality is the balance between the expectations that the customers had and their perception of the service received; therefore the more information the hotel could get from the customer, the smaller the gap between the expectation and the perception of the service provided. This can greatly enhance the customer satisfaction.Response time for making the decision to these customer requests is also essential for the success in todays competitive market; nowadays, customers expect a reply as quickly as possible. A late response would increase the threat of losing the business. Engineers have to work at the same pace as the sales and marketing personnel. Engineers are one of the key members in the hotel sales team. The traditional production-oriented practice is no longer applicable to hotel engineers; they need to be customer-oriented and service-oriented.This business-oriented attitude also has to be applied to project management in hotels. In addition to the opinion of Wai (in Okoroh, Jones and llozor , 2003) that renovation projects should be arranged so that the disturbance to guests should be kept to minimum, for instance, careful time selection for construction projects to audible disturbances to the guests, interviewees also emphasized that the impact to the hotel financial revenue should also be kept to a minimum. Renovation sometimes calls for the closing of some areas for refurbishment; scheduling the construction work during the low season when there are fewer guests could reduce the loss of revenue income. However, these kinds of arrangements usually would increase construction costs due to the time restriction. Therefore, engineers should apply a commercial mind set and service attitude to balance the construction cost and the loss due to guest dissatisfaction. This could achieve the maximum profit for the hotel. Also, a hotel engineer is one of the executive committee members in a hotel; he/she has to take over the executive-on-duty manager position on a shift basis. Executive-on-duty manager is the duty manager during the absence of the hotel general manager; he/she is in-charge of the hotel operations on behalf of the hotel general manager. During the shift, the engineer has to make business decisions on behalf of the general manager. In view of above, hotel engineers have to operate the building facilities to support the hotel business and to align the departmental goals with the hotel goals. Therefore, Cotts (1998)s opinion that facility managers are business managers is also applied to hotel engineers. Proactive Vs reactive - One of the major objectives of preventive maintenance is to provide a comfortable environment such as right air temperature and lighting (Durodola & Oloyede, 2011). However, interviewees pointed out that just treating all guests the same and providing an environment with universal concept is not sufficient to meet the guests requirements. Each guests expectation is different; the high expectation of service from hotel guests has caused hotel engineers to pay more-than-required attention to react to and predict guest needs. For example, different guests may prefer different room temperatures. People from western counties would prefer 20 -22 deg. C, while Asian people may prefer 23-25 deg. C. Elderly people may prefer warmer room temperature than younger people; guests with illnesses may ask for a warmer room temperature. Different indoor activities also require different room temperatures; for example team building plays will need cooler room temperature than a board meeting. Therefore, for banquet events, engineers not only review the written instructions in the event orders, they also need to consider the background of participants and the nature of the activity to predict the guest needs and pre-adjust the ballroom room temperature. This is to reduce the complaint for an uncomfortable temperature at the arrival of guests. Another example for being proactive is the catching up of technology to meet the guest needs. Interviewees advised that the rapid advancement of technology has been one of the major challenges for them. Hotel engineers pointed out that customers expectation has been changing due to the change of technology. For example, traditional desk phone and hardwired internet connection could not satisfy customers needs today. Hotel guests expect3G and Wifi as their cell phones and hand-held internet access devices are not equipped with a hardwired connection. This change makes hardwire for internet access becoming obsolete now. Engineers need to update their knowledge and pay close attention to the change in technology in order to know what and how the customers needs are changing; so that they could plan and advance the building facilities. The quicker the response to the technology change, the better the position of competitive advantage. This is support by Ptak & Schragenheim (2004) that change of technology affects how organizations carry out their business; organizations need to align the technology with their business process to sustain the competitive advantage.Although Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) suggested that a quick response to work request is an effective recovery action for rectifying deficiencies; one interviewee points out that this practice can be further improved by taking proactive action to look for deficiencies before someone comes across the problem. This practice is more effective in todays engineering practice. Traditionally, engineering department responds to problems when they received a work order. That means the problem has already caused some inconvenience to customers (either internal or external); this is why the customer issued the work order. The engineer pointed out that one of the practices in his department is management by walking; he himself and the duty engineer used to walk around the building at least twice a day. They inspect essential areas including public areas and main production plants such as kitchen, laundry and restaurants; the objective is to look for and rectify defects in advance before it causes complaints. This is one of the effective ways to apply the 20/80 Pareto principle; by inspecting the key operation areas which is about 20% of the hotel areas, could reduce 80% of work orders. This practice could reduce substantially the complaints from customers (internal and external) and inconveniences caused to them. 4.3.2 Support to the hotel TQMComfortable, healthy and safe environment - All hotel engineers interviewed agreed that hotel engineers play an important role in providing a healthy, comfortable and safe environment for people inside the building. This is one of the major factors for customer satisfaction as Sohail at el (2007), in their research for the determinants of service quality in Malaysian hotels, pointed out that people consider factors like comfort, cleanliness and safety in selecting hotels. Also, large firms, before they sign a business agreement with the hotel, would send safety officers to check the hotel building and review the fire and safety policy and procedures. This is to ensure that the hotel will be safe for their staff to stay; fire and life safety is the fundamental to the hotel business.

Crisis Readiness Engineering department and security department play a significant role in ensuring the safety of the hotel. The engineering department ensures the normal functionality of life safety systems by providing repair and maintenance, while security department patrols the building on a regular basis. Life safety systems include the fire detection system, close circuit television system (CCTV), building access control and panic alarm system. It is important that hotel staff is well prepared for possible crisis and emergencies so that they know how to assist hotel guests. Gruman, Chhinzer & Smith (2011) advise that experience and knowledge could enhance crisis readiness; this is why engineering and security department conduct regular training and evacuation drills in the hotel. This is to enhance knowledge and readiness.Most interviewees agreed that international brand chain hotels have higher safety standards in comparison than local hotels. One interviewee explained that the main reason is that international hotel groups have proper insurance by reputable international insurance companies. These insurance companies have high demand of safety requirements; they also inspect the property regularly for the compliance. This is one of the reasons that international brand chain hotels have higher quality requirements. This is in line with the findings by Sohail et al (2007) that the quality of local hotels in Malaysia is not as good as chain hotels.Work Orders a work order system is an important mean of communication between the engineering department and customers, both internal and external. This system receives work requests from customers. Interviewees confirmed that no matter how good the preventive maintenance is in a hotel, there will be still some unforeseen problems that customers may come cross. Also, not all work orders are complaints; some of them are additional requests from guests due to personal preferences. Therefore, response time is crucial to provide guest satisfaction. All hotels have a requirement for the response time; for example, one chain hotel group specified that technicians are expected arriving the guestroom within 10 minutes and complete the guest request within 15 minutes. If this time constrain cannot be met; an explanation should be communicated to the guest. This is in line with the suggestion by Zimmerman & Enell (in Saunders et al, 1992) that measurement of hotel performance should include timeliness, integrity, predictability and customer satisfaction. Also, work order system allows recovery for deficiencies; this is to solve the guest problem and regain the customer satisfaction before the guest leave the hotel. It also provides an opportunity for the hotel to learn the guests personal preference, so that the guest would not experience the same problem or would receive the same preference during the next visit.Biggest internal supplier - engineering is considered as the biggest internal supplier - a key service provider, inside a hotel. Supporting other departments to achieve their goals is a major responsibility of the department. For example, maintaining the laundry equipment so that the housekeeping department can provide on-time laundry service to hotel guests; ensuring the normal operation of kitchen equipment allows culinary experts to provide hot food to customers. Engineering plays an important role in different processes in a hotel; it is crucial to maintain an effective quality chain so that process of different activities can be smoothly carried out. Quality chain is defined as a series of internal suppliers and customers carrying out activities to meet the external customer satisfaction (Oakland, 2003).The contribution of the engineering department in respect to the hotel TQM performance, provided by interviewees, is summarized and listed in table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Links of engineering roles to TQM performanceRoles and responsibilitiesLinks to hotel TQM performance

Preventive maintenance1. Provide proper lighting, comfortable air-conditioning, clean water supply, vertical transportation;2. Maintain a cozy and warm atmosphere for hotel guests with contemporary decoration;3. Minimize interruption to guest comfort due to the suspension of building facilities;4. Sustain customer satisfaction and value for money;5. Support other departments productivity;6. Enhance safety;7. Enhance the property value; and, 8. Increase the return on investment for the building owner.

Work order handling1. Provide a channel for guests to express dissatisfaction;2. Allow recovery for guest complaints;3. Provide a source for problem analysis; 4. Set guest history/preference to tailor service; and,5. Maintain timeliness response.

Life and safety policies1. Ensure occupant safety, guests feel safe to stay;2. Enhance readiness for crisis management such as earthquake, power outage, water floodingetc3. Ensure swimming pool water hygiene;4. Eliminate air-borne disease;5. Promote safety awareness by conducting training, fire drill, evacuation and precautionary measures;6. Assist in food safety and hygiene;7. Reduce staff accidents and injuries;8. Minimize damages to the property; and,9. Avoid fatal injuries.

Energy conservationGoing green1. Promote a health environment by reducing pollution;2. Suggest and select energy efficient products;3. Promote brand image by going green;4. Promote green awareness; and,5. Save expenses by reducing energy consumption.

Control of expenses1. Budget and meet financial target;2. Control utility expenses;3. Reduce cost by value engineering; and,4. Effective use of resources.

CSR1. Serve local community; 2. Promote brand image; guests feel good to stay with a good CSR hotel; and,3. Build corporate identity.

Project management1. Maintain contemporary for hotel hardware;2. Minimize disturbance by arranging proper construction time; 3. Meet budgeted cost and time; 4. Control quality; and,5. Ensure construction site safety.

Management and leadership1. Achieve hotel and departmental goals2. Achieve staff satisfaction;3. Reduce turn-over rate; and,4. Support career development.

4.3.3 Methodology and toolsAll interviewed hotel engineers agreed that the goal of quality management is to meet the customers needs and sustain competitive advantage. Since hotel engineers are responsible for the operation of building facilities, use of proper tools to manage and control the quality could enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the department.Quality framework Response from all interviewees revealed that none of the engineers have used any high level common quality frameworks such as EFQM or ISO 9001. This phenomenon is in line with the findings of Harrington & Keating (2006). They have studied hotels in Ireland and found out that only 28.2 percent of Irish hotels had adopted a formal quality management system, even though most Irish hoteliers indicated that they were familiar with quality certification. Interviewees pointed out that all hotels do have their own quality control system. Generally speaking, hotels focus on the performance of similar aspects; i.e. the customer perspective, financial perspective, Human resources perspective, business process perspective and Community service perspective. Different hotel groups have different policies and requirements for each perspective areas; they setup their own quality requirements for their own business directions. However, quality frameworks for specialized purposes are popular. For example, almost all engineers indicated that they use HACCP for food safety control. Some engineers also use ISO14001 for environmental control and ISO18001 for workplace safety. Since these specialized frameworks are internationally recognized, hotel engineers believe that not only do these frameworks offer an effective guideline (Chan & Ho, 2006), but they also promote the hotel brand image as well. One engineer advised that his hotel adopted the ISO18001 in 2009 and completed the implementation in 2010; the workplace accidents have greatly reduced from 35 cases in 2010 to 8 cases from Jan-July in 2011. The use of quality framework can improve the efficiency.Cultural change - Interviewees advised that TQM is a culture; it takes time to create the culture. Hotel management has to provide clear requirements, so that staff knows the expectation of the result. It is necessary to allow the staff to see the advantages of TQM, so that commitment could be gained from employees. The right attitude could generate the proper behavior. This is in line with the suggestion from Oakland (2003) that cultural change is necessary to implement TQM. Also, Wong (2007) supports that dedication and passions are important factors in a dynamic and effective working team.Quality tools interviewees pointed out that quality tools are important for a technical department such as engineering department; it is known to rely on these tools for control, management, measurement and analysis; different tools are for different applications and different purposes. Using the right tools enhance the efficiency and improve the performance of the department.The common quality tools used by hotel engineers are listed in table 4.2

Table 4.2 Common quality tools used by engineering department of hotels

Quality Tools for Hotel Engineering

DescriptionPurpose

Guest questionnaire/surveyMysterious guest survey Measure guest satisfaction.

Regular meetings with stakeholdersEnsure sufficient and effective communications.

Regular check /inspection; log sheets; checklistEnsure functionality of equipment.

Cost/benefit analysis; ROIInvestment analysis.

Policy and procedures; flowchartsProvide description of work process.

Cause-effect chart; scatter diagram; Pareto chartProblem analysis; Identify causes of problems.

Control chartControl temperature range, chemical leveletc

Brain stormingEncourage suggestions and new ideas.

BenchmarkingCompare performance and identify best practices

IT technology computer software(See table 4.3 for detailed description of applications.)

IT Technology Since the engineering department is handling technical systems, IT technology has widely been used for all kinds of control and management. All hotel engineers interviewed agreed that computer software is essential for both system control and management application. IT technology plays an important role in quality assurance. The applications are summarized in table 4.3.Table 4.3 Computer software for the hotel engineering department

Computer Software for Hotel Engineering

ApplicationPurpose

Building automation systemsMonitoring and control of electrical and mechanical systems; e.g. HVAC, Plumbing, Boilers, Electrical distributionetc.

Work order and preventive maintenance system (facility management system)Management of work orders and preventive maintenance schedules and records.

Call accounting system Telephone call charges accounting system.

Procurement systemIssuing of purchasing orders to vendors.

Store room inventory Control of spare parts.

Utility metering systemRecording of energy consumption.

E-mailCommunication.

EarthcheckCarbon footprint management.

P/L reportRepair and maintenance expenses summary.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Interviewees pointed out that IT technology plays a significant role in the building systems control and monitoring; the rapid development of ERP technology improved the performance of engineering department. For example, traditionally, hotels had different software developed by different manufacturers for their own systems. The new building automation system integrated and streamlined the processes of these systems, so that all building systems, such as air-conditioning, lighting, water supply, fire alarmetc, can be controlled and monitored in one software Also, engineers can get the real-time information from their computers such as room temperature, lighting status, water tank leveletc.; this could allow the engineers to take rectification actions at the early stage of any occurred problems. In addition, any system alarms will be re-directed to engineers cell phones or remote monitoring stations. This further enhances the response time for handling problems. Another example is that the work order system is intergraded with inventory and purchasing software; any spare parts used in each work order will be recorded and inventory updated. The software can automatically generate purchasing orders once the inventory drops below the pre-set minimum par level. This integration reduces labor and increase productivity. Ptak & Schragenheim (2004) support that ERP technology could enable the integration of business processes. The purpose of the integration is to standardize work process, reduce waste, increase production speed, minimize human error, and improve inter-department communication and interactions with suppliers and customers. As a result, using technology will enable an enhancement in business performance, which in turn improves customer satisfaction.

Benchmarking controlling utility expenses is one of the major responsibilities for the engineering department, one way to analyze utility consumption is through benchmarking. However, engineers only compare the consumption with their own history data such as the data of last month or same month of previous years; they do not benchmark with other hotels. There are two reasons; no two hotels have the same design. Different designs will have different energy demand; for example, hotels with more restaurants will have more kitchen equipment and require more gas consumption for cooking. Also, different geographic areas have different weather conditions. Outdoor temperature will affect energy consumption for air conditioning and heating (Chan, 2003). Therefore, hotels in mild weather areas will use less energy than those hotels in the tropical area or northern zone. This is supported by Cotts (1998) that measurement of benchmarks may not be consistent unless the two properties being benchmarked are as similar as possible. However, internal benchmarking is an effective tool to track the change over time; internal benchmarking could help engineers to identify areas for improvement and measure the performance. Figure 4.1 shows a typical internal benchmarking commonly used by engineers for tracking electricity consumption per occupied room-night in hotels. Engineers compare the current months consumption with the last month and same month of previously years; any variation could be criticized against the affecting factors such as occupancy, outdoor temperature and humidityetc. This kind of tracking can also be used for evaluating the performance of improvement projects. Being able to measure the result is important for continuous improvement (Oakland, 2003).

Figure 4.1 Electricity consumption per room-night

4.3.4 Performance measurementThe performance measurements for the engineering department are summarized in table 4.4.Table 4.4 Performance Measurement

Performance Measurement for Hotel Engineering Department

MeasurementFrequencyCriteria

Process management measures

Departmental audit.YearlyCompliance of company requirements.

ISO 14001 audit.YearlyCompliance of environment conservation.

HACCP audit.YearlyCompliance of food safety.

ISO 18001 audit.YearlyCompliance of workplace safety practice.

Fire and Life safety audit.YearlyMeasurement of safety readiness.

Work request response time.DailyTimeliness, integrity, predictability, customer satisfaction.

Individual performance measurement

Individual performance appraisal. YearlyIndividual performance

Performance review

Utility critique and review.

MonthlyAnalysis of energy consumption.

Customer survey.MonthlyCustomer satisfaction (working order of facilities).

Associate survey.YearlyEmployee satisfaction.

Financial critique and review.

MonthlyMeeting maintenance expenses and utilities budget.

Work requests review.DailyIdentify problems and guest preferences.

Fire and Life safety inspection.WeeklyIdentifying safety hazards.

Engineering log books and checklist review.

DailyEnsuring normal operation of electrical and mechanical plants.

The finding is in line with Oakland (2003) that performance measurement should focus on four levels - Strategy development and goal deployment; Process management; Individual performance measurement; Review performance. Since engineering department is in operations level, the performance measurement focuses on the lower three levels (the first level should be conducted in the senior management level).All interviewees agreed that performance measurement is essential to assure quality; this continuous monitoring allows for opportunities to identity problems and to propose areas for improvement. Oakland (2003) supports that this reiterated process allows organization to check if the standards of quality are being met and identify problems for continuous improvement. Continuous improvement - All engineers believed that continuous improvement is one of the important processes to improve the quality and sustain customer loyalty. For example, in hospitality industrial, expectations from each guest are different; service for each guest need to be tailored. From the work requests, engineering also finds the personal preference of guests. These preferences will be logged in the guest profiles, so that a guests likes and dislikes will be addressed during each visit of the guest. Interviewees also pointed out that re-engineering is a popular methodology for continuous improvement. The process is to map the as-is, identify the problem and to propose the to-be model (Ptak, & Schragenheim, 2004). Especially when the process involves multi-departments; a clear process and workflow enhance ownership. This is necessary for the improvement of the reliability. Reliability promotes customer satisfaction (Oakland, 2003).

4.3.5 Critical success factorThe critical success factor (CSF) suggested by hotel engineers interviewed are summarized in table 4.5.

Table 4.5 Critical success factor

Critical Success Factors for Hotel Engineering Department

DescriptionVoteRanking

Align department goals with hotel goals1

Communication and coordination54

Clear quality requirements45

Effective team82

Employee involvement1

Employee satisfaction1

Empowerment3

Fair working environment 2

Human resource management1

IT technology1

Leadership and management skills53

Motivation1

Performance measurement1

Positive working environment1

Product and service design1

Purchasing process1

Support from senior management91

Support from hotel owner2

Sufficient fund for repair and maintenance1

Setting the right model from managerial managers1

Reward package1

Training2

Quality assurance1

As indicated in the table above, the top five critical success factors are: Support from senior, effective team, leadership and management skills, communication, and clear quality requirements.Senior management support leadership has a profound effect on the success of quality management (Oakland, 2003). Interviewees pointed out that the hotel general managers attitude towards quality requirement is crucial for achieving the quality goals; he must have a strong passion to drive business excellence, this includes setting the business direction and support to encourage staff to achieve the goals. The general manger must understand the importance of preventive maintenance of building facilities; so that he could ensure sufficient resources and support the routine maintenance.Effective team the engineering team is to handle technical tasks which require competent technicians and tradesmen such as electrician, mechanic, plumber, carpenter, mason, electronic techniciansetc. In additional to their trade knowledge, technicians and