Overview of President Jones Accounting Service

8/18/2019 Overview of President Jones Accounting Service

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OVERVIEW OF PRESIDENT JONES ACCOUNTING SERVICE

OPERATIONS SYSTEM

Key findings fro !"e C#se S!$dy

It is seen that Jones Accounting Service organization is one that provides Accounts Receivable

(AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) services for small and medium scale businesses. he

operations system could be described in the diagram above.

!or some time" their business #as booming and profitable as there #as no competition in the

area that they operated. $o#ever" #ith time" there #ere easy entry barriers to their business

industry #ith the springing up of other firms #ho ended up #inning their long%term &ey

customers.

$o#ever" the o#ner Jones decided to find out the cause of the loss of customers and ascertained

from &ey customers of their firm #ho had left. he main reasons that they left #ere as follo#s'

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ENVIRONMENT

ARAP Services tosmall and medium

Scale businesses

MONITORING % CONTRO&

!*+A,- ,/R0 S1S2

C$s!oers Co'e!i!ors Go(ernen! Te)"no*ogyE)onoy

Accounting staff

,omputers3uipment

Accounting Soft#are

,ustomer Info

!acility

INPUTS TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OUTPUTS

ARAP transactions

$andling customercomplaints

!ront des& transaction


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;2 measures adopted by Jones includes'

• Install ne# bonus plan < that is 5? tied to employees efforts to handling at least 97

customer complaints.

• 0et departments &no# that they are responsible for 3uality < mpo#ering department

heads to ensure 3uality is enforced in their department as their :ob #ill be on line if they

can8t fire subordinates #ho do not comply #ith 3uality standards.

• Reduce cost of services < that is" customers should not pay too much or more than

enough for the output they receive.

• Invite customers to offer their comments on service 3uality after every service encounter

< that is" customers are to evaluate the service they receive after every meeting #ith a

customer service rep. here #ill be a service card or evaluation form given to customers

to comment.

+$es!ions

9. *oes the Plan offered by President Jones embrace any of the ;2 Principles@ Identify

#hich ones it does and ho#. Identify #hich ones it does not embrace and #hat might bedone to include them.

. If you #ere appointed by President Jones as an operations manager to help solve the

problems of Jones Accounting Services is facing" #hat #ould you do differently@ *iscuss

any B of the things you #ill do.

+UESTION ONE SO&UTION

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;2 is a philosophy that focuses relentlessly on the needs of the customer" both internal and

eCternal" realigns the organisation from detection to prevention and aims to improve

continuously via the use of statistical monitoring. he main goal of ;2 is customer

satisfaction. he &ey principles of otal ;uality 2anagement includes'

i. Management Responsibility and Commitment D the top management must provide the

leadership for 3uality.

ii. Customer Focus or OrientationD the customer defines 3uality" and customer satisfaction

is the top priority.

iii. Employee Participation and Team Work D it8s the responsibility of all employees at all

levels of the organization.

iv. Education and Training D for all employees are the bases for continuous 3uality

improvement.

v. Quality management systemD ;uality is a strategic issue" and re3uires a strategic plan.

vi. All functions of the company must focus on continuous 3uality improvement to achieve

strategic goals.

vii. ;uality problems are solved through cooperation among employees and management.

viii. Problem solving and continuous 3uality improvement use statistical 3uality control

methods.

he ;2 step%#ise plan as outlined by President Jones include'

i. Install a ne# bonus plan.

ii. 0et department managers &no# that they are responsible for 3uality.

iii. Reduce cost of services to customers.

iv.Invite customers to offer their comments on service 3uality after every service encounter.

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President Jones embraced some of the ;2 principles in his step%#ise plan for Jones

Accounting Services. ;2" unli&e other 3uality concepts" involves a #hole company getting

organized in every department" in every activity" #ith every single person at every level not only

in solving problems but also in preventing them. ;2 aims chiefly at changing behaviour"

attitudes and s&ills so that the culture of the organization becomes one of preventing failures and

doing things right first time every time.

!rom the case" ;2 principles embraced include customer focus and employee empo#erment.

!or instance" the second step%#ise plan #hich #as that $eads of *epartment #ould be in charge

of 3uality in their departments deduces that they are empo#ering their employees to an eCtent

#hich is a ;2 principle. In addition" #ith the installation of bonus plan and the reduction of

cost of service #hich are tied to customer satisfaction and listening to customers8 comments on

all service encounters also implies that they are focusing on the customer and attempting to build

customer relationships #hich are also re3uirements for ;2 principle.

$o#ever" the ;2 plan by President Jones did not embrace other ;2 principles such as

ensuring continuous improvement" benchmar&ing and establishment of effective measurement

metrics (standards). It is necessary that Jones Accounting Service embrace continuous

improvement #hich #ould eliminate customer problems and complaints. hey could do this by

benchmar&ing other firms and this #ould even help to even eliminate the bonus plan for staff.

+UESTION , SO&UTION

;2 is a strategic approach to producing the best products and services through a process of

continuous improvement of every aspect of a company8s operations #ith the involvement of staff

at all levels. otal ;uality 2anagement (;2) is a comprehensive and structured approach to

organizational management that see&s to improve the 3uality of products and services through

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ongoing refinements in response to continuous feedbac&. If I #ere appointed perations

2anager of Jones Accounting Services" in order to solve the problems at sta&e" I #ould consider

the follo#ing'

C$s!oer-fo)$s. ;2 is a #ay of managing to improve the effectiveness" fleCibility and

competitiveness of a business as a #hole. It also serves as a means of improving company

bottom%line performance by creating a sense of purpose shared by everyone in the company and

geared to#ards the needs of the customer. It re3uires the company to chec& customersE attitudes

regularly and includes the idea of internal customers as #ell as eCternal ones. his means

avoiding re#or&" i.e." cutting the amount of defective #or&. his #ould go a long #ay to satisfy

or even delight the customers.

S!#ff In(o*(een!. he highest level of development of a system for 3uality management is the

concept and practice of otal ;uality 2anagement. veryone has to be committed to 3uality.

hat means changing the attitude of the entire #or&force" and altering the #ay the company

operates. his involves improved communication. he ;2 concept puts much emphasis on the

involvement of every #or&er from the ,ompany ,hief Cecutive fficer to the lo#est shop floor

#or&er in ensuring that productsservices continually meet customer eCpectations. So ;2 is

directed at enhancing competitive edge and thereby increasing :ob security. Improving 3uality is

the most cost%effective and less capital intensive #ay of improving productivity.

Con!in$o$s Pro)ess I'ro(een!. there is the need to focus on internal business processes to

improve all anomalies and satisfy the ultimate customers. he elimination of #aste in all forms is

a ma:or ob:ective of any company8s ;2 process. +ut the aim should be to re%deploy resources

a#ay from #asteful activities into value added activities. his #ill improve customer service"

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fleCibility and responsiveness and reduce product development lead times. ,ontinuous

improvement means bringing perfection in all organization function and process.

Me#s$ring Perfor#n)e. 2easuring performance means :udging #hat have been planned

either achieved or not. b:ective behind performance management indicate the process gain or

loss" compare the goal #ith #hat been achieved" determine #hat process need to improve and

determine the overall performance of the organization. here should be a measurement scale that

performance #ould be compared to and I #ould adopt the balanced scorecard #hich measures

performance based of four criteria < finance" process" customer and organizational learning).

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Overview of President Jones Accounting Service

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