Quality problems can be caused by poor staff performance. In many cases this can be addressed by training, improving the manual skills of workers through training courses or improving management techniques through management development programmes. Early signs that there is a fall- off in the quality of an employee’s work might include:
An increase in materials and components being scrapped,
More frequent machine breakdown,
A rise in customer complaints.
Problems can be caused by the loss skilled workers and difficulties in finding suitable workers to fill the vacancies. A training scheme maybe needed to improve the skill level of newly recruited workers. Training schemes may also be necessary in several other ircumstances. Training or retaining schemes are equally important for organisations providing consumer and business services. E.g. senior managers of Nokia must monitor the performances of staff to see if they are putting in the effort to produce a good performance for the company to the consumers. Any sign of slippage must be addressed by an appropriate training scheme that not only deals with any skilled level or job knowledge but also the all-important social and personal skills that encourage employee loyalty to the consumers.
The quality methods that Nokia take on board are ‘training and quality improvement’. This is a perfect way for Nokia to make sure that staffs is not slipping up on production, or customer help line as customer loyalty is very valuable to Nokia. By dissatisfying customers this puts business into a down hill slop, therefore the main objective is to produce quality mobile phones which is reliable to the customer.
Benchmarking is enabled as well. This is enabled by Nokia doing an in depth study on the best practises in other organisations not only in the Telecommunication market but also in other various organisations, then tries to find the best methods for each of the following: Production, marketing and administrative. This also enables improvements from inside and outside the business. This makes sure that the company does work as a team and work quickly. This will aid Nokia to see how each department works and to see what practices is the best in efficiency. Therefore all departments are in competition.
Another method, which Nokia could adapt to, is ‘Quality circles’. This will enable Nokia to find out the problems that the employees at Nokia are having, and also give their input on improving existing ideas. As companies like Toyota who had an increase in sales, via using 97 per cent of their implements, Nokia could possibly do better as the telecommunication market is more beneficial than the car market as Nokia are the leading company and are not producing automobiles but small mobile phones.
