Quality in customer focussed operations

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Quality in customer focussed operations
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Abstract
This paper highlights on the operational issues of IKEA. The operational process followed by
this company has been discussed in this paper. In addition, the paper has also critically analysed
the role of quality management practices in meeting the expectation level of the customers.
Based on this discussion, it has been found that IKEA has effectively followed the quality
management practices to increase its operational efficiency. 
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Table of Contents
IKEA............................................................................................................................................... 4
Product ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Main customers........................................................................................................................... 5
Order Qualifiers and order winners ............................................................................................ 5
Operational processes ..................................................................................................................... 6
Input – transformation-output process........................................................................................ 7
Input to the processes.................................................................................................................. 7
Output Products/Services............................................................................................................ 8
Process hierarchy ........................................................................................................................ 8
Literature Review on Quality management as a reflection of customer expectation ................... 11
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 13
Reference List ............................................................................................................................... 14
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IKEA
IKEA is regarded as the largest furniture retailer in the world as per the records of 2008. It is a
Swedish company, which is registered in Netherlands and sells appliances, customized furniture
and home accessories. The company was founded by a 17 years old boy, Ingvar Kamprad, who
now happens to be the richest person in the world, in the year 2013. The company is well-known
because of architectural designs that they provide their customers for all kinds of furniture and
appliances. They also provide interior design work, which is attached with eco-friendly
simplicity. Its cost control techniques, details of operational process and incessant product
development, along with the corporate attributes, have aided the company to maintain a lower
price for customers. During the period of global expansion, it has lowered price of products on
an average of 2%-3%. As of January 2014, the company owns around 349 stores across 43
countries. It has been recorded that the company had sold products, amounting to $23.1 billion,
in 2010. It is identified that sales of the company has increased by 7.7% from the previous year.
The company website displays over 12,000 products to customers, along with clear pictures of
IKEA range of products, in order for the latter to gain interest in the company products. The
number of visitors, who visit IKEA’s website every day, has been recorded to about 470 million
in 2013. It has been identified that in 2013, IKEA has been the largest user of wood, as the
company has been noted to use about 1% of the total wood available on the earth.
Product
IKEA concentrates on selling wide range of products. The company sells nearly everything,
which are required for furnishing a home, including furniture, plants, toys, kitchens and many
more. The products, which are provided by them, have unique styles and the function of good
quality and style is complimenting products to become most attractive and satisfy customers
need. The company accepts the challenge of producing products at a lower price. Any company
can make higher quality products at a high price, but IKEA provides its customers with the best
quality, along with the lowest price possible, on the product. To provide high quality products at
low prices, the company has undertaken cost effective and innovative techniques, which have
made them strong enough to rule the retail market with confidence. The whole production
process has been reviewed by designers, which has brought in new packing methods and such,
thereby reducing cost of manufacturing. 
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Main customers
The main customers of the company are the households and businesses. However, th