Recommendations

We believe that W. Alboum Hat Co. should adopt and follow the Total quality management (TQM) philosophy starting with a guest satisfaction. Customer feedback is very valuable to any company and retrieving it does not have to cost a lot of money. When asked they said that they do have people who leave comments on their website or through email but nothing is done on a regular base. We would suggest sending out surveys to our customers which would give W. Alboum Hat Co. valuable feedback. This would let the customer know that their opinion is appreciated, valued, and heard, and this would give W. Alboum Hat Co. an opportunity to capitalize on the positives and change the negatives when possible. The next area in TQM that could be worked on is the involvement of the employees. Although the Vice President that we spoke to said that their employees were well taken care of and turnover was relatively low, we couldn’t help but notice the sweltering conditions that they were working under. Although it was the middle of a heatwave when we visited the factory, inside felt like it was at least 120 degrees. The explanation received was that there was a lot of steaming involved which caused the dire conditions. By improving on work conditions, levels of production may actually rise which could bring the total number of hats made daily from 300 to 400. This would again positively impact lead time which could lead to more orders being able to be produced. The employees should have a say in the day-to-day operations which can be done by simply putting an employee suggestion box next to the manager’s office. The employees can also be shown the surveys filled out by the customers, which would give them morale in knowing that they are doing a great job in satisfying customers. Continuous improvement is something that needs to be worked on every day. By gathering useful feedback from the customers and employees as well as keeping up with trends, improvement should follow. Another factor is keeping up with the raw materials with constant research being done to ensure that an opportunity is not being missed to get it cheaper, better, or faster.

It was not evident or clear if W. Alboum Hat Co. followed lean manufacturing but we believe that a just-in-time (JIT) strategy should be followed. By having over 150 different steps to make each hat, it is important to assess the value of each step and eliminate any unnecessary steps which could be inadvertently bringing production down. It is stated in the book that “By spotlighting areas that need improvement, lean systems lead to continuous improvement and productivity.”(277) Eliminating wastes would lead to more production. This is a company who believes in the steps that it takes to create a hat of quality and they appeared to be set in their ways. By adopting these principles more hats can be made daily which would be most essential when transitioning to wholesale.

As a group we came with a final recommendation is to start advertising. On our visit to the company we were told that there is no advertising, and in today’s society in order to grow you need to start advertising. Advertising is important because it creates market awareness for a product. It is a strategy used by the manufacturer to persuade and convince the consumer for the products. The type of ways the manufacturers use to advertise their products which are radio, television, the internet, posters and word of mouth. Advertising would include a marketing strategy and more money that may not fit within the budget however if successful it could be extremely beneficial