(COMPLETE GUIDELINE)
Semester 1 2025 - DUE
April 2025
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, 1. Quality:
Importance in Operations Management: Operations management quality means the ability of our
processes and products to continually meet, or even surpass, customer requirements. It is the
process of ensuring accuracy, uniformity, and a satisfying customer experience with every
interaction. Excellence in quality eliminates error, redoing, and customer dissatisfaction, which
consequently establish trust and loyalty, key values in the financial industry. Low quality can
lead to reputation damage, error losses, and regulatory fines.
Creative Example within ABSA Bank: If a customer is requesting a home loan online via our
online facility, an effective process would ensure that our online application is easy to use, easy
to navigate, and technically flawless. The system should accurately capture all the data needed,
guide the customer through every step elegantly, and provide clear feedback. Furthermore,
subsequent processing of the application by our back-office must be meticulous in checking all
the documents correctly, calculations correct, and communication to the customer correct and
timely. When the process or the human process produces defective loan amounts, delayed
approval, or miscommunicated terms, it is a failure in quality. Conversely, however, a simple,
precise, and transparent home loan application process is a testament to high operational quality,
further boosting the confidence of the customer in ABSA services.
2. Speed:
Relevance to Operations Management: Speed in this context, for us, is the pace of our operations
in responding to customers' needs and the speed at which we deliver our services. Customers in
today's fast-moving world desire quick turnaround, whether processing a transaction, responding
to an inquiry, or approving a loan. Operational speed enhances customer satisfaction, makes
operations more efficient through shorter waiting time and bottlenecks, and can serve as a source
of competitive differentiation. Slow operations can lead to customer frustration, loss of
customers to more responsive competitors, and increased operational costs through
inefficiencies.
Creative Example at ABSA Bank: Imagine a customer who needs to transfer money
internationally on an urgent basis. An operation for speed would mean that our back-end
procedures and online platforms are made to facilitate rapid execution. The customer should be
able to initiate the transfer easily, and our system should be able to perform it quickly and
securely with hardly any lag in crediting the beneficiary. Real-time updating of the status of the
transfer would also create the perception of speed. If the transfer is too long, which it could be
through bureaucratic processes or outmoded technology, that indicates slow performance on our
part. A swift and efficient foreign exchange money transfer service, though, made well within
the deadline indicated, testifies to the focus of ABSA on swiftness and responsiveness and thus
ABSA is the best bet for such transactions with an eye for quick execution.
3. Dependability: