Introduction
CVS Health is a global provider of healthcare products, services, and solutions with various healthcare divisions, such as “MinuteClinic.” While the company has created a competitive advantage over the years, a lot needs to be done to ensure it maintains this position amidst growing competition. Therefore, the organization needs a Total Quality Management Approach to redefine its various operations. TQM establishes systems that prevent administrative and clinical problems, increase patient satisfaction, provide better healthcare services, and improve the organization’s processes.
SWOT Analysis
The organization’s strengths include its dependable suppliers who competitively provide raw materials. The organization also has a well-built brand portfolio which has made it expand into new product sections. Additionally, the organization has built a robust distribution network that reaches its products to its potential market. Another strength of the organization is its track record of blending corresponding firms through mergers & acquisitions. Among the organization’s weaknesses is its limited success beyond its core business. The organization also has a high staff turnover rate, spending significant resources on employee training. Among the opportunities available to the organization is that it can leverage new technologies to provide excellent customer service. The new consumer behavior patterns may also offer new market opportunities to the organization. The emergence of efficient and less costly transport options also allows the company to enhance its supply and appeal to customers. The company’s threats include the growing power of local companies in the same niche, which poses great competition. Moreover, the rising cost of raw materials reduces the organization’s profit margin. Another threat to the organization is the rising wage levels, which may strain the company’s profitability.
Importance of SWOT analysis in improving quality
The SWOT analysis is essential to enhancing quality within the organization because it allows for an in-depth examination of the many internal and external elements that affect the company’s capacity to fulfill its objectives. The company may develop and redefine its strategy using the SWOT analysis results. A review of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses makes it possible to examine the gap between where the organization is now and where it wants to go (Benzaghta et al., 2021). The organization’s ability to conduct a SWOT analysis and discover strategic alternatives, such as investments, partnerships, and joint ventures with other businesses that provide superior services or products, is critical to its success. Thus, a SWOT analysis gives the company a holistic perspective of itself compared to competitors.
Total Quality Management (TQM) vs. Management by Objectives (MBO)
Total quality management (TQM) manages the whole company to succeed in all consumer-essential goods and services. TQM interventions, such as Statistical Process Control, Failure Analysis, and others, help identify and eliminate errors, reduce waste, and boost productivity. These achievements, in turn, lead to the continuous improvement of an organization’s processes and products and the increased efficacy of its human and mechanical labor. Management by Objectives (MBO), on the other hand, is both an operations strategy and a cutting-edge approach to evaluating employee performance. It involves the manager and employee working together to establish a shared vision, outline actionable steps to get there and establish deadlines for when the job is supposed to be done.
The similarity between these approaches is that they all employ root cause approaches to identifying an organization’s problems. The main difference between Total Quality Management and Management by Objectives lies in their scope. To achieve sustainable success, TQM focuses on enhancing the quality of all business processes while simultaneously decreasing the number of errors that occur in them (Chen et al., 2021). MBO, on the other hand, focuses on the short-term and helps establish and assess individual goals. Moreover, the TQM approach relies on the satisfaction of external customers, whereas the MBO approach relies on achieving internal objectives. Total Quality Management is based on the idea that everyone’s work is interconnected. Therefore it encourages the creation of cross-functional teams, coaching, information sharing, counseling, and other types of mutual assistance, whereas MBO is more focused on the individual.
The Best Operational Management Theory for Improving Healthcare Environment Quality
I would recommend the organization’s total quality management theory approach to improve quality in the healthcare environment. Problems with quality, efficiency, and equality are especially pervasive in today’s healthcare system (Whyle & Olivier, 2020). Healthcare industry managers may optimize service delivery, patient happiness, and organizational effectiveness by implementing total quality management concepts into existing systems and practices (Alzoubi et al., 2019). Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach to management that emphasizes listening to and responding to customers while encouraging staff input and constant adjustments to processes. This makes TQM a novel method for enhancing healthcare quality since it encourages a focus on quality at every stage of the care delivery process.
Priority Areas for Quality Improvement
Specific areas that I would recommend for improvement in the organization are care coordination and customer service. In customer service, the quality improvement process involves three significant steps. Firstly, it would involve prioritizing encouraging communication, engagement, and participation for all stakeholders. Secondly, it would involve using small-scale demonstrations to commence implementing customer service strategies. The small demonstrations would allow the organization to redefine the new processes, identify the impacts of the outcomes on customers and build increased stakeholder support. The last process would be to acknowledge the iterative nature of quality improvement and thus continuously allow room for corrections while implementing the strategies.
Conclusion
The organization must comprehensively understand itself as provided by the SWOT analysis and formulate a strategic plan to enhance its market position. The organization can ensure top-notch service delivery and customer satisfaction through the TQM approach. Thus, CVS Health must adopt a comprehensive approach to redefining itself in line with the provisions of the SWOT analysis.
References
Alzoubi, M. M., Hayati, K. S., Rosliza, A. M., Ahmad, A. A., & Al-Hamdan, Z. M. (2019). Total quality management in the healthcare context: integrating the literature and directing future research. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 12, 167. Web.
Benzaghta, M. A., Elwalda, A., Mousa, M. M., Erkan, I., & Rahman, M. (2021). SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature review. Journal of Global Business Insights, 6(1), 55-73. Web.
Chen, C. K., Reyes, L., Dahlgaard, J., & Dahlgaard-Park, S. M. (2021). From quality control to TQM, service quality and service sciences: a 30-year review of TQM literature. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences. Web.
Whyle, E., & Olivier, J. (2020). Social values and health systems in health policy and systems research: a mixed-method systematic review and evidence map. Health Policy and Planning, 35(6), 735-751. Web.