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The Emirates Commercial Visa Section
(Word count 17 words)
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
. Emirates Commercial Visa Section - The Process
. Typical Problems at the CVS 5
4. The Service Design and improvements 5
5. Variety Control and Management 8
6. Analysis using the Pareto Management Tool 8
7. Recommendations and Benefits A Critical Review 1
8. Conclusion 1
. References 14
10. Appendices
Appendix 1 Glossary of key Terms A1
Appendix Customer Survey Forms A
Appendix The Flow Process Chart A
Appendix 4 matrix model (QFD) model on Service Design A4
Appendix 5 The Profession Codes table A5
Appendix 6 The Station Code List A6
1. Introduction
In today’s environment, organizations are viable only if they provide satisfaction to the customer, especially so in the service industry. The need identification, forecasts, analysis, conversion and integration is a continuous process, and it is this complexity that gives rise to a new challenge to the production manager. Increasingly, the process of quality assurance and product design coupled with variety, present unique challenges when applied to services, particularly those termed extended service transactions8. An airline distinctively falls under this category. Here the single “product” is made of physical goods and services embedded within a series of discrete consumption experiences.
The Commercial Visa section being a new department offers potential scope for improvements. The following scrolls are an attempt to explore how the customer needs link into the service design attributes using the Quality function Deployment (QFD), a popular design methodology. These are coupled with the issues relating to Variety. The report concludes with some recommendations that could help bring about cost reduction, and higher resources utilization.
Please refer to Appendix -1 for abbreviations.
.0 The Emirates Commercial Visa Section - The Process
The Department specifically facilitates the issuance of electronic visas for the state of Dubai from any of the Emirates Airlines ticketing offices world wide for travel on Emirates Airlines only. The main objective of the department is to give this value added service to passengers flying on Emirates Airlines, there by bringing in revenue by sale of ticket.
The process is described as follows (Refer Process Flow diagram in Appendix � )
The passenger approaches the Emirates ticket agent for the visa. The agent notes all the passport details and converts the passengers nationality and profession into codes by searching a list on the reservation system (e.g.) An U.K. national with profession as computer programmer is entered as nationality code GBR and profession code 1101 into the system. Once the electronic application is filled, the Reservation system routes the application to the RPS that does the validation and storage of the visa details. Applications are routed to the Commercial Visa Sections’ back Office into 4 different mailboxes. The applications are keyed through a web enabled dedicated link into the DNRD system by the staff at CVS. The approvals/rejects are received from DNRD by the back office and sent back to the RPS system in a certain format for automatic updating. A subsequent enquiry by the Sales agent will display the visa details of the passenger. The back office also looks after the accounting aspects and tracking the passenger movements for entry and exits from the flown ticket coupons.
The front office supports any manual applications received in Dubai and gives them to the back office for action.
The service can be classified as being that of high contact, low customisation, high labour intensity, and high interaction.
Emirates
Ticketing & Sales Office RPS System, Sydney Dubai
Immigration System
Future Link
Sita
Airline Network
Dedicated link
Emirates Reservation System, Dubai
Figure 1.
.0 Typical Problems at the CVS
The automated issuance of visa started functioning in Mar ’00. The typical problems that have surfaced are
ɨ Inconsistent quality of service.
ɨ Delays in the visas finally reaching the passenger.
ɨ Delay in filling up the Visa application by the sales agent due to search time on a variety of profession codes. This also results in waiting time for the passenger.
ɨ Heavy work burden on the staff at the back office, perhaps leading to dissatisfaction and low morale.
4.0 The Service Design and Improvements
The service design specifies what the customer is to experience, and these include
(a) The physical item,
(b) The sensual benefits where the customer is in continuous demand for high quality
and delivery schedules, and
(c) The psychological benefits like customisation, perception and individual preferences.
An Effective Design Process is characterised by
ɨ Matching product/service characteristics with customer needs.
ɨ Meet customer requirements in simplest, most cost-effective manner.
ɨ Reduced time to market
Although improving the design process depends on a host of subjects like Design teams, Concurrent design, etc., the one that probably stands out is the Quality Function Deployment. According to Edvardson, Rust and Oliver, effectively managing service design and quality involves three distinct tasks8. First is the designing of the service product. Second is the designing of the service environment. The third is the development of a system for delivering the service.
Thus a successful service design and development requires a systematic approach that create a well articulated interface between a comprehensive set of customer needs, their translation into various service attributes as part of the service design. One of the few systematic tools potentially useful for making the above links is QFD.
An interviewing method was used to elicit the voice of the customer to get a representation of the customer needs for the adaptation of the service design using the QFD process.
Based on the survey results of 10 customers, the best customer needs in the order of ranking are Efficiency in handling, Delivery on time, and Courtesy. (Refer Appendix � for the survey results)
The -matrix QFD approach (Appendix � 4) of service design enables one to focus proactively on customer6. The matrix 1 consists of the voice of the customer, while the matrix serves as a basis for the design improvement.
Matrix-1 The customer needs from the survey are plotted against the Service measures of the department with points of 0,1,, given for each cell depending on the correlation6. The points are multiplied with the importance weightage function to yield the absolute importance. This represents the house of quality. The distinction between customer requirements and service measures is that customer needs to express ‘what’ the customer expects, whereas service measures determine ‘how’ those expectations can be met. The absolute importance rating provides a method for determining which service measures have the largest effect on meeting customer requirements.
Service Measures(how)
Customer Needs (what)
Importance
weightage
Customer satisfaction No. of complaints Repeat Customers Timeliness
Efficiency in handling
Delivery on time 0
Courtesy 1 0
Absolute importance 6 48 54 45
Matrix- The Service measures and the absolute importance have been carried from matrix-1 to matrix- and plotted against the Service Design functions, that are most important to the CVS department.
Service Design(how)
Service measures
(what)
Importance
Weightage
Professionalism Proper equipment Teamwork Training
Customer satisfaction 6 0
No. of complaints 48
Repeat Customers 54 1 0
Timeliness 45
Absolute importance 87 711 7 675
Matrix- The service design measures and the absolute importance have been carried from matrix- to matrix- and plotted against the Quality techniques to yield its absolute importance.
Quality Techniques(how)
Service Design
(what)
Importance
Weightage
Preventive maintenance Feedback/Survey Continuous education
Professionalism 87 1
Proper equipment 711
Teamwork 7 1
Training 675 1
Absolute importance 11448 1878 11070
Due to the elements of intangibility and heterogeneity it is difficult to quantify standards.
4.0 Variety Control and Management
Variety is desirable, but as variety increases so do organisational problems, costs and controllability7. Control of variety is essential and the task of reducing variety with subsequent control of the remaining variety is one of the most fruitful tasks that can be undertaken by any organisation. Sometimes new methods and procedures are introduced for reasons valid during the time of implementation, but this could have adverse effect on the operation of the service. Although, change is not necessarily progress, it is required that the total effect on the organisation be considered, so as to achieve maximum result with minimum effort. It is often necessary to weigh the competitive advantage against the operational complexity when variety is being offered. Differences could exist in the outputs of the organisations generating the same service, within the same department, and even in the same employee on different occasions.
sales unit profits
costs
No. of products No. of products No. of products
Clearly, unnecessary variation needs to be controlled, but the variety attributed to estimating, and then matching, the customer’s requirements is essential to customer satisfaction and must be designed into the systems.
Variety could be managed by approaches
Simplification by the reduction of variety.
Standardisation by the control of variety and
Specialisation by concentrating effort where special knowledge is available.
The 80/0 principle, picked up be TQM mavens a couple of decades ago has resurfaced as a work-life balancing strategy4. We generally expect the ratio between the efforts and results to be equivalent, but in fact the degree of imbalance is astounding. The benefits lie in the Design, Operations and the Marketing areas.
5.0 Analysis using the Pareto Management Tool
Pareto principle, also known as the 80/0 rule, states that a small number of causes are responsible for a large percentage of the effect. The principle helps in focussing efforts based on the forecast.
A pareto analysis of the usage of these codes by the stations tabulated below is quite revealing. Table 1 shows the ranking of the usage of these profession codes. Table is an analysis by ranking of the different stations by virtue of their sales. The table also sheds light on the workload of the staffs at the back office and the revenues generated by the different stations.
Table 1 Ranking of Profession codes by Usage (for the quarter Apr ’00 to Jun ‘00)
(Refer to Appendix � 5 for the meaning of the profession codes)
Rank Cum
Codes
(%) Profession Code No. of times used Cumulative usage Cum
Usage
(%)
1 0.7 800041 4 4 .86
0.55 00015 1 446 7.80
0.8 00011 74 5088 44.6
4 1.10 41110 705 57 50.
5 1.8 11101 47 6040 5.54
6 1.65 11107 7 667 54.51
7 1. 80001 16 648 56.
8 .0 41104 174 6657 57.
.48 11001 170 687 5.
10 .76 16011 160 687 60.78
11 .0 61011 141 718 6.00
1 .1 610 10 748 6.05
1 .5 5140017 106 754 6.7
14 .86 10001 745 64.8
15 4.14 0001 1 7544 65.6
16 4.41 41104 81 765 66.
17 4.6 101 7 7704 67.0
18 4.6 1101 78 778 67.6
1 5.4 101 64 7846 68.5
0 5.5 114061 64 710 68.81
1 5.7 11015 61 771 6.4
6.07 411041 5 800 6.85
6.4 41101 55 8085 70.
4 6.6 144041 55 8140 70.81
5 6. 11055 5 81 71.7
6 7.17 1401 5 845 71.7
7 7.45 11061 51 86 7.17
8 7.7 41105 48 844 7.58
8.00 41110 47 81 7.
0 8.8 1011 46 847 7.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
6 100 1145 100
There were 6 different profession codes that were accessed by agents in the second quarter of 000. About 8% of the profession codes used (viz. 0 types of profession codes) contribute to 7 percent of applications.
Table Station ranking by Value of Sales
(Note Does not take into account the revenue of ticket generated and manual applications at front office. Also does not include visas which are refused, cancelled, rejected etc).
Staff 1 handles the administration aspect while staff ,,4are involved in processing the applications.
(Refer to Appendix � 6 for the meaning of the station codes)
Rank Station Name Staff handling the queue Total
Visit
Visas Visit Visa Revenue
(unit Sale price=165 Dhm) Total 6 hour visa
6 hour Visa revenue.
(unit sale price=45 Dhm) Total Sales
(in Dhm) Cumulative Sales Value
(in Dhm) Cum % Sales Value
1 THR 71 16015 1 45 16060 16060 10.7
NBO 4 8 1510 1 555 158655 1815 1.47
AMM 4 76 11440 4 15 175 440 .77
4 BEY 584 660 0 0 660 58650 6.6
5 DAR 506 840 84 780 8770 650 4.14
6 KHI 40 660 48 160 6840 64410 46.75
7 CAI 4 8 47685 0 47775 74185 4.6
8 LHE 7 44880 1 855 4575 7870 5.04
ROM 60 400 15 675 4575 8145 55.7
10 KWI 6 45 1 45 4440 8745 58.0
11 IST 4 1 8115 4 15 40050 1485 61.60
1 DOH 0 600 0 0 600 5185 64.04
1 SAH 16 40 10 450 70 84075 66.5
14 AUH 184 060 6 70 060 1014705 68.1
15 MBA 4 161 6565 5 115 760 1045 70.17
16 SHJ 158 6070 0 6160 1068555 71.
17 MCT 147 455 0 0 455 10810 7.57
18 JNB 144 760 405 4165 111675 75.1
1 HKG 14 55 0 685 1140660 76.7
0 AAN 14 0460 0 0 0460 116110 78.16
1 SIN 11 165 5 5 010 118110 7.5
ZRH 10 1800 4 180 180 1010 80.87
FRA 117 105 1 540 1845 1115 8.0
4 NYC 4 80 100 146 6570 1770 14005 8.54
5 BKK 8 16170 0 0 16170 157075 84.6
6 PAR 4 15510 11 45 16005 17080 85.70
7 QML 4 1 15015 0 0 15015 18805 86.71
8 KLA 87 1455 7 15 14670 10765 87.70
DHA 81 165 0 0 165 11610 88.60
0 YTO 80 100 0 0 100 10 8.4
1 JED 4 7 11880 5 115 1005 145 0.6
ATH 68 110 0 0 110 15555 1.1
NIC 4 65 1075 0 0 1075 16480 1.84
4 BUH 61 10065 1 45 10110 1740 .5
5 MLA 4 56 40 0 0 40 1860 .14
6 MEL 5 5775 78 510 85 115 .77
7 CMB 4 8085 0 0 8085 1401000 4.1
8 LAX 41 6765 18 810 7575 1408575 4.8
DAM 4 4 60 76 40 780 141555 5.
40 ISB 7 6105 4 180 685 1440 5.74
41 BEG 4 7 6105 1 45 6150 1480 6.16
4 KUL 4 6 540 0 0 540 1440 6.56
4 BAH 5445 0 0 5445 14775 6.
44 QTR 580 0 0 580 1445055 7.8
45 RUH 0 450 0 5040 145005 7.6
46 PEW 0 450 1 45 45 145500 7.5
47 SKG 4 7 4455 0 0 4455 145545 8.5
48 STO 5 415 0 415 146760 8.54
4 LON 0 00 1 585 885 1467645 8.80
50 JKT 16 640 0 0 640 147085 8.8
51 BAK 15 475 0 0 475 147760 .14
5 PRG 4 11 1815 1 585 400 1475160 .1
5 TIP 4 1 180 0 0 180 1477140 .44
54 BRU 6 0 11 45 1485 147865 .54
55 DAC 4 7 1155 0 0 1155 147780 .6
56 MNL 4 6 0 0 0 0 1480770 .68
57 MAN 5 85 0 15 1481685 .74
58 SEL 5 85 1 45 870 148555 .80
5 SGN 4 5 85 0 0 85 14880 .86
60 VIE 5 85 0 0 85 148405 .1
61 HOU 4 0 10 450 780 148485 .7
6 HAN 4 45 0 0 45 1485480 100.00
6 EBB 0 0 0 0 0 1485480 100.00
64 LHR 0 0 0 0 0 1485480 100.00
65 MLE 4 0 0 0 0 0 1485480 100.00
8764 871660 876 7470 1485480 1485480 100.00
stations out of 65 stations (.8 %) contribute to 80 % of the Sales revenue.
Also, if the work divided for the back office staff is inspected, then
Staff- 660 applications processed = 5.6%
Staff- 54 applications processed = 4.67%
Staff-4 86 applications processed = .66%
6.0 Recommendations and Benefits A Critical review
ɨ Broad-based applications of QFD have shown to improve design and development time, and improve communications and cohesion within product development teams.
It follows that the customer needs of this service are efficiency, On-time Delivery, and Courtesy. The service design elements most appropriate for these needs are
Professionalism
Teamwork
Proper equipment
Training
ɨ O & M’s Garth Hallberg notes “All consumers are not equal”5. De-averaging has dominated marketing for decades. Instead of producing products for an undifferentiated “mass” market, marketers have sought to “segment” by attributes like lifestyles, tweaking both product and service accordingly. Companies are increasingly wooing their most valuable customers. Repeat customers should be monitored and the service should be linked to other corporate programmes like frequent flyer. This will also lead to a high degree of customisation and deepening of knowledge for the staff.
ɨ A simplification of profession codes (reduction of unnecessary variety) needs to be implemented. This could be a small part in the process but producing bulk of the overload. The usage of just profession codes should be restricted to about 0-50. This leads to greater productivity and better utilisation of resources. The searching and maintenance of 500 plus codes incurs operational delays and customer waiting time.
ɨ From table we can see that stations out of 65 stations (.8 %) contribute to 80 % of the Sales revenue. Huge amount of money is spent on the training of the outstation staff, sometimes by calling them to the head office in Dubai. This needs to be revisited based on a cost-benefit analysis. Alternatively, the marketing aspect at these stations needs a closer look.
ɨ It appears that staff and 4 is overburdened relative to staff . This could lead to delays and could affect the delivery schedule of the Visa. The monitoring of station loads needs to be periodically done. This could also be one reason for the low morale and dissatisfaction.
ɨ Technology can have a great impact. Design can be slightly changed by use of specialised software that can populate the data, rather than the back office staff having to key-in the data. This can lead to higher productivity and reduced costs.
All of this enables continual improvement in service design and implementation, and leads to truly meeting customer needs on a consistent basis.
8. Conclusion
Customer needs has to be integrated into a service design, environment design and delivery systems in industries with extended service transactions, whether for incrementally improving upon or completely redesigning services. To remain a player in the twenty-first century, organizations will find it necessary to focus on lowering costs by enabling the full potential of technology1. Unnecessary variety should be controlled at all cost.
Although Emirates Airlines enjoys a virtual monopoly in providing this kind of service, the effect of a significant player entering this market cannot be overlooked. The entry barriers are quite low here. The survival will be based on who can provide better customer service, a significant part of which is linked into the service design and variety.
References
1 Chase, Acquilano and Jacobs, ‘Production and Operations Management’, Eighth Edition, 18.
. Kathleen Hickey, ‘Moving all over’, Traffic World, May 1.
. Richard Garodnick, ’Make better use of the forecasting package using the 80/0
Rule’, Apparel Industry Magazine, Atlanta, Oct 1.
4. Anne Graham, ’The vital few, the trivial many’, The Internal Auditor, Dec 18.
5. Alan Mitchell, ‘High cost of supporting the average customer’, Marketing Week,
18.
6. Donald S Ermer and Mark K Kniper, ’Delighting the customer Quality function deployment for quality service’, Total Quality Management, Jul 18.
7. Alan Muhlemann, John Oakland & Keith Lockyer, ‘Production and Operations Management’, Sixth Edition, Prentice Hall, 1.
8. Laurette Dube, Michael D Johnson, Leo Mark Renaghan, ‘Adapting the QFD
approach to extended service transactions’, Productions and Operations Management, Fall 1.
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