This free survey is powered by QUESTIONPRO.COM
0%
 
 
I am a final year student in Project Management at the University of the West Indies and as part of the programme, I am required to complete a dissertation on a topic of my choice. I have decided to investigate "An Integrated Value Management Approach for Improving Operational Efficiency of an Industrial Organization".

I am conducting a survey to investigate this topic in order to develop an approach that will utilize the learnings from the previously implemented quality programs at Lever Brothers West Indies Limited, into a program based on the principles of value management. This approach is expected to facilitate the organization in improving its functional performance. A definition of value mangement is included in section III of this questionnaire.

Industrial participation and inputs are crucial to the success of this survey and would be grateful if you can share your views by completing the attached questionnaire. It should not take you longer than twenty minutes. I am gratefully asking that the questionnaire be completed by Monday June 18, 2005.

Your pariticipation is completely voluntary, there are no foreseeable risks associated with this project, and you can be assured that all information gathered will be kept in the strictest confidence and findings be used only for this study. If you have any questions regarding this survey, please feel free to contact the undersigned at 683-5589. For returning completed questionnaires, please fax to Ayannah Mills at 624-9295.

I thank you in advance for your participation in this survey.

Yours respectfully

Ayannah Mills
Faculty of Engineering, UWI



 
 
SECTION I - ABOUT YOURSELF



1. How long have you worked for Lever Brothers West Indies Limited (LBWI)?
 
1-5 years
 
6-10 years
 
11-20 years
 
More than 20 years

 
 

2. Which best describes your level of responsibility?
 
Senior Management
 
Manager
 
Administrative Staff
 
Factory Staff
 
 

3. Which quality program implemented at LBWI are you knowledgeable of?
 
Total Quality
 
Change Works
 
Total Preventative Maintenance

 
 

4. What was your level of involvement in the quality program/s?
 
Very Involved
 
Partially Involved
 
Not involved at all
 
 
5. What role did you have in the quality program?




TQ = Total Quality
CW = Change Works
TPM = Total Preventative Maintenance
TQ CW TPM
Program Leader
Team Leader
Facilitator
Team Member
Other
 
 

6. Have you ever been involved in the execution of a project or process improvement at LBWI?
 
Have had involvement
 
Never involved
 
 
SECTION II - ABOUT THE COMPANY



A - COMPANY INFORMATION


7. LBWI can best be described as: -
 
Market leader in its industry
 
Market follower
 
Neither market leader nor follower
 
 

8. What do you think are the issues that are priority within LBWI (you can select more than one answer)?
 
Sales and profit generation
 
Securing a competitive advantage
 
Providing customers with better lifestyle solutions
 
Training and equipping employees for meeting the new technologies and markets
 
All of the above

 
 

9. How efficient would you rate LBWI in terms of productivity?
 
Very efficient
 
Somewhat efficient with room for improvement
 
Not efficient at all
 
 

10. How would you rate staff turnover at LBWI?
 
Low (1-5 percent per year)
 
Acceptable (5-10 percent per year)
 
Medium (10-20 percent per year)
 
High (over 20 percent per year)
 
 

11. The following best describes your manager: -
 
Supportive and accepts responsibility
 
Unsupportive and passes down blame
 
Indifferent to workers and their needs
 
None of the above
 
 

12. Which of the following in your opinion best describes the culture at LBWI?
 
Informal, based upon trust, communication and cooperation
 
Formality based upon policies and procedures for everything
 
Thrives on formal authority relationships
 
Executive meddling which forces an overabundance of documentation
 
Nobody trusts the decisions of managers
 
 
B - COMPANY PROJECT INFORMATION


13. Is a projectized environment used at LBWI for accomplishing targets or improving processes?
Yes No
 
 
 
If yes, are teams comprised of a functional approach or cross sectional?
   
 
 

15. How are funds assigned to projects to be complted?
 
Based on the size of the project
 
Based on the return on investment expected from the project
 
Based on the amount of money the company can afford to spend at the point in time
 
Not with any methodology / in an adhoc manner
 
 

16. When seeking resources for a project within the organization, how does the project leader obtain his/her funding?
 
Fighting for the best people available
 
Negotiating with line managers for best available people
 
Negotiating for devliverables rather than people
 
Using senior management to help get the appropriate people
 
Taking whatever is given, no questions asked
 
 

17. What percent of projects / process improvements are completed within the time schedule?
 
0 percent
 
5-10 percent
 
11-25 percent
 
26-50 percent
 
51-75 percent
 
76-100 percent
 
Not Sure
 
 

18. What percent of projects do you consider to have been completed successfully?
 
0 percent
 
5-10 percent
 
11-25 percent
 
26-50 percent
 
51-75 percent
 
76-100 percent
 
Not Sure
 
 
C. COMPANY CUSTOMER INFORMATION


19. Regarding value and importance, LBWI believes that: -
 
The customer is always right
 
Decisions be made in the following sequence: best interest of the customer first, then the company, then the employees
 
Decision should be made in the following sequence: best interst of the company first, customer second and employees last
 
No written policy or standard
 
 

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
20. LBWI is achieving full potential from its customer base.
21. There is a formalized strategic plan to fully realize opportunities for customer acquisition, retention and growth.
22. Provision of customer value is a primary part of the organizaito's strategic agenda.
23. Customer value is an important measure as part of the company's KPIs
Each and every member of staff at LBWI understands the concept of customer value.
24. Employees of LBWI passionately promote and follow the concept of customer value.
 
 

25. Please rate LBWIs performance on customer service:
 
Excellent
 
Good
 
Satisfactory
 
Unsatisfactory
 
Poor
 
 
D - QUALITY PROGRAMS INFORMATION


Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
26. The company wasted its investments on the formulation and implementation of the three quality programs.
27. The quality programs implemented by LBWI were solely for the sake of seeking to increase profit.
28. The quality programs implemented by LBWI were intended to improve organizational culture.
29. The quality programs implemented at LBWI had little or no focus on the external customer, the buyer or the user of the products.
30. Quality management approaches are supposed to be implemented within an organization, achieve the results and then end.
 
 
31. How effective in your opinion was "Total Quality" in terms of: -
Highly Effective Somewhat Effecive No Effect
Favourable ROI
Improving organizational financial performance
Cultural change
Improving customer service
Increasing profitability
Providing an environment of continuous improvement
 
 
 
32. What two things were in your opinion the greatest benefit derived from the implementation of "TQ" at LBWI?
   
 
 
 
33. What two things should be carried from "TQ" into a future value creating program at LBWI?
   
 
 
34. How effective in your opinion was "Change Works" in terms of: -
Highly Effective Somewhat Effective No Effect
Favourable ROI
Improving organizational financial performance
Cultural change
Improving customer service
Increasing profitability
Providing an environment of continuous improvement
 
 
 
 
35. What two things were in your opinion the greatest benefit derived from the implementation of "Change Works" at LBWI?
   
 
 
 
36. What two things should be carried from "Change Works" into a future value creating program at LBWI?
   
 
 
37. How effective in your opinion was "Total Preventative Maintenance" in terms of: -
Highly Effective Somewhat Effective No Effect
Favourable ROI
Improving organizational financial performance
Cultural change
Improving customer service
Increasing profitability
Providing an environment of continuous improvement
 
 
 
 
38. What two things were in your opinion the greatest benefit derived from the implementation of "TPM" at LBWI?
   
 
 
 
39. What two things should be carried from TPM into a future value creating program at LBWI?
   
 
 
SECTION III - A POSSIBLE VALUE MANAGMENT APPROACH





Value Management (VM) and Value Engineering (VE) is a structured and systematic approach to improving value from a project by establishing clear views and consensus: -



- About the nature of the problem or opportunity to be addressed and hence the project objectives.



- That the proposed solution represents the best possible response.



- That the scope of the solution encompasses only those functions that are necessary to satisfy the defined problem or opportunity.





VM as a technique is of major importance as it enables an organisation to avoid unnecessary expenditure by helping to ensure that: -



- Capital is only expended on demonstrated needs.



- The consequent investment delivers the required objectives at the lowest whole-life cost without detriment to quality, performance and reliability.




40. Who does LBWI consider its customer?
 
Supermarkets that purchase the company's products
 
Individuals who buy the products
 
Users of the company's products
 
All of the above
 
Other
 

 
 

41. Are your familiar with the term Value Management?
Yes No
 
 

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
42. The concept of value is promoted within LBWI
 
 
 
43. From the list provided below, indicate the six top benefits you would like to see the company derive from introducing this methodology to the organization
Increase success probability of projects
Increase return of investment in projects and process improvements
Increase customer value
Anticipate customer requirements
Increase profits
Orgnizational survival
Improving company efficiency
Facilitating a change in organizational culture
Increasing market share
 
 

44. Will you support a Value Management program that will improve operational efficiency and increase profits at LBWI?
Yes No
 
Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions regarding this survey.
Thank you for your participation in this survey.
Survey Software Powered by QuestionPro Survey Software