Task: You need to write a case study on Hello Fresh

Introduction

TTs140920_946795_7

Model of Improvement

HelloFresh

Student Name

Institutional Affiliation

Date

Table of Contents

Introduction. 3

Problem Definition. 4

Appropriateness of Method. 5

Methodology. 7

Defining scope and Sequence of Improvement 7

5 Whys. 8

Check Sheet 9

Pareto Analysis. 11

Project Charter 12

Analysis and Case Study Findings. 13

PDSA Cycle-1. 14

Plan. 14

Do. 14

Check. 14

Act 15

PDSA Cycle-2. 15

Plan. 15

Do. 15

Check. 15

Act 16

PDSA Cycle-3. 16

Plan. 16

Do. 16

Check. 16

Act 16

Discussion. 17

Outcomes, Limitations and Feasibility of Improvement of PDSA Cycles. 17

Conclusion. 17

References. 19

Introduction

With rising challenges in the external environment, it will be vital for the companies to not only upgrade to new technologies but even modify on their current work strategies that will assist them in achieving desirable outcomes amid the given work environment (Cirjaliu et al., 2019).

Second, it should also be noted that the companies will need to manage their competitive position in the market and hence they will need to ensure of better coordination among all the working departments of the organization. It will then facilitate continuous improvement and also allow the working staff to improve on their efficiency levels amid the given work environment (Cirjaliu et al., 2019).

Furthermore, there is a need to look out for new quality management principles and techniques such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Agile Project Management approach, and several others that will focus more on optimizing the key operations of the organization (Islam, 2016). Thus, the company will need to make sure that they will be able to reduce on wastage, overcome operational errors, and at the same time will even improve the quality of products and services served to the customers.

The four step model PDSA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) is one of the most extensively used approach amid the companies for the purpose of improving the operational processes. In addition, it should also be noted that these PDSA cycles will need to be implemented in a cyclical manner as that will allow the operations team to test multiple variables impacting the operational processes of the organization (Islam, 2016).

The concerned team will then be in a position to determine whether they will be able to make upon any necessary changes in the current operational processes or not. Also, there could be progressive developments pipelined in the outputs and hence will take more time for the organization to get settled down with the new work approach.

The given report will be discussing on improving such operational processes of HelloFresh – a company that provides both food ingredients and recipes that will change the way people will be eating forever. The report will then deploy appropriate model that can be utilized with an objective to improve the performance of the operational processes carried out in the organization.

Problem Definition

Hello Fresh is a company that is assisting customers to save money on very meal that they consume. In addition, they have implemented a methodology through which they are able to provide access to high-quality food to their customers (Kai et al., 2020). Third, they are ensuring that they will be able to meet the taste requirements of the customers.

And, finally, from the sustainability perspective, they are able to control food wastage and also able to protect the environment. The business model focuses on providing every household with wholesome, homemade meals without any hassles (Kai et al., 2020). Also, the meals are carefully planned as per the diet routine and requirements of the customers.

Also, the ingredients are sourced carefully from different farm locations so that the best quality ingredients can be provided to the customers. The company started their operations in 2011 and since then it has expanded in different parts of the world. The key approach of the company is to reduce food wastage, track and reduce carbon emissions, deploy innovative packaging techniques, and remain responsible for ingredient sourcing (Myszewski, 2017).

The company has grown gradually over this period and hence they have faced several challenges from different perspectives. The major challenges that the company faces include – supplier delay, price of products, receiving inefficient raw ingredients, and increased market competition (Myszewski, 2017).

Thus, the company will need to implement a specific model such as the PDSA cycle that will not only allow them to recognize the errors in their functional processes but will resolve upon these problems and subsequently will implement appropriate quality management principles at place (Nedra et al., 2019). This will then allow HelloFresh to deliver the best quality food items to their customers, which will fulfill their expectations level amid the given operational environment.

Appropriateness of Method

The PDSA model will be providing a framework through which the operations team will be able to design and test changes for the current processes of the organization (Prashar, 2017). Also, it will be more important for them to answer certain questions first that are provided below to ensure that the team is working in the right direction and on the right model:

1. What is the team trying to accomplish through this model?
2. What changes the team is looking out for in order to increase the efficiency of the operational processes at HelloFresh?
3. What changes should be made from the quality management perspective that will allow operations team to get the best ingredients and later provide the best quality meals to their customers?

The following figure-1 demonstrates the PDSA cycle that the operations team will need to follow on an iterative basis.

They will need to look out for the processes through which they will not only provide best quality food meals to their customers but also ensure that they will be able to emphasize more on elimination of wastage of food in a given environment. It should be noted that the PDSA cycle will comprise of different actions that need to be followed.

The aim of this report will be to analyze the PDSA cycle associated with a given company, check on the gaps in the current supply chain and inventory management functions, suggest changes as per the gaps and errors identified, and thus improve the future outcomes (Prashar, 2017). The report will even discuss certain tools that can be used from the quality management perspective such as Pareto Analysis, Cause and Effect Diagram, Check Sheet, and Project Charter to allow operations team to directly work on the operational processes associated with the given organization.

Methodology

Defining scope and Sequence of Improvement

It is important for the operations team to define the scope of the project and accordingly will need to implement their improvement model. It is a trial-learn approach that will ensure that they will be able to overcome errors and uncertainties and subsequently will deliver better outcomes in the future (Prashar, 2017).

Moreover, if the changes are unsuccessful in the first attempt, the company will need to continue with the second phase of the given PDSA cycle and then achieve desirable outcomes. It is thus more important to look out for the changes that need to be done in a given set of operational processes of HelloFresh and accordingly will need to determine the sequence of the change to be undertaken.

The following figure-2 demonstrates the model of improvement that will be driving the required change and will be motivating the staff to perform on the new set of processes amid the given work environment.

Figure-2: Model of Improvement

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-model-for-improvement-16_fig3_270289399

Also, the operations team will need to gather inputs from the ground-level staff as that will allow them the operations team to redefine few of the operational strategies.

5 Whys

To have a better overview of the major problems that HelloFresh is facing, it is important to use the interrogative tool of lean methodology in a given scenario. It will define the problem through 5 whys’ and thus will assist the operations team to determine the root cause of problem faced by the company. The issues that were identified with the help of these 5 whys are stated below. The problem statement of this report is – Poor delivery time resulting into decreased customer satisfaction levels.

• Why-1: Lack of appropriate supply chain function in the organization
• Why-2: Lack of coordination and communication between inventory management team and supply chain team
• Why-3: Increased delays in getting the required supplies from the farming locations
• Why-4: Improvised supply chain functions of the competitors with the help of new technologies
• Why-5: Internal low morale of the staff and decreased productivity levels not allowing them to perform to the given expectations

It should be noted that once the root cause is identified, the operations team will then need to implement the PDSA cycle that will allow them to plan for the new strategies and later deploy them to get desirable outcomes.

To ensure that they will be able to create loops within the PDSA cycle, they will need to continue collecting more data and even check the performance of the entire supply chain function of delivering 100 products to the respective customers.

Also, it should be noted that the people that will be collecting the required data are properly trained and also informed about the type of data that needs to be collected. Besides, the ground-level staff members were also interviewed to check the discrepancies associated with the supply chain function of HelloFresh in a given working environment.

Check Sheet

It is a document that will be used for the purpose of collecting the data in a real-time manner. This document will be recording all the details as per the stated requirements to determine the gaps in the supply chain of HelloFresh.

Moreover, this document will even figure out the exact location or the sub-process, from where the gaps are happening. Since, it is differentiating facts and onions, the operations team will be able to gather accurate and reliable information for the purpose of carrying out appropriate analysis (Rehman et al., 2018).

Now, based on the data analysis carried out so far, there are five major problems short-listed. It is important to determine the frequencies of those errors happening so that later Pareto Analysis can be prepared accordingly. The operations team will then need to identify appropriate solution that will resolve on the key issues that HelloFresh is facing from the supply chain perspective in their internal work environment.

Problem	Frequency						Total
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	–
Supply Chain – Internal issues	1	0	1	1	1	1	5
Lack of coordination and communication among working teams	4	7	3	5	8	6	33
Delays in getting supplies	5	6	4	7	9	8	39
Increased Market Competition	0	0	2	3	4	1	10
Decreased productivity levels of the working staff	1	1	0	0	0	1	3

Table-1: Reported check Sheet for issues identified at HelloFresh

Source: Author

Pareto Analysis

After collecting the intended data, there are five major problems identified that the top-level manage of HelloFresh needs to focus upon. Now, from those five problems, after narrowing down, it seems that there are two major problems that is affecting the entire supply chain of the organization. Based on the Pareto analysis, carried out, it can be identified that nearly 80% of the problems are caused due to 20% of the issues. The pareto chart for the mentioned problems at HelloFresh are shown below in figure-3.

Figure-3: Pareto Chart

Source: Author

As per this pareto chart, it can be noticed that, out of the identified 90 issues, around 72 issues are – lack of coordination and communication among the staff and delays in getting the desired supplies from the farms. This demonstrates nearly 80% of the total issues faced at HelloFresh, to which the operations team will need to identify on appropriate solutions.

Project Charter

There is a need to create the project charter that will be not only working on improving customer satisfaction levels but will even focus on improving the overall productivity levels of the working staff in the organization.

This quality improvement team charter will include details pertaining to important goals that need to be achieved, purpose of the given project, key improvement areas, and timelines within which the entire project needs to be completed (Rehman et al., 2018). Thus, it will be acting as an agreement between the team members to have common goals and expectations. One of such sample document that can be followed in the organization is shown below in figure-4:

Figure-4: Project Charter for Quality Improvement – Sample Document

Source: https://citoolkit.com/articles/project-charter/

The purpose of having such a charter at the place will allow the operations team to check on aspects related to – scope of improvement, the milestones that they need to achieve, the overall duration available during which these goals need to be achieved, and even determine the new changes that need to be deployed in a given organization (Rehman et al., 2018).

Analysis and Case Study Findings

There are different tools that can be used for the purpose of overcoming the issues that are identified in this case study. However, the tools that are used from the perspective of PDSA cycle are mentioned below in figure-5.

Figure-5: Tools used in PDSA Cycle

Source: Author

So, utilizing these tools, it will allow the project manager to look forward to the changes that need to be implemented amid the given environment. Now, the steps that need to be followed in the PDSA cycle are as follows:

• Plan: All the challenges should be overcome and the company management team will need to look forward to new opportunities
• Do: Changes should be implemented on a smaller scale and then gradually increased
• Check: The project manager will need to check on the gaps and accordingly will need to overcome operational errors in the internal work environment
• Act: There is a need to implement the changes on a wider scale and later after assessing the results, a new cycle should be initiated

Now for the given case of HelloFresh, the PDSA cycle will be implemented based on the problem statement identified and also with an objective to improve the overall throughout of the organization. It will even then increase on overall satisfaction levels in a given operational environment.

PDSA Cycle-1

Plan

In this phase, the operations team will need to work on the five why factors and then need to analyze the Pareto Diagram. The first problem identified based on that analysis is related to lack of communication and coordination. There is a need to brainstorm on this issue so that the operations team in association with the Human Resources (HR) department will be able to look out for the reasons in a given organization (Shin et al., 2017).

Do

It will be important for the HR team to work closely with the staff and thereby determine the major issues that they have been facing in a given environment. The HR team will need to work on their communication and collaboration problems due to which they were not able to perform as per the expectations.

Check

From the monitoring perspective, it will be recommended to use Balanced Scorecard approach as well as even use 360-degree feedback evaluation mechanism, which will allow the HR team to evaluate on the entire performance of the working staff. Second, they will also need to make sure that the employees are following to the provided instructions and thereby overcoming the communication gaps amid the given environment (Shin et al., 2017).

Act

The HR team will need to conduct on training sessions for the staff members and thus work on their communication and collaboration skills. This will then allow them to perform better and will bridge all the operational gaps as identified earlier.

PDSA Cycle-2

Plan

In the second cycle, it will be important for the operations team to address on the aspects related to delays in supplies observed by the inventory management team. The company has been working hard to provide the best quality food meals along with the ingredients. But it seems that there are supply chain issues and due to which these ingredients are not reaching to the warehouse of the company on time.

Do

Since the issue of supply chain is detected, it will be now important for the supply chain team and the operations team to determine the problems that they are facing regarding this issue (Shin et al., 2017). It could be transportation problems, logistics issues, or can even be lack of coordination between the farmers and supply chain team.

Check

Once the key issue is identified, the operations team will need to make sure that there will be systems implemented across the organization that will be checking and monitoring the movement of all the vehicles. They will then be able to track the logistics processes and even determine why these vehicles are not reaching on time.

Act

The role of the operations team will be vital as they will need to deploy total quality management principles, inventory management techniques, and even ensure that they provide payments to the farmers and other suppliers on time (Shin et al., 2017). They need to maintain good relations with them, which will then allow them to perform better in the future.

PDSA Cycle-3

Plan

It is experienced that by making necessary changes in the two major problems that were identified, HelloFresh was able to improve on their operations management techniques to a larger extent. They were able to improve coordination and communication among the staff and also were able to resolve on the challenges from the supply chain management perspective (Shin et al., 2017).

Do

The role of the operations team will be vital as they will need to make sure of following principles of inventory management and also ensure that they have steady relationships with the suppliers.

Check

In the third phase, the role of the senior management will be vital as they will need to monitor on the current practices and thereby make sure that the gaps have been covered and the working staff members have been motivated by the HR team. This will then allow them to get desirable outcomes.

Act

It will be always important for the HR team to train the employees at regular intervals and even increase on their work morale. On the other hand, the operations team will need to make sure that the desired ingredients will be reaching the organization on time. They will need to implement principles of total quality management and even services management that will assist them in delivering the given products to their customers on time. This will then resolve on the major issues that HelloFresh is found to be facing from the operational environment perspective.

Discussion

Outcomes, Limitations and Feasibility of Improvement of PDSA Cycles

The given model of improvement will be applied gradually in a given case and there will be monitoring mechanisms even installed in the organization. This will then allow the operations team to first ensure better coordination among the operations department, inventory management team, and items procurement team (Singh, Singh, & Pandher, 2017). Besides, they will need to scale the operations gradually and thereby make their objectives aligned with the expansion goals of the company.

It should however be noted that there are few limitations of the PDSA cycles. If all the phases are not executed well, the final outcomes will not be the results that the company is seeking out for. Also, it is a trial and error based mechanism, which needs to be tested multiple times. Finally, the role of the HR team will be equally important as they will need to provide sufficient training, overcome personnel management risks, and focus on improving overall productivity levels of the staff in a given working environment (Strubelt & Mollenhauer, 2019).

Conclusion

It will be always important for the top-level management of HelloFresh to monitor the performance of the key processes of the organization. They will need to implement the recommended PDSA cycle whenever their outputs and overall performance will get impacted. Besides, they will even need to plan for the risk mitigation strategies that will allow them to overcome the major risk factors affecting the performance of the organization.

Additionally, HelloFresh will also need to follow quality management principles, iterative processes as mentioned in the report, and even provide training to the staff at regular intervals. The role of the concerned Human Resources (HR) department will be vital as they will need to provide them training and even ensure that they will be able to perform better amid the given work environment (Thomas et al., 2017).

There is a future scope of research to this study wherein researchers can identify the factors due to which employees will be resisting change across the organization. It should however be concluded that PDSA cycle is a relatively simple methodology that will be assisting the operations team to achieve upon desired results for the given firm.

References

Cirjaliu, B., Mocan, A., Boatca, M., & Drăghici, A. (2019). A propose approach for continuous improvement using ergonomics and quality management knowledge and methodologies: Acces la success. Calitatea, 20, 135-140.

Islam, S. (2016). Credit card account opening excellence using six sigma methodology. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 7(3), 294-323.

Kai, S., Sieber, S., Marleen, T., & Frank, W. (2020). A lean six sigma framework for the insurance industry: Insights and lessons learned from a case study. Zeitschrift Für Betriebswirtschaft, 90(5-6), 845-878.

Myszewski, J. M. (2017). Six sigma model of transfer of development capability. Business Process Management Journal, 23(4), 857-872.

Nedra, A., Néjib, S., Yassine, C., & Morched, C. (2019). A new lean six sigma hybrid method based on the combination of PDCA and the DMAIC to improve process performance: Application to clothing SME. Industria Textila, 70(5), 447-456.

Prashar, A. (2017). Integration of taguchi and shainin DOE for six sigma improvement: An indian case. The International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 34(7), 898-924.

Rehman, S. T., Sharfuddin, A. K., Simonov Kusi-Sarpong, & Syed, M. H. (2018). Supply chain performance measurement and improvement system. Journal of Modelling in Management, 13(3), 522-549.

Shin, S., Suh, S., Stroud, I., & Yoon, S. (2017). Process-oriented life cycle assessment framework for environmentally conscious manufacturing. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 28(6), 1481-1499.

Singh, J., Singh, H., & Pandher, R. P. S. (2017). Role of DMAIC approach in manufacturing unit: A case study. IUP Journal of Operations Management, 16(4), 52-67.

Strubelt, H., & Mollenhauer, F. (2019). Identifying and evaluating synergies of lean six sigma and knowledge management in deliberately interlocking application. The International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 37(5), 801-819.

Thomas, A., Antony, J., Haven-Tang, C., Francis, M., & Fisher, R. (2017). Implementing lean six sigma into curriculum design and delivery – A case study in higher education. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 66(5), 577-597.