Quality - Qantas: why quality matters

Qantas - the gift that keeps on giving: this time - from early Nov 2011.

Instructions:

What the video below, then read this article . Then post an answer to this question:

Q What do these news items have to do quality management at Qantas?

Hints for your post:

Check the Blog Posts for background on Qantas (the industrial dispute mush have some effect on quality hmmmm?)

1. Click here for a easy to understand prediction for Qantas expected profits
2. The following would be a pretty good intro to your post (and for HSC answer or intro to Ops strategy....

Operations strategies describes the work done by the Operations department to contribute to long term business survival through profit maximisation. These strategies include work relating to

• New product design and development
• Outsourcing
• Quality Management

Businesses such as Qantas measure the effectiveness of their Operations Strategies using metrics called Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) for the quality, cost, flexibility, speed, customisation, and dependability of each strategy - for example .

New product design and development

KPIs may be COST (to design), SPEED (to develop)

Outsourcing

KPI's may be FLEXIBILITY (to meet demand changes), DEPENDABILITY (levle of service provided by external suplier)

Quality Management

KPI's may be CUSTOMISATION (how well Qantas is able to meet specifc neeeds of its passengers)

Quality is defined as products 'fitness for purpose', and Quality Management refers to the work done by a business to ensure the reliability, safety and consistency of its product.

BA exploring merger with Qantas

These BBC articles provide background on a possible merger between British Airways (BA) and the Australian National Airline (Qantas). Read them and answer the following questions.

07/11/08 - Profits plunge at British Airways.
Q1a) British AiBritish Airways made a pre tax profit for BA in the 6 month period April to September 2008 of £52m ($UDS81.6m). That’s good – right?
Q1b) What factors mentioned in the article have affected BA’s profits?
Q1c) Explain why recent changes in oil prices are good or bad news for BA.

07/12/08 BA exploring merger with Qantas
Q2a) What political decisions have been made to allow the possibility of a merger between BA and Qantas
Q2b) What Special Intereest Groups are mentioned in the article. How does it feel about this proposed merger?

08/12/08 Qantas boss says BA deal in doubt
Q3a) Explain the statement “current pension liabilities, which stand at about £1.5bn ($2.2bn) as a possible hurdle for the talks”