Business Process Management - Emirates Airlines - Essay Example

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY OF EMIRATES AIRLINES By Table of Contents Introduction 3 Advantages and Disadvantages of BPM Based on Data Collected 4 Critical Success Factors of BPM 6 Change Management and Employees Resistance Issues 8 The Use of External Experts/Consultants 9 Summary 10 Business Process Management Case Study of Emirates Airlines Introduction Emirates Airline was founded in the year 1985 to provide air transport solutions to the Emirati population in the United Arab Emirates after the dominance of Gulf Air seemed to have jeopardised the quality of services offered. The Dubai government in partnership with Pakistan International Airlines came up with the concept of forming the airline as they made several agreements that actualised the inception of Emirates Airline. Initially, the airline operated a limited number of destinations across Asia that included Karachi, New Delhi, and Bombay but over the years it has tremendously grown to be a world-class carrier that operates in over one hundred and forty destinations across the globe. Emirates Airline is part of the larger Emirates group that offers a number of distinguished services including; tourism, air maintenance, aviation college, air transport, hospitality, trans guard just to name but a few. Currently, Emirates Airline is ranked as the largest cargo carrier in the Middle East, and this is mainly influenced by the large numbers of tourist and international shoppers who visit Dubai annually (Emirates Airlines 2015). The research methodology for this particular study involved both quantitative and qualitative as I indulged in both primary and secondary research to gather data for the purpose of this project. Primary data came mainly from interviews and questionnaires that were administered to various employees who work for Emirates Airline I varied ranks namely; cabin crew members, ground operators, Line managers as well as the airline division manager. To enhance credibility, validity and integrity of the data collected all primary research was conducted on a face-to-face interrogation basis to increase the chances of getting dependable answers from the respondents. There were a total of one hundred and twenty questionnaires in total with twenty being used for the pilot project while the other hundred were utilised for the actual data collection exercise. The questionnaires contained nine questions that were grouped into two sections and during the entire data collection process we managed to interrogate one hundred respondents to fill the questionnaires. Ethical consideration was taken care of during the entire period of research as a written consent was availed to the participants to help them understand the details of the study before being recruited to provide any information. Relatively, the management of Emirates Airlines was informed of the same, and we agreed to protect any confidential information regarding the company as well as not indulge in any form of a privacy breach. The research was conducted between March 14th -28th 2015 mainly at the company’s base in Dubai (Brocke, Seidel, & Recker, 2012). Advantages and Disadvantages of BPM Based on Data Collected The findings of the research indicated that business process management has a number of benefits to Emirates Airlines’ overall operations. To begin with a number of the respondents indicated that with business process management strategies in place the company has been able to offload some of its operations to professional third party agencies that are competent in those areas thus freeing the firm with extra tasks hence enabling it to concentrate on its core competencies. The firm has been able to enhance the customer experience of its clients over a period of time since it has been focusing solely on the primary business since all other tasks had been outsourced to third parties (Burlton, 2001). Relatively, the operational cost of the company seems to have gone down ever since it implemented business process management practices. A majority of the respondents concurred to the fact that Emirates Airlines had been able to cut its operational costs with the implementation of BPM. Most of the activities that consumed vast amounts of resources such as hiring have been done away with as the firm does not need to hire as most of the jobs are done by external entities. Based on the company’s financial report the overall annual earning has been increasing steadily and much due to BPM as the operational cost has been reduced significantly thus improving the profit margins of Emirates Airlines. It is prudent from the findings that were gathered from the respondents that since the organisation outsourced some tasks to third party firms it was able to concentrate on its primary business as well as respond adequately to the changing needs of customers in the market thus guaranteeing their satisfaction at all times (Brocke and Rosemann, 2014). Similarly, the respondents indicated that the efficacy levels of the airline had significantly improved with the introduction of business process management. It is primarily because the firm has been able to reduce all forms of wastages in its process as the use of technology and professional services from third parties has ensured equitable use of resources thus enhancing the overall efficiency levels of the firm. The intra-organisational linkages between various departments of the company has been greatly improved with the introduction of BPM as a majority of the respondents indicated that cohesiveness and coordination among various departments of the companies significantly improved the moment BPM practices were implemented by the airline (Verma, 2009) On the other hand, respondents indicated that business process management has led to limited level of innovation in the firm as only incremental change seems to be favoured by the technique. The radical change that is dominant in most firms has been restricted with the implementation of BPM, and this has significantly affected the general innovative scores of the airline. In that light the reduced level of innovation has led to the company performing poorly during financial periods that are characterised by rapid change in the market as it cannot readily adapt to the dynamism of the market instantaneously. The findings concerning the advantages and disadvantages of business process management of Emirates Airlines seems to concur with much of the secondary research that we conducted as the factors that the respondents cited as the pros and cons of BPM were closely related to what a majority of the scholar had outlined in the previous research works and literature (Dumas, 2013). Company’s reason for implementing BPM or BPR The idea to implement BPM processes in Emirates Airlines was premised from the fact that the aviation industry was very dynamic and competitive at the same time. Thus, the company needed the support of business process management to enhance rapid and low cost automation of its operations so as to remain competitive in the market. The company has demonstrated potential of being the market leader in the Asian continent thus it needed to upgrade its stakes to conquer the entire globe. Dynamism in the aviation industry is so rapid that technologies and emerging business issues change in a fortnight. Thus, it was prudent for Emirates Airlines to adopt business process management so as to counter the frequent changes that the industry was characterized with since BPM enhances faster business changes as well as it integrates technology to business operations thus making the firm to be ahead of its market rivals. Critical Success Factors of BPM The findings from the research indicated a number of key success factors that were behind business process management implementation in Emirates Airlines. To begin with a significant percentage of the respondents cited BPM as a strategy that was utilised to deliver overall performance improvement and achieve sustainability in the organisation. In making the above factors BPM would enable the Emirates Airlines to make its operations be less costly as a significant number of miscellaneous tasks will be outsourced to professional third parties that have competency in that field as well as cutting on the administrative costs that would be incurred if the work was being performed by the airline itself (Plenkiewicz, 2010). Similarly, the above would ensure increased profitability for the organisation while driving it to acquire a higher market share for its operations will be inclined to satisfy the needs of the clients as its primary objective since all other tasks will be done by external professionals. Business process management provides a framework that enables a steady improvement in the manner in which the operations of the firm are conducted thus it would ensure new and innovative services are available at the disposal of the customers thus ensure the firm’s operations are more flexible and easier to change depending on the preferences of the clients. Some respondents indicated BPM is a mechanism that is utilised to trace the performance of the business. Indeed through the use of BPM strategy the management of Emirates Airline can single out the elements that contribute to the form’s improved performance and thus come up with techniques to improve and sustain the same. Business performance management strategy elaborates the organisation’s performance report structure each aspect of the performance can be easily traced to the factor behind it. Thus, the firm will find it convenient to invest in change that will provide traceable or rather substantial performance results based on the structure that the strategy provides (Bussler and Haller, 2006). It was premised on the notion that business process management will bring together various aspects of the firm to ensure they are fashioned in a manner that will ensure they achieve the requirements of the customers. As a world class airline, Emirates has many elements that need to be intertwined or rather incorporated to make the needs and preferences of its clients. The knowledge base of its employees is very critical since knowledge management is important is ensuring the workers are in a position to attend the needs of the clients in the best way possible to achieve high satisfaction levels. Additionally, implementation of technology and the strategies of the firm all play a role in ensuring the requirements of the customers are aligned with the capabilities to achieve the best results in the market (BPM and Dayal, 2009). Conversely, BPM is driven by the obligation to satisfy the requirements of the firm’s stakeholders. Just like any other conventional organisation Emirates has the obligation to maximize the wealth of its owners. Thus, the implementation of business process management is premised on the fact that the firm wants to enhance efficiency by cutting any form of wastages that might occur in the process of conducting its operation so as to increase the overall revenues for the company. Thus, business process management is meant to transform the manner in which a firm conducts its operations to ensure efficiency and lean operations all that will be aimed at improving profitability at the same time ensuring clients are satisfied with the level of services that they are offered. Business process management requires some commitments to a number of principles that have been outlined as the targets for the process. When the company was coming up with the BPM plan, it analysed its vision, mission, and goals so as to determine what the firms a wants and what the BPM project will deliver. The incorporation of the firm’s requirements for the deliverables of business process management is a critical factor that was cited by a majority of the respondents as it ensures the company can achieve its specific objectives by fashioning its operations in a manner that best fits it (Franz and Kirchmer, 2012). Ideally, business process management is a method that often brings change to organisation as it will refine and redesign the manner in which operations were conducted initially by offering a workable plan that is mainly aimed at delivering the organisation’s objectives. It is prudent that some of the tasks that Emirates Airlines previously conducted through its in-house staff have been outsourced to ensure it only concentrates on operations that are in line with its core competencies. The process involves a lot of ramifications that will affect the company’s human resource thus BPM will offer change management to deal with any challenges that will come up as a result of implementing the new operational structure in the company (Khan, 2004). That notwithstanding, business process management requires a great deal of communication among the various levels of the organisation as well as marketing, training and collaboration to actualise its success. It is not a stand-alone process that is going to be accomplished single headedly coordination between various aspects of the firm has been conducted to ensure the process materialises. For instance, Emirates has its aviation college whereby it trains its staff on all emerging knowledge in the industry. Business process management is primarily founded on information technology; thus the workers need to be well educated on those aspects to ensure they are integrated into BPM process with ease (Brocke and Rosemann, 2014). Change Management and Employees Resistance Issues Business process management brings along significant changes to organisations that will require the human resource to adjust them to fit into the new operational structure of the organisation. In the case of Emirates Airlines changes that accompanied the implementation of business process management were massive to the point; they threatened the existence of employees’ input to the process. A number of the company’s services had been outsourced to external experts in a bid to enhance efficiency at the same time reduce the overall operational cost that the firm incurred. However, a majority of the employees who were interviewed agreed that despite the scale of change that BPM process brought to Emirates Airlines the management was able to come up with a comprehensive management plan that was able to sort all impending issues and brought the situation under control. First the change plan was developed through an in-depth analysis of the potential activities and operations that would be affected by the new program. After that a management plan was devised that sought to address issues that would come up due to changes in organisational structure as well as the overall operations of the firm (Smith and Fingar, 2007). The findings indicated acknowledgement from employees to the management at the airline for efforts it undertook in training and development exercise that was meant to familiarise the employees with the prospective changes that they expected the organisation as well as the equip them with new knowledge that they needed to fit into the new change structure. Line managers who are responsible for the direct supervision of employees were also trained and coached on the changes as it was prudent that if they were not familiarised with the changes chances were that the employees would not implement the changes appropriately since those tasked with managing them are not aware of the new transformations in the organisation (Panagacos, 2012). Organisational changes are always met with resistance that was the response from a number of the respondents. Emirate Airline’s BPM implementation project was no exception as it encountered its share of resistance from the workers. The employees interrogated cited a number of issues as being the reason to why they resisted the changes despite prior notice of the changes being communicated as well as undergoing training on the same. A majority of them cited the fact that they were required to learn some new aspects or rather acquire new knowledge on a certain aspect of their job as the main reason they opted to resist changes. While others feared the fact that despite being trained they would probably not develop new skills that were required by the new organisational framework thus their services might be rendered redundant (Gillot, 2006). The manner in which the organisation’s management effected the changes contributed to the resistance the changes received. The cabin crew members and ground operators were some of the group of employees who resisted changes at Emirates Airlines’ implementation of its business process management plan. Notably, the resistance that was experienced was mainly from the older generation since they are ones who feared learning new concepts. The younger generation embraced the changes since they were ready to be trained and learn new concepts that would enable them to fit into the new system. However, the resistance was not persistent as the company employed efficient communication with its employees coupled with change management strategies that were implemented the situation was put under control (Weske, 2012). The Use of External Experts/Consultants Throughout the implementation of Emirates Airline’s business process management process experts have been used extensively to offer professional services in various areas. The information technology architecture required plenty of experts who could come up with innovative concepts that would fit the requirements of the company as well as provide the desired deliverables. That notwithstanding, a number of operations were outsourced to third parties to enhance efficiency at the same time relieve in-house employees tasks that would derail their efforts to concentrate on the company’s core competencies. The respondents indicated the use of external professionals had an equal share of advantages and disadvantages since in some instances the employees were relieved some duties hence made them concentrate on specific operations thus enhancing the quality of output. While at times the incorporating of consultants would mean, some employees being rendered redundant since they would not be any useful to the company. The practices that Emirates Airline implemented are in accordance with most of the theoretical literature that we were able to access during our secondary research (Khan, 2004). Summary In a nutshell, Emirates Airlines implemented business process management in a bid to enhance its overall efficiency in its operations. However, the process was marred with an equal measure of opportunities and challenges. Business process management implementation needs a comprehensive plan for it to be implemented as expected and also leverage from the benefits that comes along it. Ideally, the company had a number of aspects that it has to accomplish by deploying BPM and indeed some were achieved with the rest being in the process of being attained while the rest did not come out as planned. It is prudent to note that Emirates Airlines is among the few firms that have been able to implement business process management successfully to their operations while leveraging from its advantages. References BPM (conference), & Dayal, U., 2009. Business process management: 7th international conference, BPM 2009, Ulm, Germany, September 8-10, 2009, proceedings. Berlin, Springer. Brocke, J. V., & Rosemann, M., 2014. Handbook on business process management. 1, 1. Brocke, J. V., & Rosemann, M., 2014. Handbook on business process management. 2, 2. Retrieved from Brocke, J. V., Seidel, S., & Recker, J., 2012. Green business process management: towards the sustainable enterprise. Heidelberg, Springer. Burlton, R. T., 2001. Business process management: profiting from process. Indianapolis, Ind, Sams. Bussler, C., & Haller, A., 2006. Business process management workshops BPM 2005 international workshops BPI, BPD, ENEI, BPRM, WSCOBPM, BPS, Nancy, France, and September 5, 2005: revised selected papers. Berlin [etc.], Springer. Dumas, M., 2013. Fundamentals of business process management. Berlin, Springer. Emirates Airlines 2015. Available at: http://www.emirates.com/english/flying/flying_with_emirates.aspx [Accessed on 2 May 2015] Franz, P., & Kirchmer, M., 2012. Value-driven business process management the value-switch for lasting competitive advantage. New York, McGraw-Hill. Gillot, J.-N., 2006. The complete guide to business process management: business process transformation or a way of aligning the strategic objectives of the company and the information system through the process. [S.l.], Jean-Noel Gillot. Khan, R. N., 2004. Business process management: a practical guide. Tampa, Fla, Meghan-Kiffer Press. Panagacos, T., 2012. The Ultimate guide to business process management. USA, [Place of publication not identified]. Plenkiewicz, P., 2010. The executive guide to business process management: how to maximize lean and six sigma synergy and see your bottom line explode. Bloomington, IN, iUniverse. Smith, H., & Fingar, P., 2007. Business process management: the third wave. Tampa, Fla, Meghan-Kiffer Press. Verma, N., 2009. Business process management: profiting from process. Delhi, Global India Pub. Weske, M., 2012. Business process management concepts, languages, architectures. Berlin, Springer. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/id/10650313. [Accessed on 2 May 2015] Appendices Questionnaire Section 1 1. What do you understand by business process management (BPM)? 2. How has Emirates Airlines implemented business process management? 3. What are some of the benefits of BPM to Emirates Airlines with regard to its operations? 4. What are the critical success factors that Emirates Airlines has accrued from the implementation of BPM? 5. To what extent can BPM be utilized to trace the performance of a business? Section 2 6. Has any form of job redesign or rather organizational structure redesign implemented as a result of BPM? 7. How did the organization handle change management after the implementation of BPM? 8. Did the employees of Emirates Airline resist changes occasioned by implementation of business process management? 9. To what extent has Emirates Airlines incorporated experts or consultants in its operations? Read More