TQM in hotel engineering department.docx

8/11/2019 TQM in hotel engineering department.docx

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Total Quality Management (TQM) in Hospitality Industry:

A study of the application of TQM in a hotel's engineering department and

its effects on hotel performance

By

Mark Chan

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to

The University of Liverpool

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

MASTER OF Project Management

2011


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A Dissertation

entitled


A study of the application of TQM in a hotel's engineering department and

its effects on hotel performance

By

Mark Chan

We hereby certify that this Dissertation submitted by Mark Chan conforms to acceptable

standards, and as such is fully adequate in scope and quality. It is therefore approved as

the fulfillment of the Dissertation requirements for the degree of Master of Project

Management.

Approved:

Dissertation Advisor Date

The University of Liverpool

2011


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CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

I hereby certify that this paper constitutes my own product, that where the

language of others is set forth, quotation marks so indicate, and that appropriate

credit is given where I have used the language, ideas, expressions or writings

of another.

Signed

Mark Chan


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ABSTRACT


A study of the application of TQM in a hotel's engineering department

and its effects on hotel performance

by

Mark Chan

Total Quality Management (TQM) methodology can help organizations to achieve business

excellence. This methodology is also useful for the hospitality industry; almost all hotels focus

on quality management to improve their business by enhancing customer satisfaction,

competitive advantage and retaining guest loyalty. TQM is teamwork; every functional

department must work cohesively together and support each other in order to achieve business

excellence. Different departments in a hotel have different roles in delivering the service to hotel

guests. This dissertation is aimed to find out how the Engineering Department, a back-of-house

department in a hotel, supports the hotel goal of quality management together with the factors

and practices that could impact the department both positively and negatively to achieve the

quality.


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In addition to the literary review, which reviewed existing knowledge, a qualitative approach

was adopted for this research to collect primary data; structured interviews were conducted in

Hong Kong and Beijing in China. Fourteen hotel engineers, with at least 5 years working

experience in 5-star chain hotels, were interviewed.

This research revealed that the major role of the engineering department is to ensure the efficient

operation of all physical plants including electrical, mechanical, fire, hygiene and safety systems

as well as production equipment; it plays a key role in providing a comfortable and safe

environment for occupants including guests and staff. Comfort and safety are the essential

factors in the decision making when people select hotels; therefore, the effectiveness ofengineering department will affect the overall performance of the hotel. Quality tools are

essential for the control, management, measurement and analysis of engineering tasks; they are

important in maintaining the efficiency and improving the performance of the department. The

top five critical success factors include: support from senior management, an effective team,

leadership and management skills, communication, and clear quality requirements, whereas the

top three barriers are: inadequate support from senior management, unfair work environment and

bureaucratic policy traditional financial practice.

In conclusion, the engineering department is one of the major internal service providers in a

hotel; it supports other departments to complete the final product delivered to hotel guests.


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Table of Contents

Table of Tables ............................................................................................................................... 9

Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 10

Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................. 11 1.1 Background ..................................................................................................................... 11

1.2 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 12

1.3 Aims and Objective......................................................................................................... 13

1.4 Structure of the Dissertation ........................................................................................... 14

1.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 15

Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 16

2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 16

2.2

Role of the Engineering Department .............................................................................. 17

2.3 The link between Engineering and the hotel quality performance ................................. 22

2.4 Quality methodology and tools ....................................................................................... 28

2.5 Performance measurement .............................................................................................. 31

2.6 Critical success factors .................................................................................................... 34

2.7 Negative factors .............................................................................................................. 36

2.8 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 38

Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................................... 39

3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 39

3.2 Research Design and Approach ...................................................................................... 39

3.3 Objectives of the Research .............................................................................................. 40

3.4 Justification for using Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches ...................................... 40

3.5 Data Collection Methods ................................................................................................ 41

3.6 Interview design .............................................................................................................. 42

3.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 43

Chapter 4: Results and Analysis ................................................................................................... 44

4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 44

4.2 Interviewees .................................................................................................................... 44

4.3 Key findings .................................................................................................................... 44

4.4 Key concepts of the study ............................................................................................... 67

Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendation ................................................................................ 70

5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 70

5.2 Recommendations for hotel engineers and general managers ........................................ 70


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5.3 Recommendations for future research ............................................................................ 75

5.4 Summary and Concluding Remarks ............................................................................... 76

References: .................................................................................................................................... 77

Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 81

Appendix A : Declaration of interviewee ................................................................................. 81 Appendix B : Interview Questions ............................................................................................ 82

Appendix C: Interviewee information ...................................................................................... 85


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Table of Tables

Table 2.1 Types of asset management. 17Table 2.2 Performance measurement framework 33

Table 4.1 Links of engineering roles to TQM performance 52Table 4.2 Common quality tools used by engineering department of hotels.. 54Table 4.3 Computer software for hotel engineering department. 55Table 4.4 Performance Measurement.. 58Table 4.5 Critical success factor..... 60Table 4.6 Common barriers. 63


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Table of Figures

Figure 2.1 Hotel accommodation package.. 15Figure 2.2 Typical hotel organization chart.... 26Figure 4.1 Electricity consumption per room- night 58Figure 4.2 Required competency of hotel engineer. 68


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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background

In todays highly competitive business environment, a companys capability to sustain its

competitive advantage is crucial for the continuity of the business (Calingo, 1996).

Quality is the most important factor for sustaining the competitive advantage. It is the

measurement of how well a company can meet or exceed its customers requirement s and

expectations (Oakland, 2003).

Competition is extremely high in a free market. Mitchell (n.d.) supports that customer

satisfaction is essential in a free market due to the following reasons:-

The products or services from the service providers are similar;

Customers within the market are price-sensitive;

Customers have stronger bargaining power as the cost to switch to another service is

considered as low.

The hospitality industry has strong market competition; therefore, customer satisfaction and

retaining loyalty will be crucial for a hotels success.

The Total Quality Management (TQM) methodology can help organizations to achieve business

excellence by improving customer satisfaction (both internal and external), cost effectiveness

and competitive advantage (SME Toolkit, 2011). This methodology is useful for the hospitality

industry. In a hotel, any quality problem will induce guest complaints; the impact is direct and

immediate without any time delay. Also, a hotel serves human beings and no two people are

alike. People have different preferences and requirements which makes it more difficult to

control quality in a hotel.


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For successful TQM practice, organizations have to integrate the quality management into the

business strategy and to align the goals both horizontally and vertically throughout the various

levels within the organization. In a typical hotel, there are three vertical levels - the senior

management level, the business level (middle management) and the functional level (shop floor).

Horizontally, there are departments front office, food and beverage (F&B), housekeeping, sales

and marketing, human resources, accounting, engineering and culinary.

Nowadays, almost all hotels focus on quality management to improve their business. Oakland

(2003) emphasizes that TQM is about teamwork; every functional department must work

cohesively together and support each other in order to achieve business excellence. Theeffectiveness of teamwork determines the success of TQM in each hotel; this is why some hotels

have better performance than others.

However, the focus of the most recent research on TQM in the hospitality industry is only on the

service from front-line departments such as front office and F&B (Saunders et al, 1992;

Harrington & Keating ,2006); they ignore the efforts from back-of-house departments.

1.2 Research Questions

Although technicians and engineers in a hotel seldom contact hotel guests directly, it does not

mean they are excluded from providing quality service. The engineering department, a back-of-

house department, ensures the efficient operation of all physical plants and all fire and safety

systems; its role appears to be crucial in providing a comfortable and safe environment for guests

such as temperature control, lighting and air quality, and monitoring fire prevention.


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Also, engineering department supports the front-line staff by ensuring the proper operations of

hotel production equipment; so that front line department can provide its services to hotel guests

on time. Oakland (2003) points out that teamwork is one of the important success factors; a

smooth work process will require multiple departments working together and supporting each

other.

TQM can improve the performance of the Engineering Department in a hotel, and the

department contributes its improvements to the overall hotel performance. The main objective of

this research is to discover the factors that affect the engineering department in hotels to achieve

the quality goals.In this regard, the dissertation intends to find answers to the following questions

How does the engineering department in hotels support the goals of quality management?

What are the most critical factors that will impact the engineering department both

positively and negatively to achieve the quality?

What kind of quality tools and techniques can be used to improve the efficiency of

engineering departments in hotels?

How do hotels measure the performance of the engineering department?

1.3 Aims and Objective

Different departments in a hotel have different roles in delivering the service to hotel guests.

Also, front-of house and back-of-house departments play different roles in the quality chain.

The engineering department, a back-of-house department, plays a key role in ensuring the

efficient operations of all physical plants including fire, hygiene and safety systems; it also


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maintains normal operation of production equipment such as kitchen food production equipment,

laundry machinery, and cooler and freezers. They are important in maintaining the service

standards. Therefore, its effectiveness will affect the overall performance of the hotel.

This dissertation intends to find out the roles and responsibilities of the engineering department

in hotels, and how the department supports the overall hotel quality performance. The findings

will provide useful information for hotel technical professionals and hotel general managers to

further improve their efficiency and effectiveness in quality management. Also, this knowledge

can be shared within other hotel engineers as best practices reference and for benchmarking

performance.

1.4 Structure of the Dissertation

This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapters are arranged so that readers can understand

the objective of the research and how the research is developed.

Chapter one is the introductory chapter, it provides the general information of TQM and TQM

in the hospitality industry. It also explains why the author is interested in the research topic;

therefore, it outlines the research questions as well as the aims and objectives of this dissertation.

Chapter two deals with the review of related literature; it is to study the published work that

other researchers have done in order to find the knowledge related to the research questions. The

purpose is to define the gap of knowledge.

Chapter three describes the research method. This chapter presents the research design of this

dissertation which includes the justification of the research methods, objective and the design for

the data collection.


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Chapter four is the result and analysis. This chapter analyzes the data and provides the summary

of the research result. The main objective is to combine the existing knowledge with new

findings to form new knowledge.

Chapter five is the conclusion and recommendations. This chapter concludes the new knowledge

and its benefits. This chapter also recommends the benefits to hotel engineers and general

managers. For the shortages in the research, recommendations are included for future

investigations.

1.5 Conclusion

In summary, this dissertation is to find out the relationship between the engineering department

in a hotel and Total Quality Management (TQM). Four research questions were developed to

better understand this relationship. Throughout the five chapters, these questions are

investigated as conclusions and recommendations are drawn.


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Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Quality management is an approach that enables a company to gain market share and price

advantage. This is a company-wide effort; teamwork and commitment from all staff cannot be

under-emphasized (Oakland, 2003).

Traditionall y, people believe that hotel engineers role s are just to keep the machinery

running, such as boilers, air conditioners, elevatorsetc; their job is to repair the furniture

and ensure the supply of water, air-conditioning and lighting for hotel guests (Rutherford,

1987). However, this impression is not realistically true in todays hospitality industry.

Rutherford (1987) points out that the role of hotel engineers has been changed from

traditional technical tasks to more embracement of management oriented functions. Their

effort to support the organizational strategy and achieve hotel TQM goals is also essential.

To identify the gap of the knowledge for this topic, it is necessary to conduct a literature

review (White, 2002).

This chapter is to review the existing knowledge about the engineering department of hotels;

the study includes:-

The role of an engineering department in a hotel;

The link between the engineering department and the hotel quality performance;

Success critical factors supporting performance;

Negative factors impacting performance;

Quality tools for hotel engineers;

Performance measurement for the engineering department.


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infrastructure of an organization in order to create anenvironment that strongly supports the primary objectives ofthat organization (Barett, 2000).

Durodola & Oloyede (2011), in their research of hotels in Nigeria, found out that all five-star

hotels adopt facility management which they believe is the most effective and the latest style

of hotel assets management.

Facilities management includes the following responsibilities (Lewis, 1999 ; Cotts, 1998):

Preventive maintenance for building physical plants;

Work requests handling;

Enforcement of fire and life safety policies;

Energy conservation;

Control of maintenance expenses;

Promotion of community social responsibility (CSR);

Project management.

Building physical assets include:-

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning plants;

Electrical distribution;

Plumbing and drainage;

Vertical transportation;

Safety and surveillance systems;

Building structure;

Furniture and fixtures.

In addition to the physical assets, hotels also consist of the following production equipment:-


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Kitchen equipment;

Laundry equipment;

Coolers and freezers.

.

Preventive maintenance Physical assets are subject to wear and tear; proper maintenance is

required to ensure the efficient operation of these assets. This includes regular inspection,

lubrication, adjustment, calibration, minor repair, replacement and cleaning. The objective is to

minimize the deterioration and prevent unscheduled machinery breakdown; proper maintenance

can extend the life span of the assets (Cotts, 1998; Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2001).The study by Kuo, Chiang & Chiang (2008) for the air quality of hotels in Taiwan proved that

proper operation of air-conditioning system provides a comfortable air temperature and air

quality for hotel guests. Proper maintenance for the air-conditioning plant ensures the normal

provision of cooling in summer and heating in winter; inadequate maintenance would affect the

air quality. The study indicated that poor indoor air quality would affect the health of tourists; for

example, insufficient circulation of fresh air could cause air-bone diseases. Chan, Lee & Burnett,

(2001) also confirmed that efficient maintenance of building systems is essential in order to

provide a healthy and comfortable environment for hotel guests. For example, Lewis (1999)

points out that preventive maintenance is to provide proper lighting, good air quality, clean water

supply and sound vertical transportation for the building occupants. This service requires

professional and technical knowledge from the hotel engineer.

Work request handling No matter how well a hotel can perform its regular maintenance,

there are still some minor problems. For example, noise from fan coil units, requests for

temperature adjustments due to personal preferences, unexpected water pipe leakageetc.


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These guest requests or complaints would impact the customer satisfaction negatively; a quick

response to these work requests is an effective recovery action for these deficiencies (Chan, Lee

& Burnett, 2001).

Calingo (1996) advises that guest complaints are a useful source for analyzing the quality

deficiency. How quickly the organization could improve determines its success in meeting the

customers satisfaction.

Life and safety policies - Hotels have high occupancy loads; most occupants hotel guests, are

not familiar with the building. During an emergency situation such as a fire or blackout, ensuring

the safety of these people becomes very difficult. Fire Safety Engineering (2006) points out thateven with comprehensive safety codes, fires still cause death and injuries in hotels; this is mainly

due to unprofessional crisis management. Knowledge in maintaining an effective emergency

plan is essential. Hotel engineers are the key people to ensure the effectiveness of this plan; this

includes not only the normal maintenance of firefighting equipment, but also the training of all

staff in fire drill and evacuation practice.

Crowell, C. (2009) further elaborates the importance that having a well thought out emergency

action plan and a staff that knows how to execute it is just as important as all of the building

codes . Guests would assume that staff in the hotel is well trained and prepared to assist guests in

case of emergencies.

Therefore, conducting fire drills and emergency evacuations is one of the important safety

practices in hotels; all the staff in the building is expected to be well trained and capable of

guiding guests to leave the hotel building in the case of an emergency. The objective is to avoid

fatal injuries during the outbreak of incidents and accidents.


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Energy conservation Promoting energy conservation is not only inclusive in the hospitality

industry; it is a world- wide green effort. Controlling the utilities in a building such as

electricity, gas, steam, fuel oil and water requires technical knowledge; hotel engineers are the

experts to promote this awareness. Reducing the energy consumption or minimizing the wastage

could reduce environmental pollution; it can also save on utility expenses (Chan, 2007).

Rutherford (1987), in his study of the responsibilities of hotel chief engineers, pointed out that

energy conservation and management came in second in the list of his study results.

Control of expenses - Another function of the engineering department is the control of

maintenance expenses. Hotel engineers need to be sensitive in controlling the spending ofexpenses in order to meet the financial budgets (Cotts, 1998). Chan (2007) points out that

maintenance cost is as high as 8-12 %; while the utility cost is as high as 5-12% of the total hotel

expenses. Engineering is to support the profit margin by controlling the expenses of utilities by

implementing energy conservation programs, and the outsource expenses by selecting competent

contractors. Chan (2007) also suggested that an effectively planned maintenance framework

could minimize the cost, as it prevents the breakdown of equipment which could cause an

interruption in business. Planned maintenance allows for the minimization of emergency repair

and the loss of production capacity.

Community social responsibility (CSR) - Chan & Ho (2006) advise that Green practice, such

as ISO14001 accreditation, promotes the brand image; Samuel (2008) also urges hotel engineers

to go green as this is the new way of doing business. Most CSR activities involve technical

knowledge; e.g. environmental protection, reducing of CO2 emission, use of energy efficient

products, elimination of contaminated substances and education for staff for the awareness.

Engineers play a significant role in a hotel to drive for participation. Hawkins (2009) emphasizes


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that hospitality operators must be able to prove that their sustainable business practices make a

difference in order to win consumers for whom CSR matters.

Project management Hotel areas need to be refurbished at regular interval in order to

maintain the contemporary (Sohail et al, 2007). For example, guest rooms are renovated once

every five to seven years; typical score of work includes replacement of furniture and fixtures,

redecoration and some minor modifications (Langdon, D & Everest, 2002). Hotel engineers

need to plan and coordinate these projects. Wysocki (2009) advises that the goal of project

management is to complete the project within the budgeted timeframe and cost as per the

determined quality requirements.

2.3 The link between Engineering and the hotel quality performance

Although hotel technicians and engineers are seldom in contact with hotel guests directly, it does

not mean that they are excluded from contributing to the overall hotel quality performance.

Engineers role and responsibilities are important to maintain a comfortable and safe

environment for hotel guests, controlling the expenses to meet the financial budget and to

promote the hotel image. In other words, engineers need to meet th e stakeholders needs.

Stakeholders include hotel guests, internal departments, and property owners.

Hotel guests - Cotts (1998) suggests that effective maintenance of facilities is important in

supporting the business. Each business has a philosophy about the facility; facility management

is part of the business function. Therefore, hotel engineers/facility managers are also business

managers. They need to align the departmental goals with the hotel business goals.


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Sohail at el (2007), in their research for the determinants of service quality in Malaysian hotels,

point out that people consider factors like comfort, cleanliness and safety in selecting hotels.

Quality in services and facilities are equally important for sustainable competitive advantage.

Engineering department is responsible for the facility management. Therefore, its effectiveness

would affect the overall performance of the hotel. For example, they pointed out that outdated

and worn out furnishings could de-value the appearance of the hotel.

Durodola & Oloyede (2011) have conducted a research on 57 hotels in Nigeria regarding the

importance of asset management. They concluded that the goal of facility management is to

support the core business; an effectively planned maintenance program to upkeep the assets isone of the important ways for improving hotel business. Effective preventive maintenance

enables the physical plants to provide a comfortable and safe environment; proper upkeep of

fixtures and furniture provides a cozy and warm atmosphere.

Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) have conducted a study of maintenance performance for hotels in

Hong Kong. They concluded that proper maintenance of physical assets is important to provide a

healthy and comfortable atmosphere for hotel guests. The working condition of the building

service systems have a direct and significant effect on the customers impression of the hotel; for

example, improper air temperature from air-conditioning, leaking from ceiling water pipes and

disturbance from improper control of construction noise could disturb guests and cause guest

dissatisfaction.

Gruman, Chhinzer,& Smith, (2011) support that handling disasters in the hospitality industry is

difficult due to the high volume of occupants in the building; hotels should be well prepared for

possible crisis and emergencies. Their study showed that experience and knowledge could


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enhance crisis readiness. Hofmann (2005) pointed out that a comprehensive crisis management

policy could promote the brand image of the hotel.

Wai (in Okoroh, Jones and llozor, 2003) in his study of facility management and hotel

renovation in Hong Kong suggested that effective facility management strategies could be

applied in renovation projects in order to minimize the disturbances to hotel guests. Chan (2007)

also suggests that engineering staff are required to work in shift, so that most repair work could

be arranged in the day time when most guests are out of the hotel. Middle and night shift

technicians are mainly for emergency repair. This arrangement is mainly to minimize the

disturbances to hotel guests.

Okoroh, Jones and llozor (2003), in their study of the benefits of facilities management in the

hospitality industry, suggested a model of hotel accommodation package to satisfy customer

needs. Figure 2.1 shows the details of the model. The model indicates that hotel guests look for

feeling of well-being, high standard of hygiene, cleanliness, health and safety, appropriate

lighting and air quality, protection from environmental hazards, hot food and beverage and cozy

fixtures and furniture. It suggests that while hotels focus on tangible service such as room

check-in, food service; hoteliers should also realize that customer satisfaction must be balanced

with intangible services such as security, a feeling of well beingetc.


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Figure 2.1 Hotel accommodation package (Okoroh, Jones and llozor, 2003)

In view of above, the engineering department plays a key role in maintaining a comfortable,

healthy and safe environment for hotel external guests through effective facility management;

this includes sufficient lighting, good air quality, and a quiet and warm environment with a well-

prepared safety policy. These factors contribute directly to the customer satisfaction.

Property Owners Property owners focus on investment returns. A proper maintenance

program maintains a good physical condition of the property; it can extend the life span of the

assets. Therefore, proper maintenance will increase the investment return for the property owner

(Durodola & Oloyede, 2011). The property owner is one of the important customers. His

satisfaction could ensure the employment of the hotel management team.


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Internal customers - Most processes in a hotel involve multiple departments. To be successful

in practicing TQM, organizations have to integrate the quality management into the business

strategy and to align the goals horizontally and vertically throughout the various levels within the

organization (Oakland, 2003). In a typical hotel, there are three levels vertically - the senior

management level, the business level (middle management) and the functional level (shop floor).

The senior management level includes owner and his representations and the hotel general

manager. The middle management is the department head such as front office manager,

accountant, chief engineeretc, and the shop floor staff is rank and file employees such as

receptionists, waiters and techniciansetc. Horizontally, there are departments front office,food and beverage (F&B), housekeeping, sales and marketing, human resources, accounting,

engineering and culinary. Figure 2.2 shows a typical hotel organization chart.

Figure 2.2 Typical hotel organization chart (Baker, Bradley & Huyton in Fleseriu & Fleseriu,

2010)


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TQM is to satisfy the customers needs; internally, this can be achieved successfully by

executing every process and activity carefully from the first supplier to the last customer; this is

the quality chain. Managing quality requires effort at all level s of the organization and,

importantly, at all steps in the quality chain (Oakland, 2003). Meeting the requirement of the

internal customers in the quality chain is critical in delivering the final product to the final

external customer in a hotel.

Hotel engineers need to support the hotel accountants in achieving the financial goal. Achieving

the financial goals is one of the important tasks for managers as a balanced scorecard is still a

popular performance measurement (Oakland, 2003). For hotel engineers, controlling energy andmaintenance costs needs proper planning. Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) points out that in

estimating the energy cost, the outdoor weather condition, guestroom occupancy rate and food

covers should be taken into consideration as they will affect the energy consumption. Chan

(2007) also advises that energy consumption can be reduced by implementing energy

conservation programs; e.g. replacing old equipment with new energy efficient equipment and

machinery, educating staff to minimize energy wastage such as turning off the lighting and air-

conditioning when the office is not occupied.

Planning of cost control is a bottom-up process which requires front line operator involvement

(Campbell, 1995). Input from engineering staff for proper spending of expenses will increase the

effectiveness of engineering operations. Research by Chan (2007) confirmed that health and

safety, energy consumption and guest expectation have been the major influential factors for

maintenance decision making in hotels in Hong Kong.


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2.4 Quality methodology and tools

To drive quality improvement, use of proper methodologies such as quality frameworks and

tools is necessary as they can assist the organization to effectively manage quality (Oakland,

2003).

Quality framework - A quality framework can provide a high-level guideline to assist a

company to manage quality. It works as a road-map to guide the employees (Oakland 2003).

Oakland (2003, p21) suggested a TQM framework with four Ps ( planning, people, process and

performance) and 3Cs ( culture, communication and commitment). He suggests that planning,

people and process are the key factors in the quality framework to deliver performance (4 Ps);

while culture, communication and commitment (3Cs) support and link the 4Ps to produce the

result. Therefore, competent people, clear processes, comprehensive plans, and effective tools

are essential for managing quality.

EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) is a popular quality framework for

business excellence in Europe; it guides organizations to self assess nine key areas of the

business. The first five aspects are called enablers; they are: leadership, people, policy and

strategy, partnership and resources, and result. Another four areas are referred as result; they are:

people results, customer results, society results and key performance results. The main advantage

of the framework is that it drives for the continuous improvement (EFQM, 2003). Home and

Personal Care-Europe (HPCE) has adopted EFQM quality framework for quality improvement.

The successful deployment of the framework changed the culture of the company, improved the

efficiency of the workforce and increased the business revenue and profit by 20% (Oakland,

2003).


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International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (2011) indicates that ISO is a standard

which is recognized internationally. This framework provides a set of standardized

requirements for a quality management system. This accredited certification needs to be

certified by external auditor. Currently three types of framework are available; they are ISO

14001(environmental management system), ISO18001 (workplace safety management

system) and ISO 9001(quality management system). The organization claims that these

certifications can increase the brand image of the company.

Chan & Ho (2006) advised, in their research about the environment management systems in

hotels, that most hotels have had some sort of in-house environment conservation programswith different degrees of intensity; however, proper tools such as ISO 14001 would provide a

more effective guideline.

Interestingly, Harrington & Keating (2006) have studied hotels in Ireland. They found out that

only 28.2 percent of Irish hotels had adopted a formal quality management system, although

most Irish hoteliers indicated that they were familiar with quality certification. However, the

research did not provide the reasons for this phenomenon.

Quality Tools

Flowchart - Reding, Ratiiff & Fullmer (1998) believe that flow charting is one of the useful

quality tools. Process mapping and flow charting allow a proper documentation of work

processes and provide a clear picture of business process, which allows better understanding of

business processes and enables easy identification of inefficiencies and problem solving.

Standardised operating procedures Harrington & Keating (2006) state that standardised

operating procedures is one of the important tools to maintain product consistency. Their

research indicated that 77.7% of hotels in Ireland had documented operation policy and


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Karatasou, Geros & Santamouris (2008) suggested that integrating the existing building

system with emerging IT technology could develop a new internet based energy and

environment services. This allows remote control and monitoring of cooling equipment.

Energy for cooling is the biggest energy consumption for buildings; this technology facilitates

the monitoring and analysis in order to control and reduce the energy consumption.

Strategy deployment Turing strategy into action is a bottom-up process which requires front

line operator involvement, shop floor staff are the owners of each work processes (Campbell,

1995). This is in line with the suggestion from Oakland (2003) that bottom-up approach iseffective in executing strategies while a top-down approach is more effective in the policy

deployment as instructions are always from the top. Bottom- up process requires motivation so

that operations staff will suggest creative and innovative solutions for the implementation of

processes.

Since hotel engineers have to operate electrical and mechanical systems in the hotel to ensure the

guest comfort and safety; it will be useful to find out how the quality tools can assist hotel

engineers in their operation and work processes.

2.5 Performance measurement

Performance measurement is important to be able to indicate the effectiveness of the quality

strategy implemented. This is a reiterate process; continuous monitoring allows organization to

check if the standards of quality are being met and identify problems for rectification (Oakland,

2003)


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People have been arguing that performance is difficult to measure in the service industry. This is

due to the fact that people are not aware that service is also a product (Deming in Saunders et al,

1992). Also, service is delivered at the time it is produced; any performance measurement taken

will be too late to avoid an error when in contact with the customer. Furthermore, personal

preference is different from person to person; hotels have to tailor the service for different

individuals. This makes the measurement criteria difficult to define (Saunders et al, 1992).

However, a study from Saunders et al (1992) pointed out that service quality is the balance

between the expectations that the customer had and their perception of the service received. It is

possible, by focusing on the processes and identifying appropriate quality measures, to obtaindata to measure the performance in the hospitality industry.

Zimmerman & Enell (in Saunders et al, 1992) suggested four categories to measure service

performance: timeliness, integrity, predictability, customer satisfaction. Timeliness refers to the

response time for the guest request. Integrity refers to the completeness of the service.

Predictability refers to the consistency of the service, and customer satisfaction refers to the

appreciation of the service from the customer.

Van Schalkwyk (1998) suggests that organizations should develop their own unique set of key

indicators for measuring their products. The performance measurement should strongly focus on

the customer satisfaction. The measurement result should be available freely at all levels for the

process owners who need to maintain and improve the quality; this is to encourage employee

employment. This information is a good learning opportunity for employees to perform

continuous improvement with the application of benchmarking.

Engineering department is responsible for maintaining a comfortable and safe environment for

hotel guests; the internal audit measures the effectiveness of facility management. The major


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objective of preventive maintenance is to minimize machinery breakdown; Chan, Lee & Burnett

(2001) introduce a method, urgent repair request index (URI), to measure the machine

breakdown.

URI = UR/ (UR + GR)

where UR is the number of urgent repair requests arising from guests and in-house staff, and GR

is the number of normal request for repair of building facilities. The equation states that the

fewer the urgent requests from guests, the lower the URI. This indicates high preventive

maintenance efficiency.

The second priority of the engineering department is to control the utility cost. For facilitymanagement, it is common to measure the energy efficiency index. This is the annual equivalent

energy consumption normalized over the gloss floor areas. The research by Chan, Lee & Burnett

(2001) shows that the average energy efficiency index for hotels in Hong Kong is 457kWh/M2.

Oakland, (2003) also proposed a performance measurement framework. He believes that

performance measurement, to be effective, should focus on 4 levels as shown in table 2.2.

Table 2.2 Performance measurement framework (Oakland, 2003)

Level Description MeasurementLevel 1 Strategy development and goal

deployment;Key performance outcomes and targets

Level 2 Process management Process performance measuresLevel 3 Individual performance

measurementPerformance appraisal

Level 4 Review performance Self Assessment, surveys, benchmarking etc.


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2.6 Critical success factors

Oakland (2003), in his TQM model, emphasizes the importance of competent people, clear

processes, comprehensive plans, and effective tools. He believes that these factors are the

components forming the TQM framework.

Yang (2006) studied and compared the practices for quality management for different service

industries in Taiwan, namely hospitals, hotels, insurance companies, banks, department stores

and airlines. The study revealed that hotels devoted stronger attention on the following practices:

top management support, market segment and positioning, customer focus, design service

process, training, standardize policy and procedures, leadership, customer satisfaction and

measure, internal customer measure, performance audit and continuous improvement. The study

also pointed out that employee motivation, input control, and empowerment were insufficient in

the hospitality industry.

Sila and Ebrahipour (2003) identified 76 validated TQM success factors and their impacts; the

top twenty factors are: top management commitment, leadership, customer focus, information

and analysis, training, supplier management, strategic planning, employee involvement, human

resource management, process, management, teamwork, product and service design, process

control, benchmarking, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, quality assurance,

social responsibility, and employee satisfaction. These factors could be considered as the most

universally applied factors.

Most international chain hotels believe that top management commitment is important. This is

why most hotel groups provide a clear mission statement as a business direction. For example,

Shangri- La Hotels mission is To be the first choice for guests and colleagues, shareholders and

business partners (Shangri-La.com, 2011).


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Oakland (2003, p58) suggests that the top-down approach is more effective for new policy

deployment as instructions are always from the top. However, bottom-up approach is more

effective as ideas for how to implement the policy should be encouraged in the departmental and

shop-floor level. This opinion is supported by Wheeler and Sillanpaa (in Tantawy & Tanner,

2001) that top-down control and command should be balanced with bottom-up spirit for

promoting continuous improvement. Since engineering is a technical department, knowledge of

building systems is necessary to ensure the safe operation of the facility. Therefore, engineering

staff should poses the required competence and commitment together with passion for the work

(Trkman, 2010)

Tantawy & Tanner (2001) recommends factors for implementing business excellence model, i.e.

EFQM. The factors are proper leadership style in the different stage of the implementation; clear

objective of change leading to comfortable change; favorable company cult ure; use of system

thinking for diagnosis; proper method of prioritization; and the approach for managing the

change.

Calingo (1996) points out that continuous improvement is a must in TQM. Instead of following

common quality norms, organizations should consider matching or exceeding competitors

quality. Oakland (2003) recommends that the E-P-D-C-A (evaluate, plan, do, check and amend)

is an effective model for continuous improvement.

Chan (2007) also suggests another two factors for increasing the efficiency of the engineering

department. Traditionally, technicians are of mono-skill; e.g. electrician with electrical trade

qualifications, carpenters with woodwork knowledgeetc. Promotion of having technicians with

multiple skills in the hotel engineering department could improve the overall quality and reduce

labor costs. Another recommendation is hiring specialized contractors for equipment with high


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Harrington & Keating (2006) also carried out a study on quality management initiatives in

Irish Hotels. They found out that one of the barriers for the success of quality management

has been the ingrained attitude of staff. They reported that over 25.5 % of respondents stated

that staff did not pay attention to quality requirements; and 23 % respondents reflected the

staff s lack of enthusiasm. Wong (2007) believes that staff behavior is influenced by both

internal and external factors; for example, Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of human needs

model suggests that behavior is affected by factors within an individual. Herzbergs dual

factor suggests that employment facto rs could also influences staff behavior; this is further

supported by Maroudas, Kyriakidou & Vacharis (2008), in their study of employeesmotivation in hotel industry, that human resources polices, practices and provision of

incentives are important for the creation of a workplace environment which ultimately affects

staff behaviors. Carbone (in Harrington & Keating, 2006) points out another reason of TQM

failures is that organization have focused on the production improvement, they have neglected

the importance of empowerment in the service industry.

In addition, Andy Helmore, director of engineering at the Four Seasons Hampshire, pointed

out that one of the difficulties in the hotel is that Everyone who stays here wants to

experience a quality product, but no one wants to be bothered by maintenance work". For the

proper preventive maintenance, machines have to be scheduled and suspended for service and

overhaul. For example, elevators have to be put out of service during the oiling or change of

cables. Sometime, even the general manager does not like to see the suspension of the service.

Looking for a suitable time for the suspension of different systems for overhaul has been one

of the challenges for hotel engineers. This kind of problem may not happen in other types of

buildings such as office towers (Janet, 2010).


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Finding out of these barriers could help the engineering department to pay close attention to

these barriers; so that the department can improve its quality management performance.

2.8

Summary Chapter 2 presented a literature review on the role and responsibilities of hotel engineers in

supporting the hotel to achieve customer satisfaction. It also reviews the existing knowledge in

measuring the performance of a hotel engineering department and the factors affecting the

performance of the department both positively and negatively.

The engineering department is the key department in a hotel to maintain the physical plants,

safety systems and production equipment; in return, it provides a comfortable and safe

environment for guests in a hotel. Engineering department also need to support other

departments (internal customers), so that these departments can achieve their business goals.

Except few fragmented research studying the performance of maintenance such as research by

Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001); no study was prevalent on how the hotel engineering department

links its effort to the hotel TQM. This study focus on how engineering department, a back-of-

house department, contributes its effort to support the overall hotel performance. The next

section - Chapter 3, presents the methodology employed in this study for the research.


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Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This chapter presents steps of how the research was carried out. This chapter includes the

following sections: the research design and approach, objectives of the research, justification for

the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches, data collection method, interview design and

conclusion.

3.2 Research Design and Approach

A qualitative approach was adopted for this research; structured interviews were conducted to

collect data in response to the research questions.

The result of the analysis is presented by inductive (descriptive) method; knowledge from the

interviewer, interviewees and previously researched results was incorporated into the report.

The author selected two qualified hotel engineers to pilot test the questionnaire, the purpose was

to:

Check if each question could measure the desired objective;

Check for any misunderstanding of the questions;

Check if interviewees felt comfortable answering the questions;

Measure the time that was required for the interview.


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Therefore, this approach is suitable for business management subjects; e.g. exploring behavior

and business practices (McGuigan, 2011).

However, McGuigan (2011) warns that this approach is more subjective as it could have been

influenced by the personal opinions of the interviewer and the interviewees, and their opinions

could have been biased. The interviewer has to properly plan the interview and ensure that the

feedback from interviewees were justifiable.

In consideration of the nature of this dissertation and the analysis of both research approaches;

the qualitative approach was a suitable choice for this dissertation.

3.5 Data Collection Methods

Fourteen (14) hotel engineers were interviewed either in groups, individually, or by telephone/e-

mail in Beijing and Hong Kong of China. Engineers were selected from international brand 5-

star chain hotels in China; they all had worked / have been working as a hotel chief

engineer/director of engineering for at least 5 years and have worked in different cities in China.

Participation was on a voluntary basis, and the interviewing time was approximately two hours.

Participants offered primary data from their own experiences; they were not representing any

particular hotel, therefore, no consent from any organizations was required; this arrangement was

to encourage interviewees to express their opinions freely without concern for specific

organizational restrictions regarding the release of organization information. Interviewees were

asked to sign a declaration form; the form is shown in Appendix A.

The advantage of using interviews was to minimize and clear any misunderstandings of the

research questions immediately during the face-to-face discussion. This allowed the interviewer

to ensure that answers from the interviewees were related to the research questions. Also, the


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interviewer could have made use of the opportunity to discuss in-depth for particular issues if the

interviewee showed interest (White, 2002).

A description of this research together with the objectives and questions was sent to participants

two weeks in advance; this was to allow the participant to prepare for the interview.

3.6 Interview design

During the interview, interviewees were encouraged to contribute their experiences with TQM

practices in hotels. They were expected to offer the following information:-

A description of functions that the department supports the hotel service quality; The correlation between departmental performance and overall hotel TQM performance;

A subjective opinion on the most important critical success factors supporting the

engineering department to achieve the quality goals;

A subjective opinion on the most important critical factors affecting the performance of

the department negatively;

A description of the quality methodologies, tools and techniques used to improve the

efficiency/quality of engineering departments.

Since a structured interview approach was used in this research, a question list was prepared as

shown in appendix B. The advantage of preparing the questions is that these questions could

have been sent to the interviewees in advance together with the introduction of this dissertation

so that interviewees could prepare for the information before the interview. Also, discussion

questions were consistent for all interviewees.


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3.7 Conclusion

In summary, a qualitative approach was adopted for this research. Structured interviews were

conducted in Hong Kong and Beijing, China to collect primary data from experienced hotel

engineers.


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Chapter 4: Results and Analysis

4.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a summary of the results of the interview; it also analyzes the

interviewees opinions with key concepts and relates the findings with the research questions.

4.2 Interviewees

A total of 14 hotel engineers were interviewed. Two individual interviews were conducted to

pilot test the questionnaire; the test revealed that the interviewees showed interest to thediscussion topic and the questions can measure the desired objective within the targeted

timeframe of 2 hours. Interviews were conducted either in groups or individually. One group

interview was conducted in Beijing with 3 engineers; another group interview was conducted in

Hong Kong with 4 engineers. Four individual interviews were conducted in Beijing another 3

engineers were interviewed by telephone or e-mail in Beijing. Two of the interviewees are

regional engineers for China region; one interviewee is the regional facility manager for China

region. The others are either chief engineers or directors of engineering of 5-star chain hotels.

They all had worked / have been working as hotel engineers for more than five years. The

interviewees information and location of hotels are su mmarized and shown in appendix C.

4.3

Key findings

4.3.1 Roles and responsibilities of the hotel engineering department


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Roles and responsibilities - All interviewees confirmed that their major roles in the hotel are

same as those listed in section 2, they are:-

Preventive maintenance for building physical plants;

Work requests handling;

Enforcement of fire and life safety policies;

Energy conservation;

Control of maintenance expenses;

Promotion of community social responsibility (CSR);

Project managementLeadership In addition to the above roles and responsibilities, hotel engineers interviewed also

pointed out that a hotel engineer is also a department head; he needs to build and maintain a high

performance and effective working team to carry out the daily routines and projects. Engineers

have to lead and manage their subordinates professionally and ethically; this includes the training

of staff, motivation, creating a fair working environment, planning and supervision of work,

effective use of resources, handling complaintsetc. They are facing these challenges on a daily

basis. Therefore, effective management and leadership skills are important for hotel engineers;

management skills enable engineers to properly plan the tasks while leadership skills assist them

to influence the emotion and intellect of staff (Wong, 2007).

Engineers are business managers However, all interviewees advised that using the

traditional way, such as a production-oriented approach, to carrying out the above duties is

not enough to meet todays customer expectation. Hotel engineers have to be service -oriented

as well as customer-oriented, much like a businessman.


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Interviewees pointed out that all senior management members in a hotel including hotel

engineers are business persons and they needed to closely participate in the sales and

marketing activities due to the high market competition in the hospitality market. For

example, engineers have to attend sales meetings with clients for their technical needs.

Customers always have special needs; this includes, but is not limited to: special lighting

effect in a banquet event, additional demand of electricity for their display of new products,

live time broadcasting of meetingsetc. Saunders et al (1992) advised that service quality is

the balance between the expectations that the customers had and their perception of the

service received; therefore the more information the hotel could get from the customer, thesmaller the gap between the expectation and the perception of the service provided. This can

greatly enhance the customer satisfaction.

Response time for making the decision to these customer requests is also essential for the

success in todays competitive market; nowadays, customers expect a reply as quickly as

possible. A late response would increase the threat of losing the business. Engineers have to

work at the same pace as the sales and marketing personnel. Engineers are one of the key

members in the hotel sales team. The traditional production-oriented practice is no longer

applicable to hotel engineers; they need to be customer-oriented and service-oriented.

This business-oriented attitude also has to be applied to project management in hotels. In

addition to the opinion of Wai (in Okoroh, Jones and llozor , 2003) that renovation projects

should be arranged so that the disturbance to guests should be kept to minimum, for instance,

careful time selection for construction projects to audible disturbances to the guests,

interviewees also emphasized that the impact to the hotel financial revenue should also be

kept to a minimum. Renovation sometimes calls for the closing of some areas for


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refurbishment; scheduling the construction work during the low season when there are fewer

guests could reduce the loss of revenue income. However, these kinds of arrangements

usually would increase construction costs due to the time restriction. Therefore, engineers

should apply a commercial mind set and service attitude to balance the construction cost and

the loss due to guest dissatisfaction. This could achieve the maximum profit for the hotel.

Also, a hotel engineer is one of the executive committee members in a hotel; he/she has to

take over the executive-on-duty manager position on a shift basis. Executive-on-duty manager

is the duty manager during the absence of the hotel general manager; he/she is in-charge of

the hotel operations on behalf of the hotel general manager. During the shift, the engineer hasto make business decisions on behalf of the general manager.

In view of above, hotel engineers have to operate the building facilities to support the hotel

business and to align the departmental goals with the hotel goals. Therefore, Cotts (1998) s

opinion that facility managers are business managers is also applied to hotel engineers.

Proactive Vs reactive - One of the major objectives of preventive maintenance is to provide

a comfortable environment such as right air temperature and lighting (Durodola & Oloyede,

2011). However, interviewees pointed out that just treating all guests the same and providing

an environment with universal concept is not sufficient to meet the guests require ments.

Each guests expectation is different; the high expectation of service from hotel guests has

caused hotel engineers to pay more-than-required attention to react to and predict guest

needs. For example, different guests may prefer different room temperatures. People from

western counties would prefer 20 -22 deg. C, while Asian people may prefer 23-25 deg. C.

Elderly people may prefer warmer room temperature than younger people; guests with

illnesses may ask for a warmer room temperature. Different indoor activities also require


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different room temperatures; for example team building plays will need cooler room

temperature than a board meeting. Therefore, for banquet events, engineers not only review

the written instructions in the event orders, they also need to consider the background of

participants and the nature of the activity to predict the guest needs and pre-adjust the

ballroom room temperature. This is to reduce the complaint for an uncomfortable temperature

at the arrival of guests.

Another example for being proactive is the catching up of technology to meet the guest needs.

Interviewees advised that the rapid advancement of technology has been one of the major

challenges for them. Hotel engineers pointed out that customers expectati on has beenchanging due to the change of technology. For example, traditional desk phone and hardwired

internet connection could not satisfy customers needs today. Hotel guests expect3G and

Wifi as their cell phones and hand -held internet access devices are not equipped with a

hardwired connection. This change makes hardwire for internet access becoming obsolete

now. Engineers need to update their knowledge and pay close attention to the change in

technology in order to know what and how the customers needs are changing; so that they

could plan and advance the building facilities. The quicker the response to the technology

change, the better the position of competitive advantage. This is support by Ptak &

Schragenheim (2004) that change of technology affects how organizations carry out their

business; organizations need to align the technology with their business process to sustain the

competitive advantage.

Although Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) suggested that a quick response to work request is an

effective recovery action for rectifying deficiencies; one interviewee points out that this

practice can be further improved by taking proactive action to look for deficiencies before


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satisfaction. All hotels have a requirement for the response time; for example, one chain hotel

group specified that technicians are expected arriving the guestroom within 10 minutes and

complete the guest request within 15 minutes. If this time constrain cannot be met; an

explanation should be communicated to the guest. This is in line with the suggestion by

Zimmerman & Enell (in Saunders et al, 1992) that measurement of hotel performance should

include timeliness, integrity, predictability and customer satisfaction. Also, work order

system allows recovery for deficiencies; this is to solve the guest problem and regain the

customer satisfaction before the guest leave the hotel. It also provides an opportunity for the

hotel to learn the guests personal preferenc e, so that the guest would not experience the same problem or would receive the same preference during the next visit.

Biggest internal supplier - engineering is considered as the biggest internal supplier - a key

service provider, inside a hotel. Supporting other departments to achieve their goals is a

major responsibility of the department. For example, maintaining the laundry equipment so

that the housekeeping department can provide on-time laundry service to hotel guests;

ensuring the normal operation of kitchen equipment allows culinary experts to provide hot

food to customers. Engineering plays an important role in different processes in a hotel; it is

crucial to maintain an effective quality chain so that process of different activities can be

smoot hly carried out. Quality chain is defined as a series of internal suppliers and customers

carrying out activities to meet the external customer satisfaction (Oakland, 2003).

The contribution of the engineering department in respect to the hotel TQM performance,

provided by interviewees, is summarized and listed in table 4.1.


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Table 4.1 Links of engineering roles to TQM performance

Roles andresponsibilities

Links to hotel TQM performance

Preventive

maintenance

1. Provide proper lighting, comfortable air-conditioning, clean water

supply, vertical transportation;2. Maintain a cozy and warm atmosphere for hotel guests with

contemporary decoration;3. Minimize interruption to guest comfort due to the suspension of

building facilities;4. Sustain customer satisfaction and value for money;5. Support other departments productivity; 6. Enhance safety;7. Enhance the property value; and,8. Increase the return on investment for the building owner.

Work order handling 1. Provide a channel for guests to express dissatisfaction;

2. Allow recovery for guest complaints;3. Provide a source for problem analysis;4. Set guest history/preference to tailor service; and,5. Maintain timeliness response.

Life and safety policies

1. Ensure occupant safety, guests feel safe to stay;2. Enhance readiness for crisis management such as earthquake,

power outage, water floodingetc 3. Ensure swimming pool water hygiene;4. Eliminate air-borne disease;5. Promote safety awareness by conducting training, fire drill,

evacuation and precautionary measures;

6. Assist in food safety and hygiene;7. Reduce staff accidents and injuries;8. Minimize damages to the property; and,9. Avoid fatal injuries.

Energy conservationGoing green

1. Promote a health environment by reducing pollution;2. Suggest and select energy efficient products;3. Promote brand image by going green;4. Promote green awareness; and, 5. Save expenses by reducing energy consumption.

Control of expenses 1. Budget and meet financial target;2. Control utility expenses;

3. Reduce cost by value engineering; and,4. Effective use of resources.

CSR 1. Serve local community;2. Promote brand image; guests feel good to stay with a good CSR

hotel; and,3. Build corporate identity.

Project management 1. Maintain contemporary for hotel hardware; 2. Minimize disturbance by arranging proper construction time;


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3. Meet budgeted cost and time;4. Control quality; and,5. Ensure construction site safety.

Management andleadership

1. Achieve hotel and departmental goals2. Achieve staff satisfaction;

3. Reduce turn-over rate; and,4. Support career development.

4.3.3 Methodology and tools

All interviewed hotel engineers agreed that the goal of quality management is to meet the

customers needs and sustain competitive advantage. Since hotel engineers ar e responsible

for the operation of building facilities, use of proper tools to manage and control the quality

could enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the department.

Quality framewor k Response from all interviewees revealed that none of the engineers

have used any h igh level common quality frameworks such as EFQM or ISO 9001. This

phenomenon is in line with the findings of Harrington & Keating (2006). They have studied

hotels in Ireland and found out that only 28.2 percent of Irish hotels had adopted a formal

quality management system, even though most Irish hoteliers indicated that they were familiar

with quality certification. Interviewees pointed out that all hotels do have their own quality

control system. Generally speaking, hotels focus on the performance of similar aspects; i.e.

the customer perspective, financial perspective, Human resources perspective, business

process perspective and Community service perspective. Different hotel groups have different

policies and requirements for each perspective areas; they setup their own quality

requirements for their own business directions.

However, quality frameworks for specialized purposes are popular. For example, almost all

engineers indicated that they use HACCP for food safety control. Some engineers also use

ISO14001 for environmental control and ISO18001 for workplace safety. Since these


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specialized frameworks are internationally recognized, hotel engineers believe that not only

do these frameworks offer an effective guideline (Chan & Ho, 2006), but they also promote

the hotel brand image as well. One engineer advised that his hotel adopted the ISO18001 in

2009 and completed the implementation in 2010; the workplace accidents have greatly

reduced from 35 cases in 2010 to 8 cases from Jan-July in 2011. The use of quality

framework can improve the efficiency.

Cultural change - Interviewees advised that TQM is a culture; it takes time to create the culture.

Hotel management has to provide clear requirements, so that staff knows the expectation of the

result. It is necessary to allow the staff to see the advantages of TQM, so that commitment could be gained from employees. The right attitude could generate the proper behavior. This is in line

with the suggestion from Oakland (2003) that cultural change is necessary to implement TQM.

Also, Wong (2007) supports that dedication and passions are important factors in a dynamic and

effective working team.

Quality tools interviewees pointed out that quality tools are important for a technical

department such as engineering department; it is known to rely on these tools for control,

management, measurement and analysis; different tools are for different applications and

different purposes. Using the right tools enhance the efficiency and improve the performance of

the department.

The common quality tools used by hotel engineers are listed in table 4.2

Table 4.2 Common quality tools used by engineering department of hotels

Quality Tools for Hotel EngineeringDescription Purpose

Guest questionnaire/survey Measure guest satisfaction.


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Mysterious guest surveyRegular meetings withstakeholders

Ensure sufficient and effectivecommunications.

Regular check /inspection; logsheets; checklist

Ensure functionality of equipment.

Cost/benefit analysis; ROI Investment analysis.Policy and procedures;flowcharts

Provide description of work process.

Cause-effect chart; scatterdiagram; Pareto chart

Problem analysis; Identify causes of problems.

Control chart Control temperature range, chemicalleveletc

Brain storming Encourage suggestions and new ideas.Benchmarking Compare performance and identify best

practicesIT technology computersoftware

(See table 4.3 for detailed description ofapplications.)

IT Technology Since the engineering department is handling technical systems, IT technology

has widely been used for all kinds of control and management. All hotel engineers interviewed

agreed that computer software is essential for both system control and management application.

IT technology plays an important role in quality assurance. The applications are summarized in

table 4.3.

Table 4.3 Computer software for the hotel engineering department

Computer Software for Hotel EngineeringApplication Purpose

Building automation systems Monitoring and control of electrical and mechanicalsystems; e.g. HVAC, Plumbing, Boilers, Electricaldistributionetc.

Work order and preventivemaintenance system (facilitymanagement system)

Management of work orders and preventive maintenanceschedules and records.

Call accounting system Telephone call charges accounting system.Procurement system Issuing of purchasing orders to vendors.Store room inventory Control of spare parts.Utility metering system Recording of energy consumption.


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E-mail Communication.Earthcheck Carbon footprint management.P/L report Repair and maintenance expenses summary.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Interviewees pointed out that IT technology plays a

significant role in the building systems control and monitoring; the rapid development of ERP

technology improved the performance of engineering department. For example, traditionally,

hotels had different software developed by different manufacturers for their own systems. The

new building automation system integrated and streamlined the processes of these systems, so

that all building systems, such as air- conditioning, lighting, water supply, fire alarmetc, can be

controlled and monitored in one software Also, engineers can get the real-time information

from their computers such as room temperature, lighting status, water tank leveletc.; t his could

allow the engineers to take rectification actions at the early stage of any occurred problems. In

addition, any system alarms will be re-directed to engineers cell phones or re mote monitoring

stations. This further enhances the response time for handling problems. Another example is that

the work order system is intergraded with inventory and purchasing software; any spare parts

used in each work order will be recorded and inventory updated. The software can automatically

generate purchasing orders once the inventory drops below the pre-set minimum par level. This

integration reduces labor and increase productivity. Ptak & Schragenheim (2004) support that

ERP technology could enable the integration of business processes. The purpose of the

integration is to standardize work process, reduce waste, increase production speed, minimize

human error, and improve inter-department communication and interactions with suppliers and

customers. As a result, using technology will enable an enhancement in business performance,

which in turn improves customer satisfaction.


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Benchmarking controlling utility expenses is one of the major responsibilities for the

engineering department, one way to analyze utility consumption is through benchmarking.

However, engineers only compare the consumption with their own history data such as the data

of last month or same month of previous years; they do not benchmark with other hotels. There

are two reasons; no two hotels have the same design. Different designs will have different energy

demand; for example, hotels with more restaurants will have more kitchen equipment and require

more gas consumption for cooking. Also, different geographic areas have different weather

conditions. Outdoor temperature will affect energy consumption for air conditioning and heating(Chan, 2003). Therefore, hotels in mild weather areas will use less energy than those hotels in

the tropical area or northern zone. This is supported by Cotts (1998) that measurement of

benchmarks may not be consistent unless the two properties being benchmarked are as similar as

possible. However, internal benchmarking is an effective tool to track the change over time;

internal benchmarking could help engineers to identify areas for improvement and measure the

performance. Figure 4.1 shows a typical internal benchmarking commonly used by engineers for

tracking electricity consumption per occupied room-night in hotels. Engineers compare the

current month s consumption with the last month and same month of previously years; any

variation could be criticized against the affecting factors such as occupancy, outdoor temperature

and humidityetc. This kind of tracking can also be used for evaluating the performance of

improvement projects. Being able to measure the result is important for continuous improvement

(Oakland, 2003).


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Figure 4.1 Electricity consumption per room-night

4.3.4 Performance measurement

The performance measurements for the engineering department are summarized in table 4.4.

Table 4.4 Performance Measurement

Performance Measurement for Hotel Engineering DepartmentMeasurement Frequency Criteria

Process management measuresDepartmental audit. Yearly Compliance of company

requirements.

ISO 14001 audit. Yearly Compliance of environmentconservation.

HACCP audit. Yearly Compliance of food safety.

ISO 18001 audit. Yearly Compliance of workplace safety practice.

Fire and Life safetyaudit.

Yearly Measurement of safety readiness.

Work request Daily Timeliness, integrity, predictability,

Electricity consumption /Occupied Room

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

2

2

2 9

M o n t h

Kw h

Year


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59

response time. customer satisfaction.

Individual performance measurementIndividual

performance appraisal.Yearly Individual performance

Performance reviewUtility critique andreview.

Monthly Analysis of energy consumption.

Customer survey. Monthly Customer satisfaction (working orderof facilities).

Associate survey. Yearly Employee satisfaction.

Financial critique andreview.

Monthly Meeting maintenance expenses andutilities budget.

Work requests review. Daily Identify problems and guest preferences.

Fire and Life safetyinspection.

Weekly Identifying safety hazards.

Engineering log booksand checklist review.

Daily Ensuring normal operation ofelectrical and mechanical plants.

The finding is in line with Oakland (2003) that performance measurement should focus on four

levels - Strategy development and goal deployment; Process management; Individual

performance measurement; Review performance. Since engineering department is in operations

level, the performance measurement focuses on the lower three levels (the first level should be

conducted in the senior management level).

All interviewees agreed that performance measurement is essential to assure quality; thiscontinuous monitoring allows for opportunities to identity problems and to propose areas for

improvement. Oakland (2003) supports that this reiterated process allows organization to check

if the standards of quality are being met and identify problems for continuo

Documents

TQM in hotel engineering department.docx