Office Management - Quantity & Quality Control

Quantity Controlling

  • Quantity controlling aims to minimize fluctuations in office activities, making work more manageable.

  • It involves managing and regulating office supplies, materials, and resources to ensure efficient usage and cost-effectiveness.

  • The process includes monitoring the procurement, distribution, usage, and replenishment of office resources.

  • It requires inventory tracking, setting up budgets and implementing policies for resource usage.

  • Aim is to optimize procurement strategies to maintain adequate quantities of essential items while minimizing waste. It may involve centralized systems with good communication.

Methods of Controlling Office Fluctuations

  • Part-Time Employment: Utilizing part-time help can be satisfactory, but the cost of recruiting and training should be considered, although it gives flexibility to the workforce.

  • Overtime: Working overtime can handle peak loads but may increase unit labor costs and cause labor fatigue, potentially lowering output. Legal restrictions must also be considered.

  • Mobile Units (Flying Squads): Forming mobile units that move between areas to handle excessive workloads necessitates employees with comprehensive training in various office tasks.

    • Example: Raymond in Vapi has multi-skilled employees.

  • Using Service Bureaus: Employing service bureaus helps complete office work on time, addressing short periodic increases in activities.

    • Companies should aim to outline the precise skills needed and request the bureau to do the work.

  • Centralization: Centralizing office work, particularly basic tasks like typing, computing, copying, filing, and sorting, can effectively handle peak loads when excess activity concentrates at different times in different departments.

  • Use of Cycling: Cycling, like cycle billing, has been used for a long time by public utility companies for sending out bills for services rendered (e.g., staggered bill payment).

  • Pending Work Backlog: Utilizing a reservoir of postponed work helps level out peaks and valleys in the office workload.

    • When high-priority work is received, urgent work is processed immediately, and certain work can be moved up,.

  • Orderly Workflow Through Routing, Scheduling, and Dispatching: Establishing specific channels for accomplishing office work by planning time values for each step and emphasizing the use of timely information on progress.

Routing

  • According to George Terry, routing determines the route or channel through which work travels and the sequence of operations required for completion of the work.

  • Routing determines:

    • What and how much to produce.

    • What resources are required for production.

    • How the goods will be produced (i.e., the manufacturing process).

    • Where the goods will be produced (i.e., the specific department).

  • The main objective of routing is to find the best and cheapest sequence of operations to complete the work and to ensure that this sequence is followed.

  • A route sheet is prepared showing the allocated time for each operation, the sequence of operations, and the department in which the work is to be performed.

Scheduling

  • According to George Terry, scheduling is the assignment of time values to the work and the determination of the sequence - the determination when each operation starts and when it should be completed.

  • The extent to which office work can be scheduled depends upon the individual circumstances, but usually, a great deal of office work can be scheduled, including bill-key punching, tabulating, transcribing, check-writing order writing, micro filming, and inventory taking.

  • Three means of scheduling:

    • Folders: Placing a given number of units of work in each of a number of folders, with the supervisor as the key controlling person.

    • Visible Index Cards: Data required for formal and complete scheduling can be handled on cards, providing signals for control along the margin of the card to designate specific schedule times.

    • Charts: The Gnatt Chart which shows the work planned and work accomplished in their relation to time.

Dispatching

  • According to George Terry, dispatching is putting into action following up the routing and scheduling plans.

    • An example is giving folder work to an employee, authorizing them to proceed with and complete it within a given period.

Outsourcing

  • Outsourcing involves taking jobs and giving them to an outside agency, which is the latest upcoming method of handling work functions.

Quality Controlling

  • According to George Terry, controlling the quality of work performed ensures maximum productivity in the office.

  • Quality control is a process used to ensure products or services meet specific standards and satisfy customer requirements.

  • It involves monitoring and testing products during production to detect defects or deviations from desired quality levels aiming to identify and rectify any issues before the end product reaches the customer.

Means of Quality Control

  • Checking all the work (100% inspection): Each work item is verified for correctness.

    • Shortcuts include proofing masters only of duplicate material and using proofing devices on office machines.

    • Care must be taken to catch omissions and misspelled words.

    • An examination is made to see the general format, margins, and appearance are correct.

    • When checking numbers, read the column vertically and place the original list side by side with the written list.

  • Spot Checking of Work: Every 3^{rd} or 5^{th} document or segment of work is checked.

    • A representative group of the total is determined statistically and checked to determine the quality level of the work being performed.

    • The supervisor may select a group member at random and draw a random sample of work done during the day by this employee, checking it for errors and recording the results.

  • Statistical Quality Control: Uses statistical methods like Control Charts, process capability analysis, Sampling techniques, and statistical tools to monitor, analyze, and Control variations in processes or products.

    • The goal is to ensure consistent quality, reduce variation, and make data-driven improvements to meet customer expectations effectively.

  • Key components of statistical quality Control:

    • control charts

    • Process capability Analysis:

    • Sampling Techniques:

    • Statistical Tools:

  • (QA) Quality Assurance: Implementing systems and procedures to guarantee that products or services meet specified requirements.

  • Testing Conducting tests and experiments to evaluate product performance and ensure it meets desired standards.

  • Overall, quality control aims to maintain consistent quality and minimize defects in products or Services that meet or exceed Customer expectations.