Thai airways is a public limited company of Thailand. It operates domestic, regional and international flights. The company started it’s operations in 1960. It was established as a joint venture between Thailand’s domestic carrier, Scandinavian airlines and Thai airways company. It’s first intercontinental services were started in 1971. The company got listed in July, 1991.
The service process improvement creates the best customer experience and outcomes. It is essential in Thai airways to manage cost and quality in every single process from start to finish and provide good quality to passengers. Service process improvemet has a great role in bringing customers back and use services on regular basis. The service process is an important part of operation and binds employees, material, equipment and customers together. Thai airways monitor it’s service process to ensure that process are effectively designed to attain customer satisfaction. The philosophy of Thai airways is to offer finest service to passengers with maintaining highest standard of service. It can be accomplished by it’s services. The company aims to improve process improvement by four V’s such as .volume dimension, variety dimension, variation in demand dimension and visibility dimension. The improvement in process increases the number of sales. Improvement brings better results in the productivity. The company has further expanded services by providing Wi-Fi internet services to use laptop, smart phones or tablets.
Volume dimension (Low): The volume dimension is an amount of services which have been produced for customers. Thai airways is one of the famous companies of airways which provide the best travel experience to customers. It provides high volume of service based on the booking class codes reserved (Kowalkowski, et. al. 2015). The volume of operations is the key how business is organised. The competitive price fares are provided for all classes. The programme designed by company enables small and medium size companies enjoy significant saving at the time they travel with Thai (Grönroos & Gummerus, 2014). The employeees perform a variety of tasks which results in higher unit costs.
Variety dimension (High): The Thai airways has service to 35 countries and popular destinations. The services provided through Thai airways is standardised. It provides more convenience to customers through reservation, instant payments, electronic tickets, coupon serial and easy refunds. The reservation can be made before 6 hours and maximum of 11 hours. Thai provides standardised services in every country (Nilsson & Ballantyne, 2014). The refund can be made at any Thai city ticketing office. Other than the airline business Thai has other related business which contains passenger services, pre and post flight preparation, aircraft fuel service, travelling support service, aircraft maintenance service and duty free products. The process of company is smooth not complex.
Variation in demand dimension (Low): The customers who once travel from Thai airways like to travel often from Thai airways only. The company meets customer requirements in an appropriate manner. It creates strong culture of organisation by bringing out the best from it’s employees. Thai can forecast the number of customers coming and availing services. Therefore, the company makes enough arrangement for the customers (Hutchinson, et. al.2015). It supervises the business acording to the international standards to generate sustainable growth.
Visibility dimension (High): Thai airways have 21998 employees operate in 35 countries to provide service and take care of employees. Thai airways serves a holistic freight for domestic and international flights. It focuses on the standard, safety and convenience of passengers. Thai airways deleiver the valuable and dependable product. The airlines responds to society as a national airline (Bryson, et. al.2015).
The limitation of process improvement is transit. The passengers who travel from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International airport are supposed to pass over immigration. The passengers should be alert that they fulfill immigration formalities, custom and other duties and pay airport taxes and fees. In the check-in process, the persons of Thailand travelling on domestic flights are supposed to carry Thai identity card instead of passport. The limitation of self-service check-in kiosks is that it is accessible at some certain airports. It is the accountability of ticket holders to make sure that all the visas are attained and presented at check-in for international level.
The human aspects are considered by Thai airlines in managing human resources so as to make organisation profitable. The staff beleives in providing best service and experience to passengers. Giving importance to human aspects has helped Thai airways to succeed in their functioning. The purpose of human resource management practices is to improve quality of human resources. The company manages human aspects by providing friendly atmosphere and training to employees. It only can help organization to improve operations of organization. The company also makes use of human resource management practices to accomplish it’s purpose.
Service quality is one of the important factors in gaining competitive adavntage for airlines. It can be made possible only by fostering high skilled human resources in all departments. Thai airways has used the employent training administration competency model is used to explore Thai competencies in the ground operations at the airport in Thailand. The airline surveys and articles are used to estimate service quality competencies (Vargo, Wieland & Akaka, 2015). It helps to estimate competencies of Thai employees. It also brings out certain competencies which require aatention from managers to improve quality of airline service. The model used by airlines helps to identify handling agents that potentially limits quality of airline service. The human aspects can be considered by the following facts:
Make employees aware of their performance: It is considered to make employees aware of their outstanding performance so that they feel more connected towards organisation. The managers should appreciate and encourage employees by providing incentive and bonus. The company has created vision to motivate employees to improve operations of organisation. The organisation manages and motivates employees by being friendly. Usually the regulation in organisation results in dissatisfaction among employees. As a result employees can not contribute their full efforts. Friendly behaviour of senior staff can actually result in more productivity. A pay check is not sufficient to get employees to work on time. The inspiring purpose beyond pay check can inspire people to go extra mile. The company adopts the human resource management practices to retain employees (Giannakis Harker & Baum, 2015). Such employees contribute efforts to the objectives of company. It also helps to maximize productivity and deployment of resources. The company empowers staff to take corrective actions needed for service recovery.
Enhance service quality performance: It is required to enhance service quality performance of employees. The efforts are needed to improve discipline and communication (Akaka & Vargo, 2015). The employees should be updated according to the changes happening in airlines. They should be known to the travel routs. The service can be improved by the necessary education and training. Enhancement in performance of employees is surely going to profit organisation. Taylorism is the approach of job design which can be used by organisation. It is foundation for systematic job design and also known as scientific management. It is the effort to develop science for every job within the organisation. It creates a standard model for every job in the organisation. It successfully make selection of employees and hire them. It also trains employees appropriately and supports them.
Provide necessary training to staff for handling agents: The necessary training should be provided to staff for handling agents and customers. Staff are trained for informing customers of delay, cancellation and changes, holding reservations, providing quick ticket refunds, responsing customer problems and for the time delivery of baggages (Heirati, et. al. 2016). The Core Characteristics Model can be used well in providing training to employees. It includes variety of skills, identity of tasks, significance of tasks, autonomy and job feedback. In this model job feedback is the important aspect and it can give opportunity to organisation to make appropriate changes. It automatically results in improvement in performance and profitability.
The limitation of human aspect comes in handling customers fairly and constantly in the event of over sales. The situation of over sale occurs due to safety. For instance weight limit of aircraft, replacing a smaller aircraft than the initially arranged and more check in of customers than the seats available. In such scenes customers become frustrated and the customers can only communicate regarding the options available to them. The Thai airlines contacts to the passengers who are denied for boarding and the eligible compensation and alternative flights are made available to them (Baker, 2014).
The purpose of managing resource capability is to utilize resources of organization. It aims at meeting future resources. It effectively develops organizational resources whenever they are needed. It is effective to sustain long term competitive advantage. It is the capacity to combine internal and external resources for the purpose of creating new value and maximizing competitive advantage. The managers can balance capital and demand only by managing resource capability. It also affects day to day planning and control. Resource capability has contribution in managing bottle necks and queue.
Capacity management ensures proper utilization of available resources with the capacity to meet future resources which is cost effective. Basically, it is the capacity to meet current and future requirements. The organization using capacity management insures the needs are met with minimum IT resources. The objective of capacity management is to manage performance and capacity of both services and resources. The capacity of Thai airways has increased in advance as nonstop flights are taking off. The airplane has 42 spaces in royal silk business class and 306 seats in the economy class. The Thai airways has slow down it’s capacity plan in 2018 after making growth at the rate of 5% in 2017. It is done just for the second time in decade (Armstrong, et.al. 2015). Now, the company has shifted focus to product and profitability improvements. The airways is expanding it’s fleet by one aircraft. Along with this, the company has implemented a new commercial strategy. It focuses more on transit traffic which is going to target kangaroo route between Europe and Australia.
The Thai airways continue to grow because of the increasing demand of air travel and as a result the capital of the company is increasing constantly. The rapid growth in the air travel industry has resulted growth in low cost airlines. The company takes transformational measures to enhance efficiency of internal management, which helps in balancing capita and demand. The company has identified following strategic transformations:
Network strategy: The network strategy is used to stop further losses from nonprofit routes (Patterson, 2016). It helps in generating sustainable directions from the profitable and competitive advantage routes.
Fleet strategy: The fleet strategy is bringing in practice to adjust existing varieties of airplane. It simplifies types of airplanes in order to reduce functional costs and increasing operational efficiency.
Commercial strategy: It is used to improve sales capabilities to increase revenue from all sale channels, sale network and other customer segments.
Operational and cost strategy: This strategy is used to enhance operational efficiency and service quality along with monitoring operational costs in every section to increase competitive abilities (Wuenderlich, et. al. 2015).
Organizational strategy: The organizational strategy is used to increase capital in an organization to a suitable size along with less complex structure. It defines key performance indicators which help in increasing personnel effectiveness. It also defines the remunerations which are linked to the operating performance of company.
Portfolio strategy: This strategy is used to ensure portfolio of business which supports and is consistent with the core business of Thai airways.
The success of airline day to day planning and operations are assessed by the effective completion of flights. The day to day planning includes:
Flight schedule: The robust schedule helps in minimizing operational impact due to disruptions and changes in schedule.
Creating a trip plan for each flight: The best route and prevailing conditions are considered in advance for creating a trip plan. Time take to reach destination is also evaluated (Homburg, Jozi? & Kuehnl, 2017). It is developed to ensure operation of each flight follows legal and safety requirements.
Flight times and airport details: The flight plan includes speed, elevations, flight times and details of airport to include chosen alternate airports.
Optimizing fuel usage: The fuel cost is the top challenge to profitability. The aviation fuel prices are usually higher and are the highest expense for airlines. The Thai airways find measures to reduce fuel burn.
The control carried out in day to day planning by Thai airways is as follows:
Crew planning: The airways keep control on scheduling of pilot and cabin crew. The schedule allocates pilots to fly planes for what they are licensed.
Block times: The block time is the time between aircraft leaves the departure gate and arrives at the gate of arrival airport. The delays are controlled by schedule. The minor delays can be avoided (Hoffman, Kelley & Rotalsky, 2016).
Gate plotting: When several aircrafts are on ground at a same time. It is controlled as it can be problem in loading and unloading.
Recovery: The allowances are made for recovery as many things can cause unconventionalities from any plane (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).
The Thai airways manage bottlenecks and queue by giving option of managing booking on it’s website. The passenger can go on the homepage of Thai airways an can choose option “Manage My Bookings” and can get the e-receipt. The Thai airways can manage the queue system this way, as it saves the number of process and bottlenecks. A passenger can get e-receipt by entering ticket number, first name and last name and by pressing submit button. Soon after entering the valid information, the passenger gets the ticket number which starts with 217 and is of 13 digits. If a passenger does not have ticket number, than reservation code can be used along with first and last name (Shaw, 2016). This process reduces the number of persons standing in queue and the problems faced.
The manger takes action when cannot cope up with demand and uses these strategies:
Corporate level strategy: The manger uses corporate level strategy to create value through alligning and bringing together company’s market activities. It includes mainly value creation, structure and multimarket activities. The company creates portfolio of profitable routes by launching airlines in the market where low fare and low cost business model has prospective for sustainable profitability.
Business level strategy: The business level strategy used by Thai airways relays competitive advantage to cost and differentiation advantage. It is based on two factors, low price and low added value (Lonsdale, et. al. 2017).
Operational strategy: This strategy is used by the mangers to create and deliver service and value to the customers by it’s core competencies. The manager increases the core competency of low fare when he is not able to cope up with demand.
The capacity utilization helps Thai airways to measure productive efficiency. The capacity utilization of Thai airways has increased by .5% in the second quarter of 2017. On an annual basis the capacity utilization has increased by 1.5% compared to 2016. The company can improve capacity utilization by introducing technologies, by increasing space in aircrafts and maintaining quality. The company can also improve capacity utilization by increasing number of domestic flights and by increasing number of aircrafts (Achroll & Kotler, 2014). It can set seat capacity growth. The company can also introduce a new product regional fleet. The company has to essentially manage with smaller fleet because some aircrafts will be out of service temporarily during the year of retrofitted.
The capacity management utilizes resource capability but sometimes it is less cost effective. The management of resource capability requires innovation time on time. So, Thai airways is required to invest huge amount in innovations. Due to the rapid growth of airlines, the company is required to maintain low cost service. It puts effect on the revenue of company. In this scenario, it is tough for the managers to balance demand and demand. Sometimes delay of flights interrupts the day to day planning and control. When the website does not response well due to technical issues than it is problematic for the company to manage bottlenecks and queue system. Lacking technologies also does not enable company to improve it’s capacity utilization.
Conclusion
The Thai airways provide finest service to the passengers along with maintaining standard of services. The process is improved by providing services like reservation, payment, ticketing, refund, check-in transit and more. It considers the human aspects such as offering lowest fare, informing consumers for known delays, cancellations and changes, time delivery of baggage, providing quick ticket refunds, ensuring responsiveness to customer problems and passenger services during a tarmac delay. The limitation of the organization can be judged by it’s capacity management and how managers balance capita and demand and how planning and control are carried out. The organization manages well with it’s marketing by managing bottlenecks and queue system.
References
Achroll, R.S. and Kotler, P., 2014. The service-dominant logic for marketing. The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions, 320.
Akaka, M.A. and Vargo, S.L., 2015. Extending the context of service: from encounters to ecosystems. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(6/7), pp.453-462.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bryson, J.R. and Daniels, P.W. eds., 2015. Handbook of service business: Management, marketing, innovation and internationalisation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Giannakis, D., Harker, M.J. and Baum, T., 2015. Human resource management, services and relationship marketing: the potential for cross-fertilisation. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 23(6), pp.526-542.
Grönroos, C. and Gummerus, J., 2014. The service revolution and its marketing implications: service logic vs service-dominant logic. Managing service quality, 24(3), pp.206-229.
Heirati, N., O’Cass, A., Schoefer, K. and Siahtiri, V., 2016. Do professional service firms benefit from customer and supplier collaborations in competitive, turbulent environments?. Industrial Marketing Management, 55, pp.50-58.
Hoffman, K.D., Kelley, S.W. and Rotalsky, H.M., 2016. Retrospective: Tracking service failures and employee recovery efforts. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(1), pp.7-10.
Homburg, C., Jozi?, D. and Kuehnl, C., 2017. Customer experience management: toward implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(3), pp.377-401.
Hutchinson, K., Donnell, L.V., Gilmore, A. and Reid, A., 2015. Loyalty card adoption in SME retailers: the impact upon marketing management. European Journal of Marketing, 49(3/4), pp.467-490.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kowalkowski, C., Windahl, C., Kindström, D. and Gebauer, H., 2015. What service transition? Rethinking established assumptions about manufacturers’ service-led growth strategies. Industrial Marketing Management, 45, pp.59-69.v
Lonsdale, C., Hoque, K., Kirkpatrick, I. and Sanderson, J., 2017. Knowing the price of everything? Exploring the impact of increased procurement professional involvement on management consultancy purchasing. Industrial Marketing Management, 65, pp.157-167.
Lovelock, C. and Patterson, P., 2015. Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Nilsson, E. and Ballantyne, D., 2014. Reexamining the place of servicescape in marketing: a service-dominant logic perspective. Journal of Services Marketing, 28(5), pp.374-379.
Patterson, P., 2016. Retrospective: tracking the impact of communications effectiveness on client satisfaction, trust and loyalty in professional services. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(5), pp.485-489.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.
Vargo, S.L., Wieland, H. and Akaka, M.A., 2015. Innovation through institutionalization: A service ecosystems perspective. Industrial Marketing Management, 44, pp.63-72.
Wuenderlich, N.V., Heinonen, K., Ostrom, A.L., Patricio, L., Sousa, R., Voss, C. and Lemmink, J.G., 2015. “Futurizing” smart service: implications for service researchers and managers. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(6/7), pp.442-447.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download