Essay Sample Describing a Manager's Dilemma at Lululemon Athletica Inc.

The 21st century has been characterized by globalization that has improved the production of quality goods and services. The improvement has led to a stiff competition between firms operating in similar business sectors. Therefore, a firm should prioritize the production of high quality products or services to satisfy the clients' needs. Besides, technological advancement has empowered organizations to enhance their production policies to boost their market share globally. For example, Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s high quality production and customer satisfaction plays a vital role in enhancing its dominance in New Zealand, Australia, and North America. The firm's high quality sports merchandise production has influenced a majority of the customers to participate in yoga exercises. However, Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s quality control process should be reevaluated to ensure it upholds its market share the in athletic apparel production.

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Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s management should evaluate its quality control process. The exclusion of the alteration of ingredients or manufacturers in the yoga gear production exposed the need to re-examine employee and organizational performance. Firstly, Lululemon Athletica Inc. should strive to employ skilled personnel (Verburg et al., 2017). In case, the firm recruits unqualified employees then quality control issues are likely to occur more often. Conversely, skilled professionals possess the experience that empowers them to formulate and deploy exceptional quality control strategies. Hence, Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s recruitment process should focus on a blend of previous qualifications, experience, and knowledge.

Secondly, the organizational management should use the Pareto principle to enhance the quality control process. According to Pandita and Bedarkar, 2015, the Pareto principle will empower the employees to transform a 20% input to produce an 80% output. Consequently, the workers should be aware that 20% of their manufacturing actions usually influences 80% of the customers' satisfaction with their premium brands. Hence, the organization should design a production mechanism that optimizes a 20% input to satisfy the clients' expectations while saving money, energy, and time on a long-term basis.

Thirdly, Lululemon Athletica Inc. should adopt clear organizational objectives. For the quality control procedures to be effective, the management should implement clear objectives, have regular training to prepare and equip the staff with the latest skills to boost their output. Consequently, the lack of regular training might have led to occasional quality control issues that Lululemon Athletica Inc. encountered. For instance, motivated employees are likely to produce products that cater to the customers' needs compared to unmotivated staff (Verburg et al., 2017). Therefore, the management should ensure that employees are conversant with the need to observe quality control protocols and processes to produce premium sporting apparel.

Fourthly, the organization's management needs to prioritize repeatability. Repeatability is a fundamental aspect of the quality control process. Initially, Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s yoga gear was a premium brand exhibiting the effectiveness of the production approach used. Consequently, the organization should learn to document its processes to provide foundational information to new workers on the most appropriate production methodology (Pandita & Bedarkar, 2015). Hence, the adoption of a documentation policy guarantees consistent results that will enable the management to revisit various quality control aspects to boost the quality of goods produced.

Finally, automation forms another fundamental quality control component that dictates the quality of the product a company produces. However, the management should be able to determine a manufacturing process that integrates manual labor. Therefore, the management should spend time inspecting its preferred automated solutions (Verburg et al., 2017). Moreover, Lululemon Athletica Inc. has to endorse solutions and systems that easily blend with the operational technology stack. As a result, scalability plays a crucial role in boosting the quality control process.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. is a premium sports brand with a huge consumer base in North America, New Zealand, and Australia. For that reason, the organization should endorse strategies that guarantee the customers' perceived quality is maintained through the adoption of effective quality control strategies. Furthermore, a skilled workforce that comprehends the required quality control process and prioritizes repeatability will guarantee a consistent production of quality sports gear. Therefore, Lululemon Athletica Inc. needs to endorse suitable quality control policies meant to suit the clients' high quality demands and customer satisfaction in the sports gear.

References

Pandita, D., & Bedarkar, M. (2015). Factors Affecting Employee Performance: A Conceptual Study on the Drivers of Employee Engagement. Prabandhan: Indian Journal Of Management, 8(7), 29. doi: 10.17010/pijom/2015/v8i7/72347

Verburg, R., Nienaber, A., Searle, R., Weibel, A., Den Hartog, D., & Rupp, D. (2017). The Role of Organizational Control Systems in Employees' Organizational Trust and Performance Outcomes. Group & Organization Management, 43(2), 179-206. doi: 10.1177/1059601117725191