Brentwood Trucking Ltd Executive

Summary

Brentwood Trucking Ltd. is a holding company for the largest

Canadian transportation group. It works on the simple philosophy
that is providing the good services and being completely honest and
to treat one another fairly and with respect.
It was started in central Ontario with the first job of transportation
of by-products from chemical valley to Toronto. Between early
1950’s and 1985’s, the firm as extended its services to other places
and also subsidizes different transportation companies.
The firm today operates modern terminal in all major Canadian
cities, towns and remote areas. The firm operates over 1500
vehicles moving freight from shippers across Canada to the
customers. It is also providing its subsidiary companies with the
fundamental services such as, human resource, account receivables
and payables, training and quality development, etc.
Mr. John Moser who was the vice president of training and quality
Development for the company was to give the presentation on Cost
of Quality to Mr. G.K Alexander who was the President of Brentwood
trucking Ltd. The executive of the company had given approval to
Mr. John on instilling quality thinking throughout the organization.
Mr. John has come up with three things that can b applied with in
the activity of firms to have the concept of quality and that are
meaning of quality defects, determination of cost associative with
quality defects and development of strategy for addressing quality
that will provide competitive and sustainable advantage for the firm.
A Steering committee was formed for the purpose of deciding how
to differentiate Brentwood Trucking Company from its competition.
Mr. John was the member of the committee and he used Deming
quality concepts. He also set up QMTs as a mean of introducing
them to the “quality way of thinking.” John also asks the executives
to provide the information regarding the three things he had come
up with.
Terminals operations involved the loading and unloading of
shipments at central locations. The cost and expense of these
terminals is approximately $5.3 million per annum. The cost
includes re-deliverance, cost associative with location and layout,
extra travels, salaries, hire external cartage, etc.
The transportation department handles the highway operations of
Brentwood Trucking Company to carry shipments from customers to
their destinations. Here John here found many facts. The cost
occurred per annum is approximately $1 million and it includes
accident costs and fines, drivers cost, cost of blocking dock, salaries,
etc.
The maintenance department was responsible for the repair and
servicing of all equipments for the firm. It also deals with the spare
part inventory. The cost associative with maintenance department is
approximately $0.3 million. The cost includes packing slips and
receipts cards, additional maintenance, etc.
The quality department consists of one and half full time people.
The task is to act as consultants for various units with in the firm.
The cost associated with the Quality department is $0.27 million.
The cost includes travel, manuals, salaries, etc.
Training department consists of two and half people who were
responsible for the development of training programs with in the
firm. The cost is $0.14 million and it includes production cost, wages
and benefits.
The sales and marketing department was charged with the
responsibility of quoting rates for services to customers, getting new
business, retaining established accounts and etc. the total cost of
this department is around $5.4 million.
Claim department was responsible for settling all claims from
customers that resulted from error made by the company in
handling the customers’ shipments. The cost per year of this
department is approximately $2.1 million. The cost includes cost of
damages sustained, travel, salaries and etc.
Administration department deals with the account receivables. The
cost of this department is something like $0.86 million. The cost
includes cost of reprocessing, fees, bad debts, salaries and wages.
Mr. John now had data about the errors and problems within the
different operations of the firm and he can now use this information
to asses the current situation and make strategy to guide the
implementations of the quality development process.
 Question/Answer

1- What do you think of the process that has been employed

at Brentwood trucking company to introduce the “Quality
Thinking” throughout the firm? What would you do
differently? Why?

Implementation:
The process that has been in use at the Brentwood Trucking
company to introduce the ‘quality thinking’ throughout the firm to
incorporate, effectively measure and enhance the total quality
management. There have been several errors and flaws currently
running in and around the company and to eliminate them to
maximum extent, Mr. John (vice president of training & quality
development in Brentwood Company) is initially grooming
employees, management and directors about this process and after
that planning to apply the total quality management all over the
firm.

Terminal location:
If I had to implement the quality thinking process strategy in the
company by using a different way, the first step that I would be
taking in order to minimize the maximum losses is to alter the
location of terminals. The losses that has been incurred from the
other heads that has been mentioned in the case are far lesser then
the losses generating through the terminal because of their location.
The cost of errors and flaws of terminal are in millions of dollar
where as the other departments are not contributing such losses in
the firm. The strategic location should be determined in order to
minimize this risk and to cover the maximum cost and losses.
Introduce HRM department:
Another strategy that is to be prioritized in my opinion is the
implementation of proper human resource department. As I have
gone through the case of Brentwood Company, another main issue I
had figured out is that there is no proper channel for the grooming
and training of all the employees. All the hiring firing issues are
dealt under the sales and marketing department which is a major
source of losses to be generated. If there would be HR department it
will motivate the employees throughout their session. There is a
need of proper collaboration between HR and quality department in
order to keep employees pro-active and efficient all the time.

2- Examining the various examples of issues raised by

various managers which ones should be classified as related
to quality? Can we classify these items into some form that
allows management to understand where their quality
efforts are being placed and what is being achieved?

The first issue that is related to quality is the tallying of the sheets
by the dock men. If this could be reduced to maximum level the
best quality of service could be achieved. The reason is that these
are the errors which are taking so much time on checking that which
shipment is for which destination or area.

Secondly picking up the right shipment will also help in maintaining

the quality of the service. Because this will save their time in
handling the nest correct shipment and deliver it to the correct
destination.
Another issue to be handled is the tracing of orders and shipments
within the system once they are entered in it. At the moment 12
people are deployed there for this purpose and still it is a problem.
So if this issue would have been solved, it will defiantly help in
providing the best quality.

Although each and every issue is of the same importance but the
mentioned above are the key issue which must be addressed by the
company management so that they could maintain their best image
in the regions as ones who are providing the best quality to its
valued customers.

3- What action plan or strategy do you suggest to John

Moser to move Brentwood Trucking forward in its efforts to
improve quality within the firm?

Well according to my understanding they should make the strategy

of Just-In-Time concept that every task must be processed on its
own time so that the very next activity could not get disturbed. For
this all the employees must know that what type of best effort their
work is demanding from them.

Secondly they must remove the communication gap within the firm.
Every employee must be clearly communicated his particular task
and the time required to execute it. With this they will be able to put
their maximum efforts in the given time to complete it.

Management strategy is also must for Brentwood to implement so

that every shipment can be handled in an organized manner without
any error. As they have to handle thousands of shipments, so there
must be a very systematic and organized way to handle them and
deliver them to their respective destinations.
Brentwood Trucking Company is indeed a very successful business
that is offering their services in different areas to their customers
but even then they have to consider their problems very seriously
and do investment on them to sort them out so that they could keep
on giving their services to their customers.