Case Study – Eco-Natural Skin Care
Eco-Natural Skin Care is an Australian company with a head office based in Brisbane. The company commenced business in 1996 and manufactures and eco-friendly, high quality beauty skincare products. The business was established to cater to the growing demand for skin products that contain eco-friendly and natural ingredients. There is also an emphasis on eco-friendly packaging.
The company sells its products in health food shops across the country, as well as on-line through its own web site. The company targets customers that want high quality, eco-friendly products. Market research has identified that around 70% of customers are professional women aged 25 to 55. Most customers are health conscious, care about protecting the environment and have an average annual income of $80,000.
The company currently has a small range of products that include:
Cleansing creams to soothe skin during make-up removal. Primary ingredients include Shea butter to nourish the skin and plants extracts that are also rich in essential oils with regenerating and anti-inflammatory properties. This product will be for delicate and mature skins and could also be used as a baby cream.
Multi Protection Day Moisturizing Creams for dry to normal skin types that help protect the skin during the day and includes Shea butter and extracts from fragile green algae that provides hydrating and protective properties.
Regenerating facial scrub to clean off dead skin cells to promote regeneration of healthy new cells. This product will be used for most skin types.
Within the last seven months, CBSA assisted Eco-Natural Skin Care Australia to open a Retail Store in both Sydney and Melbourne. The project was a success, and the company achieved an increase market share of 20% within the first six months.
The company’s overall business objectives for the next three years are to increase sales by 40% and create brand awareness, develop a broader product range, as well as expand into overseas markets, most likely Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.
The company also wants to achieve an online presence, offering online shopping to customers but will need to research this further to understand the resources required to staff calls, online queries, packaging and postal services required.
To increase sustainability, which its customers are interested in, Eco-Natural Skin Care wants to offer discounts to customers who bring in product bottles and jars to be refilled instead of throwing away each empty container.
The company currently employs the following staff:
Head Office: CEO, Managing Director, HR Manager, Operations Manager, Marketing Coordinator, Customer Service Officer and two administration staff.
Ten staff are employed in the factory, making and distributing the products.
Three Retail Store Managers – one in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
Six full-time staff – two at each store and six part-time staff – two at each store.
To date, the company has been utilising a basic website, that includes four pages: Home, About Us, Products and Contact Details. The company has decided to replace it completely.
The new website is seen as a critical part of the Eco-Natural Skin Care’s expansion strategy. The company wants to address Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for vision-impaired users.
The Eco-Natural Skin Care CEO has provided a strict budget of $21,000 for this project, with no variances allowable. The budget is based on their estimated costs.
A key aim of the project is that customers are attracted to the web site and find it easy to use.
Timing is also an issue, as the website should be ready by October to be ready for the Christmas season: (assume that it is currently June).
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Question 1
Explain the Total Quality Management theory.
Question 2
a) Explain the purpose of the ISO:9001:2015 international standard for an organisation.
b) Identify and explain a minimum of three benefits of ISO 9001 certification and the benefits
Question 3
Describe the Six Sigma methodology and its relationship to quality assurance.
Question 4
a) Describe the cost-benefit analysis.
b) Explain why organisations use cost-benefit analysis process.
c) Identify the steps to complete a cost-benefit analysis.
Question 5
a) Describe the use of cause and effect diagrams for quality control.
b) Identify the set of possible causes for issues analysed in the service industry – the 4S.
Question 6
a) Describe the purpose of a Quality Management Plan
b) Describe how a Quality Management Plan is used as a project tool.
Question 7
Outline the key role and at least four responsibilities of Quality Manager.
Question 8
Explain the use of the Plan Do Check Act cycle as a continuous improvement method and each of the steps.
Question 9
Explain the concept of benchmarking as a continuous improvement tool.
Question 10
Explain the concept of process mapping as a continuous improvement tool.
Question 11
Explain two benefits of brainstorming as a continuous improvement tool.
Question 12
Explain the purpose of quality audits as a quality assurance tool.
