Business Operations and Services Provided by Marina Bay Sands Hotel

1.Describe the business operations and services provided by this organization.

2.Using the following simplified self-assessment tool based on the SPRING Singapore Business Excellence Framework, demonstrate how the organisation can use this framework by rating the organisation according to each statement.

3.Examine any two (2) areas in the organisation’s operations that Lean Six Sigma can be applied to improve quality performance in the organisation.

4. Using any Lean Six Sigma application identified in Question 2(a), evaluate the use of the project charter by identifying a quality problem and constructing a project charter based on this quality problem.

5.With the aid of suitable illustrations, propose any three (3) suitable Lean Six Sigma techniques from the given list and examine how these selected techniques can be used in sequence to generate, prioritise and evaluate potential solutions to this quality problem.

1.The Marina Bay Sand hotel was opened in the year 2011, and the same was developed by Sands Corporation of Las Vegas as well as designed by Moshe Safdie. Marina Bay hotel is built over the reclaimed area, and offer a complete view of the city and sea from its top. It provides its guests with exhibition and convention facilities, theatre entertainment, shopping facility, accommodation, bars, restaurants, gaming, and casino. This project not only enhances the economy and tourism of Singapore but at the same time, it also creates the entertainment and attraction destination for the local people (Bardi, 2011). Marina Bay Sands hotel include three towers of its hotel, having 2561 rooms and suites, along with 55 floors as well as 18 variant types of room, through which guest can enjoy the view of the city skyline as well as of serene sea.

Marina Bay Sands hotel also includes the art museum, which is of lotus shape and is built in front of Marina Bay. The museum roof is retractable, that offers the waterfall by the roof. This waterfall is the collection of rainwater, and it’s closed in daytime, and laser show in the night time. The observation deck of the hotel offers the panoramic view of the complete bay (Bardi, 2011).

Along with that, in front of the three towers, there is a theatre block, exhibition and convention facilities, and casino block, which includes around 1400 machines as well as 1000 tables for gaming. The museum of ArtScience is built next to the other three blocks and is built in the shape of a lotus. In front of the Event Plaza, there is a wonder full, including water and light show, which is considered as most significant in Southeast Asia and was constructed by Laser-vision. Both Wonder Full, as well as ArtScience museum, was opened in the year 2011.

Using the SPRING Singapore Business Excellence Framework

The Skypark, located at Marina Bay Sands hotel includes the most extended elevated swimming pool of the world, having 146-meter vanishing edge. Vanishing edge is referred to the concept of the infinity pool. This pool is built 191 meters above the ground, and includes 422000 pounds of stainless steel and can even comfortably hold around 376500 gallons of water. The Skypark of the hotel also consists of the rooftop celebrity restaurant like Sky on 57, along with Ce La Vie nightclubs. It also includes hundreds of tree and plants, gardens, along with public observatory deck, build over the cantilever having Singapore Skyline 360 degree view (Bardi, 2011). This skyline can only be accessed by a hotel guest, due to the security reason.

Marina Bay Sands is the 6th largest hotel in Asia and has even received the MICE for three consecutive years. In the year 2006, the hotel attain the MBS, having the value of around $5.05 billion. In its first year after opening, this hotel was able to attract approximately 19.6 million visitors and has even hosted around 2000 meetings. According to LVS, it’s the most profitable property, which generates the profitable revenue of around $1191400000 in only six months.

2.

S/N	Statement	5	4	3	2	1	Justification on the rating assigned	Counter- measures
1	Leadership: Senior leaders have developed a clear vision and mission which are clearly communicated to its stakeholders		Very Likely				Senior leaders are responsible for communicating the goals, vision and mission of the company to their stakeholders	In place of senior leaders, HR is also responsible for communicating vision and mission of the company.
2.	Leadership: Senior leaders advocate an organisational culture that empowers employees to innovate.	Excellent					Senior leaders are responsible for building better organizational culture and sense of innovation	Even project leaders develop the sense of innovation and organize different activities which boost employee’s confidence.
3.	Strategy: The organisation develops long and short-term strategies to achieve organisational goals.	Excellent					Short and long term strategies are developed in beginning and according all projects are undertaken	In place of short and long term strategies, employees can also go with individual project strategy.
4.	Customers: Markets and customers are segmented to determine and address specific requirements to differentiate customer offerings and enhance customer satisfaction.			likely			In certain cases markets and customers are differentiated as per their demands	Customer satisfaction needs to be at priority and different quality measures can be taken to fulfil their demands.
5.	Processes: There is a system to analyse root causes, take prompt corrective action and prevent future recurrence when a process fails to meet specified standards or targets.		Very likely				Through quality techniques threats can be avoided or corrected	Working in groups, generating new ideas and application of six sigma can help in resolving failure issues.
	Ratings: 5: Excellent 4: Very likely 3: Likely 2: Sometimes 1: Minimal (Indicate each statement with a rating of between 1-5 using * or X)

3.Marina Bay Sand has implemented Lean Six Sigma. Due to its implementation, which covered the launch of around 3500 six sigma projects at Marina Bay Sands worldwide, the organization understood, that in this way they can improve their performance and can even have financial gain. Through six sigma, Marina Bay Sands was able to increase its incremental revenue by around 19%, and complete spending through its customers, who come and stay at the hotel (Beiser, 2010). In this way, Marina Bay Sands hotel was able to increase its property value by 12% in only a few months after its implementation. Through initiating the reservation at the spa with the use of six sigma, Marina Bay Sands was able to claim for an increase in revenue from around 91 to around 141 million pounds.

Production of food and beverages, due to its similarity with the industry of manufacturing had attained success on the case after case by the use of principles of six sigma. Grand scale production of food at Marina Bay Sands hotels used the 5s as well as value stream mapping for minimizing the wastage of meals from 10% to around 5%. The process of 5s at Marina bay helped in arranging the ingredients area of storage in the way, where other can be easily accessible (Fitzpatrick & Rogers, 2003).

Applying Lean Six Sigma to Improve Quality Performance

The value stream mapping point out the issue area where food is cooked, stored as well as reheated later it’s served (Soon & Thia, 2012). The system after its implementation at the hotel, got success because it helped in reducing employees demand in the kitchen (Fitzpatrick & Rogers, 2003). Through analysis by six sigma, it was explored that massive amount of wasted food was found (Shimbun & Yoke, 1988). Application of six sigma at food and beverage section of Marian Bay Hotels will assist them in maintaining the optimal inventory; reduce the wastage; standardized the food and beverage results; minimize the time occur between the order to service. It will also lead to optimal use of present product mix for enhancing the operations of revenue accommodation such as housekeeping, and it will also minimize the turnaround time in making hotel room, and will also set standards for cleanliness around the whole hotel (Fitzpatrick & Rogers, 2003).

Kaizen events and value stream mapping can also support in analysing the process of any kind, and at the same time, it’s not exclusive for producing and manufacturing products (Chen, Lindeke & Wyrick, 2010). The shuttle services of the hotel were also analysed through the help of six sigma tools, which lead to short waiting time as well as fewer complaints of customers (George, 2003). Marina Bay Sands hotel also provides shuttle service to and from the hotel and airport. On the request placed by customers, the shuttle offers the transportation to various places in the vicinity such as business and shopping centres (Harry, Mann, De Hodgins, Hulbert & Christopher, 2010). Through analysis, it was explored that irrelevant staffing as well as pitfalls in communication in dispatch as well as drivers and transportation employees were there in shuttle services of Marina Bay. The redesign through six sigma included offering prioritizing to runs (run to the airport is more significant as compared to shopping centres), and it also tried to streamline the process request by creating the centralized area, in which request for transportation was called in (Kumar, Phillips & Rupp, 2009). The redesigning of business also depicts the customer request prioritizing, which includes exploring the customer added value and operations of streamlining like central request area (Kublak & Benbow, 2008).

Though no research is conducted in this regard, lean and six sigma is useful in both housekeeping and food production area. Kaizen process and 5s can offer an advantage to the industry of housekeeping for reducing waste and for enhancing efficiency. Housekeeping is looked like the ideal candidate in case of 5s due to the requirement for managing the cleaning supplies, the cleaning process in the rooms at the hotel is the one, which can quickly view the manner in which value stream mapping (Kumar, Phillips & Rupp, 2009).

Evaluating the Use of Project Charter for Quality Problems

4.The project charter is referred as a document, which officially supports in starting a project or either particular phase of the project. It authorizes the project existence and offers reference source for the upcoming time (Kumar, Phillips & Rupp, 2009). The project charter provides direction as well as a sense of purpose to organization management since stating till the end. If the project charter is prepared correctly, then it can support executives in viewing the project business value (Alsmadi, Almani & Jerisat, 2012). They can even give the reference to charter to understand whether the project is precisely aligned with the organizational strategies or not. Six Sigma projects begin with the project charter and so does happen in the case of Marina Bay Sands hotel that had applied lean six sigma for improving the quality of their food production and housekeeping department (Kumar, Phillips & Rupp, 2009). Below is the project charter, presented in tabular format, in which every project step will be included systematically.

Component	Description	Team Charter
1.      Process	Process including opportunity	Implementation of six sigma in Marina Bay Sands in its housekeeping section for improving quality
2.      Project description	Goal and problem statement	It’s related with application of lean six sigma in Marina bay Sands hotels for enhancing the quality services of housekeeping. The purpose of this project is to explore the feasibility of six sigma tool in hotel industry.
3.      Objective	Targeted improvements and its impact on results, and cost of quality	Project Y	Baseline	Goal	Entitlement	Units
	Statistical issue	Excellent quality	Improvement in quality	New Model	Enhancing phase	100%
		Satisfaction of customer	Service factor	Better enhanced service	Delighted customer	As needed
4.      Business Case	Expected improvement in financial terms	Service sector plays important role in GDP of the country in reference to hospitality sector. Implementation of six sigma will surely enhance the financial position of industry and will even help in creating good effect on customers (Abdi, Shavarini & Hoseini, 2006).
5.      Scope of project	Process area to be investigated	Marketing area plays important role in the business; therefore it will be explored in detail (Lee, Olson, Lee, Hwang & Shin, 2008). Along with that customer satisfaction and service will be evaluated too. Finance and security wouldn’t be considered in this as it’s a separate part and need to be done in separate project.
6.      Advantages to external customers	Explore final customers, key measures and benefits	Final customers are the guest staying t hotel, who come across housekeeping services at Marian Bay Sands hotel. It includes corporates, overseas delegates, which add value to nation.
7.      Schedule	Key milestones	Starting of project	12 April 2018 Define phase: 12 October 2018
8.      Tool	M- Measurement	Completion of M	October 2018
	A-    analysis	Completion of A	September 2018
	D- Develop	Completion of D	February 2019
	V- Validate	Completion of V	May 2020
	Note: Schedule relevant Reviews of safety	Safety Reviews	Project review in every two months for controlling the things ongoing within the set schedule
	Completion of project	May 2020
9.      Required assistance	Special capability trails	It includes six sigma tools, hotels and restaurants are needed as the sample for validating this newly designed project model.

5.Brainstorming is mainly applied for generating the solution of the problem creatively. In case of the hotel industry, employees need to be safe in whatever work they take (George, 2003). Housekeeping person will spend his time in thinking to make the workplace safer. As per brainstorming, solutions include exploring hazards at the job, investigate facilities, process, and machinery (March & Fugazi, 2002). Workers will be offered with right PPE. Through brainstorming a sense of safety, awareness needs to be built. Safety features will be made with the help of equipment for preventing the accidents. Brainstorming is the best example of idea generation technique for solving issues. Group members will be asked to give idea and solution, and from that best solution will be selected (McCrossan, 2008).

The affinity diagram is applied for consolidating the extensive information into small clusters, having a similar thread (William, 2014). It can be efficiently used for organizing the ideas, which are taken from a brainstorming session (Raghubalan & Raghubalan, 2009). In case of the hospitality industry, requirements of customers related to room and service quality are collected from different sources like,

Friendly staff              Huge TV

Clean towels               Non-smoking area

Room service              clean bathroom

Free Check In/Out      Air conditioning

After affinitizing the data will look like,

Check-In/Out	Quality of room	Room Service
Friendly staff	Huge TV	Room service
Non-smoking area	Clean Towel
	Air conditioning

In this way, one can have better sense about the problems faced by employees and the same can be solved.

This method is used for exploring solution of any problems, and decision maker use qualitative statements related to the significance of criterion (Sila & Ebrahimpour, 2003). In case of Marina Bay Sand hotel for solving the quality issues, AHP will divide the problem into categories, and the one with the highest weight will be selected (Ward & Duray, 2000)

Proposing Lean Six Sigma Techniques for Potential Solutions

References

Alsmadi, M., Almani, A., & Jerisat, R. (2012). A comparative analysis of Lean practices and performance in the UK manufacturing and service sector firms. Total Quality Management, 23,(4), 381-396.

Bardi, J. (2011). Hotel Front Office Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Beiser, C. (2010). To maximize clean, go lean! Executive Housekeeping Today, 32(12), 3-18.

Chen, H., Lindeke, R. R., & Wyrick, A. (2010). “Lean Automated Manufacturing: Avoiding the Pitfalls to Embrace the Opportunities.” Assembly Automation, 30(2), 117-123

Fitzpatrick, B., & Rogers, R. (2003). Six sigma™ explained. Hospitality Upgrade, 128-130.

George, M. (2003). Lean Six Sigma for Service: How to Use Lean Speed and Six Sigma Quality to Improve Services and Transactions. 1 Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.

Abdi, f., Shavarini, S. K., & Hoseini, S. M. (2006). Glean lean how to use lean approach in service industries. Journal of Services Research, 191-206.

George, M.L. (2003). Six Sigma for Service. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Harry, M. J., Mann, P. S., De Hodgins, O. C., Hulbert, R. L., & Christopher, J. (2010). Lacke, Practitioners Guide to Statistics ad Lean Six Sigma for Process Improvement. New Jersey: Wiley

Kublak, T. M., & Benbow, D. W. (2008). The Certified Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook, 2nd Edition. ASQ Quality Press

Kumar, S., Phillips, A., & Rupp, J. (2009). Using six sigma DMAIC to design a high-quality summer lodge operation. Journal of Retail & Leisure Property, 8(3), 173-191.

Lee, S. M., Olson, D. L., Lee, S., Hwang, T., & Shin, M. S. (2008). Entrepreneurial applications of the lean approach to service industries. Service Industries Journal, 28(7), 973-987.

March, L., & Fugazi, R. (2002). Applications of business process redesign in hotel daily operations: The impact of redesigning airport van pickup process on hotel customer satisfaction. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 3(1), 19-33.

McCrossan, T. (2008). Six sigma does it fit in hospitality? Hospitality Upgrade, 4, 28-30.

Raghubalan, G. & Raghubalan, S. (2009). Hotel Housekeeping Operations and Management. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Shimbun, N. K., & Yoke, P. (1988). Improving Quality by preventing defects. Portland, Oregon: Productivity Press

Sila, I., & Ebrahimpour, M. (2003). An examination of quality management in luxury hotels. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 4(2), 33-59.

Soon, D., & Thia, J. P. (2012). Foreign Workers and within industry dynamics. Singapore Economic Review, 57(4), 1-15.

Ward, P., & Duray, R. (2000). Manufacturing strategy in context: Environment, competitive strategy and manufacturing strategy. Journal of Operations Management, 18(2), 123 – 138.

William, M. J. (2014). Lean Six Sigma for Supply Chain Management: A 10-step solution process. McGraw-Hill Education