Ruggo carpets encourage continuous improvement based around the ‘drive for customer focus’. The company’s total quality process has graduated from ‘total customer satisfaction’

through ‘total customer delight’ to its present form – ‘bridging the gap’, which is effectively a

‘where we are’ and ‘where we should be’ yardstick for the company. Developments in the warehouse are typical. The supervisor has been replaced by a group leader who acts as a ‘facilitator’,

working within the team. They are also trained to carry out their own job plus five others. Fixed hours are a thing of the past, as is overtime. At peak times the team works the required hours to dispatch orders, and at off-peak times the team can leave when work is completed. Dispatch labels and address labels are computer-generated and the carpets are bar-coded to reduce human error. Each process within the warehouse has been analysed and re-engineered.

(a) What is implied by the progression of the company’s three initiatives from ‘total customer satisfaction’ to ‘total customer delight’ to ‘bridging the gap’?

(b) Evaluate this example against the criteria included in the Business Excellence Model.