Logistics and Transportation Qantas Airways Limited †Solution

Question: Discuss about the Logistics and Transportation for Qantas Airways Limited. Answer: Introduction: Qantas Airways Limited is a reputed organization across the globe. It is an Australian multinational company that was established in the year 1920 and today it is the largest airline of Australia. The company has close to 30,000 employees and it has flights across 85 destinations. With only 30,000 employees, Qantas has been able to touch the revenue of AUD 15 billion. The success of Qantas could be attributed to number of factors. The leaders of Qantas has a key role to play to make Qantas a huge success story not only in Australia but also in different parts of the world (Chang Park, 2014). In the current business context, the airline industry is a growing industry that is highly dynamic in nature. The leaders of Qantas has been able to lead Qantas successfully across different stages of lifecycle (Daft, 2015). If an organization can successfully manage employees and determine new goals and a vision for the organization, it can be said they have reached a turning point. Each stage in the life cycle reaches a point where a change is necessary. Being able to successfully navigate those changes is what ultimately makes a business successful (Jalan, Sinha Ulus, 2014). It is believed that adaptability and flexibility is vital in the success of an organization and Qantas has been able to demonstrate both the levers of adaptability and flexibility. However, when organizations are not adaptable they remain unprofitable and as an organization for starters they have to determine if they want a large company of a small companies which will give them insight or vision as to how to best market the product. It can be said that it depends on the industry for example, at Qantas, managers have vowed to continue an emphasis on growth even if it means a decreasing return on investment (ROI). They are ingrained with the idea that to stop growing is to stagnate and die (Draft ,2015) this is an example of adaptability as they have to constantly do feasibility studies on how to continue to not only stay in business but provide its customers with quality products at a fraction of the cost. The leaders of Qantas realized the importance of human resource management fun ction to have a good rapport with employees and other internal stakeholders of the organization. The management established a communication system that was two-way in nature. The employees were encouraged to participate in the strategic decision making. The feedback of employees were taken seriously and it enabled Qantas to establish a flexible and open culture in the organization. The historical analysis of Qantas Airways Limited shows that the company was started as an airmail service in 1920. The first alliance for Qantas was in the form of QEA (Qantas Empire Airways Limited) that was formed between Qantas Airways Limited and Imperial Airways of Britain. The second milestone in the journey of Qantas was the nationalization of the company. Qantas Airways was nationalized in the year 1947 when Australian Labor government bought the shares of Qantas Airways Limited (Lee, 2010). Another benchmark in the journey of Qantas was the introduction of Boeing 707 in the year 1956. It was the year 1959 when Qantas became the third airline to fly jets across the North Atlantic. From 1950 to 1990, Qantas invested heavily to procure Boeing aircrafts. The Boeing 747 fleet was upgraded from 1989 with the arrival of the new Boeing 747-400 series. In the present business environment, Qantas's main international hubs are Sydney Airport and Melbourne Airport. However, Qantas oper ates a significant number of international flights into and out of Singapore Changi, Auckland Airport, Brisbane Airport, Los Angeles International and London Heathrow airports. The analysis of the operations of Qantas Airways reveals that Qantas could achieve its commitment to establishing and sustaining competitive dominance, maintaining good culture and reputation for customer service, without much disruptions within its network and effectively serve consumers. Management, employees in this case had a duty to work collaboratively to make that become a reality (Fournier, 2014). While management can show great leadership and strategic planning, employees could do their best to collaborate, share their views and continue to do their best in giving excellent services and maintaining that good culture. Collaborative effort among all business function is necessary to ensure operations run efficiently and are cost effective. One of the innovations Qantas Airways introduced was to decrease the turnaround times at the airport (Homsombat Lei, 2014). The IT department would have to implement better methods of keeping track of planes coming and going as far as arrival times, departure times and ensuring that all digital and technical equipment was appropriately working and functional to direct airport traffic very precisely. They would have to record and report data about turnaround times and help make recommendations to help streamline the process. Marketing the new changes that focused on customer satisfaction, better ticket prices, and faster flights (at least less time spent in the airport waiting) would have to pitch the new changes to the public in a way that would draw customers in. Collaboration amongst multiple business functions is necessary for the business to function as a whole (Daft, 2013). Each department is like a part of a car. They perform their own separate functions, but they have to work toward the same goal. If there is a problem in one area it is going to leak over into other areas. To promote success of the strategic plan for Qantas Airways to serve customers, human resources would need to ensure there were enough trained employees to not only be available to Qantas but to provide continuing service to other airlines as well. This tactical strategy would have to be implemented early as training and developing employees takes time (Dwyer Spurr, 2010). Workforce planning and performance influence all business functions as no company can function without employees and the potential for success is increased by having the right employees. Decreasing turn around time also increased the customer satisfaction by increasing on time service to and from the convenient airports with low airfares. In addition to providing inexpensive service another marketing tool was to make the flight fun. The management and leaders of Qantas Airways realized that collaboration is the key to keep employees motivated and to create a platform where employees remain productive. The leaders of Qantas Airways realized that all departments must collaborate in order for an organization to achieve success in all areas (Hazledine, 2010). For Qantas Airways, Collaboration is the key factor in the customer service. All team members are trained to handle most operation. Pilots could handle baggage if the situation demanded it, gate operators could turn planes around rapidly. The collaboration among teams made sure that flights are not delayed. The collaboration among the human resource department help train the crew members adequate training to handle the emergencies at all levels. With Human Resources and Customer service working together, management of Qantas Airways would need to work together to understand the airline industry culture, ease tension with the reality that traffic delays out airp orts. Having the collaboration of these business groups is important to engage employees with the same message between departments for continued positive employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. References Chang, Y.T., Park, H.S., Jeong, J.B. and Lee, J.W., 2014. Evaluating economic and environmental efficiency of global airlines: A SBM-DEA approach.Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment,27, pp.46-50. Daft, R. L. (2015). Organization theory and design (12th ed.) Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning. Dwyer, L., Forsyth, P., Spurr, R. and Hoque, S., 2010. Estimating the carbon footprint of Australian tourism.Journal of Sustainable tourism,18(3), pp.355-376. Fournier, K., 2014. The qantas/emirates decision: How the competition commission of Singapore used the net economic benefits exclusion to regulate the air passenger market.Singapore Academy of Law Journal,26(2), p.436. Hazledine, T., 2010. Pricing, competition and policy in Australasian air travel markets.Journal of Transport Economics and Policy (JTEP),44(1), pp.37-58. Homsombat, W., Lei, Z. and Fu, X., 2014. Competitive effects of the airlines-within-airlines strategyPricing and route entry patterns.Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review,63, pp.1-16. Jalan, I., Sinha, S., Ulus, E. (2014). Narratives of fate and misfortune in organizational life: Stories of success and failure. Culture Organization, 20(5), 410-429. Lee, B. and Worthington, A., 2010. The relative efficiency of international, domestic, and budget airlines: nonparametric evidence.