Dissertation - Mark Chan[1]

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By

Mark Chan

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to

The University of Liverpool

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

MASTER OF Project Management

2011

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A Dissertation

entitled

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By

Mark Chan

We hereby certify that this Dissertation submitted by Mark Chan conforms to acceptable

standards, and as such is fully adequate in scope and quality. It is therefore approved as

the fulfillment of the Dissertation requirements for the degree of Master of Project

Management.

Approved:

Dissertation Advisor Date

The University of Liverpool

2011

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CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

I hereby certify that this paper constitutes my own product, that where the

language of others is set forth, quotation marks so indicate, and that appropriate

credit is given where I have used the language, ideas, expressions or writings

of another.

Signed

Mark Chan

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ABSTRACT

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:

A study of the application of TQM in a hotel's engineering department

and its effects on hotel performance

by

Mark Chan

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Total Quality Management (TQM) methodology can help organizations to achieve business

excellence. This methodology is also useful for the hospitality industry; almost all hotels focus

on quality management to improve their business by enhancing customer satisfaction,

competitive advantage and retaining guest loyalty. TQM is teamwork; every functional

department must work cohesively together and support each other in order to achieve business

excellence. Different departments in a hotel have different roles in delivering the service to hotel

guests. This dissertation is aimed to find out how the Engineering Department, a back-of-house

department in a hotel, supports the hotel goal of quality management together with the factors

and practices that could impact the department both positively and negatively to achieve the

quality.

In addition to the literary review, which reviewed existing knowledge, a qualitative approach

was adopted for this research to collect primary data; structured interviews were conducted in

Hong Kong and Beijing in China. Fourteen hotel engineers, with at least 5 years working

experience in 5-star chain hotels, were interviewed.

This research revealed that the major role of the engineering department is to ensure the efficient

operation of all physical plants including electrical, mechanical, fire, hygiene and safety systems

as well as production equipment; it plays a key role in providing a comfortable and safe

environment for occupants including guests and staff. Comfort and safety are the essential

factors in the decision making when people select hotels; therefore, the effectiveness of

engineering department will affect the overall performance of the hotel. Quality tools are

essential for the control, management, measurement and analysis of engineering tasks; they are

important in maintaining the efficiency and improving the performance of the department. The

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top five critical success factors include: support from senior management, an effective team,

leadership and management skills, communication, and clear quality requirements, whereas the

top three barriers are: inadequate support from senior management, unfair work environment and

bureaucratic policy – traditional financial practice.

In conclusion, the engineering department is one of the major internal service providers in a

hotel; it supports other departments to complete the final product delivered to hotel guests.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my appreciation for my dissertation advisor, Dr. Dimitris Folinas, and my

general dissertation advisor, Dr. Rathin Basu, for their support and guidance.

I would also like to thank the following fellow engineers for their participation in the interviews

and the contribution of their knowledge and experiences

Mr. James Gao

Mr. Desmond Lau

Mr. X.M. Ma

Mr. M.Z. Li

Mr. Jack Li

Mr. Sun

Mr. Tom Zhang

Mr. C.Y. Choi

Mr. Winston Suen

Mr. Raymond Ng

Mr. Ivan Cheung

Mr. Mark Li

Mr. W.P. Wong

Mr. Adam Jin

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Table of Contents

Table of Tables................................................................................................................................9Table of Figures.............................................................................................................................10Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................................11

1.1 Background......................................................................................................................111.2 Research Questions..........................................................................................................121.3 Aims and Objective.........................................................................................................131.4 Structure of the Dissertation............................................................................................141.5 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................15

Chapter 2: Literature Review.........................................................................................................162.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................162.2 Role of the Engineering Department...............................................................................172.3 The link between Engineering and the hotel quality performance..................................222.4 Quality methodology and tools........................................................................................282.5 Performance measurement...............................................................................................312.6 Critical success factors....................................................................................................332.7 Negative factors...............................................................................................................362.8 Summary..........................................................................................................................37

Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................................393.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................393.2 Research Design and Approach.......................................................................................393.3 Objectives of the Research..............................................................................................403.4 Justification for using Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches.......................................403.5 Data Collection Methods.................................................................................................413.6 Interview design...............................................................................................................423.7 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................43

Chapter 4: Results and Analysis....................................................................................................444.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................444.2 Interviewees.....................................................................................................................444.3 Key findings.....................................................................................................................444.4 Key concepts of the study................................................................................................67

Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendation................................................................................69

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5.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................695.2 Recommendations for hotel engineers and general managers.........................................695.3 Recommendations for future research.............................................................................745.4 Summary and Concluding Remarks................................................................................75

References:....................................................................................................................................76Appendices....................................................................................................................................80

Appendix A : Declaration of interviewee..................................................................................81Appendix B : Interview Questions............................................................................................82Appendix C: Interviewee information.......................................................................................85

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Table of Tables

Table 2.1 – Types of asset management……………………………………………………. 17Table 2.2 – Performance measurement framework………………………………………… 33Table 4.1 – Links of engineering roles to TQM performance……………………………… 52Table 4.2 – Common quality tools used by engineering department of hotels…………….. 54Table 4.3 – Computer software for hotel engineering department…………………………. 55Table 4.4 – Performance Measurement…………………………………………………….. 58Table 4.5 – Critical success factor……………………………………………………..... 60Table 4.6 – Common barriers………………………………………………………………. 63

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Table of Figures

Figure 2.1 – Hotel accommodation package..……………………………………………… 15Figure 2.2 – Typical hotel organization chart..…………………………………………….. 26Figure 4.1 – Electricity consumption per room-night……………………………………… 58Figure 4.2 – Required competency of hotel engineer…………………….………………… 68

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Background

In today’s highly competitive business environment, a company’s capability to sustain its

competitive advantage is crucial for the continuity of the business (Calingo, 1996).

Quality is the most important factor for sustaining the competitive advantage. It is the

measurement of how well a company can meet or exceed its customers’ requirements and

expectations (Oakland, 2003).

Competition is extremely high in a free market. Mitchell (n.d.) supports that customer

satisfaction is essential in a free market due to the following reasons:-

The products or services from the service providers are similar;

Customers within the market are price-sensitive;

Customers have stronger bargaining power as the cost to switch to another service is

considered as low.

The hospitality industry has strong market competition; therefore, customer satisfaction and

retaining loyalty will be crucial for a hotel’s success.

The Total Quality Management (TQM) methodology can help organizations to achieve business

excellence by improving customer satisfaction (both internal and external), cost effectiveness

and competitive advantage (SME Toolkit, 2011). This methodology is useful for the hospitality

industry. In a hotel, any quality problem will induce guest complaints; the impact is direct and

immediate without any time delay. Also, a hotel serves human beings and no two people are

alike. People have different preferences and requirements which makes it more difficult to

control quality in a hotel.

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For successful TQM practice, organizations have to integrate the quality management into the

business strategy and to align the goals both horizontally and vertically throughout the various

levels within the organization. In a typical hotel, there are three vertical levels - the senior

management level, the business level (middle management) and the functional level (shop floor).

Horizontally, there are departments – front office, food and beverage (F&B), housekeeping, sales

and marketing, human resources, accounting, engineering and culinary.

Nowadays, almost all hotels focus on quality management to improve their business. Oakland

(2003) emphasizes that TQM is about teamwork; every functional department must work

cohesively together and support each other in order to achieve business excellence. The

effectiveness of teamwork determines the success of TQM in each hotel; this is why some hotels

have better performance than others.

However, the focus of the most recent research on TQM in the hospitality industry is only on the

service from front-line departments such as front office and F&B (Saunders et al, 1992;

Harrington & Keating ,2006); they ignore the efforts from back-of-house departments.

1.2 Research Questions

Although technicians and engineers in a hotel seldom contact hotel guests directly, it does not

mean they are excluded from providing quality service. The engineering department, a back-of-

house department, ensures the efficient operation of all physical plants and all fire and safety

systems; its role appears to be crucial in providing a comfortable and safe environment for guests

such as temperature control, lighting and air quality, and monitoring fire prevention.

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Also, engineering department supports the front-line staff by ensuring the proper operations of

hotel production equipment; so that front line department can provide its services to hotel guests

on time. Oakland (2003) points out that teamwork is one of the important success factors; a

smooth work process will require multiple departments working together and supporting each

other.

TQM can improve the performance of the Engineering Department in a hotel, and the

department contributes its improvements to the overall hotel performance. The main objective of

this research is to discover the factors that affect the engineering department in hotels to achieve

the quality goals.

In this regard, the dissertation intends to find answers to the following questions

How does the engineering department in hotels support the goals of quality management?

What are the most critical factors that will impact the engineering department both

positively and negatively to achieve the quality?

What kind of quality tools and techniques can be used to improve the efficiency of

engineering departments in hotels?

How do hotels measure the performance of the engineering department?

1.3 Aims and Objective

Different departments in a hotel have different roles in delivering the service to hotel guests.

Also, front-of–house and back-of-house departments play different roles in the quality chain.

The engineering department, a back-of-house department, plays a key role in ensuring the

efficient operations of all physical plants including fire, hygiene and safety systems; it also

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maintains normal operation of production equipment such as kitchen food production equipment,

laundry machinery, and cooler and freezers. They are important in maintaining the service

standards. Therefore, its effectiveness will affect the overall performance of the hotel.

This dissertation intends to find out the roles and responsibilities of the engineering department

in hotels, and how the department supports the overall hotel quality performance. The findings

will provide useful information for hotel technical professionals and hotel general managers to

further improve their efficiency and effectiveness in quality management. Also, this knowledge

can be shared within other hotel engineers as best practices reference and for benchmarking

performance.

1.4 Structure of the Dissertation

This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapters are arranged so that readers can understand

the objective of the research and how the research is developed.

Chapter one is the introductory chapter, it provides the general information of TQM and TQM

in the hospitality industry. It also explains why the author is interested in the research topic;

therefore, it outlines the research questions as well as the aims and objectives of this dissertation.

Chapter two deals with the review of related literature; it is to study the published work that

other researchers have done in order to find the knowledge related to the research questions. The

purpose is to define the ‘gap’ of knowledge.

Chapter three describes the research method. This chapter presents the research design of this

dissertation which includes the justification of the research methods, objective and the design for

the data collection.

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Chapter four is the result and analysis. This chapter analyzes the data and provides the summary

of the research result. The main objective is to combine the existing knowledge with new

findings to form new knowledge.

Chapter five is the conclusion and recommendations. This chapter concludes the new knowledge

and its benefits. This chapter also recommends the benefits to hotel engineers and general

managers. For the shortages in the research, recommendations are included for future

investigations.

1.5 Conclusion

In summary, this dissertation is to find out the relationship between the engineering department

in a hotel and Total Quality Management (TQM). Four research questions were developed to

better understand this relationship. Throughout the five chapters, these questions are

investigated as conclusions and recommendations are drawn.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Quality management is an approach that enables a company to gain market share and price

advantage. This is a company-wide effort; teamwork and commitment from all staff cannot be

under-emphasized (Oakland, 2003).

Traditionally, people believe that hotel engineers’ roles are just to keep the machinery

running, such as boilers, air conditioners, elevators…etc; their job is to repair the furniture

and ensure the supply of water, air-conditioning and lighting for hotel guests (Rutherford,

1987). However, this impression is not realistically true in today’s hospitality industry.

Rutherford (1987) points out that the role of hotel engineers has been changed from

traditional technical tasks to more embracement of management oriented functions. Their

effort to support the organizational strategy and achieve hotel TQM goals is also essential.

To identify the ‘gap’ of the knowledge for this topic, it is necessary to conduct a literature

review (White, 2002).

This chapter is to review the existing knowledge about the engineering department of hotels;

the study includes:-

The role of an engineering department in a hotel;

The link between the engineering department and the hotel quality performance;

Success critical factors supporting performance;

Negative factors impacting performance;

Quality tools for hotel engineers;

Performance measurement for the engineering department.

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The purpose of this chapter is to review different sources that provide the functionality of hotel

engineers to support the quality performance of a hotel and identify factors that could affect the

performance of engineering department.

2.2 Role of the Engineering Department

Quality management starts with the realization of the requirements from the customers (Oakland,

2003). To study how the Engineering department in a hotel supports the overall quality

performance, it is necessary to learn the role of the department and its responsibilities.

Hotel engineers are responsible for the operations and management of facilities and assets in the

hotel (Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2001). Durodola & Oloyede (2011) advise that there are four styles

of asset management – ‘maintenance management’, ‘property management’, ‘facilities bench

marking’ and ‘facilities management. Table 2.1 shows the definition of these four asset

management types.

Table 2.1 – Types of asset management

Asset Management type Definition

Maintenance management This is to upkeep a facility so that the facility can support the core business of the building (Arditi and Nawakorawit in Durodola & Oloyede, 2011)

Property management It is more than maintenance management; it also aims on the financial return on focusing on leasing, tenant selection and property portfolio management (Nwankwo in Durodola & Oloyede, 2011)

Facilities benchmarking This is the application of benchmarking which identifies best practices to the building operation and management (Milohnic and Cerovic in Durodola & Oloyede, 2011).

Facility management This is defined as “an integrated approach to operating, maintaining, improving and adopting the buildings and

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infrastructure of an organization in order to create an environment that strongly supports the primary objectives of that organization” (Barett, 2000).

Durodola & Oloyede (2011), in their research of hotels in Nigeria, found out that all five-star

hotels adopt facility management which they believe is the most effective and the latest style

of hotel assets management.

Facilities management includes the following responsibilities (Lewis, 1999 ; Cotts, 1998):

Preventive maintenance for building physical plants;

Work requests handling;

Enforcement of fire and life safety policies;

Energy conservation;

Control of maintenance expenses;

Promotion of community social responsibility (CSR);

Project management.

Building physical assets include:-

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning plants;

Electrical distribution;

Plumbing and drainage;

Vertical transportation;

Safety and surveillance systems;

Building structure;

Furniture and fixtures.

In addition to the physical assets, hotels also consist of the following production equipment:-

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Kitchen equipment;

Laundry equipment;

Coolers and freezers.

.

Preventive maintenance – Physical assets are subject to wear and tear; proper maintenance is

required to ensure the efficient operation of these assets. This includes regular inspection,

lubrication, adjustment, calibration, minor repair, replacement and cleaning. The objective is to

minimize the deterioration and prevent unscheduled machinery breakdown; proper maintenance

can extend the life span of the assets (Cotts, 1998; Chan, Lee & Burnett, 2001).

The study by Kuo, Chiang & Chiang (2008) for the air quality of hotels in Taiwan proved that

proper operation of air-conditioning system provides a comfortable air temperature and air

quality for hotel guests. Proper maintenance for the air-conditioning plant ensures the normal

provision of cooling in summer and heating in winter; inadequate maintenance would affect the

air quality. The study indicated that poor indoor air quality would affect the health of tourists; for

example, insufficient circulation of fresh air could cause air-bone diseases. Chan, Lee & Burnett,

(2001) also confirmed that efficient maintenance of building systems is essential in order to

provide a healthy and comfortable environment for hotel guests. For example, Lewis (1999)

points out that preventive maintenance is to provide proper lighting, good air quality, clean water

supply and sound vertical transportation for the building occupants. This service requires

professional and technical knowledge from the hotel engineer.

Work request handling – No matter how well a hotel can perform its regular maintenance,

there are still some minor problems. For example, noise from fan coil units, requests for

temperature adjustments due to personal preferences, unexpected water pipe leakage…etc.

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These guest requests or complaints would impact the customer satisfaction negatively; a quick

response to these work requests is an effective recovery action for these deficiencies (Chan, Lee

& Burnett, 2001).

Calingo (1996) advises that guest complaints are a useful source for analyzing the quality

deficiency. How quickly the organization could improve determines its success in meeting the

customers satisfaction.

Life and safety policies - Hotels have high occupancy loads; most occupants –hotel guests, are

not familiar with the building. During an emergency situation such as a fire or blackout, ensuring

the safety of these people becomes very difficult. Fire Safety Engineering (2006) points out that

even with comprehensive safety codes, fires still cause death and injuries in hotels; this is mainly

due to unprofessional crisis management. Knowledge in maintaining an effective emergency

plan is essential. Hotel engineers are the key people to ensure the effectiveness of this plan; this

includes not only the normal maintenance of firefighting equipment, but also the training of all

staff in fire drill and evacuation practice.

Crowell, C. (2009) further elaborates the importance that “having a well thought out emergency

action plan and a staff that knows how to execute it is just as important as all of the building

codes”. Guests would assume that staff in the hotel is well trained and prepared to assist guests in

case of emergencies.

Therefore, conducting fire drills and emergency evacuations is one of the important safety

practices in hotels; all the staff in the building is expected to be well trained and capable of

guiding guests to leave the hotel building in the case of an emergency. The objective is to avoid

fatal injuries during the outbreak of incidents and accidents.

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Energy conservation – Promoting energy conservation is not only inclusive in the hospitality

industry; it is a world-wide ‘green’ effort. Controlling the utilities in a building such as

electricity, gas, steam, fuel oil and water requires technical knowledge; hotel engineers are the

experts to promote this awareness. Reducing the energy consumption or minimizing the wastage

could reduce environmental pollution; it can also save on utility expenses (Chan, 2007).

Rutherford (1987), in his study of the responsibilities of hotel chief engineers, pointed out that

energy conservation and management came in second in the list of his study results.

Control of expenses - Another function of the engineering department is the control of

maintenance expenses. Hotel engineers need to be sensitive in controlling the spending of

expenses in order to meet the financial budgets (Cotts, 1998). Chan (2007) points out that

maintenance cost is as high as 8-12 %; while the utility cost is as high as 5-12% of the total hotel

expenses. Engineering is to support the profit margin by controlling the expenses of utilities by

implementing energy conservation programs, and the outsource expenses by selecting competent

contractors. Chan (2007) also suggested that an effectively planned maintenance framework

could minimize the cost, as it prevents the breakdown of equipment which could cause an

interruption in business. Planned maintenance allows for the minimization of emergency repair

and the loss of production capacity.

Community social responsibility (CSR) - Chan & Ho (2006) advise that Green practice, such

as ISO14001 accreditation, promotes the brand image; Samuel (2008) also urges hotel engineers

to go ‘green’ as this is the new way of doing business. Most CSR activities involve technical

knowledge; e.g. environmental protection, reducing of CO2 emission, use of energy efficient

products, elimination of contaminated substances and education for staff for the awareness.

Engineers play a significant role in a hotel to drive for participation. Hawkins (2009) emphasizes

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that “hospitality operators must be able to prove that their sustainable business practices make a

difference in order to win consumers for whom CSR matters.”

Project management – Hotel areas need to be refurbished at regular interval in order to

maintain the contemporary (Sohail et al, 2007). For example, guest rooms are renovated once

every five to seven years; typical score of work includes replacement of furniture and fixtures,

redecoration and some minor modifications (Langdon, D & Everest, 2002). Hotel engineers

need to plan and coordinate these projects. Wysocki (2009) advises that the goal of project

management is to complete the project within the budgeted timeframe and cost as per the

determined quality requirements.

2.3 The link between Engineering and the hotel quality performance

Although hotel technicians and engineers are seldom in contact with hotel guests directly, it does

not mean that they are excluded from contributing to the overall hotel quality performance.

Engineers’ role and responsibilities are important to maintain a comfortable and safe

environment for hotel guests, controlling the expenses to meet the financial budget and to

promote the hotel image. In other words, engineers need to meet the stakeholders’ needs.

Stakeholders include hotel guests, internal departments, and property owners.

Hotel guests - Cotts (1998) suggests that effective maintenance of facilities is important in

supporting the business. Each business has a philosophy about the facility; facility management

is part of the business function. Therefore, hotel engineers/facility managers are also business

managers. They need to align the departmental goals with the hotel business goals.

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Sohail at el (2007), in their research for the determinants of service quality in Malaysian hotels,

point out that people consider factors like comfort, cleanliness and safety in selecting hotels.

Quality in services and facilities are equally important for sustainable competitive advantage.

Engineering department is responsible for the facility management. Therefore, its effectiveness

would affect the overall performance of the hotel. For example, they pointed out that outdated

and worn out furnishings could de-value the appearance of the hotel.

Durodola & Oloyede (2011) have conducted a research on 57 hotels in Nigeria regarding the

importance of asset management. They concluded that the goal of facility management is to

support the core business; an effectively planned maintenance program to upkeep the assets is

one of the important ways for improving hotel business. Effective preventive maintenance

enables the physical plants to provide a comfortable and safe environment; proper upkeep of

fixtures and furniture provides a cozy and warm atmosphere.

Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) have conducted a study of maintenance performance for hotels in

Hong Kong. They concluded that proper maintenance of physical assets is important to provide a

healthy and comfortable atmosphere for hotel guests. The working condition of the building

service systems have a direct and significant effect on the customers’ impression of the hotel; for

example, improper air temperature from air-conditioning, leaking from ceiling water pipes and

disturbance from improper control of construction noise could disturb guests and cause guest

dissatisfaction.

Gruman, Chhinzer,& Smith, (2011) support that handling disasters in the hospitality industry is

difficult due to the high volume of occupants in the building; hotels should be well prepared for

possible crisis and emergencies. Their study showed that experience and knowledge could

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enhance crisis readiness. Hofmann (2005) pointed out that a comprehensive crisis management

policy could promote the brand image of the hotel.

Wai (in Okoroh, Jones and llozor, 2003) in his study of facility management and hotel

renovation in Hong Kong suggested that effective facility management strategies could be

applied in renovation projects in order to minimize the disturbances to hotel guests. Chan (2007)

also suggests that engineering staff are required to work in shift, so that most repair work could

be arranged in the day time when most guests are out of the hotel. Middle and night shift

technicians are mainly for emergency repair. This arrangement is mainly to minimize the

disturbances to hotel guests.

Okoroh, Jones and llozor (2003), in their study of the benefits of facilities management in the

hospitality industry, suggested a model of hotel accommodation package to satisfy customer

needs. Figure 2.1 shows the details of the model. The model indicates that hotel guests look for

feeling of well-being, high standard of hygiene, cleanliness, health and safety, appropriate

lighting and air quality, protection from environmental hazards, hot food and beverage and cozy

fixtures and furniture. It suggests that while hotels focus on tangible service such as room

check-in, food service; hoteliers should also realize that customer satisfaction must be balanced

with intangible services such as security, a feeling of well being…etc.

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Figure 2.1 – Hotel accommodation package ( Okoroh, Jones and llozor, 2003)

In view of above, the engineering department plays a key role in maintaining a comfortable,

healthy and safe environment for hotel external guests through effective facility management;

this includes sufficient lighting, good air quality, and a quiet and warm environment with a well-

prepared safety policy. These factors contribute directly to the customer satisfaction.

Property Owners – Property owners focus on investment returns. A proper maintenance

program maintains a good physical condition of the property; it can extend the life span of the

assets. Therefore, proper maintenance will increase the investment return for the property owner

(Durodola & Oloyede, 2011). The property owner is one of the important customers. His

satisfaction could ensure the employment of the hotel management team.

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Internal customers - Most processes in a hotel involve multiple departments. To be successful

in practicing TQM, organizations have to integrate the quality management into the business

strategy and to align the goals horizontally and vertically throughout the various levels within the

organization (Oakland, 2003). In a typical hotel, there are three levels vertically - the senior

management level, the business level (middle management) and the functional level (shop floor).

The senior management level includes owner and his representations and the hotel general

manager. The middle management is the department head such as front office manager,

accountant, chief engineer…etc, and the shop floor staff is rank and file employees such as

receptionists, waiters and technicians…etc. Horizontally, there are departments – front office,

food and beverage (F&B), housekeeping, sales and marketing, human resources, accounting,

engineering and culinary. Figure 2.2 shows a typical hotel organization chart.

Figure 2.2 – Typical hotel organization chart ( Baker, Bradley & Huyton in Fleseriu & Fleseriu,

2010)

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TQM is to satisfy the customers’ needs; internally, this can be achieved successfully by

executing every process and activity carefully from the first supplier to the last customer; this is

the ‘quality chain’. Managing quality requires effort at all levels of the organization and,

importantly, at all steps in the quality chain (Oakland, 2003). Meeting the requirement of the

internal customers in the ‘quality chain’ is critical in delivering the final product to the final

external customer in a hotel.

Hotel engineers need to support the hotel accountants in achieving the financial goal. Achieving

the financial goals is one of the important tasks for managers as a balanced scorecard is still a

popular performance measurement (Oakland, 2003). For hotel engineers, controlling energy and

maintenance costs needs proper planning. Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) points out that in

estimating the energy cost, the outdoor weather condition, guestroom occupancy rate and food

covers should be taken into consideration as they will affect the energy consumption. Chan

(2007) also advises that energy consumption can be reduced by implementing energy

conservation programs; e.g. replacing old equipment with new energy efficient equipment and

machinery, educating staff to minimize energy wastage such as turning off the lighting and air-

conditioning when the office is not occupied.

Planning of cost control is a bottom-up process which requires front line operator involvement

(Campbell, 1995). Input from engineering staff for proper spending of expenses will increase the

effectiveness of engineering operations. Research by Chan (2007) confirmed that health and

safety, energy consumption and guest expectation have been the major influential factors for

maintenance decision making in hotels in Hong Kong.

44

2.4 Quality methodology and tools

To drive quality improvement, use of proper methodologies such as quality frameworks and

tools is necessary as they can assist the organization to effectively manage quality (Oakland,

2003).

Quality framework - A quality framework can provide a high-level guideline to assist a

company to manage quality. It works as a road-map to guide the employees (Oakland 2003).

Oakland (2003, p21) suggested a TQM framework with four Ps (planning, people, process and

performance) and 3Cs (culture, communication and commitment). He suggests that planning,

people and process are the key factors in the quality framework to deliver performance (4 Ps);

while culture, communication and commitment (3Cs) support and link the 4Ps to produce the

result. Therefore, competent people, clear processes, comprehensive plans, and effective tools

are essential for managing quality.

EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) is a popular quality framework for

business excellence in Europe; it guides organizations to self assess nine key areas of the

business. The first five aspects are called enablers; they are: leadership, people, policy and

strategy, partnership and resources, and result. Another four areas are referred as result; they are:

people results, customer results, society results and key performance results. The main advantage

of the framework is that it drives for the continuous improvement (EFQM, 2003). Home and

Personal Care-Europe (HPCE) has adopted EFQM quality framework for quality improvement.

The successful deployment of the framework changed the culture of the company, improved the

efficiency of the workforce and increased the business revenue and profit by 20% (Oakland,

2003).

45

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (2011) indicates that ISO is a standard

which is recognized internationally. This framework provides a set of standardized

requirements for a quality management system. This accredited certification needs to be

certified by external auditor. Currently three types of framework are available; they are ISO

14001(environmental management system), ISO18001 (workplace safety management

system) and ISO 9001(quality management system). The organization claims that these

certifications can increase the brand image of the company.

Chan & Ho (2006) advised, in their research about the environment management systems in

hotels, that most hotels have had some sort of in-house environment conservation programs

with different degrees of intensity; however, proper tools such as ISO 14001 would provide a

more effective guideline.

Interestingly, Harrington & Keating (2006) have studied hotels in Ireland. They found out that

only 28.2 percent of Irish hotels had adopted a formal quality management system, although

most Irish hoteliers indicated that they were familiar with quality certification. However, the

research did not provide the reasons for this phenomenon.

Quality Tools

Flowchart - Reding, Ratiiff & Fullmer (1998) believe that flow charting is one of the useful

quality tools. Process mapping and flow charting allow a proper documentation of work

processes and provide a clear picture of business process, which allows better understanding of

business processes and enables easy identification of inefficiencies and problem solving.

Standardised operating procedures – Harrington & Keating (2006) state that standardised

operating procedures is one of the important tools to maintain product consistency. Their

research indicated that 77.7% of hotels in Ireland had documented operation policy and

46

procedures. Sohail et al (2007), in their research of Malaysian hotels, supports that the hotel’s

standard operating procedures should be constantly reviewed to maintain the consistency of

quality and efficiency of service. Effective supervision is the answer to ensure that employees

are following the procedures.

Statistical process control (SPC) - DACS (n.d.) introduces that SPC is popular in managing the

process performance; it can be used to monitor the consistency of processes. For example, upper

and lower limits can be set, so that inconsistency can be monitored if the process result exceeds

the limits. SPC also make use of the seven tools of quality – check sheet, histogram, Pareto chart,

cause and effect diagram, scatter diagram, control chart and graph. DACS (n.d.) recommends

that STC is effective for industrial application. This is suitable for electrical and mechanical

system performance monitoring in a hotel.

Audit is one of the effective tools to evaluate the effectiveness of quality management; there are

internal and external audits. The assessment allows organizations to view their strengths and to

identify areas for improvement (Oakland, 2003).

Technology – IT technology is important in today’s business. Griswold (2003) points out that an

effective automated work order response system can assist hotels to quickly respond to work

request and track the completion status. The system also provides data for management to make

decisions for performance improvement; for example, reports can be generated for top incidents,

recurring problems and trend analysis. Ptak & Schragenheim (2004) support that the rapid

development of technology has enabled management information systems to become powerful

aids for improving business performance; e.g. enterprise resource planning (ERP) system enables

integration of core business processes. It can help reshape businesses and align organizational

structures and processes with industry best-practices.

47

Karatasou, Geros & Santamouris (2008) suggested that integrating the existing building

system with emerging IT technology could develop a new internet based energy and

environment services. This allows remote control and monitoring of cooling equipment.

Energy for cooling is the biggest energy consumption for buildings; this technology facilitates

the monitoring and analysis in order to control and reduce the energy consumption.

Strategy deployment – Turing strategy into action is a bottom-up process which requires front

line operator involvement, shop floor staff are the owners of each work processes (Campbell,

1995). This is in line with the suggestion from Oakland (2003) that bottom-up approach is

effective in executing strategies while a top-down approach is more effective in the policy

deployment as instructions are always from the top. Bottom- up process requires motivation so

that operations staff will suggest creative and innovative solutions for the implementation of

processes.

Since hotel engineers have to operate electrical and mechanical systems in the hotel to ensure the

guest comfort and safety; it will be useful to find out how the quality tools can assist hotel

engineers in their operation and work processes.

2.5 Performance measurement

Performance measurement is important to be able to indicate the effectiveness of the quality

strategy implemented. This is a reiterate process; continuous monitoring allows organization to

check if the standards of quality are being met and identify problems for rectification (Oakland,

2003)

48

People have been arguing that performance is difficult to measure in the service industry. This is

due to the fact that people are not aware that service is also a product (Deming in Saunders et al,

1992). Also, service is delivered at the time it is produced; any performance measurement taken

will be too late to avoid an error when in contact with the customer. Furthermore, personal

preference is different from person to person; hotels have to tailor the service for different

individuals. This makes the measurement criteria difficult to define (Saunders et al, 1992).

However, a study from Saunders et al (1992) pointed out that service quality is the balance

between the expectations that the customer had and their perception of the service received. It is

possible, by focusing on the processes and identifying appropriate quality measures, to obtain

data to measure the performance in the hospitality industry.

Zimmerman & Enell (in Saunders et al, 1992) suggested four categories to measure service

performance: timeliness, integrity, predictability, customer satisfaction. Timeliness refers to the

response time for the guest request. Integrity refers to the completeness of the service.

Predictability refers to the consistency of the service, and customer satisfaction refers to the

appreciation of the service from the customer.

Van Schalkwyk (1998) suggests that organizations should develop their own unique set of key

indicators for measuring their products. The performance measurement should strongly focus on

the customer satisfaction. The measurement result should be available freely at all levels for the

process owners who need to maintain and improve the quality; this is to encourage employee

employment. This information is a good learning opportunity for employees to perform

continuous improvement with the application of benchmarking.

Engineering department is responsible for maintaining a comfortable and safe environment for

hotel guests; the internal audit measures the effectiveness of facility management. The major

49

objective of preventive maintenance is to minimize machinery breakdown; Chan, Lee & Burnett

(2001) introduce a method, urgent repair request index (URI), to measure the machine

breakdown.

URI = UR/ (UR + GR)

where UR is the number of urgent repair requests arising from guests and in-house staff, and GR

is the number of normal request for repair of building facilities. The equation states that the

fewer the urgent requests from guests, the lower the URI. This indicates high preventive

maintenance efficiency.

The second priority of the engineering department is to control the utility cost. For facility

management, it is common to measure the energy efficiency index. This is the annual equivalent

energy consumption normalized over the gloss floor areas. The research by Chan, Lee & Burnett

(2001) shows that the average energy efficiency index for hotels in Hong Kong is 457kWh/M2.

Oakland, (2003) also proposed a performance measurement framework. He believes that

performance measurement, to be effective, should focus on 4 levels as shown in table 2.2.

Table 2.2 – Performance measurement framework (Oakland, 2003)

Level Description MeasurementLevel 1 Strategy development and goal

deployment;Key performance outcomes and targets

Level 2 Process management Process performance measuresLevel 3 Individual performance

measurementPerformance appraisal

Level 4 Review performance Self Assessment, surveys, benchmarking etc.

50

2.6 Critical success factors

Oakland (2003), in his TQM model, emphasizes the importance of competent people, clear

processes, comprehensive plans, and effective tools. He believes that these factors are the

components forming the TQM framework.

Yang (2006) studied and compared the practices for quality management for different service

industries in Taiwan, namely hospitals, hotels, insurance companies, banks, department stores

and airlines. The study revealed that hotels devoted stronger attention on the following practices:

top management support, market segment and positioning, customer focus, design service

process, training, standardize policy and procedures, leadership, customer satisfaction and

measure, internal customer measure, performance audit and continuous improvement. The study

also pointed out that employee motivation, input control, and empowerment were insufficient in

the hospitality industry.

Sila and Ebrahipour (2003) identified 76 validated TQM success factors and their impacts; the

top twenty factors are: top management commitment, leadership, customer focus, information

and analysis, training, supplier management, strategic planning, employee involvement, human

resource management, process, management, teamwork, product and service design, process

control, benchmarking, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, quality assurance,

social responsibility, and employee satisfaction. These factors could be considered as the most

universally applied factors.

Most international chain hotels believe that top management commitment is important. This is

why most hotel groups provide a clear mission statement as a business direction. For example,

Shangri-La Hotel’s mission is ‘To be the first choice for guests and colleagues, shareholders and

business partners (Shangri-La.com, 2011).

51

Oakland (2003, p58) suggests that the top-down approach is more effective for new policy

deployment as instructions are always from the top. However, bottom-up approach is more

effective as ideas for how to implement the policy should be encouraged in the departmental and

shop-floor level. This opinion is supported by Wheeler and Sillanpaa (in Tantawy & Tanner,

2001) that top-down control and command should be balanced with bottom-up spirit for

promoting continuous improvement. Since engineering is a technical department, knowledge of

building systems is necessary to ensure the safe operation of the facility. Therefore, engineering

staff should poses the required competence and commitment together with passion for the work

(Trkman, 2010)

Tantawy & Tanner (2001) recommends factors for implementing business excellence model, i.e.

EFQM. The factors are proper leadership style in the different stage of the implementation; clear

objective of change leading to ‘comfortable’ change; favorable company culture; use of system

thinking for diagnosis; proper method of prioritization; and the approach for managing the

change.

Calingo (1996) points out that continuous improvement is a ‘must’ in TQM. Instead of following

common quality norms, organizations should consider matching or exceeding competitors’

quality. Oakland (2003) recommends that the E-P-D-C-A (evaluate, plan, do, check and amend)

is an effective model for continuous improvement.

Chan (2007) also suggests another two factors for increasing the efficiency of the engineering

department. Traditionally, technicians are of mono-skill; e.g. electrician with electrical trade

qualifications, carpenters with woodwork knowledge…etc. Promotion of having technicians with

multiple skills in the hotel engineering department could improve the overall quality and reduce

labor costs. Another recommendation is hiring specialized contractors for equipment with high

52

technological needs as the technicians in the hotel may not have the proper knowledge to

maintain these pieces of equipment, and contractors are needed to sustain the quality

requirements. Some of these machines may include generators, boilers, chillers, and fire

detection systems.

The factors mentioned above could be considered as the most universally applied factors. The

priority of these factors still need further investigation even though it is still the same when

applied to an engineering department.

2.7 Negative factors

Recent research emphasizes the importance of critical factors for practicing TQM. Scholars

believe that there are also factors affecting the performance negatively. For example, TQM is

to change the culture of an organization (Oakland, 2003); there are always barriers affecting

the change. Van Schalkwyk (1998) pointed out that use of a traditional financial policy to set

goals may affect the output level negatively; e.g. focusing heavily on financial data for

monitoring and controlling may reduce the focus on the customers’ needs. This has a direct

impact on a hotel engineering department as the engineering department is considered to be a

money spending department. Any financial limit may limit the performance of the

department. Calingo (1996) also advises that trying to maximize profit and ignoring the value

on customer loyalty would not help to improve the profitability; conversely, it will negatively

impact the performance of an organization rather than positively. The proper way to reduce

the cost is by improving the process such as re-engineering, making use of technology to

improve efficiency and eliminate waste (Kerzner, 2010).

53

Harrington & Keating (2006) also carried out a study on quality management initiatives in

Irish Hotels. They found out that one of the barriers for the success of quality management

has been the ingrained attitude of staff. They reported that over 25.5 % of respondents stated

that staff did not pay attention to quality requirements; and 23 % respondents reflected the

staffs’ lack of enthusiasm. Wong (2007) believes that staff behavior is influenced by both

internal and external factors; for example, Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of human needs’

model suggests that behavior is affected by factors within an individual. Herzberg’s ‘dual

factor’ suggests that employment factors could also influences staff behavior; this is further

supported by Maroudas, Kyriakidou & Vacharis (2008), in their study of employees’

motivation in hotel industry, that human resources polices, practices and provision of

incentives are important for the creation of a workplace environment which ultimately affects

staff behaviors. Carbone (in Harrington & Keating, 2006) points out another reason of TQM

failures is that organization have focused on the production improvement, they have neglected

the importance of empowerment in the service industry.

In addition, Andy Helmore, director of engineering at the Four Seasons Hampshire, pointed

out that one of the difficulties in the hotel is that “Everyone who stays here wants to

experience a quality product, but no one wants to be bothered by maintenance work". For the

proper preventive maintenance, machines have to be scheduled and suspended for service and

overhaul. For example, elevators have to be put out of service during the oiling or change of

cables. Sometime, even the general manager does not like to see the suspension of the service.

Looking for a suitable time for the suspension of different systems for overhaul has been one

of the challenges for hotel engineers. This kind of problem may not happen in other types of

buildings such as office towers (Janet, 2010).

54

Finding out of these barriers could help the engineering department to pay close attention to

these barriers; so that the department can improve its quality management performance.

2.8 Summary

Chapter 2 presented a literature review on the role and responsibilities of hotel engineers in

supporting the hotel to achieve customer satisfaction. It also reviews the existing knowledge in

measuring the performance of a hotel engineering department and the factors affecting the

performance of the department both positively and negatively.

The engineering department is the key department in a hotel to maintain the physical plants,

safety systems and production equipment; in return, it provides a comfortable and safe

environment for guests in a hotel. Engineering department also need to support other

departments (internal customers), so that these departments can achieve their business goals.

Except few fragmented research studying the performance of maintenance such as research by

Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001); no study was prevalent on how the hotel engineering department

links its effort to the hotel TQM. This study focus on how engineering department, a back-of-

house department, contributes its effort to support the overall hotel performance. The next

section - Chapter 3, presents the methodology employed in this study for the research.

55

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This chapter presents steps of how the research was carried out. This chapter includes the

following sections: the research design and approach, objectives of the research, justification for

the use of qualitative and quantitative approaches, data collection method, interview design and

conclusion.

3.2 Research Design and Approach

A qualitative approach was adopted for this research; structured interviews were conducted to

collect data in response to the research questions.

The result of the analysis is presented by inductive (descriptive) method; knowledge from the

interviewer, interviewees and previously researched results was incorporated into the report.

The author selected two qualified hotel engineers to pilot test the questionnaire, the purpose was

to:

Check if each question could measure the desired objective;

Check for any misunderstanding of the questions;

Check if interviewees felt comfortable answering the questions;

Measure the time that was required for the interview.

56

3.3 Objectives of the Research

The main objective of this research was to study how a hotel engineering department, a back-of-

house department, supported the hotel TQM and the factors that affected its performance.

To achieve the objective, the dissertation intended to find answers to the following questions:

How does the engineering department in hotels support the goals of quality management?

What are the most critical factors that will impact the engineering department both

positively and negatively to achieve the quality?

What kind of quality tools and techniques can improve the efficiency of engineering

departments in hotels?

How do hotels measure the performance of the engineering department?

3.4 Justification for using Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches

Quantitative research – this approach is considered to be systematic scientific research as it

makes use of mathematic calculation and statistics; the process is termed inferential statics

(White, 2002). It is believed that this approach is more objective in supporting or rejecting a

hypothesis or a theory with minimum bias. Therefore, quantitative research is for testing

hypotheses and ideals for scientific research; this technique is suitable for collecting data

including questionnaires and experiments (McGuigan, 2011).

Qualitative research – Qualitative research is a “descriptive, non-numerical way to collect and

interpret information”. The data collecting techniques include interview, observation, use of

diaries, case study, and action research. In this type of research, research questions or arguments

are proposed; data is collected and interpreted to support the research questions (White, 2002).

57

Therefore, this approach is suitable for business management subjects; e.g. exploring behavior

and business practices (McGuigan, 2011).

However, McGuigan (2011) warns that this approach is more subjective as it could have been

influenced by the personal opinions of the interviewer and the interviewees, and their opinions

could have been biased. The interviewer has to properly plan the interview and ensure that the

feedback from interviewees were justifiable.

In consideration of the nature of this dissertation and the analysis of both research approaches;

the qualitative approach was a suitable choice for this dissertation.

3.5 Data Collection Methods

Fourteen (14) hotel engineers were interviewed either in groups, individually, or by telephone/e-

mail in Beijing and Hong Kong of China. Engineers were selected from international brand 5-

star chain hotels in China; they all had worked / have been working as a hotel chief

engineer/director of engineering for at least 5 years and have worked in different cities in China.

Participation was on a voluntary basis, and the interviewing time was approximately two hours.

Participants offered primary data from their own experiences; they were not representing any

particular hotel, therefore, no consent from any organizations was required; this arrangement was

to encourage interviewees to express their opinions freely without concern for specific

organizational restrictions regarding the release of organization information. Interviewees were

asked to sign a declaration form; the form is shown in Appendix A.

The advantage of using interviews was to minimize and clear any misunderstandings of the

research questions immediately during the face-to-face discussion. This allowed the interviewer

to ensure that answers from the interviewees were related to the research questions. Also, the

58

interviewer could have made use of the opportunity to discuss in-depth for particular issues if the

interviewee showed interest (White, 2002).

A description of this research together with the objectives and questions was sent to participants

two weeks in advance; this was to allow the participant to prepare for the interview.

3.6 Interview design

During the interview, interviewees were encouraged to contribute their experiences with TQM

practices in hotels. They were expected to offer the following information:-

description of functions that the department supports the hotel service quality;

he correlation between departmental performance and overall hotel TQM performance;

A subjective opinion on the most important critical success factors supporting the

engineering department to achieve the quality goals;

A subjective opinion on the most important critical factors affecting the performance of

the department negatively;

A description of the quality methodologies, tools and techniques used to improve the

efficiency/quality of engineering departments.

Since a structured interview approach was used in this research, a question list was prepared as

shown in appendix B. The advantage of preparing the questions is that these questions could

have been sent to the interviewees in advance together with the introduction of this dissertation

59

so that interviewees could prepare for the information before the interview. Also, discussion

questions were consistent for all interviewees.

3.7 Conclusion

In summary, a qualitative approach was adopted for this research. Structured interviews were

conducted in Hong Kong and Beijing, China to collect primary data from experienced hotel

engineers.

60

Chapter 4: Results and Analysis

4.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a summary of the results of the interview; it also analyzes the

interviewees’ opinions with key concepts and relates the findings with the research questions.

4.2 Interviewees

A total of 14 hotel engineers were interviewed. Two individual interviews were conducted to

pilot test the questionnaire; the test revealed that the interviewees showed interest to the

discussion topic and the questions can measure the desired objective within the targeted

timeframe of 2 hours. Interviews were conducted either in groups or individually. One group

interview was conducted in Beijing with 3 engineers; another group interview was conducted in

Hong Kong with 4 engineers. Four individual interviews were conducted in Beijing；another 3

engineers were interviewed by telephone or e-mail in Beijing. Two of the interviewees are

regional engineers for China region; one interviewee is the regional facility manager for China

region. The others are either chief engineers or directors of engineering of 5-star chain hotels.

They all had worked / have been working as hotel engineers for more than five years. The

interviewees’ information and location of hotels are summarized and shown in appendix C.

4.3 Key findings

4.3.1 Roles and responsibilities of the hotel engineering department

61

Roles and responsibilities - All interviewees confirmed that their major roles in the hotel are

same as those listed in section 2, they are:-

reventive maintenance for building physical plants;

ork requests handling;

nforcement of fire and life safety policies;

nergy conservation;

ontrol of maintenance expenses;

romotion of community social responsibility (CSR);

roject management

62

Leadership – In addition to the above roles and responsibilities, hotel engineers interviewed also

pointed out that a hotel engineer is also a department head; he needs to build and maintain a high

performance and effective working team to carry out the daily routines and projects. Engineers

have to lead and manage their subordinates professionally and ethically; this includes the training

of staff, motivation, creating a fair working environment, planning and supervision of work,

effective use of resources, handling complaints…etc. They are facing these challenges on a daily

basis. Therefore, effective management and leadership skills are important for hotel engineers;

management skills enable engineers to properly plan the tasks while leadership skills assist them

to influence the emotion and intellect of staff (Wong, 2007).

Engineers are business managers – However, all interviewees advised that using the

traditional way, such as a production-oriented approach, to carrying out the above duties is

not enough to meet today’s customer expectation. Hotel engineers have to be service-oriented

as well as customer-oriented, much like a businessman.

Interviewees pointed out that all senior management members in a hotel including hotel

engineers are business persons and they needed to closely participate in the sales and

marketing activities due to the high market competition in the hospitality market. For

example, engineers have to attend sales meetings with clients for their technical needs.

Customers always have special needs; this includes, but is not limited to: special lighting

effect in a banquet event, additional demand of electricity for their display of new products,

live time broadcasting of meetings…etc. Saunders et al (1992) advised that service quality is

the balance between the expectations that the customers had and their perception of the

service received; therefore the more information the hotel could get from the customer, the

63

smaller the gap between the expectation and the perception of the service provided. This can

greatly enhance the customer satisfaction.

Response time for making the decision to these customer requests is also essential for the

success in today’s competitive market; nowadays, customers expect a reply as quickly as

possible. A late response would increase the threat of losing the business. Engineers have to

work at the same pace as the sales and marketing personnel. Engineers are one of the key

members in the hotel sales team. The traditional production-oriented practice is no longer

applicable to hotel engineers; they need to be customer-oriented and service-oriented.

This business-oriented attitude also has to be applied to project management in hotels. In

addition to the opinion of Wai (in Okoroh, Jones and llozor , 2003) that renovation projects

should be arranged so that the disturbance to guests should be kept to minimum, for instance,

careful time selection for construction projects to audible disturbances to the guests,

interviewees also emphasized that the impact to the hotel financial revenue should also be

kept to a minimum. Renovation sometimes calls for the closing of some areas for

refurbishment; scheduling the construction work during the low season when there are fewer

guests could reduce the loss of revenue income. However, these kinds of arrangements

usually would increase construction costs due to the time restriction. Therefore, engineers

should apply a commercial mind set and service attitude to balance the construction cost and

the loss due to guest dissatisfaction. This could achieve the maximum profit for the hotel.

Also, a hotel engineer is one of the executive committee members in a hotel; he/she has to

take over the executive-on-duty manager position on a shift basis. Executive-on-duty manager

is the duty manager during the absence of the hotel general manager; he/she is in-charge of

64

the hotel operations on behalf of the hotel general manager. During the shift, the engineer has

to make business decisions on behalf of the general manager.

In view of above, hotel engineers have to operate the building facilities to support the hotel

business and to align the departmental goals with the hotel goals. Therefore, Cotts (1998)’s

opinion that facility managers are business managers is also applied to hotel engineers.

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.

Another example for being proactive is the catching up of technology to meet the guest needs.

Interviewees advised that the rapid advancement of technology has been one of the major

challenges for them. Hotel engineers pointed out that customers’ expectation has been

124

changing due to the change of technology. For example, traditional desk phone and hardwired

internet connection could not satisfy customers’ needs today. Hotel guests expect‘3G’ and

‘Wifi’ as their cell phones and hand-held internet access devices are not equipped with a

hardwired connection. This change makes hardwire for internet access becoming obsolete

now. Engineers need to update their knowledge and pay close attention to the change in

technology in order to know what and how the customers’ needs are changing; so that they

could plan and advance the building facilities. The quicker the response to the technology

change, the better the position of competitive advantage. This is support by Ptak &

Schragenheim (2004) that change of technology affects how organizations carry out their

business; organizations need to align the technology with their business process to sustain the

competitive advantage.

Although Chan, Lee & Burnett (2001) suggested that a quick response to work request is an

effective recovery action for rectifying deficiencies; one interviewee points out that this

practice can be further improved by taking proactive action to look for deficiencies before

someone comes across the problem. This practice is more effective in today’s engineering

practice. Traditionally, engineering department responds to problems when they received a

work order. That means the problem has already caused some inconvenience to customers

(either internal or external); this is why the customer issued the work order. The engineer

pointed out that one of the practices in his department is ‘management by walking’; he

himself and the duty engineer used to walk around the building at least twice a day. They

inspect essential areas including public areas and main production plants such as kitchen,

laundry and restaurants; the objective is to look for and rectify defects in advance before it

causes complaints. This is one of the effective ways to apply the 20/80 Pareto principle; by

125

inspecting the key operation areas which is about 20% of the hotel areas, could reduce 80% of

work orders. This practice could reduce substantially the complaints from customers (internal

and external) and inconveniences caused to them.

4.3.2 Support to the hotel TQM

Comfortable, healthy and safe environment - All hotel engineers interviewed agreed that hotel

engineers play an important role in providing a healthy, comfortable and safe environment for

people inside the building. This is one of the major factors for customer satisfaction as Sohail at

el (2007), in their research for the determinants of service quality in Malaysian hotels, pointed

out that people consider factors like comfort, cleanliness and safety in selecting hotels. Also,

large firms, before they sign a business agreement with the hotel, would send safety officers to

check the hotel building and review the fire and safety policy and procedures. This is to ensure

that the hotel will be safe for their staff to stay; fire and life safety is the fundamental to the hotel

business.

Crisis Readiness – Engineering department and security department play a significant role in

ensuring the safety of the hotel. The engineering department ensures the normal functionality of

life safety systems by providing repair and maintenance, while security department patrols the

building on a regular basis. Life safety systems include the fire detection system, close circuit

television system (CCTV), building access control and panic alarm system. It is important that

hotel staff is well prepared for possible crisis and emergencies so that they know how to assist

hotel guests. Gruman, Chhinzer & Smith (2011) advise that experience and knowledge could

126

enhance crisis readiness; this is why engineering and security department conduct regular

training and evacuation drills in the hotel. This is to enhance knowledge and readiness.

Most interviewees agreed that international brand chain hotels have higher safety standards in

comparison than local hotels. One interviewee explained that the main reason is that international

hotel groups have proper insurance by reputable international insurance companies. These

insurance companies have high demand of safety requirements; they also inspect the property

regularly for the compliance. This is one of the reasons that international brand chain hotels have

higher quality requirements. This is in line with the findings by Sohail et al (2007) that the

quality of local hotels in Malaysia is not as good as chain hotels.

W

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The contribution of the engineering department in respect to the hotel TQM performance,

provided by interviewees, is summarized and listed in table 4.1.

Table 4.1 – Links of engineering roles to TQM performance

Roles and responsibilities

Links to hotel TQM performance

Preventive maintenance

1. Provide proper lighting, comfortable air-conditioning, clean water supply, vertical transportation;

2. Maintain a cozy and warm atmosphere for hotel guests with contemporary decoration;

3. Minimize interruption to guest comfort due to the suspension of building facilities;

4. Sustain customer satisfaction and value for money;5. Support other departments’ productivity;6. Enhance safety;7. Enhance the property value; and, 8. Increase the return on investment for the building owner.

Work order handling 1. Provide a channel for guests to express dissatisfaction;2. Allow recovery for guest complaints;3. Provide a source for problem analysis; 4. Set guest history/preference to tailor service; and,

225

5. Maintain timeliness response.Life and safety policies

1. Ensure occupant safety, guests feel safe to stay;2. Enhance readiness for crisis management such as earthquake,

power outage, water flooding…etc3. Ensure swimming pool water hygiene;4. Eliminate air-borne disease;5. Promote safety awareness by conducting training, fire drill,

evacuation and precautionary measures;6. Assist in food safety and hygiene;7. Reduce staff accidents and injuries;8. Minimize damages to the property; and,9. Avoid fatal injuries.

Energy conservation‘Going green’

1. Promote a health environment by reducing pollution;2. Suggest and select energy efficient products;3. Promote brand image by going green;4. Promote ‘green’ awareness; and,5. Save expenses by reducing energy consumption.

Control of expenses 1. Budget and meet financial target;2. Control utility expenses;3. Reduce cost by value engineering; and,4. Effective use of resources.

CSR 1. Serve local community; 2. Promote brand image; guests feel good to stay with a good CSR

hotel; and,3. Build corporate identity.

Project management 1. Maintain ‘contemporary’ for hotel hardware;2. Minimize disturbance by arranging proper construction time; 3. Meet budgeted cost and time; 4. Control quality; and,5. Ensure construction site safety.

Management and leadership

1. Achieve hotel and departmental goals2. Achieve staff satisfaction;3. Reduce turn-over rate; and,4. Support career development.

4.3.3 Methodology and tools

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Quality framework – Response from all interviewees revealed that none of the engineers

have used any high level ‘common’ quality frameworks such as EFQM or ISO 9001. This

phenomenon is in line with the findings of Harrington & Keating (2006). They have studied

hotels in Ireland and found out that only 28.2 percent of Irish hotels had adopted a formal

quality management system, even though most Irish hoteliers indicated that they were familiar

with quality certification. Interviewees pointed out that all hotels do have their own quality

control system. Generally speaking, hotels focus on the performance of similar aspects; i.e.

the customer perspective, financial perspective, Human resources perspective, business

241

process perspective and Community service perspective. Different hotel groups have different

policies and requirements for each perspective areas; they setup their own quality

requirements for their own business directions.

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Cultural change - Interviewees advised that TQM is a culture; it takes time to create the culture.

Hotel management has to provide clear requirements, so that staff knows the expectation of the

result. It is necessary to allow the staff to see the advantages of TQM, so that commitment could

be gained from employees. The right attitude could generate the proper behavior. This is in line

with the suggestion from Oakland (2003) that cultural change is necessary to implement TQM.

Also, Wong (2007) supports that dedication and passions are important factors in a dynamic and

effective working team.

Quality tools – interviewees pointed out that quality tools are important for a technical

department such as engineering department; it is known to rely on these tools for control,

management, measurement and analysis; different tools are for different applications and

different purposes. Using the right tools enhance the efficiency and improve the performance of

the department.

The common quality tools used by hotel engineers are listed in table 4.2

Table 4.2 – Common quality tools used by engineering department of hotels

Quality Tools for Hotel EngineeringDescription Purpose

Guest questionnaire/survey Measure guest satisfaction.

274

Mysterious guest survey Regular meetings with stakeholders

Ensure sufficient and effective communications.

Regular check /inspection; log sheets; checklist

Ensure functionality of equipment.

Cost/benefit analysis; ROI Investment analysis.Policy and procedures; flowcharts

Provide description of work process.

Cause-effect chart; scatter diagram; Pareto chart

Problem analysis; Identify causes of problems.

Control chart Control temperature range, chemical level…etc

Brain storming Encourage suggestions and new ideas.Benchmarking Compare performance and identify best

practicesIT technology – computer software

(See table 4.3 for detailed description of applications.)

IT Technology – Since the engineering department is handling technical systems, IT technology

has widely been used for all kinds of control and management. All hotel engineers interviewed

agreed that computer software is essential for both system control and management application.

IT technology plays an important role in quality assurance. The applications are summarized in

table 4.3.

Table 4.3 – Computer software for the hotel engineering department

Computer Software for Hotel EngineeringApplication Purpose

Building automation systems Monitoring and control of electrical and mechanical systems; e.g. HVAC, Plumbing, Boilers, Electrical distribution…etc.

Work order and preventive maintenance system (facility management system)

Management of work orders and preventive maintenance schedules and records.

Call accounting system Telephone call charges accounting system.Procurement system Issuing of purchasing orders to vendors.Store room inventory Control of spare parts.Utility metering system Recording of energy consumption.

275

E-mail Communication.Earthcheck Carbon footprint management.P/L report Repair and maintenance expenses summary.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) – Interviewees pointed out that IT technology plays a

significant role in the building systems’ control and monitoring; the rapid development of ERP

technology improved the performance of engineering department. For example, traditionally,

hotels had different software developed by different manufacturers for their own systems. The

new building automation system integrated and streamlined the processes of these systems, so

that all building systems, such as air-conditioning, lighting, water supply, fire alarm…etc, can be

controlled and monitored in one software。 Also, engineers can get the real-time information

from their computers such as room temperature, lighting status, water tank level…etc.; this could

allow the engineers to take rectification actions at the early stage of any occurred problems. In

addition, any system alarms will be re-directed to engineers’ cell phones or remote monitoring

stations. This further enhances the response time for handling problems. Another example is that

the work order system is intergraded with inventory and purchasing software; any spare parts

used in each work order will be recorded and inventory updated. The software can automatically

generate purchasing orders once the inventory drops below the pre-set minimum par level. This

integration reduces labor and increase productivity. Ptak & Schragenheim (2004) support that

ERP technology could enable the integration of business processes. The purpose of the

integration is to standardize work process, reduce waste, increase production speed, minimize

human error, and improve inter-department communication and interactions with suppliers and

customers. As a result, using technology will enable an enhancement in business performance,

which in turn improves customer satisfaction.

276

Benchmarking – controlling utility expenses is one of the major responsibilities for the

engineering department, one way to analyze utility consumption is through benchmarking.

However, engineers only compare the consumption with their own history data such as the data

of last month or same month of previous years; they do not benchmark with other hotels. There

are two reasons; no two hotels have the same design. Different designs will have different energy

demand; for example, hotels with more restaurants will have more kitchen equipment and require

more gas consumption for cooking. Also, different geographic areas have different weather

conditions. Outdoor temperature will affect energy consumption for air conditioning and heating

(Chan, 2003). Therefore, hotels in mild weather areas will use less energy than those hotels in

the tropical area or northern zone. This is supported by Cotts (1998) that measurement of

benchmarks may not be consistent unless the two properties being benchmarked are as similar as

possible. However, internal benchmarking is an effective tool to track the change over time;

internal benchmarking could help engineers to identify areas for improvement and measure the

performance. Figure 4.1 shows a typical internal benchmarking commonly used by engineers for

tracking electricity consumption per occupied room-night in hotels. Engineers compare the

current month’s consumption with the last month and same month of previously years; any

variation could be criticized against the affecting factors such as occupancy, outdoor temperature

and humidity…etc. This kind of tracking can also be used for evaluating the performance of

improvement projects. Being able to measure the result is important for continuous improvement

(Oakland, 2003).

277

Figure 4.1 – Electricity consumption per room-night

4.3.4 Performance measurement

The performance measurements for the engineering department are summarized in table 4.4.

Table 4.4 – Performance Measurement

Performance Measurement for Hotel Engineering DepartmentMeasurement Frequency Criteria

Process management measuresDepartmental audit. Yearly Compliance of company

requirements.

ISO 14001 audit. Yearly Compliance of environment conservation.

HACCP audit. Yearly Compliance of food safety.

ISO 18001 audit. Yearly Compliance of workplace safety practice.

Fire and Life safety audit.

Yearly Measurement of safety readiness.

Work request Daily Timeliness, integrity, predictability,

Electricity consumption /Occupied Room

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J an. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. J un. J ul . Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

201120102009

Month

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Year

278

response time. customer satisfaction.

Individual performance measurementIndividual performance appraisal.

Yearly Individual performance

Performance reviewUtility critique and review.

Monthly Analysis of energy consumption.

Customer survey. Monthly Customer satisfaction (working order of facilities).

Associate survey. Yearly Employee satisfaction.

Financial critique and review.

Monthly Meeting maintenance expenses and utilities budget.

Work requests review. Daily Identify problems and guest preferences.

Fire and Life safety inspection.

Weekly Identifying safety hazards.

Engineering log books and checklist review.

Daily Ensuring normal operation of electrical and mechanical plants.

The finding is in line with Oakland (2003) that performance measurement should focus on four

levels - Strategy development and goal deployment; Process management; Individual

performance measurement; Review performance. Since engineering department is in operations

level, the performance measurement focuses on the lower three levels (the first level should be

conducted in the senior management level).

All interviewees agreed that performance measurement is essential to assure quality; this

continuous monitoring allows for opportunities to identity problems and to propose areas for

improvement. Oakland (2003) supports that this reiterated process allows organization to check

if the standards of quality are being met and identify problems for continuous improvement.

279

Continuous improvement - All engineers believed that continuous improvement is one of the

important processes to improve the quality and sustain customer loyalty. For example, in

hospitality industrial, expectations from each guest are different; service for each guest need to

be tailored. From the work requests, engineering also finds the personal preference of guests.

These preferences will be logged in the guest profiles, so that a guest’s likes and dislikes will be

addressed during each visit of the guest.

Interviewees also pointed out that re-engineering is a popular methodology for continuous

improvement. The process is to map the ‘as-is’, identify the problem and to propose the ‘to-be’

model (Ptak, & Schragenheim, 2004). Especially when the process involves multi-departments; a

clear process and workflow enhance ownership. This is necessary for the improvement of the

reliability. Reliability promotes customer satisfaction (Oakland, 2003).

4.3.5 Critical success factor

The critical success factor (CSF) suggested by hotel engineers interviewed are summarized in

table 4.5.

Table 4.5 – Critical success factor

Critical Success Factors for Hotel Engineering Department

Description Vote Ranking

Align department goals with hotel goals 1Communication and coordination 5 4Clear quality requirements 4 5Effective team 8 2Employee involvement 1Employee satisfaction 1Empowerment 3Fair working environment 2Human resource management 1IT technology 1

280

Leadership and management skills 5 3Motivation 1Performance measurement 1Positive working environment 1Product and service design 1Purchasing process 1Support from senior management 9 1Support from hotel owner 2Sufficient fund for repair and maintenance 1Setting the right model from managerial managers 1Reward package 1Training 2Quality assurance 1

As indicated in the table above, the top five critical success factors are: Support from senior,

effective team, leadership and management skills, communication, and clear quality

requirements.

Senior management support– leadership has a profound effect on the success of quality

management (Oakland, 2003). Interviewees pointed out that the hotel general manager’s attitude

towards quality requirement is crucial for achieving the quality goals; he must have a strong

passion to drive business excellence, this includes setting the business direction and support to

encourage staff to achieve the goals. The general manger must understand the importance of

preventive maintenance of building facilities; so that he could ensure sufficient resources and

support the routine maintenance.

Effective team – the engineering team is to handle technical tasks which require competent

technicians and tradesmen such as electrician, mechanic, plumber, carpenter, mason,

electronic technicians…etc. In additional to their trade knowledge, technicians and tradesmen

also need to learn the facilities in the hotel, so that they can quickly response to the outbreak

of incidents such as water pipe rupture, gas leakage and power outage. Therefore, hotel

281

engineers have to build a high performance and cohesive work team with required knowledge

and competency.

Leadership and management skills – Interviewees revealed that the quality of the leader is

also critical for the success for quality performance. Strong leadership and management skills

can create an effective team which is required for achieving the departmental goals which

ultimately support the hotel goals.

One effective approach is empowerment. Since supervisors are not always around to make

decisions; allowing shop floor staff to make decisions at the guest contact point is necessary.

For example, guests may ask for the repair of their personal belongings. Since these items are

not hotel properties; the technician has to make a decision in front of the guest for helping or

not helping the guests. The staff has to justify the benefits and consequence in order to satisfy

the guest’s needs. This could enhance guest satisfaction. However, empowerment should only

be applied when the staff is competent to handle the job task.

Interviewees also believed that one of the major reasons that staff resign has been that the

staff do not like the behavior of his superior. Leaders have to behavior professionally and

appropriately to sustain credibility and gain respect from both subordinates and superiors.

Communication – communication is considered as the most important factor in all kinds of

activities. It is no exception in the hotel operations. Interviewees pointed out that at least 50%

of operational issues and problems are due to poor communications. Therefore, emphasizing

the importance of and promoting the effective use of communication means and tools are

necessary from time to time; this could improve the efficiency of the department.

282

4.3.6 Barriers

There are also factors that could affect the performance of engineering departments; these

barriers reported by interviewees are consolidated in table 4.6.

Table 4.6 – Common barriers

Common Barriers in Hotel Engineering Department

Description Vote Ranking

Bureaucratic policy – traditional financial practice 5 2Cost cutting excises 1Hard to recruit new staff 2High turn over rate 1Incorporation to save energy by staff of other department 2Insufficient training 1Incompetent staff 1Insufficient staff 1Inadequate support from senior management 6 1Inadequate support from owner 2Long approval time 1Long working hours for engineers in hotel 1Poor management and leadership skills 1Poor attitude of the hotel engineer 1Poor communication 1Unfair reward package 5 3Imbalance of work and personal life 1Resources constrain 2

The top three barriers are: inadequate support from senor management, unfair work

environment and bureaucratic policy – traditional financial practice.

Inadequate support from senior management – this is in line with the findings of the

critical success factors shown above. For a five-star chain hotel, senior management includes

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the general manager of the hotel and the regional engineering head office. Their support has a

profound effect on the performance of the department.

Engineers pointed out that most general managers like to see staff moving around in the hotel;

most general managers believe that the busy the hotel, the higher the moving. However, this is

not true in the engineering operation; engineers argued that technicians carry out the preventive

maintenance tasks mainly inside the machine room. If preventive maintenance is effective, the

breakdown of building facilities will be less. This would minimize complaints from both internal

and external customers. In another words, the work orders will be greatly be reduced and less

technicians moving in the public area. Therefore, the less the technicians are moving around in

the pubic area; the higher the performance of preventive maintenance. This is confirmed by the

Urgent Repair Index (URI) introduced by Chan, Lee & Burnett (2010). URI is one of the ways to

look at the effectiveness of engineering department and to measure the machine breakdown.

URI = UR/ (UR + GR)

Where UR is the number of urgent repair requests arising from guests and in-house staff, and GR

is the number of normal request for repair of building facilities. From the equation, the lower the

UR , the lower the URI. Therefore, effective preventive maintenance would minimize urgent

orders.

Traditional financial policy – although Van Schalkwyk (1998) advises that use of traditional

financial policy to set business goals would have negative impact on customer satisfaction;

unfortunately, this practice is still common in the hospitality industry. Since the engineering

department is considered to be a money spending department; any financial constrain will

limit the performance of the department.

The common phenomena as pointed out by interviewees are:-

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Delay for approving purchasing orders – the engineering department needs to

order spare parts from time to time. Senior management may wrongly believe that

delaying approval of procurement could defer the spending or minimize the

expenses. However, engineers pointed out that delayed repair or maintenance of the

hotel facilities would cause rapid deterioration; insufficient maintenance would

cause breakdown of machineries.

Progressive reduction of budget - hotel management has an intention to reduce the

budget for expenses every year; this includes the repair and maintenance expenses.

This practice is against the principle of normal wear and tear – the older the

machinery, the higher the repair and maintenance expenses due to accumulated

depreciation of the equipment. As explained by the interviewees, they have to lower

the service standard in order to achieve the financial goal. As a consequence, the

poor facility management performance would lower the customer satisfaction. Van

Schalkwyk (1998) accused that the “use of financial data to set goals and control

actions typically lead to manipulation of output levels to achieve cost targets”. For

example, focusing heavily on financial data for monitoring and controlling may

reduce the focus on the customers’ needs. Also, the budget was set one year before,

the financial target does not take into consideration the change of the market and it

disregards the needs of customers.

Calingo (1996) supported that trying to maximize profit and ignoring the customer

needs would not help to improve the profitability; conversely, it will negatively impact

the performance of the hotel rather than positively

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Unfair work environment - most interviewees pointed out that unfair reward packages for

technicians has been the biggest de-motivator in his department. The engineer explained that

back-of-house employees are considered as second level employees and their benefits are

below that of front line staff. He believes that this is due to the fact that management people

do not fully know the work score of engineering staff; insufficient knowledge of engineering

staff causes less care for the staff. Also, the grooming and appearance of technicians or

engineering workers is low in comparing with front-line staff, this may also be one of the

causes of the discrimination. Discriminating de-motivates and lowers the morale of the

workplace.

Being fair is the basic requirement for building a high performance, effective and cohesive

working team; especially in a multi-cultural working environment (Sanghera, 2010).

Multiple-skills – multiple-skills means that technical staff possesses more than one trade skill. In

general, interviewees agreed that the promotion of multiple-skills could enhance the performance

of the engineering department. For example, it would increase the flexibility of allocating daily

repair and maintenance routines. Also, technicians with multiple skills could handle work orders

more efficiently; they could handle different trade problems by themselves instead of calling

another technician for help. Reduction of response time to work orders could enhance the

customer satisfaction (Calingo, 1996). Therefore, this practice could enhance the quality

performance, reduce cost and increase the efficiency of the engineering department which is in

line with the suggestion by Chan (2007).

However, there are difficulties in promoting multiple-skills. First of all, technical training takes

time. Since engineering staff is full time employee, they can only take part-time upgrading

courses. A part-time electrical or air-conditioning tradesmen training will take at least 3 years.

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Secondly, the hotel HR policy may not be supportive. Hotels have a fixed range of wages for all

rankings; i.e. technicians will get the same wages no matter they have one or more than one trade

qualifications. The reward package does not motivate engineering technician to acquire second

trade certificate. Also, the hospitality industry is booming in China, new hotels have been built

substantially. These hotels have caused high demand of experienced staff in the labor market.

This also caused high turnover rate of existing hotels; it discourages hotels to provide long-term

training for employees.

4.4 Key concepts of the study

uality framework –

strength on different perspective areas for their own business direction.

4.4.2 Competency – To manage the engineering department of a hotel, the engineers needs not

only the engineering technical knowledge, but also other knowledge as shown in figure

4.2.

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Figure 4.2 – Required competency of hotel engineer

4.4.3 Staff Quality – the staff serve the hotel guests; they perform the most important task of

the production process - delivering the products to guest. No matter whether they are front -

line or back-of-house staff, serving the guest directly or indirectly, the staff needs to know

the guest expectation clearly. The ability to teach the staff these skills determines the success

of a hotel; providing requires information to the shop floor staff effectively is also a

challenge for hotel management. This is why Van Schalkwyk (1998) emphasized that

performance measurement result should be available freely at all levels for those process

owners who need to maintain and improve the quality; this is to allow them to know what

needs to be improved.

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4.4.4 True cost for saving the maintenance expense - Improper preventive maintenance or

delay repair of physical assets would eventually cost more. One of the losses is the recovery

cost from guests’ complaints due to the breakdown of equipment; another loss is the increase

of repair cost due to the breakdown of the machinery which is the result of prolonged

improper maintenance. This is in line with the opinion of Durodola & Oloyede (2011), that

“it is envisaged that the best practice of facilities management will cost money but avoiding

or delaying it may be extremely expensive in the end”.

This improper maintenance may also be caused by poor finance practice as explained in

clause 4.3.6. Inappropriate financial practice may be due to the political ambitions of the

hotel senior management; one of the reasons for these ambitions is that organizations offer

incentive or bonus which is based on the hotel profit; this will encourage the hotel manager

to over- cut the expenses in order to achieve maximum profit and maximum bonus.

Therefore, hotels should have a long term planning for facility maintenance.

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Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1 Introduction

From the research, there is new knowledge that can benefit hotel engineers and general

managers. There are also some shortages in the research which will require further investigation.

This chapter provides the recommendations.

5.2 Recommendations for hotel engineers and general managers

5.2.1 Cultural change

Hotel engineers and managers should be aware that TQM is about the change of culture. It must

start from the top management; top management must commit to quality management and admit

that quality is one of the most important strategic tools for the business. The principles and

objectives must be promoted in the whole organization so that each staff in the hotel must

internalize the advantages of quality management. TQM is an integrated, continuous and

professional system based on the commitment from all members of the hotel. Therefore, it is

suggested that implementation of TQM needs proper planning and allowance of sufficient time

for the change of the culture; this is to create a smooth and comfortable change with a minimum

impact to the operations. Engineers are advised that policy deployment is a bottom-up process;

shop floor staff should be involved in the planning of processes, monitoring and measuring of

performance, analysis of feedbacks and carrying out of continuous improvement. The PDCA

(plan-do-check–act) cycle is an effective methodology for TQM implementation (Oakland,

2003).

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5.2.2 Leadership and management skills

Most hotel engineers have an engineering degree from university. However, leadership and

management skills may not be one of the learning subjects covered in the engineering school. It

is suggested that hotel engineers have to learn this knowledge in order to meet the career needs.

As advised by Rutherford (1987) that hotel engineers need to catch up their management

knowledge to balance with their excellent technical skills. The role of the engineering

department has been changing from just ‘keeping equipment running’ to a management function

unit. Hotel engineers’ roles are embraced with more and more management functions.

In addition, project management knowledge becomes one of the competencies of hotel engineers.

Project management is about preparing critical path, communication plan, risk plan and quality

plan. The objective of project management is to complete projects within the budgeted cost and

timeframe and to achieve the predefined quality.

5.2.3 Fair working environment

Although most hotels have corporate policies to maintain a fair working environment, the hotel

general manager and the property owner’s bias attitude towards back-of-house departments can

create an unfair working environment. Since hotel general managers and owners always wrongly

believe that front line staff is the key staff for the business and motivating only these staff is

enough. They fail to motivate back-of-house by failing to offer incentives and ignoring their

needs. This can cause dissatisfaction from the back-of-house staff. Okoroh, Jones and llozor

(2003) suggested that while hotels focus on tangible service such as room check-in, food

service…etc, hoteliers should understand that customer satisfaction must be balanced with

intangible services such as security, a feeling of well being…etc. It is suggested that both front-

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line and back-of-house employees are important in achieving customer satisfaction; fair

treatment to both kinds of staff could enhance the efficiency of the work team.

5.2.4 Understanding the importance of Preventive maintenance work

Although most hotel general managers and owner’s representatives are business people, hotel

engineers believe that they do not fully understand the importance of the preventive maintenance

work and how engineering carrying out the tasks. It is highly suggested that senior management

personnel should spend some time to learn the importance of preventive maintenance;

understanding this engineering routine can allow the general manger to better support the

engineering department. Senior management personnel should recognize that although

engineering staff are seldom in direct contact with hotel guest; it does not mean they do not

contribute to the TQM efforts. Engineering staff are the heroes behind the scene.

In addition, hotel general managers must understand that preventive maintenance is technical and

professional work; he should respect the decisions made by engineers for the operations of the

building facilities. Any unprofessional influence may have a serious negative impact on the

engineering operations.

5.2.5 Service attitude

Although engineering department is a back-of-house department, hotel engineers should

encourage technicians to consider themselves as front-line staff when they approach hotel guests.

Technicians should pay attention to understand the customers’ wants so that the gap between the

guest expectation and the perception of the service can be reduced. This could enhance customer

292

satisfaction as Saunders et al (1992) advised that service quality is the balance between the

expectations that the customers had and their perception of the service received.

5.2.6 Financial policy

Hotel management is advised to review its financial policy. Traditional accounting practice may

focus too heavily on financial data for monitoring and controlling financial targets; this may

reduce the focus on the customers’ needs. Since the engineering department is considered as a

money-spending department; any financial constrains will affect the performance of the

department.

5.2.7 Integration of IT technology

Hotel management should concentrate their effort in integrating major functional business

processes by using ERP technology. It could help to achieve greater guest satisfaction and

increase competitiveness by reshaping and improving work processes.

5.2.8 Internal customer satisfaction survey

All hotels have customer satisfaction surveys to solicit hotel guests’ feedback; this is mainly to

get the opinions of external customers. Hotel management may consider applying the same

concept in the ‘quality chain’. ‘Suppliers’ will get feedback from ‘customers’. This practice will

be effective for back-of-house departments such as engineering department, as the engineering

department is considered as the biggest service provider in a hotel.

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5.2.9 Best Practices

From the findings of this research, the following best practices are recommended:-

CSR is considered as a ‘must’ in today’s business. Guests feel proud to stay in a hotel

with outstanding CSR contribution to the community. Hotel engineers should support the

CSR by focusing on the energy conservation and prepare a long-team program to reduce

the carbon footprint. Measurement is needed to track the effectiveness and performance

of the program.

Professional quality framework such as ISO14001, ISO18001 provide a systematic

guideline to achieve the quality requirements; it is suggests that hotel engineers could

make use of this frameworks as a road-map to guide the staff; it could improve the

effectiveness and efficiency of the department.

Promotion of multiple-skills can enhance the overall quality performance; engineers

should encourage and motivate engineering technicians to acquire additional trade

qualifications. Motivation may need support from the senior management by

implementing appropriate incentive programs.

Fire and life safety is of utmost importance in a hotel, hotel management has to ensure

that this policy is strictly enforced without negotiation. Exercise for fire drill and crisis

response should be conducted regularly.

Standard operation procedure (SOP) or policy and procedures (P&P) are common quality

tools in hotels to maintain the consistency of quality and efficiency of service. These

manuals should be constantly reviewed and updated as part of the continuous

improvement process.

Result of performance measurement should be available to all process owners; this is to

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enable the process owners to execute continuous improvement.

5.3 Recommendations for future research

5.3.1 Limitations

This study focused on the opinions from hotel engineers with experience in China and Hong

Kong only; engineers in other countries may have different practices, experiences and opinions.

Also, this research focused on engineers working for 5-star chain hotels only. It excluded hotels

with lower star rating and non-chain hotels. Therefore, further studies for other geographic areas

and hotels with lower star ratings are recommended in order to have a broader view about the

effort from the engineering department and its contribution to the overall hotel TQM

performance.

5. 3.2 Quality framework Vs performance

This research revealed that high level ‘common’ quality frameworks such as EFQM or ISO

9001 are not popular in chain hotel groups. This phenomenon is inline with the finding by

Harrington & Keating (2006). However, hotels do have their own quality control system.

Generally speaking, hotels focus on the performance of similar aspects; i.e. the customer

perspective, financial perspective, human resources perspective, business process perspective

and community service perspective. Since different hotel groups may emphasizes on different

perspective areas with different policies and requirements and different degrees of efforts, the

author believes that these differences will result in different business performances. This is

295

why some hotels perform better than others. However, the co-relations between these factors

and the performance result will need further studying.

5.3.3 Opinion from hotel general manager and guests

Since this research focuses on the opinions of hotel engineers only, it would be better to have a

broader view from different angles such as soliciting opinions from hotel general managers and

guests. Since the hotel general manager is the leader of a hotel; he/she may look at the

functionality of engineering at different angle and have different suggestions. Also, guests’

expectation could further enhance the service direction of hotel engineering services.

5.4 Summary and Concluding Remarks

This research discovered the roles and responsibilities of a hotel engineering department and its

contribution to the hotel overall TQM performance. The measurement of the performance of

engineering department had been revealed. This research also summarized quality tools that

could aid the engineering department to enhance the performance. Critical success factor and

barriers for the TQM performance were also discussed. The above findings could enable hotel

general managers and hotel engineers to better understand the importance of engineering efforts

in providing a comfortable and safe environment for both internal and external customers, and as

the biggest internal service provider in supporting other departments. The findings also

suggested factors that could aid in improving the performance of engineering departments in

hotels.

This research also confirms that TQM offers benefits such as cost saving, customer satisfaction,

errors reduction and profit enhancement.

296

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Appendices

Appendix A : Declaration of interviewee

My name is ________________________. I have been working as a hotel engineer for a 5-star

hotel for more than________years. The hotel I am currently working for/ have worked for

is/was located in _______________(city) and have ___________(nos.) guestrooms

I agree to participate in this research and provide the information on a voluntary basis; and I am

not representing any hotel or organization. The information provided is from my own work

experiences.

The author of this research is Mark Chan Kam Wah.

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Appendix B : Interview Questions

Roles and responsibilities of Engineering department.

1 In addition to the following duties, what other roles and responsibilities do you have to

perform in a hotel?

Preventive maintenance for building physical plants;

Work requests handling;

Enforcement of fire and life safety policies;

Energy conservation;

Control of maintenance expenses;

Promotion of community social responsibility (CSR);

Project management.

2 Do you think the hotel engineer is also a business manager and how?

Support to the hotel performance

3 How does the Engineering department support the overall hotel performance in terms of

quality management? For example, customer satisfaction, owners expectation and internal

customers’ needs. Could you link your duties to the hotel TQM performance?

4 Do you agree that a proper preventive maintenance is important and why?

5 Do you agree that quick response to guest requests is important for achieving customer

satisfaction and why?

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6 Do you review guests’ requests/complaints for continuous improvement?

7 Do you think crisis management is important and why?

8 Do you agree that controlling the expenses to meet the budget is important?

9 Do you think ‘Going Green’ is the new way of doing business and how?

10 Do you think CSR is important to promote the brand image and how?

Quality methodology and tools

11 Do you think quality management is important for customer satisfaction and sustaining

competitive advantage?

12 Do you use/ have you used any quality framework to guide a hotel to achieve the quality

goals? For example, ISO 18001, EFQM…etc

13 Do you think process mapping is important and how does it help you? What other quality

tools are you using in the Engineering department? For example, control chart, P&P, audit,

survey, IT technology…etc

14 Does IT technology important for engineering? How can IT technologies help you in the

daily operations? For example, work order process, preventive maintenance management,

building automation…etc.

15 How do you deploy the strategies from the senior management?

16 Do you think continuous improvement is important for enhancing the performance?

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Performance measurement

17 Do you measure the performance of the engineering department? If yes, could you list the

different types of measurements and their criteria?

18 Do you benchmark the performances? For example, energy consumption, maintenance

expenses, work orders…etc.

Critical success factors

19 What critical success factors do you think are the top 5 most important factors supporting

your departmental performance and why?

20 Some researchers suggested that technicians with multiple-skills could improve the overall

quality and reduce the labor costs, do you agree and why?

Barriers

21 What factors are impacting the departmental performance negatively and how? For example,

over focusing on financial budget, ingrained attitude of staff, insufficient empowerment…etc

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Appendix C: Interviewee information

No IntervieweeExperience

(Years as hotel engineer)

Location of hotels managed

(City)

Hotel size( No of

Guestrooms)

Interviewarrangement

1 Mr. James Gao 15(Regional Engineer

for China) Individual(Pilot)

2 Mr. Desmond Lau 20Beijing, Shanghai,

Hangzhou 450-540 Individual(Pilot)

3 Mr. X.M. Ma 20 Beijing 285-500 Individual4 Mr. M.Z. Li 5 Beijing 745 Individual

5 Mr. Jack Li 20Shanghai, Tianjin,

Beijing 155-1312 Group 1

6 Mr. Sun 5 Beijing 419 Group 1

7 Mr. Tom Zhang 15 Harbin, Dalian, 400-800 Group 1

8 Mr. C.Y. Choi 15 Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenyang 400-600 Group 2

9 Mr. Winston Suen 5 (Regional Engineer for China and Hong Kong) Group 2

10 Mr. Raymond Ng 7 Hong Kong 465 Group 2

11 Mr. Ivan Cheung 13

(Regional Facility Manager for China and

Hong Kong) Group 2

12 Mr. Mark Li 6 Beijing, Chongqing, Shenyang 340-450 Telephone

13 Mr. W.P. Wong 5 Hong Kong 495 E-mail14 Mr. Adam Jin 19 Beijing 430 Telephone

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Dissertation - Mark Chan[1]

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