Question

Vanguard Method as opposed to the traditional managerial thinking typically found in
many organisations ( Jaaron and Backhouse, 2012).
The Vanguard Method embraces the principle that employees need to think, analyse,
judge, and make decisions on the work on hands. Therefore, team members training is
not the focus in the preparation process for this kind of job, it is actually educating them
on “why” a failure happen and then finding ways to eliminate it from the system. To
accommodate for the requirements of the Vanguard Method, managers’ role shifts from
command-and-control to supporters. This keeps managers very close to their employees
to interact with their work when necessary. Bhat et al. (2012) provide a constructive view
about the interactive leadership style and organisational learning. According to them, the
capacity of an organisation to learn how to learn, to change old ways of doing things, and
to produce original knowledge is positively related to interactive leadership styles. Due to
this type of relationship and due to the whole service processes being owned by team
members, the structure of the organisation changes. The organisation becomes
organically structured ( Jaaron and Backhouse, 2014).
The Vanguard Method in practice
The above philosophy usually follows three main practical steps of “check-plan-do” for
implementation. These steps are summarised in Table II.
Check. This stage aims at understanding the system and why it behaves in such a
way that failure demand is achieved. A specially formed team, called the check team,
from the workplace collates information about what customers expect and want from
the organisation and what matters to them most, they need to be able to use views of
different people involved in the problematic system to build the “real situation”
(Checkland, 1995). Once the team understands the type of demand received and how
capable the system is to respond to it, it can start to map the flow of processes in the
system. For this purpose, a visual representation of each operation carried out in the
workplace is developed as a flow chart. Identification of waste (actions not adding any
value from the customer’s point of view) present in the service operations flow is then

carried out (Seddon, 2008). All processes classified as waste are marked in red on the
process flow chart. While processes that add value from a customer’s point of view are
marked in green.
Plan. This stage starts with redesigning the processes flow charts taking into
account what has been learned by considering the customer “wants” and then mapping
out the new service system design. Typically, this stage is focussed on minimising
non-value adding activities from a customer point of view. The final step in the “plan”
process is to build performance measures and the future system success criterion. This
is usually how good employees are in creating a value demand and the percentage of
value demand out of the total demand received ( Jaaron and Backhouse, 2012).
Do. At this stage the new design is used in an experimental environment with the
check team using the new model after it has been discussed with the people doing
the work. The new processes are induced gradually with careful observation of both
employees’ reaction to it and customers feedback. The processes are tested,
re-designed, and re-tested again to make sure that customers get the best possible
service before going fully live. This is much slower process than the check phase as the
slogan at this stage is to “do it right rather than do it quick” ( Jackson et al., 2008).
The Vanguard Method cycle starts with the “check” stage in order to show business
managers the failings of their current system, and to provide them with a solid evidence
for the need to change the way they think and manage things ( Jackson et al., 2008).
To ensure continuous improvement of the new system, the check-plan-do cycle is a
continuous cycle (Seddon, 2008; Jackson et al., 2008). It is, therefore, a learning system
by itself: the process of acquiring knowledge and taking action to improve the situation
is continuous ( Jackson et al., 2008). In addition to continuously altering business
processes to improve the service offered, the Vanguard Method cycle involves the
identification of new demands coming in to the service department. This is followed by
designing new processes to ensure dealing with new demands as value demands
(Seddon, 2008).
4. Research methodology
A case study approach is adopted in this research inquiry in order to build an
understanding of the nature of the research phenomena (Voss et al., 2002). Case studies
have the advantage of being able to answer questions like “what”, “how”, and “why”
(Yin, 2009). This accommodates the type of question presented at the beginning of this
paper. Two case studies were chosen with the help of “extreme case sampling”
technique (Patton, 2002; Creswell, 2004) that displayed evidence of full employment of
the Vanguard Method in their logistics service operations. An earlier research work
conducted with the help of the Vanguard Method consultant of these two case studies
helped researchers in confirming that the Vanguard Method is fully employed in their
logistics operations, and also ensured easy access to both case studies.
According to Aastrup and Halldórsson (2008), the use of case studies in logistics
management research is an enabler for the causal depth required for understanding the
real domain of logistics operations and its performance. Case study research design
typically has the unique strength in providing a full range of evidence through the use
of multi-sources of data, which can achieve data triangulation (Voss et al., 2002). For
this purpose, the mixed methods design (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998) is used as the
technique for conducting the research process. Three different sources of data
collection methods are used in the two case studies; these are semi-structured

What is the particularity of vanguard method? (1point)

Why we need this method in logistics? (1 point)

Answer 1

1. Vanguard method says that the organization needs to analyze and design work and then how to make changes. This method follows systems approach of management. It says that managers role must shift from command-and control to that of being supporters. The particularity of Vanguard method is the check-plan-do process. Check stage aims on first to find out the problems in the system, plan stage then find solutions regarding it and then do stage aims at implementing the desired actions. Thus, if the organizations follow this process, they will soon minimize their wastes in the systems and improve the new "wanted" requirements/demand that will satisfy their end consumers/customers.

2. Logistics is the process which plans, implements and controls the procedures for the effective storage and transportation of goods, services and relating information from the point of production/origin to the end point of consumption. The main aim of logistics is to meets the requirements of customers successfully. As the Vanguard method focuses on systems approach and it gives us a systematic process of check-plan-do, it is highly useful in logistics. The check stage aims at identifying the failures into the system and those activities which are not adding value to the customers and so considered as wastages in to the system of the organization. The Plan stage aims at redesigning the new service system design. This stage is focussed on minimising any non-value adding activities from a viewpoint of customer. The Do stage aims at implementing the desired courses of action which are planned in the Plan stage in order to satisfy the end consumer. So, the check-plan-do process is focused mainly on the satisfaction of customers just like logistics is important for satisfying the end consumer. And thus, Vanguard method is useful in logistics.