In the article, “Dubbed ‘the best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong’s MTR rail system,” Khaw (as quoted in Lee, 2015) claims that Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is considered the best railway operator in the industry, and it is being used as a benchmark for railway operators from other countries. Lee states that Hong Kong’s government allows private companies to operate public utilities, that allows for MTR to be one of the world’s most profitable rail systems. Lee mentioned that the MTR has more than 100 stations, carrying millions of passengers daily and also stretches over 200km. He also commented that the MTR is very consistent in the frequency of train arrival times. Lee implied that the reason why MTR’s operations are running smoothly is because of spending more than one third of MTR Corporation’s (MTRC) revenue on maintenance, and also it has a large workforce to maintain the railway system. Lee remarked that MTRC has an efficient communication system in place to relay critical information to all its stations when a problem arises. With the commendations of MTRC’s operations, it is good practice for organisations to benchmark their performance against other corporations that are successful in their business model.
Benchmarking allows for an organisation to evaluate on the success of their operations and business model in order to identify areas to improve on. By doing so, the organisation will be able to keep up with upcoming trends in the industry, closing the gap between the services the organisation provides and what the customer wants, which results in attaining the capability to meet the demands of its consumers. Recently in Singapore, there have been numerous disruptions in Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT)’s railway services, causing delays that could exceed an hour in the commuters’ travel time. Whereas MTRC have perpetually provided an “on-time rate of 99.9%” that delays commuters’ travel time by at least 5 minutes, according to Lee in the original article, (2015). Passengers do not want to be set back by the railway operators and MTRC minimises its delays, providing a service closer to the needs of its consumers.
Another benefit to benchmarking is that it also analyses the performance of competitors in the same industry, which gives the organisation a competitive edge over its competitors. Having competitors in the same industry serves as an incentive for an organisation to differentiate itself from others, inducing a competitive environment where the different organisations will have to continuously upgrade themselves. MTRC is a private listed company, meaning that it have to provide better services as opposed to its competitors. However, being a public listed company, SMRT holds monopoly in the railway operations in Singapore and will focus on maximising on its revenue to keep the interest of its stakeholders. As there are no private listed companies competing against SMRT, there is little incentive for it to better services for its consumers, rather, its main objective is just to meet the the customers’ needs.
There can also be comparisons against other organisations in terms of weaknesses, to determine which areas the organisation is strong in as opposed to its competitors. Doing so can help in avoiding the less desired outcome achieved by other competitors, and maintain its own success or improve on it. This can be seen in an article, “How does our MRT compare with the subways of other cities?”, the National Library Education & Outreach (NLB, n.d) found that SMRT have strengths in terms of travel fare on the consumers. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the fares imposed to the commuters are based on the distance they travelled, instead of per trip. This allows for no transfer cost when commuters transfer between train lines and even to buses, which also mitigates the issue of congested trains and buses.
References:
Dubbed ‘the best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong’s MTR rail system. (2015). The Straits Times. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/dubbed-the-best-in-class-6-things-about-hong-kongs-mtr-rail-system
7 Steps to better benchmarking. (2009). Business Finance. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from
http://businessfinancemag.com/business-performance-management/7-steps-better-benchmarking-0
Why HK’s MTR system more reliable as compared with SMRT?. (2015). The Local Society. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from
http://www.thelocalsociety.com/why-hks-mtr-system-more-reliable-as-compared-with-smrt/
HK rail’s ‘always improving’ ethos. (2015). The Straits Times. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/hk-rails-always-improving-ethos
How does our MRT compare with the subways of other cities. (n.d). National Library Education & Outreach. Retrieved, September 27, 2017 from
http://www.nlb.gov.sg/sure/how-does-our-mrt-compare-with-the-subways-of-other-cities/
Tuesday, 26 September 2017
Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Summary on "Best in Class"
In the article, “Dubbed ‘the best in class’: 6 things about Hong Kong’s MTR rail system,” Khaw (as quoted in Lee, 2015) claims that Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is considered the best railway operator in the industry, and it is being used as a benchmark for railway operators from other countries. Lee states that Hong Kong’s government allows private companies to operate public utilities, that allows for MTR to be one of the world’s most profitable rail systems. Lee mentioned that the MTR has more than 100 stations, carrying millions of passengers daily and also stretches over 200km. He also commented that the MTR is very consistent in the frequency of train arrival times. Lee implied that the reason why MTR’s operations are running smoothly is because of spending more than one third of MTR Corporation’s (MTRC) revenue on maintenance, and also it has a large workforce to maintain the railway system. Lee remarked that MTRC has an efficient communication system in place to relay critical information to all its stations when a problem arises. It is good practice for organisations to benchmark their performance against other corporations that are successful in their business model.
Friday, 8 September 2017
Self Introduction
Subject: Self Introduction
Dear Professor Blackstone,
My name is Casey Cheong and I am writing to introduce myself to you and my fellow peers in the class. I graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in integrated facilities management. During my time in polytechnic, a few speakers from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) came down to promote several courses offered by SIT, Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (SIE) being one of them. As sustainability is a trending topic around the globe, I felt that SIE is a relevant course to enrol in.
My goal for this module would be to be proficient in both writing and speaking. In the work environment, communication is indispensable no matter the profession, which is the reason for my desire to improve on my ability to communicate with others. Furthermore, I am introverted in nature which results in discomfort when speaking to a large audience and sometimes even being unable to convey my message across. I once had to conduct tours for my company that I was fulfilling my internship at, sharing information to small groups of people about green features that the company was practicing. Through this, I found that rather than memorising a fixed script to present, it was better to know the key points of the presentation and form my sentences at the same time as giving the speech.
As opposed to speaking, I am far more comfortable in writing out my intended message. The main advantage is having ample time to think of what we want to say and constructing our sentences accordingly. It also gives us the opportunity to try a different approach to how we form our sentences, as well as looking up synonyms for words that we use often that will help in our daily conversations.
I believe that effective communication is a lifelong skill, that can always be refined to improve to our everyday lives, and attending this module will definitely aid in bettering myself.
Thank you for your time in reading my introduction.
Kind regards,
Casey Cheong
Edited: 08/09/17
13/09/17
Read & commented on
Amos', Arthur's, Luke's and Lewis' blog posts.
Dear Professor Blackstone,
My name is Casey Cheong and I am writing to introduce myself to you and my fellow peers in the class. I graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in integrated facilities management. During my time in polytechnic, a few speakers from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) came down to promote several courses offered by SIT, Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (SIE) being one of them. As sustainability is a trending topic around the globe, I felt that SIE is a relevant course to enrol in.
My goal for this module would be to be proficient in both writing and speaking. In the work environment, communication is indispensable no matter the profession, which is the reason for my desire to improve on my ability to communicate with others. Furthermore, I am introverted in nature which results in discomfort when speaking to a large audience and sometimes even being unable to convey my message across. I once had to conduct tours for my company that I was fulfilling my internship at, sharing information to small groups of people about green features that the company was practicing. Through this, I found that rather than memorising a fixed script to present, it was better to know the key points of the presentation and form my sentences at the same time as giving the speech.
As opposed to speaking, I am far more comfortable in writing out my intended message. The main advantage is having ample time to think of what we want to say and constructing our sentences accordingly. It also gives us the opportunity to try a different approach to how we form our sentences, as well as looking up synonyms for words that we use often that will help in our daily conversations.
I believe that effective communication is a lifelong skill, that can always be refined to improve to our everyday lives, and attending this module will definitely aid in bettering myself.
Thank you for your time in reading my introduction.
Kind regards,
Casey Cheong
Edited: 08/09/17
13/09/17
Read & commented on
Amos', Arthur's, Luke's and Lewis' blog posts.
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