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INTRODUCTION TO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

OPM530

Group Project: Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise

Group: BA 242 2A

Group Member: 1. MUHAMAD BIN ADIB RAHIM

2. AHMAD SYAFIQ BIN CHE ISMAIL
3. NAJAH NAWARIAH BINTI AMINUDIN
4. NUR ARIFA BINTI HASNUL
5. SITI NURNATASHA BINTI ABDUL JABAR

Submitted to: PN. RUZAIDAH SULANG @ A.RASHID

Submission Date: 12 May 2019

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Acknowledgement

In preparation for our assignment, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to al
those who provided us the possibility to complete this report. As the completion of this
assignment gave us much pleasure, we would like to show our gratitude to our lecturer
Madam Ruzaidah Sulong @ A. Rashid, Course Introduction of Operations Management
(OPM 530) for giving us a good guideline for assignment throughout in stimulating
suggestions and encouragement.

In addition, we would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the very important
role of the staff of Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise, Mrs. Feirouz Azalia, who gave the
permission to allow us come to her company’s factory to know more about the company’s
business and activities. A special thank goes to our team mate, who build a great teamwork
in achieving the the goal.

Many people, especially our classmates have made valuable comment and suggestions on
our paper and project which gave us inspiration to improve the quality of assignment.

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Abstract

From the interview, we get to know the background of the company Laara Beauty
Solutions Enterprise. We also can also know what the company produce product and
what the major business and activities in this company. The company basically produce raw
material for the product and also produce the finish goods beauty product. By interview the
owner of the factory, her assistant and her chemist Madam Feirouz Azalia, Madam Asma’a
and Ms Siti Husni, we got to know more about the process production, type of business and
more. Through the interview, we receive more information about sustainability of the
product and how the company applied the sustainability into their production. Besides that,
we also explained overall about the sustainability and quality management of the Laara
Beauty.We also know how Laara Beauty applied the concept of sustainability. Other than
that, we know how the process production begin from the start until the finished product.
Lastly, we know more the details about the process strategies in produce the product.

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 Table of Content

No. Content Pages

1. Chapter 1 :
 Company Background 1
 Major Business and Activities 2

 Detailed about the Product 3-4

 Production Process 5-7

2. Chapter 2:
 Sustainability 8-9
 Total Quality Management (TQM) 10-11

3. Chapter 3:
 Detailed Explaination about Sustainability 12-13
 Detailed Explaination about Total Quality of Management 14-18

 Process Strategies

4. Chapter 4:
 Conclusion 19
 Recodmindations 20

5. References 21

6. Appendix

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 Chapter 1:Company Background

Started from the small input at home and today Madam Feirouz Azalia already owned
a few factories that produce cosmetic in Malaysia. One of those is Laara Beauty Solutions
Enterprise.

The business was established since 2006 as a production of cosmetic product, named
Laara Beauty which is sole proprietorship. In 2013, Madam Feirouz Azalia change the
business form from sole proprietorship to partnership. In this year too, they also opened
“Academic Laara” which is cosmetic class to train those beauty founder to produce product.
They also organize workshop to produce product, marketing and business sharing in this
cosmetic course based on their skills and experiences.

In 2018, Naifa Beauty was established in Beauty Cosmetic Business. Naifa Beauty
also under Madam Feirouz Azalia control which is the company is more to finish product that
sells the beauty cosmetic product under the name of Naifa Beauty.

Now, Laara Beauty Solution active in provide training and workshop how to produce a
product instead of only distribute their product in the market. At LAARA, they supply
premium raw materials for the customer produce high quality product. They did not supply
any cheap ingredients unless the quality is good.

Laara Beauty will help and guide those new founders who wanted to produce product
with their own name or brand. From learning process, manufacturing, raw materials,
packaging, shaping, marketing until the business development, Laara Beauty Solutions will
guide the way for you to achieve your goals.

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Major Business and Activities

Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise is main activities and business is produce raw
material and finish goods for cosmetic, beauty and health but they also produce cosmetic
and beauty production. The ingredients they used are mostly form organic and natural
ingredients such as, Pumpkin Seed, Roselle, Sunflower Seed, Aloe Vera, Tomatoes, Honey,
Lavender and many more.

Firstly, the raw material cosmetic product they produce and sell for the production such
as, Apple Green, Argan Oil, Beeswax, White Brightening, Mauritiana Pure, Lime Leaf Estract
and others.

Secondly, beauty production has divided into three, body care, skin care and cosmetic.
For Skin Care, they have, serum, cream, beauty soap and beauty spray. For body care such
as body cream, body balm, body oil, body soap and others. For the cosmetic, they have
foundation, compact powder, lip matte, lip tint and many more.

Furthermore, they also produce for health product under nutrition product such as Nutri
Drink, instant porridge, oat, Barley Drink and White Rice Drink.

Laara Beauty also rebrand their own brand, named Naifa Beauty that sells the same
product as Laara Beauty cosmetic, beauty and also health only. The product was similar with
Laara Beauty but Laara Beauty product has no brand, so other founder can rebrand the
product from Laara Beauty.

They also open academic class for those who wanted to learn how make the
homemade product, such as face scrub, body scrub, lip scrub and body soap by using
natural and easy to get raw materials. Such as, salt, honey, sugar, coffee, aloe vera and
more. By doing this class, they trained people and they could hire new staff from here.

Laara Beauty also produce customize product form the customer and founder with
different demand. Such as, different colour, quantity, size and more. They will follow the
customer demand. To fulfil the customer needs and wants are their priority after giving the
best quality of their product. They also provide tester kit for those who want to try the trial set
produce by Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise.

For this group assignment project, we will focus on the production of lip matte by Laara
Beauty Solutions Enterprise.

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The product of Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise
Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise comes out with varieties of product, based on the
demand and request by their customer. They can produce any kinds of products from
cosmetic product to skincare product, depends on what type of product that their customer
interested. At Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise, they will try to satisfy and fulfill all the
customer’s wants and needs because for Laara Beauty, customer is always their first
priority.

As for cosmetic products, Laara Beauty can produce varieties of cosmetic products
such as face base cream, foundation cream, liquid foundation, powder, lipstick matte, liptint
matte, lipgloss and many more. While for skincare or body care products, Laara Beauty
comes out with body oil, body cream, body scrub, serum, baby oil, body and face soap,
cleanser wash, beauty spray, face mist and so on.

To summarize all the product, the most high requested by the beauty founder is their
lip products which are lipstick matte, liptint matte and also lipgloss.

Figure 1: NEFS Lipstick Matte

Figure 1 above shows the most basic lipstick that Laara Beauty produced which is
called as NEFS Lipstick Matte. It is a kind of lipstick that is durable without drying the lips.
The texture is light and creamy matte. The use of NEFS Lipstick Matte makes your lips look
natural, gentle and raise the face series. NEFS Lipstick Matte has 6 choices of colour,
beautiful and easy color choices in combination with various makeup styles and skin tones,
which are First Love Orange (Code 01), Romantic Pink (Code 02), Kisses Red (Code 03),

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Sexy Brown (Code 04), Elegant Orange (Code 05) and Hot Red (Code 06). NEFS Lipstick
Matte is just retail for RM 29.00 per item.

Figure 2: NEFS Liptint Matte

Figure 2 shows the NEFS Liptint Matte which it is a lip product that provides full
coverage and smooth matte finishes. NEFS Liptint Matte has long lasting effect. It is also
very ideal for daily use and can be used for high-definition shooting and makes the make-up
look perfect even on big screens. Advantages of NEFS Liptint Matte is that it is a liptint with
a matte finish. It is also a waterproof product. Besides, it is not easy to fade or stick during
meals and drinks. The lips will look more smooth and radiant. NEFS Liptint Matte comes in
with two types of colour which are Sweety Pink (Code 1) and Luvely Red (Code 2). This
liptint is only retails for RM 29.00 per item.

Figure 3: Cadla Sexy Lipgloss

Figure 3 above shows the Cadla Sexy Lipgloss which it is a cosmetic product that is
used to add shine and a small amount of color to the lips. Glosses are typically shiny, but
they can also have a glittery, opalescent, or metallic finish along with the shine. Typically,
liquid forms of gloss provide a bit more shine than solids because they add a thicker layer of
cosmetic to the lips. Benefits of Cadla Sexy Lipgloss is it will moisturize our lips. Besides, it

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will provide natural redness effect and also imparts a small impression on the lips. Cadla
Sexy Lipgloss is just retails for RM 21.00 per item.

The production process of lips product

Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise comes out with variety of products including for
lips product. As we were being explained by their main Operations Manager, all kind of lips
product will go through with the same process. It is including lipstick matte, liptint matte and
also their lipgloss. The most priority process is come from base or raw materials that they
use to produce the lips product. The raw materials that they use is a premium and high
quality raw materials that’s being imported from Europe. At Laara, they supply quality raw
materials for you to produce high quality products. They do not take cheap materials unless
it's from a quality grade that achieves Laara Beauty standard. Then you can submit to them
in the care of the quality of the raw material they provide or your money will be reinstated.

For the last ten years, Laara’s chemist and founders tried to improve lipstick formula
with many new ingredients and recipes. No matter how much time has passed, and fashion
moods changed the way we use lipstick, its basic formula always remained the same. In its
most basic form lipstick is the mix of oils, waxes and pigments which form a mass that can
easily be applied to our lips. Creating a viable formula is not an easy job, and for a good
lipstick a lot of time and sometimes hundred variations of recipe is needed to make it perfect.
Some of the few important properties of lipsticks are its color, opacity, fragrance, and
dryness.

Before making lipstick, ingredients must be chosen. The most basic ingredients of
every lipstick are waxes, oils, alcohol and pigments, but many other substances can be
introduced into the mix that will enhance certain parts of the final product and add it some
specific new features such as fragrance, longevity and gloss. Some of the most common
secondary ingredients are preservatives which is to ensure longer shelf life, alcohol to
solvent for other substances, fragrance where oils and waxes can sometimes have their own
smell and taste, which needs to be eliminated, and others.

The primary ingredients found in lipstick are wax, oil, alcohol, and pigment. The wax
used usually involves some combination of three types which are beeswax, candelilla wax,
or the more expensive camauba. Wax enables the mixture to be formed into the easily
recognized shape of the cosmetic. Oils such as mineral, caster, lanolin, or vegetable are
added to the wax. Fragrance and pigment are also added, as are preservatives and

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antioxidants, which prevent lipstick from becoming rancid. And while every lipstick contains
these components, a wide variety of other ingredients can also be included to make the
substance smoother or glossy or to moisten the lips.

The manufacturing process is easiest to understand if it is viewed as three separate

steps. First step is melting and mixing the lipstick, second step is pouring the mixture into the
tube and lastly packaging the product for sale. Since the lipstick can be mixed and stored for
later use, mixing does not have to happen at the same time as pouring. Once the lipstick is
in the tube, packaging for retail sale is highly variable, depending on how the product is to be
marketed.

First, the raw ingredients for the lipstick are melted and mixed by separately because
of the different types of ingredients used. One mixture contains the solvents, a second
contains the oils, and a third contains the fats and waxy materials. These are heated in
separate stainless steel or ceramic containers.

Then, the solvent solution and liquid oils are then mixed with the color pigments. The
mixture passes through a mixer, grinding the pigment to avoid a grainy feel to the lipstick.
This process introduces air into the oil and pigment mixture, so mechanical working of the
mixture is required. The mixture is stirred for several hours, at this point some producers use
vacuum equipment to withdraw the air. Figure 4 below shows the mixer used to mixture the
ingredients of lipstick.

Figure 4: Mixer

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 Next, after the pigment mass is ground and mixed, it is added to the hot wax mass
until a uniform color and consistency is obtained. The fluid lipstick can then be strained and
molded, or it may be poured into pans and stored for future molding. After that, if the fluid
lipstick is to be used immediately, the melt is maintained at temperature, with agitation, so
that trapped air escapes. If the lipstick mass is stored, before it is used it must be reheated,
checked for color consistency, and adjusted to specifications, then maintained at the melt
temperature until it can be poured.

After melting and mixing the lipstick, second step is pouring the mixture into the tube.
Once the lipstick mass is mixed and free of air, it is ready to be poured into the tube. A
variety of machine setups are used, depending on the equipment that the manufacturer has,
but high volume batches are generally run through a melter that agitates the lipstick mass
and maintains it as a liquid. As for Laara Beauty, they use a high quality equipment as they
have to save more time as well as the needed to fulfill the high demand received from the
customer. Figure 5 below shows the filling machine used at Laara Beauty Solutions
Enterprise.

Figure 5: Filling machine

Last step of lipstick production is labeling and packaging. After the lipstick is retracted
and the tube is capped, the lipstick is ready for labeling and packaging. Labeling and
packaging is done with the requirements of the manufacturers of its own brand owner.
Labels identify the batch and are applied as part of the automated operation. The final step
in the manufacturing process is the packaging of the lipstick tube. Packaging for lipsticks are

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varies, depending on what and how the customer requested. Figure 6 below shows the
varies type of lipstick in their own packaging.

Figure 6: Finished lips product

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Chapter 2: Overview of Sustainability

As mention by the manager, the company has set Standard Operating Procedures
(SOP) in every department. Which mean every activity and process in the company has
SOP to maintain the quality of the product. For example, to enter the room and to turn on the
air conditioner also have SOP as if there is any error in SOP occur there will damages or
rejected item of the product. Every day they have to check the SOP and every time they
check there will be additional SOP will be added. Which means there are too many SOP in
the factory. In every 3 months Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (KKM) will audit to make an
inspection on SOP. This shows that they follow regulation and industry standard.

The factory used 100% machine and all of the machine not give bad effect to
environmental and the raw material is not from chemical to produce their product. According
to Laara Beauty, when there is wastage by rejected item or damage item, they still fully
utilize the product by using among them which is staff and production manager. But, the
company still suffer lost in their profitability. This activity illustrates that production manager
always have their ways to reduce negative impact on the environment which triple bottom
line concept in sustainability on planet environment.

The machine they purchase to produce the product is premium. Which mean they
purchase it from oversea with high quality. The factory does not use machine that cause to
air pollution. As a result, product they produce is high quality and keep save environment. It
is because when comparing to other country’s product, they use local machinery which
cause bad effect to environment. For example, beauty product from neighbour countries
famous with measure by weight of the product. When the product was tested by expert user,
it is dangerous to human and also to our planet. For example, when the product attach to
plastic, the plastic will melt easily. This prove that other product using low cost of machinery
give negative impact to people and planet. It is much better when comparing with the
company.

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 The company have variety of product such as homemade soap, moisturiser, cleanser
and body lotion. But resources for raw material of the product is base from agriculture
product. The company use 100% natural product which means non the raw material of the
product is made from animals. Once, the company receive an offer from UMT by offering
them a product to eliminate scare just for 30 minutes. This product able to make them
impressive. But when knowing the sources for raw material of the product, they reject them
immediately. It is because the sources of the product are from male seahorse. This is one of
the way how the management keep help maintaining the mother earth. Even a tiny piece of
animal they are unable to perform a product because this is the standard of the company
scene Puan Feirouz Azalia introduce the company to public.

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Overview on Total Quality Management

Defining quality is not an easy thing to do. Different people would have different
interpretation on what quality is stands for. For E. Ross and Perry (1999, pp. 108-109), they
classified quality into several different distinctions or approaches. They are either product-
based, user-based, manufacturing-based and value-based. All of these approaches would
bring different interpretation on what quality is. In product-based, quality is the considered as
the quantifiable or measurable characteristics or attributes such as its durability or
toughness. For user-based, it is something that satisfies the preferences of the users; more
commonly related to the highest quality of products. Manufacturing-based is related to the
engineering or manufacturing practices in creating products that fulfill the requirements.
Value-based quality is related in the term of cost and price as well as other attributes.

All of these, lead to a managerial process that is being done and carried out so that
the quality of the products can be maintained. It is known as the total quality management
(TQM). TQM is defined as both the philosophy and a set of guiding principles that represents
the foundation of continuously improving organization, where it integrates fundamental
management techniques, existing improvement efforts and technical tools under a
disciplined approach [CITATION Bes11 \p 1 \l 1033 ]. TQM also can be referred as the
management of an entire organization so that it excels in all aspects of products and
services which are important for the consumers or customers [CITATION Jay17 \p 257 \l 1033 ].

From the definition above, we can say that quality management is related to the
satisfaction of the consumers regarding to the usage of goods or services. If the quality of
the products is not being maintained and improved, there is a very high possibility of brand-
changing to occur. This could lead to the reduction of a firm’s revenue as it existing
customers have shifted into its competitors. Quality management is not only about the
continuous improvement of goods, but it also related to the managerial process in creating
the goods itself. That is why in TQM, seven concepts are being used and applied
internationally to encounter problem related to quality control. They are known as continuous
improvement, six-sigma, employee empowerment, benchmarking, just-in-time, Taguhci
concept and knowledge of TQM tools [CITATION Jay17 \p 258 \l 1033 ].

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 Firms from various places would apply these concepts in managing the quality of
their products. The aims of TQM are to increase the quality of products, make continuous
improvements on it, maintain or increased the customers’ satisfaction and also enhance
employees involvement in products creation [CITATION PNM06 \p 228 \l 1033 ]. A more
detailed and sophisticated explanation on the TQM’s concept applied by our selected firm
will be discussed in the next chapter of this report.

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Chapter 3: Analysis and Findings on Sustainability

Sustainability referred to meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their needs. However, not all the company considers
sustainability is the important thing for their company. And most of them just ignore the
sustainability that also involve about employees, customers, community and the company
reputation. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a pretty, beautiful, have a good looking but
don’t know what’s the inside product that they use. Health and cosmetics are popular among
the teenagers and adult regardless of gender. So what’s actually the sustainability about
cosmetic product that we should know is what it is the raw material that factory uses.

Laara Beauty is one of the factories that produce a cosmetic for customers and also
for the founder who want to sell the cosmetic. So, the sustainability that Laara Beauty apply
and the rules that Laara Beauty follow is the product that produce by them will not effects or
damages towards the user of Laara beauty cosmetics. Most of other producer of cosmetic
that want more profit will ignore for the user safety.

The different between of the Laara beauty and others is the raw material that uses by
Laara Beauty. Laara Beauty chooses a raw material from organic plants because an organic
will not harm the users and didn’t harm the environment. For the examples that happened to
Laara Beauty is when they got called from University Terengganu Malaysia (UMT) for a new
discovery of blood sea horse that can remove scarring. Although it really helpful for the
cosmetic but their chemist didn’t want to use a blood of animals. This shows that’s Laara
Beauty have a system view about sustainability.

The other sustainability that Laara Beauty applying in their factory is their machine
not has a waste like others factory. Their machine is using in the lab and do not produce a
waste such as toxic, ignitable, corrosive, reactive or radioactive that will cause air pollution,
water pollution. So Laara Beauty is one of the factories do not have a waste by using the
machines. As for the product waste, its common to have one or more waste that cause by
human mistake but Laara Beauty have overcome the problem with give the waste to their
employee to use at their home. For the example that always happened to Laara Beauty, they
commonly make a mistake during process produce a product that not fully a customer’s
requirement. If they can fix the product, they will fix but if or they will give to an employee to
use them.

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 Laara Beauty is a factory that aware of how their decision will affect people. They
import their raw material from Europe with the high premium quality to make sure all the
Laara Beauty users didn’t have a skins problem that will leads to the cancer disease. They
make a decision to not import from neighbouring countries because they know what is the
effect that will happened in the future toward the users. Although their product expensive but
they didn’t want to choose low quality product just to make sure their product is the lowest
price among of the company.

Laara Beauty factory is the factory that produce a cosmetic but not a factory that do
the packaging for product. Its mean a customer need to choose and find with their own bottle
or wrap, box to finish the goods. For the examples, if the customers recruit to make a
lipstick, they need to find a container that suit for the lipstick and factory do not responsibility
for any damage that made by a customer. And factory also will check if the container
suitable with the PH of the products either, it will crack, eradicate or else. Because of that,
Laara Beauty controls their factory sustainability.

Not every company aware of the sustainability because sustainability demands a

cost for company to reduces. Most of them take it as easy way by expose it to public. As a
human being, we should to have awareness to protect the environment and community to
meet the ability for generation to meets their needs.

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Analysis and Findings on Total Quality Management

Laara Beauty has been in the industry for quite some time now. Competing with other
companies would not be easy, especially in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. This
is because the industry is subjected to technology changes and often have to revised its
formula of products to cope with the changes in regulations of the authorities as well. To
maintain its customers’ satisfaction, the company have implied several total quality
managements in its operation and production. Among the concepts that are being used are
the continuous improvement, employee empowerment, benchmarking and just-in-time
concept.

 Continuous Improvement

The first concept of TQM that is being applied by Laara Beauty is the continuous
improvement. Continuous improvement is the repetitive process of maintaining and
enhancing the quality of the goods from time to time. Each and every if the products’ aspect
will be assessed and improved if necessary. For example, in creating its products such as
the creation of lipstick, the company would consistently do a check up or update on the
production process of the lipsticks. It started with the selection of raw materials, container
until the packaging process.

In selecting raw materials, Laara Beauty would use premium raw materials that are
being imported from the European countries. These countries are significantly known for
their high quality of materials for cosmetics items. The company, either by its founder or
chemist, would always do a follow-up so that they will remain updated with the latest
information about the raw materials that they use. Plus, they also will always in contact with
their suppliers regarding the selection of raw materials to be chosen. The company would
stick to the same raw materials for the whole time, unless there are any proven and worthy
raw materials that offer a better benefit or attributes to the products. Only then, the company
would do some changes in the selection of the raw materials for their cosmetic products.
They did this to ensure their customers would only get the best outcomes from the materials
that they chose and used.

As for the packaging process, it started with the selection of cosmetic containers.
Laara Beauty does not simply pick and select any container that looks pleasant to eye as
their packaging of products. Instead, they will do a thorough check on the materials used to
make the container. This is because the cosmetic products are subjected to chemical
reaction. If the fillings are not suitable with the container, it could cause the product to

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become damage. For instant, the container could crack or the fillings could dry up after a
certain period of time.

According to the founder, Mrs. Feirouz, she shared with us a story where the fillings
of the products dried up while in its container packaging. It started when one of her
customers came in the shop and request for manufacturing of a cosmetic product. The
company formulate the product as per the requirement of the customer and everything went
well at that time. The customers brought in her own packaging containers and handed it over
to company for the packaging process. The process went well, and the products were sealed
for selling purposes. The customer went back to her place and began selling the product
under her own brand. Shockingly to her acknowledgement, her customers complained that
the filling of the cosmetic products dried up. She went back to Laara Beauty and demand for
compensation for the damages products. Laara Beuty fought that by presenting the sample
of the products made for her, which are stored in a different container. It is the policy of the
company to store at least six samples from the produced cosmetic items for its customers for
reference. The fillings inside the stored sample was just fine and worked perfectly well. The
company concluded that the containers brought by the customers are not suitable and
compatible with the fillings of the cosmetic products. The company itself did advice on the
selection of containers, but it is the call of the customers in choosing the which container to
be used.

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 Figure 1.0 – Cracked container due to incompatibility of fillings and materials of containers

 Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a process of selecting a demonstrated standard of performance that

represents the very best performance for a process or an activity [CITATION Jay17 \p 260 \l
1033 ]. Some people would relate benchmarking as a stealing, which is not true. According to
Stapenhurst (2009, p. 5), benchmarking is not equivalent to stealing. It is a process of
adopting and adapting ideas, practices or methods, with permission from the other
benchmarking participants. In this context, the participants of benchmarking would organize
a meet up, and willingly participating in exchanging as well as sharing ideas on the elements
mentioned above to the other participants. The other participants are given permission to
execute the knowledge that they learnt from this process.

For Laara Beauty, their benchmarking participants consisting of international

companies such as Lore’al. Such companies are being chosen as they are on a different
level in producing cosmetic products. The founder would look up to them in term of the
ingredients, machineries, technologies, packaging styling and production process. This does
not mean Laara Beauty is degrading the local, well-established cosmetic companies, but it is
the preference of the founders to benchmark an international cosmetic company especially
from Europe, due to their advancement in technologies used, as well as the ingredients that
are more known to be user-friendly, safe and high in quality. This is among the main reason
of why Laara Beauty’s product of price range is not the same as other local cosmetic
products, due to its application of high, premium quality of raw materials that are clinically
and scientifically proven to be safe by the international and local authorities.

The benchmarking team for Laara Beauty is consisting of the founders, supervisors
as well as their chemist. Together, they would seek advice from their benchmarking partners
to continuously improving their product to suit the preference of the consumers without
harming them internally or externally. These people will analyze the data gained from the
benchmarking process, and figure out which input to be implemented in their production
process, according to the suitability and adaptability of the production environment.

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  Employee Empowerment

Employee empowerment may differ from employee involvement and employee

participation. The special concept of employee empowerment is it applies the concept of
power-sharing in the organization [ CITATION Roz16 \l 1033 ]. This means the employees are
being given the authority to make decision regarding certain matters in the organization.
Employee empowerment also may be defined as enlarging employees’ jobs so that the
added responsibility and authority is moved to the lowest level possible in the organization
[CITATION Jay17 \p 260 \l 1033 ].

In Laara Beauty, the founders gave a full authority to the supervisor as well as their
chemists regarding the product development and handling the customers orders. Both the
supervisors and chemist would be available in the front desk of the outlet to take orders and
deal with the sales of the product. This is to ensure that their customers will get the accurate
information regarding the product and its usage. This could prevent accidents from
happening when using the company’s products.

When there is a customer comes in to the store and request to manufacture her own
products, here is when the employee empowerment would take place. The chemist or
supervisor will entertain the customer from the beginning until the delivery or products pick-
up. This means, they are responsible in giving appropriate advice to the customer, guiding
her regarding the material selection, container selection, packaging style, price and so on.
As both of them have the knowledge in the production process, it is easier for the customer
to get appropriate information that he or she requires regarding manufacturing her own
products.

 Just-in-time Concept

Just-in-time (JIT) is a Japanese management philosophy applied in manufacturing

where it involves having the right items of the right quality and quantity in the right place and
at the right time [CITATION TCCon \p 2 \l 1033 ]. JIT can be categorized into several parts; JIT
in inventory, JIT in production and JIT in delivery. For Laara Beauty, we noticed that the
company only applied the JIT in delivery in their operations management.

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 JIT in delivery may bring a definition of delivering the items to the customers within a
stipulated time given. Laara Beauty does not have a very huge, enormous factory in their
possession. They are not a commercialized cosmetic company, so their manufacturing place
is quite small and have limited space. They only have a moderate portion of space to be
used as the transit place for products waiting to be picked up by their customers. As their
production runs almost every day, this means the storage area is keep on getting smaller
from time to time. This could be worsened if the customers did not come and pick up their
orders at the given time.

To encounter with such problematic customers, Laara Beauty applied the concept of
JIT in delivery. It is being done by either penalizing late pick up, doing intensive call out to
the customers and also by delivering the products to the customer themselves. Customers
may ask Laara Beauty to deliver the finished goods to them at instance, but this may include
additional cost to them. If not, the customers could pick up the items themselves when the
production is done. Laara Beauty personnel will give them a call and notify them once the
production is completed. However, in the case of unpicked up items, Laara Beauty will do an
intensive call out to the customers, to notify them about the products. At the same time,
penalty will be given and the company would impose additional fee of storage to such
customers until the items are collected. This method could help the company in reducing
their inventory as well as the cost of production of products.

By applying the four concept of total quality management above, Laara Beauty
manages to do appropriate action in ensuring and maintaining the quality of their products at
the optimum level. Laara Beauty is doing on going assessment about their quality control
because they want to provide the best cosmetic products to the market, without affecting the
safety and health of its users.

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PROCESS STRATEGY

A process strategy is an organization’s approach to transforming resources into goods and

service. The objective is to create a process that can produces offering that meet customer
requirements within a cost and other managerial constraints. The process selected will have
a long – term effect on efficiency and flexibility of production, as well as on cost and quality
of the goods produces. Laara Beauty is a company and factory that use mass customization
to produces vast array of goods and services. Why Laara Beauty is said to be a mass
customization because Laara Beauty is a factory that provide a services and goods to
customers. Laara Beauty provides a service to customers to custom a product according to
the recruitment from customers and produces a product just like what a demands from
customers.

Laara Beauty has a variety of product and can provide a product to customers in a
larges of volume manufacture. It makes a Laara Beauty a factory that can fulfil the
customers need by give a commitment towards a request made by a customer. For the
example, the customers that came to the Laara beauty is come from different products need.
A customer B has a request to make a lipstick and have a different pigment of colour
meanwhile customer A want a product such as foundation and the foundation has many
codes likes a colour of the foundation. Code 01 is the light brown 02 brown, 03 is dark
brown. . Laara Beauty allows customer to choose their own design of products and meets
the unique needs of their customers. It shows a factory can makes a variety of product in
high volume of manufacture and factory will customize a product just like what a demands
from customers.

For Laara Beauty equipment in process strategy requires decisions to choose an

equipment and technology that meet their customers need. A factory cant process a
products if the machine cant fulfil the quantity that demand from customers. Laara Beauty
always upgrades their equipment to makes sure their products can be finish by a time that
requirement from a customers. For the examples, Laara beauty has choose a mixture
machine 60 litre to develops the indicate capacity, size, tolerance and maintenance
requirement. This means Laara Beauty have an ability of flexibility to respond with the
equipment.

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 Process analysis and design of Laara Beauty is a modified flowchart with time added
on the horizontal axis that is time-function mapping. This type of analysis allows users to
identify and eliminates waste such as extras steps, duplication, and delay.

This is the basic line for a factory or companies, and it almost the same with Laara
Beauty because Laara beauty get order from the customers and then process the order,
packaging the product, wrapping the products and wait for the customers to takes away the
product. So, as we can see in the diagram it takes a lot of times to finish the products.

But when Laara Beauty have a target time to finish the products. It can reduce waste
and increase the volume of products. So Laara Beauty can finish the order by the time that
sets with the customers.

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 Laara beauty has using two types of production technology to enhance production
and productivity. The technology that Laara Beauty uses is machine technology. Most of the
product that produce by the Laara Beauty is using a machine likes mixer 60 litre, pH
machine, Homogenizer that conduct by humans. By using the machine, Laara Beauty can
improve their activity of produce a product and meet the capacity that should produces by
company. Next, technology that uses by Laara Beauty is process control. To make a product
like a moisturizer, lipstick, serum needs to monitor and control a physical process. For the
examples, Laara Beauty needs to make a moisturizer so the factory needs to determine and
control the pH of the moisturizer. They also need to check what it is a reaction between the
container and the product to make sure they do not make a mistake by process a product.
This is how the process strategy by using production technology that made by Laara Beauty.

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Chapter 4: Conclusion

In a nutshell, Laraa Beauty use machine in producing their product. Some of the
macihne is mixer, HP filter and measure weight. The estimated production in a month is in
consist of 2 way. The product without KKM approval from 10,000 unit to 50,000 units. With
KKM approval can produce 1,000,000 units per month. Without KKM means trial batch.
Laraa beauty produce product with and without KKM approval. Laraa Beauty very focus on
quality of their product by as they mention the production of the product from beggining to
the end. Base on manager of the company, since their opening of the company, there has
no serious dificulties or issues in producing their product.

For total quality management, the factory use premium machinery as it also can
increase the quality of the product. But they still require more machinery because of high
demand from customer. They already have good relationship with their supplier which mean
they always have suppliers when stock needed. Laraa Beauty set SKII as their role model
for their factory and production. They use post delivery to deliver their product to their
customer and those who pick up at the factory should take the item on time or will be
charged base on space uses. They also use feedback method as their quality of product
measurement. They very maintain their quality of the product.

In sustainability, the company have take care of environmental in their production

process in many ways. The raw materials of the product doesn’t have animal substance.
Most of industries today use many ways to improve quality of the product. But Laraa Beauty
maintain their standard in production raw material. In the factory, they use high class
machinery that give good impact to people when using the product without receiving side
effect. Laraa Beauty really taking good care of environment from beggining producing the
product until finish goods.

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Recommendation

We recommend that Laara Beauty will receive Halal certificate. Based from Laara
Beauty’s manager, before this fitting room in factory is combine between male and female as
the factory have limited space. They make an option to combine male and female in fitting
room. The day KKM make an inspection on the day, they unable to accept with fitting room
combine male and female. Therefore, the company failed to receive halal certification. After
that day, Laara beauty seperate between male and female fitting room. As a result, we hope
that Laraa beauty able to have Halal because the certificate is important in any islamic
industry.

Beside that, we suggest Laara Beauty increase their number of machine and staff so
that their output increasing. As we know, their demand would be delay until other types of
demand finish produce their product and will give effect to production process. By having
huge quantity of machine and staff, their production process will be smooth without error as
they have the ability to manage various types of demand from customer. Hence, it significant
to have additional machineries and staffs accroding to the company’s demand of product to
satisfy the demands of the product.

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References
References text
Heizer, J., Render, B., Munson J. (2017) Operations Management: Sustainability and
Supply Chain Management (12th ed.) New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

Bibliography
Cheng, T., & Podolsky, S. (1996). Just-in-Time Manufacturing: An introduction. London:
Springer Science & Business Media.
H., B. D. (2011). Total Quality Management, (Revised Edition). Pearson Education India.
Heizer, J., Render, B., & Munson, C. (2017). Operations Management Sustainability and
Supply Chain Management. England: Pearson Education Limited.
Huq, R. A. (2016). The Psychology of Employee Empowerment: Concepts, Critical Themes
and a Framework for Implementation. Routledge.
Joel E. Ross, S. P. (1999). Total Quality Management: Text, Cases, and Readings, Third
Edition. London: CRC Press.
Mukherjee, P. N. (2006). Total Quality Management. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Stapenhurst, T. (2009). The Benchmarking Book. UK: Routledge.

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Appendix

The owner of Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise, Puan Feirouz Azalia

Q&A sessions with the Owner, Operations Manager and Chemist of Laara Beauty Solutions
Enterprise

Photo session group members with Puan Feirouz Azalia (Owner) and Puan Asma’a
(Operations Manager)

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Raw Materials produced by Laara Beauty Solutions Enterprise.

Others different product produced by Laara Beauty Solutions.