Quality Management in Grohe Tiles Manufacturers, Inc - Assignment Example

QUALITY MANAGEMENT goes here] [Due paper] Quality Management of the Company The of the company for which quality management was improved using quality tools and quality management system is Grohe Tiles Manufacturers, Inc. Scenario Grohe Tiles was found in 2010 in a highly competitive tiles manufacturing market of New York. The owners expected the company to become one of the best tile manufacturing companies of the city. However, the net profits of the company for the first three years did not meet the expectations of the owners. The managers of the company decided to dig out the issues related to slow progress, less customer satisfaction, and less investment returns. They hired a quality management team to work for the company and come with some solution. Use of a Quality Management Team Quality management team was used by the company because it is most useful in situations where quality needs to be improved and maintained in the manufacturing process. The team proposed the company to create two collaborative teams, which were quality control and quality assurance teams, to work for ensuring the quality of the products. “Quality control is concerned with examining the product or service — the end result” (Madison, 2014). The main aim of a quality control team is to examine and verify the products to ensure that the products meet the quality standards set by the company. On the other hand, “Quality assurance verifies that any customer offering, regardless whether it is new or evolved, is produced and offered with the best possible materials, in the most comprehensive way and with the highest standards” (Kietzman 1). The quality assurance team examines the product manufacturing process to ensure excellence in each stage of the process by identifying the defects and taking necessary steps to remove those defects. Use of a Quality Tool – Fish Bone Diagram The quality management team used the fish bone diagram to sort out the issues that the company might have been facing. Given below is the step by step use of fish bone diagram which helped the team get into the causes for the problems concerning the company. Step 1: Identification of the Problems The managers made the team aware about the issues related to the company. The problems identified and communicated to the team were steady growth, less customer preference, decreased customer satisfaction, decreased graph of sales, and less profits. The team summed all problems under the category of ‘poor company performance’. Step 2: Spine and Bones Step 3: Identification of the areas from where the problems arose Step 4: Identification of the causes Step 5: Proposed Solution The quality management team went through the process of identifying the causes and came out with three main reasons which included less focus on quality by employees, less awareness in employees regarding the use of quality management system, and lack of any proper quality management system in the company. The team provided the company with a solution that was supposed to resolve all problems related to the company. The solution was to implement the use of ISO9000 quality management system in the company. As the quality of the tiles manufactured by the company was not up to the mark, so the customers were not willing to come again to the company to buy the tiles. Consequently, the number of customers, as well as the level of sales and profit for the company was decreasing every year. Importance of Quality Management In case of manufacturing companies, quality is considered a key to the success in a competitive environment. It is a fact that when there is tough competition, all companies aim to achieve a high market share and they do it by delivering high quality products to the customers. In doing so, a little negligence or a lack of focus towards quality can adversely affect the reputation and performance of a company. Same happened with Grohe tile manufacturers. The company aimed to excel in the industry of tile manufacturing for construction projects but its managers did not implement a proper quality management system which could provide directions to the employees regarding how they should ensure the best quality. Consequently, the level of sales went down for the company. Quality Management System for Grohe Tiles The team proposed ISO9000 quality management system for the company. ISO9000 is the combination of systems that are made for the companies that are motivated towards bringing continuous improvement in their manufacturing processes. About ISO9000 quality standards, McGuigan (2014) states, “This standard designed to help consumers and governments know at a glance whether a business conforms to a basic level of quality”. While talking about ISO9000, let us now describe its importance for Grohe Tile Manufacturers. Grohe Tiles need to implement the quality standards of ISO9000 quality management system in order to grow and gain success in the market. It can enable the company to get a positive effect on investment, sales, profit margin, and market share. As Woodruff (2009) states, “Organizations that have implemented effective ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems (QMS), or in todays language, an ISO 9001:2000 QMS, have experienced numerous benefits”. Some of the main benefits of implementing 1SO9000 quality standards include increase in the level of customer satisfaction and retention, improvement in the manufacturing processes, increase in the level of profits, and improved image. Focus of Quality Management System The managers were told about three principles of quality management that include customer focus, continuous improvement, and employee involvement. Customer focus is one of the three main principles of quality management. According to Kanji (1995, p. 591), TQM believes in total customer focus. Customers want quality in products. Therefore, the company should develop products of the highest quality not only to increase its customer base but also to get a high market share. Next principle is continuous improvement. A company needs to bring continuous improvement in the products by integrating quality in all activities and phases of the product development process. The team made the managers of the company aware that they need to work towards continuous improvement in manufacturing and quality procedures in order to bring a high quality product in the market. Third principle of the quality management system is employee involvement. The involvement of employees is imperative in ensuring the implementation of total quality management system in a company. Therefore, Grohe Inc. needs to encourage their employees to bring improvement in their job activities in order to ensure success of the company. Implementation of Quality Management System To implement the ISO 9000 quality management system, the managers of the company need to be fully committed to improve quality of the manufacturing processes because a company can only gain high profits through high sales only if it delivers quality products and services to the customers. Grohe Inc. needs to create awareness regarding the benefits of ISO9000 among the employees in order to prepare them for the implementation of the quality management system. The company also needs to provide required training to all employees so that they become proficient in meetings the ISO9000 quality standards. Benefits of the Quality Management System Through the implementation of the quality management system, some of the main benefits that the company can achieve include: Increase in the level of sales Increase in the customer satisfaction level Profit margin will be increased The company will become able to get an access to local as well as international markets Customers will be able to get reliable and quality assured products Summing it up, when the company will focus on quality in all product manufacturing processes, the customers will be happy to use its products. Consequently, the company’s image and the levels of sales of the company will increase which will also result in increasing the profit margin for the company. These were the recommendations given by the quality management team to the managers of the company. The mangers worked on the recommendations and implemented the ISO9000 quality management system which significantly improvised the market performance of the company. References Kanji, G. (1995). Total Quality Management: Proceedings of the First World Congress. London: Chapman & Hall. Kietzman, S. (2014). What is Quality Assurance?. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-quality-assurance.htm Madison, N. (2014). What is Quality Control?. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-quality-control.htm McGuigan, B. (2014). What is ISO9000?. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-iso9000.htm Woodruff, D. (2009). Quality Management - The Benefits of an Effective ISO 9000 Quality Management System. 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