Question

Quality is defined by the customer. Ethics have become a critical part of the Quality equation and customer experience. Yet we see many examples of ethics violations by corporations which have had horrible and sometimes lethal consequences for customers. Please identify and describe an ethics violation that has impacted the quality of a service or good. Your example can come from personal experience or the news. Further, please write about how the event should have been managed in order to avoid the ethics violation.

Answer 1

Many companies have a quality assurance process in place in inhouse manufacturing as well as third party manufacturing. After the product it made, it goes through final inspection as a part of the quality control process. Many times, due to supply pressure from marketing, line inspectors are told to pass these products without stringent inspection or in places whole lot are sent without inspection. This is because of the belief that if the customer complaints, then that would be taken care at a later stage. This implies that short term targets are more important than long term brand building. This target achievement comes at the cost of quality and customer service and brand image of the company. Customer management takes priority over improving processes. This is an ethics on part of line managers and management where they are compromising on quality and customer satisfaction. This event can be managed by properly forecasting demand and supply and creating processes which need to be adhered to. This will also reduce on-field customer complaints from customers.