Question

Wainwright Industries:

An Entirely New Philosophy of Business Based on Customer Satisfaction and Quality

In the early 1980s, Wainwright Industries, a manufacturer of stamped and machine parts, was facing nothing less than a crisis. Increased competition, along with intensified customer scrutiny, was forcing Wainwright to either improve quality or lose its competitive stature. In the face of this challenge, the employees of the company, led by CEO Arthur D. Wainwright, decided to make radical changes. It was clear that business as usual with a few minor improvements would not save the company. What Wainwright needed was an entire new philosophy of doing business based on quality and total customer satisfaction.

To determine how to achieve this objective, Wainwright used the criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige award as a road map. Drawing input from all levels of the company, the top management team led the process by setting goals, developing implementation strategies, and establishing key quality standards. Initially, the company emphasized three principles:

 Employee empowerment

 customer satisfaction

 Continuous improvement.

As a creative way of demonstrating the importance of working together, the company adopted the duck as its mascot, based on the fact that ducks fly information as a means of supporting one another in flight. In addition, whenever a duck falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly returns to the flock. Wainwright used this analogy to support the concepts of teamwork and employee empowerment, which were integral parts of the company's quality improvement efforts.

Along its journey toward improved quality, a number of specific initiatives were implemented:

 Lean manufacturing

 Statistical Process Control

 Computer aided design

 Cross-training

 Profit sharing

 Quality minded manufacturing initiatives were put in place.

Special emphasis was placed on training and benchmarking. Since it initiated its quality program, the company has spent up to 7% of its annual payroll on training. To demonstrate its resolve in this area, the company has made training an important criterion for employee advancement. Wainwright has benchmarked against a number of companies, including firms in the textiles, chemical, and electronics industries. For instance, after studying Milliken & Company, a previous Baldrige award winner, Wainwright implemented an employee suggestion program that has been very effective. Along with the changes mentioned previously, Wainwright also has changed its culture to make it more egalitarian and quality minded. The employees at Wainwright (including the CEO) now all wear the same uniform, eat in the same cafeteria, and park in the same parking lot. Office walls have literally been torn down and replaced with glass, based on the premise that if the managers can watch the frontline employees work, the frontline employees should be able to watch the managers work, too. As a result of these changes, the managers of the company have become coaches and facilitators rather than supervisors and disciplinarians. This important change has helped facilitate the teamwork atmosphere that is supportive of high quality and total customer satisfaction.

The results of the company's continuous improvement efforts are linked to five strategic indicators:

 safety

 internal customer satisfaction

 external customer satisfaction

 design quality

 business performance.

The status of each of these criteria is tracked by "mission control," a room set aside to document the company's efforts. In mission control, each customer's satisfaction is documented with a plaque, a current monthly satisfaction rating, and a red or green flag indicating the customer's status relative to objectives. As a result of these initiatives, Wainwright has met the challenge. It has not only survived but has emerged as an industry leader. The company has earned the status of preferred supplier to a growing number of quality-conscious customers and has received special recognition from General Motors, Ford, and IBM Rochester. The goal of Six Sigma quality is being pursued. Perhaps most important, in the last decade, overall customer satisfaction has increased from 84% to 95%, and the company's market share, revenues, and profits are at record levels. Ironically, the company was one of the recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige award, the very award against which the company benchmarked in its early days of quality improvement.

Answer the following questions in depth in the booklet provided.

1. In its pursuit of improved quality, Wainwright emphasized two sets of initiatives: one based on improvements in its manufacturing operations (e.g., just-in-time manufacturing, computer-aided design) and the other based on human resource management (e.g., employee empowerment, profit sharing).

a. Why was it necessary for Wainwright to emphasize both of these sets of initiatives?

b. How are they related?

2. Using the definition of Egalitarianism below, discuss the following question.

a. How does the development of an egalitarian culture help a company like Wainwright Industries become more quality-minded?

Egalitarianism

equalism —is a trend of thought that favors equality for all people

Egalitarian

doctrines maintain that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or social status,

according to the

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

According to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary, the term has two distinct definitions in modern English:

either as a

a political doctrine that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights

or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic inequalities among people, economic egalitarianism, or the decentralization of power. Some sources define egalitarianism as the point of view that equality reflects the natural state of humanity.

3. Although quality is important for every product or service, it may be particularly important for the precision auto parts industry.

a. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

Answer 1

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3.Although quality is important for every product or service, it may be particularly important for the precision auto parts industry. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

For any organization quality is critical. The price importance for the automotive parts industry is elaborated below:

• Quality is essential to the automotive parts industry to meet consumer needs and safety precautions.
• It would help to improve a company's competitive advantage on the global market.
• All automotive parts manufacturing industries manufacture the same parts and perform the same role.
• A business that works in this sector may differentiate itself by good quality. Larger companies accept car parts with high quality and precision.
• This also helps build a positive picture for the brand and gain credibility.

For the automotive parts industry, therefore, quality is essential to ensure the safety precautions and satisfy their customers.

2.What is an egalitarian culture? How does the development of an egalitarian culture help a company
like Wainwright Industries become more quality minded?

Equalitarian culture can be characterized as a movement that supports equality within the organization for all people. It functions as providing each and every individual within the organization with equal fundamental or social status. By offering a comparable role to and introducing each and every employee of the organization through the development of a benchmark would be the most critical aspect of the inclusive culture that would support the business in terms of both improved quality improvement and profitability.

1.In its pursuit of improved quality, Wainwright emphasized two sets of initiatives: one based on improvements in its manufacturing operations (e.g., just-in-time manufacturing, computer-aided design) and the other based on human resource management (e.g., employee empowerment, profit sharing). Why was it necessary for Wainwright to emphasize both of these sets of initiatives? How are they related?

To achieve the quality target, it is especially important to make improvements on both the manufacturing as well as the employee side. All should work together because all factors would lead to customer satisfaction.Technology enhancement is the only choice that can offer an advantage over rivals, which is why manufacturing improvements and continuous enhancement are necessary.All workers in the company are aware of what they are doing in which better goods can be made, which is why it is very important to do so.

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