CASE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE QUALITY CRUSADER
This case describes the behavior of a shop floor manager in a General Electric manufacturing facility wherein the manager directs employees to take short cuts on quality in order to meet shipping quota and time deadlines to satisfy marketing. At the time of these behaviors, General Electric as a company was publicly committed to the pursuit of quality. The shop floor manager, however, was quite prepared to rationalize her actions as not being detrimental to product quality in order to meet shipping quotas and time deadlines objectives that obviously were of greater importance to her than was the corporation's product quality objectives. The shop floor manager cannot be singled out as the culprit, because the Division general manager was a mealy mouthed type who spouted the product quality line while suggesting that quality could not be pursued at any price. The general attitudes expressed by the general manager and the shop floor manager indicates that within the General Electric division addressed in this case the concept of quality management was not understood, much less pursued.
The type of production being performed at this division of General Electric should have been pursuing quality through the Taguchi approach. Taguchi methods are intended to reduce variations stemming from both the characteristics of both production processes and product design. Taguchi methods are said to focus on the customer, or end user of a product, because the end outcome of Taguchi methods is to reduce the level of societal loss attributable to product quality level.
The theoretical framework of the Taguchi methods include seven concepts. These seven concepts are as follows:
1. The total loss to society caused by a product is an essential measure of product quality.
2. Continuous improvement in product quality is necessary to the continued viability of a profit oriented organizat...