لخّصلي

CASE 7 : QUALITY AT QUALITY FOUNDRY
Quality Foundry was established in the mid 1960s in a 300 square metre building with 10
people as a small family business to produce castings.Under Ravikumar's direction, Quality Foundry made some substantial improvements in the
quality of castings, particularly reducing scrap and reject rates.In the 1980s as business grew, the company
expanded its facilities and its capability to develop its own tooling patterns and eventually moved
into a 4000 square metre building.As we are in a low-growth, mature market and the standards for competitive levels of quality
and service are becoming more demanding, we must develop a strategy to improve quality and
responsiveness in all areas of the company in order to improve our return on investment.We need to change thinking throughout the organisation to get employees
involved, to encourage team work, to develop a more flexible workforce and adaptable organisation.Ravikumar worked closely with the
factory workers directly responsible for the products, asking them what they needed to get the job
done and ensuring management commitment to provide the necessary resources.Quality Foundry
invested in new control equipments for furnaces to control temperatures with digital read out.This will improve the quality
of our products, enhance our productivity and elevate our service and response level to our customers.Five years later, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Quality Foundry retired and the General
Manager of a manufacturing company was appointed as the new CEO.Consequently he set up a new task for senior
management (including Ravikumar) to develop a new strategic vision.In
1990, Quality Foundry made a commitment to quality by hiring a quality assurance manager
Ravikumar.The
first thing he did was to work with top management to develop a mission statement which reads as
below: Our mission at Quality Foundry is to improve the return on investment.We can achieve this
by changing attitudes and incorporating a qualitylteam environment.We need
to have all employees recognise the importance of product quality and service and move toward
more favourable pricing.He also firmly believed in Deming's philosophy.Over this time period from 1960s to 1980s, the foundry industry
declined from more than 1200 companies to about 400.With such a shrinking market, Quality Foundry began to listen more to its customers.They
discovered that customers were not happy with the quality of the products supplied by them.This
helped the workers to adjust the process as needed.The success of this project led the company to
empower employees to control many other aspects of the system.Ravikumar felt that the top management was committed to quality and saw an
opportunity to change the company's culture.We need to instill pride in the work place and the product.The new CEO felt that mission statement did not provide a clear direction.