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.