Total quality management principles and implementation

Quality Management

The situation, involving Cessna is showing how an older firm had become a victim of its own success. This occurred with the company failing to understand, the challenges they were facing inside the marketplace or how to adapt. In 1998, the management decided that a new strategy needed to be utilized to change the mindset and focus of the company (i.e. Total Quality Management). This process involves streamlining operations and reducing waste throughout the entire organization. To fully understand how this works requires carefully examining how Cessna enacted these changes, their results and how this helps to improve logistics / supply chain management. These different elements will illustrate the lasting impacts of the strategy on the firm. ("Our History," 2014) (Plunkett, 2009)

Discuss why Cessna took on this initiative?

Cessna took on this program in order to change the culture and attitudes within the firm. From the 1960s until the late 1990s, the company became known as one the most prominent aircraft and aerospace companies. This resulted in the firm receiving large government and private contracts. At the same time, their airplanes were very popular among civilian aviation. These factors resulted in Cessna experiencing tremendous amounts of demand. This helped company to realize growth rates that were averaging 15% a year during this time. ("Our History," 2014) (Plunkett, 2009)

However, the organization began to experience a slowdown in sales by the mid 1990s. This is because other manufacturers began to compete aggressively against them and the government contracts disappeared. After this happened, is when the firm had trouble adjusting with these changes and started experiencing a dramatic slowdown in earnings. To prevent the company from losing its customers to rivals, a new management team was brought in. Their job was to turn the company around and redefine the organization going forward. To achieve these objectives, the management began to aggressively looking for new strategies that will change the attitude and work environment inside the organization. Total quality management (TQM) was selected based upon the tremendous success other firms had with it. ("Our History," 2014) (Plunkett, 2009)

What were the results?

The results, is that Cessna was able to redefine the way its supply chain helped the organization to achieve critical objectives. This is because it focused on these relationships and improving the quality of the secondary products used in manufacturing the final merchandise. The result is that the firm redefined how they interact with the organizations and the impact it had on the finished product that was sold to customers. This led directly to a 30% reduction in costs and it improved productivity by 14%. ("Cessna Quality Requirements," 2013) (Plunkett, 2009)

To ensure that everyone was following these guidelines, the company has a review process that reevaluates these relationships every 5 years. Evidence of this can be seen with them saying, "The Cessna quality control requirements for supplier applies to Manufacturers, Distributors, and Special Processors providing parts or services for Cessna Aircraft Company when this document is specified by inclusion on a purchase order (PO) or contract issued by Cessna Aircraft Company. Suppliers' quality systems shall comply with the latest revision of the appropriate quality systems standard along with the Cessna specific quality requirements within this document. Documented evidence of compliance to the appropriate quality management system (QMS) standard along with a successful onsite Cessna Aircraft or Textron Aerospace Company supplier quality audit is required prior to production. Approval shall be re-evaluated at least every five years by Cessna SCQE. Re-approval will be based on the supplier's quality performance, changes in the supplier's quality system, delegated inspection authority or changes based on the needs of the business. The supplier shall notify Cessna if the primary contact(s) for quality changes. It is the responsibility of the supplier to provide to Cessna a written statement of any changes in the supplier's ownership, location or changes that may alter the overall effectiveness of the supplier's quality system, including revisions to quality management system certifications." These insights are showing how the TQM system is designed to focus the company's logistics and supply chain. This has helped the organization to increase productivity and streamline costs. ("Cessna Quality Requirements," 2013) (Plunkett, 2009)

How did this effort help to improve the logistics and supply chain management in the company?

TQM improved supply chain management and logistics by focusing on specific areas to improve operational efficiency. The most notable include: driving the best possible supply-base rationalization decisions, accelerating the supply-base rationalization process, improving suppliers' performance and integrating key suppliers with Cessna's critical business, manufacturing, and design processes. Driving the best supply chain decisions is concentrating on understanding how specific prices and the quality of parts will have an influence on the end product. This is critical as these factors will have an effect on the image of the organization and how much they are charging customers for purchasing aircraft. Accelerating the supply-based rationalization process, is examining how these procedures can be implemented inside the organization to deal with critical challenges. ("Cessna Quality Requirements," 2013) (Plunkett, 2009)

Improving supplier performance requires holding third party providers to a higher standard. In this case, the basic idea is to make certain that they are following these guidelines and will continue to embrace them in the future. This was achieved through having periodic reviews and objectively analyzing the relationship Cessna has with the firm. Integrating suppliers with various procedures requires showing how they will help the company to achieve its goals and can realize long-term benefits in the process. The combination of these factors has an influence on the ability of managers to effectively troubleshoot challenges Cessna was facing with quality and controlling costs. This requires having greater amounts of accountability and encouraging them to integrate these practices into their business model. ("Cessna Quality Requirements," 2013) (Plunkett, 2009)