DemingS Fourteen Points For Management Essays - Management

Deming'S Fourteen Points For Management Deming has written a great deal over the years to explain his philosophy and methods. Deming defined quality as a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability at low costs and suited to the market. In this case we are going to examine the causes of the quality problems at EuroCab SA with respect to Demings Fourteen Points for Management. His Fourteen Points for quality are: 1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service with a plan to become competitive and thus to stay in business and to provide jobs. 2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in economic age. We can no longer live with commonly accepted levels or delays, mistakes, defective materials, and defective workmanship. 3. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality. Require instead statistical evidence that quality is built in. 4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone. Instead, depend on meaningful measures of quality, along with price. Eliminate suppliers that cannot provide statistical evidence of quality. 5. Find problems. It is managements job to work continually on the system (design, incoming materials, composition of material, maintenance, improvement of machines, training, supervision, retraining). 6. Institute modern methods of training and education on the job, including management. 7. Adopt and institute leadership. 8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company. 9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team to foresee problems of production that may be encountered with various materials and specifications. 10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of workforce. 11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management. 12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship. Eliminate the annual rating or merit system. 13. Institute a vigorous programme of education and self-improvement for everyone. 14. Create a structure in top management that will push everyday on the above 13 points EuroCab as we know is one of the leading European manufacturers of customized metal cabinets of various sizes and designs. In the last five years EuroCab has experienced rapid growth in sales and profits. It has actually sextupled its turnover from 115 million francs in 1992 to 750 million francs in 1995. Despite this success, EuroCab faces many quality problems, which are a big threat for the performance of the company. Lack of training and responsibility, problems with its suppliers and the pressure and threats that management exerts to the employees are the main causes of the quality problem that EuroCab face. In order to have a closer look to each one of these causes we are going to examine testimonies of the supervisors. Charlotte Lorcy who is supervisor of Final Inspection in her testimony has mentioned that they have to reject a completed cab when they find visual defects on the posts. Anne Cardignac supervisor in the Electrical Assembly has mentioned that despite working with Charlotte in the same area of the factory, they cannot help her because they are not qualified to say whether a small scratch or dent is acceptable or not. We can assume immediately the absence of training from the workers in the electrical assembly section. They have not been taught whether a scratch or a dent is acceptable and thus creating waste of time if they left a cab that they think is ok but actually is not because it will have to be fixed again. Anne also reported that sometimes because of faults in the design of the cabinets they do a little damage (paint damage). So there is a problem with the designing team that sends defective materials to the electrical assembly section. There is also a problem with the mechanical assembly section. As Anne mentions there is a lack of responsibility and lack of training in the department. Specifically there are not clear build instruction s for new employees so mistakes are inevitable. Finally Anne mentions that by the time the only performance measurement is output, everybody cares only for