Case Study 3 & 4

Globe University / Minnesota School of BusinessCase Study 3 & 4Santa Cruz Guitar Company & Orbitz

Huyen T Bui7/31/2015

Week 3 case study for Santa Cruz Guitar Company and Orbitz as part of assignment of MG705: Management Models for the 21st Century Workforce Instructor: Patricia Angulo

Santa Cruz Guitar CompanyEdward Deming is atrue management gurus in the quality revolution with his insights on measuring, managing, and improving quality have greatly influenced the practices that organizations use today (Evans, 2013).Create and publish to all employees a statement of the aims and purposes of the company or other organization. The management must demonstrate constantly their commitment to this statement. Santa Cruz Guitar Company (SCGC) is a small-scale guitar manufacturing with only 14 craftspeople luthiers that take part in the main production process. Each of the guitar is hand crafted and can be customized if needed. Even though SCGC doesnt have a written policy regard TQM, however, they have embraced the philosophy of Deming and his 14 points of TQM.

As the company only hires those who desire to work in a team environment and have a passion for guitar making, SCGC place their trust on employees. With 6 workstations at which the guitars are progressively assembled as they move from station to station, each requires high level of precise and corrections. SCGC has removed the barriers of micro-managing that rob people of pride of workmanship, instead, they have driven out fear, created a trusting environment in which each luthiers allowed to make their own quality decisions, staff each station. (Evans, 2013)At SCGC, workers are encouraged to further enhance their skills either by taking external courses or by a practice that allows them to build two instruments a year for personal use. These opportunities allow the craftspeople to explore new techniques in guitar building and become familiar with the entire guitar building process. SCGC workers are even encouraged to go out on their own to open a luthier business someday. That has reflected the philosophy of Deming in encouraging education opportunities and self-improvement for everyone. (Evans, 2013)

SCGC commits to bring excellence quality into each guitar; clients can customize their guitar to fit in usage. From choosing raw materials, bending them into shapes, testing to perfection and continuing after purchase services that have made SCGC truly an innovative and constantly strive for best practice.

OrbitzThis case study is about the great customer service experience that Scott Paton, an editor-at-large forQuality Digest, had with Orbtiz, a traveling website. Through the story, we learned that he had bad experience with dealing with customer service either online or call to the hotline center. However, the process of getting help at Orbitz has made Mr. Paton surprised and impressed. From the clarity of direction for customer service to the quick and easy voicemail navigation system that divides calls by type of inquiry. By input the preliminary information such as phone number, help options, Orbitz had quickly identify and navigated Mr. Paton to the right representative whom then helped him with best customer etiquette and problem solving. From Orbitz case study, we can see that they implemented the Poka-yoke methodology as an approach for mistake-proofing processes using automatic devices or methods to avoid simple human error. Poka-yoke is focused on two aspects: prediction or recognizing that a defect is about to occur and providing a warning; and detection, or recognizing that a defect has occurred and stopping the process. (Evans, 2013) Phone service has been a nightmare for customer, with long waiting time and numerous of transferred calls. In order to overcome the challenges, Orbitz has taken Voice of Customer, a structured methodology for listening to customers that is promoted by the Center for Quality of Management (CQM) into account; streamline the process by simplified the options and quick response hotline. Customer focus is a key requirement of ISO 9000:2000 in this Orbitz case. For example, in the Management Responsibility section, one requirement is Top management shall ensure that customer requirements are determined and are met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction. (Lindsay, 2010) Orbitz not only solved the duplicate charging problem, but they also go beyond by sending a $50 discounted gift card for the next purchase.

BibliographyEvans, J. R. (2013). Quality & Performance Excellence, 7e. VitalSource Bookshelf version.Lindsay, J. R. (2010). MANAGING FOR QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE. VitalSource Bookshelf .