The Quality of Sony Company and Samsung Company - Case Study Example

Samsung Vs Sony Company Name: Institution: a) Brief profile of each company Sony Corporation Company Founded in 1946 as Tokyo Telecommunication Engineering Corporation, Sony Corporation Company takes part in the production, sale, and development of electronically based devices destined for a varied marketplace due to the company’s flexible nature (Chang, 2011). The various market regions include the software industry, professional industry, the gaming industry, as well as the consumer industry (Andreas, 2011). For instance, Sony Company’s merchandises include televisions, digital imaging solutions like cameras, audio and video equipment’s such as DVD’s, home theatre systems, amongst other facilities. As a transnational company, the manufacturing hubs for Sony products originate mainly from Asia, Japan, and Europe. Therefore, Sony accomplishes its marketing through sales subsidiaries, direct internet transactions, and via unaffiliated merchants. In addition to providing the above products and services, Sony also partakes in the music business through platforms like Sony Digital Production and Sony Pictures Television (Chang, 2011). Furthermore, the company also engages in financial business services such as insurance amenities, advertising facilities, and banking services. The Sony Corporation constantly gives the impression of a renowned market giant ever since it was established. However, current market trends depict a different scene due to the emergence of novel volatile companies (Cherunilam, 2010). Samsung Electronics Company Limited The Samsung electronics company represents one of the Samsung group conglomerates established in 1969. The company is mainly involved in the electronics business. Due to the group’s humble beginnings as an export business, the company has only been able to attain commendable success in recent times (Chang, 2011). The Samsung Electronics Company chiefly engages in consumer electronics production and the business has divided the units into three major components. The first constituent of Samsung deals with consumer electronics in the form of refrigerators, printers, coloured televisions amongst other devices (Lee, 2006). The second constituent of Samsung Electronics represents the device solutions that deal with devices such as dynamic random access memories. Finally, the third constituent of the electronics company is the information technology and mobile communications sector (Cherunilam, 2010). The sector deals in products such as digital cameras, network systems, and phones. Samsung Electronics Company operates in more than fifty international platforms thus; the company gains the ability to thrive in both foreign and native markets (Ibid). However, a half of all the company’s sales originate from the Pacific region and the Asian regions. Samsung Electronics Company utilizes clear market trajectories to carry out business relations thus the reason behind the company’s first growth rate (Gehani, 1998). b) Definition of quality The critical concept of quality has been emphasised by various organisations to mean the conformity to the expected specification and standards of production. Therefore, the company is expected to carry out the mandated task in a right way and doing operations right from the start to the end. The two companies, Samsung and Sonny, are also expected to meet the customers’ expectations and needs. Therefore, the two companies are tasked with the responsibility of producing products that define the customer’s specification and meeting all the features and characteristics. According to the Japanese philosophy, the definition of quality simply means zero defect, hence the result realised when doing things right through the production process (Strebel, 2004). The definition of quality by the two companies is to produce appliance that satisfy the customers hence creating a common term. The two companies, based on the product always carry out a quality assessment based on the company production policy as well as customer’s perception and definition. All the quality standards are measured according t the ability of the customer to meet the critical criteria of the product features. According to Samsung company, the definition of quality is a process that must meet the qualification of four evaluation processes. The processes include reliability, process, application and functionality. The evaluation process is based on the internal standards and customers’ requirements. On the other hand, Sony defines quality base on the Sony Pledge of quality (Cherunilam, 2010). The pledge outline that the company is determined to respect the customer opinion as they strive to deliver quality products. The Sony company ensure that the product is well designed, reviewed and meet the state of art technology. c) Evaluation Of Products Quality Sony Corporation The company management is continuously investing in the development of new products. The urge to new product development is based on the company principle of freedom and open-mindedness. The founders of the company realised that they could not compete effectively in the market by imitation what other companies produced. Therefore, the company had to be independent in terms of innovation and creativity and create a product that would outmatch other companies (Chang, 2011). The spirit of innovation in the company is promoted by the new scientific discoveries and the commercialisation of new, affordable and quality products that is neglected by the competing Samsung Company. In the Sony pledge of quality, the company is committed to respecting the customers’ viewpoint to assist in the delivery of quality products that meet the ISO QS 9000. The company promote continuous innovation of products of good quality as stated in the quality management policy. The corporation has gone to the degree of reviewing the quality management system across all the production processes. The considerations in the review plan target the implementation of quality standards from the point of planning, design, development and manufacturing. To guarantee the acceptable quality standards are met, the company has developed a quality framework that is being implemented and is used to measure the level of improvement of the product being taken to the market. Since the implementation of the new strategy, the company has realised lower defect ratio in all the products already sold, and the company still has plans to eliminate the defects in the few consequential years (Strebel, 2004). Samsung Electronics The company-engineering department is working out everything possible to ensure that customer’s satisfaction is attainable. To achieve this goal, the company has created strict quality assurance guidelines for the products being produced. The company management comes with an assumption that the quality of the products can only be improved through the information or customer’s feedback (Andreas, 2011). By maintaining communication between the company and the consumer, Samsung has managed to carry out an audit that has realised result to make great improvement of all the products. Samsung engineering department has adopted the application of a quality management system that ensure the production of products of high quality that are in compliance with the ISO 9001 of 2008 and KS ISO 2001 of 2009 certifications. The company has further taken a step to ensure that every staff is well informed of the quality assurance policy that needs to be followed. The company also has a quality system that put into consideration five major areas of operation (Cherunilam, 2010). The quality system looks into the facility and equipment, laboratory control, materials, production and packaging and labelling systems. All the systems are all followed to ensure that the company produce quality products that are needed by the consumers (Chang, 2011). d) Comparison and Evaluation of Effective Quality Control Samsung Electronics Samsung has a well-equipped Biologics that consist of microbiology groups, Immunology groups and chemistry groups that are mandated to ensure quality control. The department provides a controlled environment that ensures that the products being manufactured are of high quality (Andreas, 2011). In order to meet the criterion, the quality team start the production process from ensuring the quality of the raw material is of the required standards, and the samples produce are tested before being released to the market. The quality control is also keen on environmental parameters. With the consideration, the company carry out environmental monitoring, clean gas and steam as well as clean water systems (Strebel, 2004). Various functionality tools are considered for the quality control program. For example, in the phone development, company look at the ways of improving cell performance, built quality, battery life, android versions and other software packages. The company ensure the quality of these features through real-time monitoring of interlock systems and statistical process control. The interlock system enables the automatic quality control of the production and processing stages, just before assembly. The application of the statistical control process is whereby the Samsung Company checks for the quality of the semiconductors manufacturing process to ensure they meet the organisational quality control standards (Andreas, 2011). Sony Corporation The company has reconfigured its quality management system by reviewing the mechanism for quality management in all the production processes. To safeguard the quality control of products being produced, the company evaluate quality from the point planning, design and development, which is extended to the product sales and services (Andreas, 2011). To effectively govern the value of the products, the Sony Corporation has developed a tool that tries to eliminate software vulnerability during production and after the sale of the products. The company digitize and network consumer electronic equipment’s as well as improving the performance of the software to protect personal information from hackers. The organisation is incorporating the testing solution with a para-software development for C and C++ as a quality control tool to improve the product quality. The tool ensures that the company products are integrated and in compliance with the monitoring the range of guidelines stated to improve the software development and quality (Lee, 2006). The evaluation of the two companies is best done by customer’s feedback. The two companies are competitors hence none can claim that they are the best in term of producing quality products. Customers are the consumers of the product hence the companies use statistical data collected over time to know their performance interims of quality (Gehani, 1998). The companies have form an information tracking system, which has since shown that Samsung is leading in terms of quality control compared to Sony. The statistic is presented by the Social media analysis, which is an independent company that analysed the quality control on Samsung Vs Sony products in the global market. The data showed that Samsung is leading by 72% while Sony is at 27& and a 1% shared point in the year 2014. The quality control in between the two companies is also determined by the demand for the product. This involves the distribution channels as part of the Six Sigma activities that is applied by all the companies. The data collected still put Samsung electronics to be the most preferred products and has a greater share compared to Sony products. The reviews sampled showed that Samsung products are of high quality compared to Sony. A research was specifically done to determine the quality of the company product involved Sony Xperia and Samsung Galaxy S4 (Chang, 2011). The data below provides the details of the information gathered comparing the products quality on time factor. Considering time as a parameter to measure product quality, Samsung is still on the winning side since Samsung Galaxy S4 is energy saving compared to Sony Xperia. Device Talk Time Web Browsing Video Playback Overall time Samsung Galaxy S4 13.53 hrs 8.42 hrs 10.16 hrs 63hrs Sony Xperia 16.03hrs 3.36hrs 5.39hrs 48hrs e) Quality Control Process Quality control process denotes the processes by which companies seek to ensure that the quality of products is maintained at the recommended level. The process is a mind-set and a formalised system that has to be given first-hand consideration while ensuring that the companies produce quality products (Miltenburg, 2005). All the two companies have an established policy and procedures that must be followed by the company operators and engineers. Samsung and Sony are two companies that mainly deal with the manufacture of electronic products. Therefore, there are three main stages of quality process control that is followed by all the electronic manufacturing companies (Evans & Evans, 2008). The aim of the quality control process is to ensure the companies do not encounter quality problems from evading the market and end up destroying the company reputation and losing customers. The first process that is conducted by the two companies is Income Quality Control (IQC). This is the first stage where the companies carry out inspection and handling of the product quality issues before transferring the to the assembly point. The activities carried out at the IQC is to perform the approval of the vendor checklist, evaluation of dealer acceptable standards and quality and sampling and testing the material based on the quality standards. Monitoring produced material are monitored following the quality control charts and in case any fault it is detected, the production engineers are informed of the deviations that need to be corrected. The second stage in the quality control process is the In-process quality control (IPQC). The stage is mainly concerned with governing the quality systems of the products during assembly by identifying and handling problems that do occur while assembling the products. The major task being carried out in at the IPQC stage includes inspection of the assembled materials that has to meet the Company quality standards. The inspection is done either manually or with the aid of automated equipment (Tavana, 2014). Every data for the products inspected are stored and are later used by the company to determine the performance of the products (Strebel, 2004). The final stage is the Outgoing Quality Assurance that is done before the products are introduced into the market. Both Samsung and Sony companies ensure that the products being released to the market are defect free and are up to the standards expected by the customers. The process involves inspecting the products visually and functionally in accordance with the merchant information. Defaults realised at this point are analysed and submitted to the engineering personnel’s to correct the deviations (Gehani, 1998). Sony Corporation Company has a quality control process that involves the three stages discussed above with other components added to make the company products competitive in the market. The company conduct training for the production staff so as to develop their capacity on the criteria to be followed when it delivering quality products (Needle, 2004). The company continuously check and amend the quality control system with the collective view of the customers and the ISO certification agency that ensure the development of quality products. Sony is making good use of the six-sigma activity with an aim of ensuring customers satisfaction and values by ensuring the company produce quality products. The company has developed quality management guidelines that consider four major areas. The first process in the quality control is to understand and respect the voice of the customer, which is a basic policy (Evans & Evans, 2008). The company apply this quality control process to establish important subjects to resolving quality issues. To resolve the critical to quality issues with the products, the company is mandated to define measure, analyse, improve and control the entire manufacturing process. Sony Corporation is also applying the scientific process to create stable quality products in the manufacturing process. The process involves the application of statistical techniques at each stage of manufacturing to analyse failure modes and analysis of the product effects (Miltenburg, 2005). Samsung Company is mainly investing in innovations and development that ensure environmental sustainability. The quality control process has seen Samsung products gain a wider market because of producing quality products that consume less energy. The company is continuously working on technological development factors that have a negative effect on the environment and then develop plans that promote continuous implementation of the improvement on quality (Tavana, 2014). In combination with environmental awareness and responsibility to promote product quality, the quality control process also incorporates the Six-Sigma practices. According to Samsung quality control policy, a quality product must undergo evaluating and qualify in reliability, functionality, process and application. Conclusion The success of Samsung and Sony companies is fully dependent on the customer, who is the product end user. The two companies can invest in technology with a clear objective of gaining a larger market share, but without proper strategies in terms of pricing and quality management, the companies may not succeed (Needle, 2004). Sony company is majoring on introducing unique and products with a difference to the market while Samsung is majoring on improving the products and installing technologically advanced equipment that make the products competitive. Climate change is a factual risk to the global economy and Samsung has taken the advantage to develop products that are energy efficient (Evans & Evans, 2008). Production of energy efficient products is considered the driving factor that makes Samsung products more preferred in terms of competence and quality compared to Sony products. The innovation promotion strategy between the two companies is also different. Sony R&D toward innovation is conducted periodically unlike Samsung, which has an information system that the shared knowledge on development are stored and applied in the product development and quality control programs. In summary, success is a continuous is never ending because it is a continuous process (Lee, 2006). The two companies are considered successful along other companies that produce the same products. The companies have to invest more in innovations as well as maintaining the quality of the products to meet the customers’ expectations. References Andreas, F. (2011). A Simple Path to Sustainability: Green Business Tactics for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger. Chang, S.-J. (2011). Sony vs. Samsung: The Inside Story of the Electronics Giants' Battle For Global Supremacy. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Cherunilam, F. (2010). International business: Text and cases. New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited. Evans, J. R., & Evans, J. R. (2008). Quality and performance excellence: Organization, Management, and Strategy. Mason, OH: Thomson Business and Economics. Gehani, R. R. (1998). Management of technology and operations. New York [U.A.: J. Wiley. Lee, D. (2006). Samsung Electronics: The Global Inc. Seoul, Korea: YSM, Inc. Miltenburg, J. (2005). Manufacturing Strategy: Formulation and Implementation of a Winning Plan. New York: Productivity Press. Needle, D. (2004). Business in Context: Introduction to Business and Environment. London: Thomson. Strebel, P. (2004). Trajectory Management: Leading a Business Over Time. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Tavana, M. (2014). Analytical Approaches to Strategic Decision-Making: Interdisciplinary Considerations: Business Science Reference. Hershey, PA Read More