The Companys Strong Marketing Program - Coursework Example

It is my responsibility to ensure that our company makes the quality decisions necessary to meet customer expectations and thereby grow our business successfully. Our customers expect much from us and deserve our best efforts. We have been manufacturing our new product line for three months now, and I believe it is time for us to take a look at some of the business dangers we face in the three critical cost areas of internal factory costs, external costs related to sales, and the intangible costs which may be our biggest concern.

  Poor quality can come from any of these areas, and the decisions our employees make are vital to the success of our business. Our inspection teams do a pretty good job of rejecting failed parts. Our inspectors and assemblers are well trained for that task. But when this occurs, we are faced with identifying the reasons for the failures, dealing with scrap material, and analyzing the costs of downtime. The earlier in the production process we can identify problems, the better it is for the company, as this will minimize the impact on the company’s bottom line.

  But the additional costs to the factory of refurbishing products are worthy of our immediate attention. The second area of tangible costs is external failure costs. We need to protect the business from liability, that is a given. And we need to provide customers with a warranty program because that is part of their product expectation. But we have to realize that poor quality can lead to replacement parts and at worst, product recalls. The recall could be extremely costly, not only in a tangible way but in a greater, intangible way, as we will discuss in a moment.

  It would also be costly to sell “seconds” or offer discounts. In either case, the company is making less revenue than normal sales. The company’s strong marketing program and excellent manufacturing processes have created customer acceptance for our products. In general, we make good products that our customers appreciate. The repeat business is a good share of our overall business. And customers share with each other their positive experiences. Our corporate image is positive and favorable.

    If we have quality issues with our products, our corporate image would be tarnished, perhaps to the point that our best customers will question our credibility where quality is concerned. Word-of-mouth dissatisfaction could easily lead to loss of repeat sales, and then loss of first sales. The cost to the company of rebuilding this image would be enormous, and possibly, insurmountable. Our reputation is our business, no more, no less. Summary The cost of quality is really an oxymoron.

Quality does not cost. There is an investment to be made, for sure. But the resulting increase in customer satisfaction, repeat business, growth, and prosperity far offset the initial expense. Everyone involved with quality decisions needs to be aware of the lasting effects of making the right choices and the potential pitfalls of making the wrong ones.   Whether inside the factory or in the field, with our workers or with our customers, both tangible and intangible assets must be protected against poor quality decisions.

I am willing to discuss the matter further, at your convenience. Please let me know when it would be best for us to get together.