Quality Management through Business Architecture of Xerox - Case Study Example

Xerox Case Study and number submitted Contents Introduction 3 Quality Management through Business Architecture of Xerox 3 Six Sigma Process 5 Improvement steps/actions for performance excellence 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction By adopting numerous quality management concepts and models, Xerox has been able to transform into one of the sought after firms across the globe. The quality management tools designed and implemented by Xerox are highly recognized as well as followed by other corporations. Through this report, quality management techniques and tools have been evaluated. The objective of the current report is to undertake a critical analysis of the successful quality management processes at Xerox. The company’s current quality management practices and models have been discussed, along with those to be applied in the future. Additionally, six sigma philosophy and associated tools and techniques practiced in Xerox have been identified. Finally, recommendations have been provided, which includes suggested improvements for company’s future performance excellence. Quality Management through Business Architecture of Xerox Xerox has developed business architecture for re-engineering its business processes so as to maintain closer alignment with markets and customers. Its major objectives consist of business process management, process control and process improvement, apart from other business goals. This business architecture identifies the firm’s core processes for management as well as establishes organizational boundaries. With establishment of this business architecture, Xerox is able to work and collaborate in an independent manner. This architecture has been designed and established in order to be cross-functional, customer driven and value based (Zairi & Whymark, 2000). Process management focuses on core businesses as well as sub-processes associated with them. A separate division is established by hiring consultants for quality improvement and re-engineering projects related to business processes. These consultants educate employees of Xerox on subjects such as, redesign initiatives and quality improvement strategies. With improvement of the business processes, Xerox has identified critical core processes such as, integrated logistics and supply chain, time-to-market, customer services as well as market-to-collection. Time-to-market is delivery process of the company’s product development. The integrated process for supply chain strategy of Xerox managed the entire end-to-end logistics process. Similarly, in market-to-collection, market opportunities are converted into cash (Hinton, Francis & Holloway, 2000). Need Satisfaction for Customer In this framework of Xerox’s business architecture, boundaries are set while running the business. However, unlike other organizations, Xerox provides empowerment, independence and entrepreneurism to its employees so that highest level of performance is achieved. It has also been observed that the level of satisfaction among employees is directly proportional to that among customers (Evans & Linsday, 2011). Apart from the above strategy, the company has also introduced customer satisfaction surveys as a part of its process improvement processes. The objective of these customer satisfaction surveys is to collect critical information through feedback and opinions, such as, product or service usage, shortcomings, issues during usage, durability and reliability and other problems that customers might face. The major surveys conducted by Xerox are transactional surveys, relationship surveys and client surveys (Xerox, 2014b). Techniques enhancing the quality management processes Communication process and control: The communication control process of lean sigma ensures that every employee is included in the key communication system. Every decision within the organization is communicated through newsletters, meetings and speeches. Also, the company has established an extensive and unique intranet site for providing deployment details, reference information, project successes, frequent issues as well as link to important resources. A formal curriculum has been implemented, which conveyed the lean sigma objective to each employee over the intranet (Xerox, 2014c). Supplier management: Under this process, Xerox has been able to reduce the total number of suppliers or vendors for its copier business to 400 from 5000. Apart from that, the company has started a process for certification of vendors wherein vendors and suppliers are either trained or told to improve their activities for continuing as a Xerox vendor (Su, Liu & Lai, 2009). Inventory management: To minimize the inventory costs, Xerox delays its assembly process. The objective is to make generic products and then configure them according to the ordered configurations. This is majorly due to different product or service requirements in separate world markets. While the process increases inventory time as well as inventory hold, it certainly lessens wastage and customer complaints due to unsatisfactory products (Evans & Linsday, 2011). Manufacturing system: The manufacturing techniques of Xerox have been revamped under the lean sigma process. A manufacturing facility consists of a family unit comprising a manager as well as direct subordinates. They are responsible for recognizing needs of the indirect and direct customers. Six Sigma Process Xerox’s management teams have identified lean sigma projects, which focus on opportunities for enhancing customer satisfaction. These projects are have been analyzed through the company’s strategic plan alignment, ability to minimize gaps within business and improvement opportunities in terms of customer experience. The Six Sigma process at Xerox identified two distinctive stages for successful objective completion. In the first phase, prioritization and selection of processes is the prime focus (Evans & Linsday, 2011). Assessment of potential projects is based on their impact on business as well as estimated effort from the management. In order to ensure that the six sigma process is aligned with organizational goals, leaders are appointed who are given complete responsibility of the project. After selection of projects and confirmation of appropriate one, it is assigned to the Black Belt available for assignment. The Black Belt recommended the most appropriate solution for the identified business problem. The projects under the lean sigma directly support and empower the goals of Xerox (Assarlind, Gremyr & Bäckman, 2013). Figure 1: Performance Excellence at Xerox (Source: Evans & Linsday, 2011) The lean sigma process at Xerox is built through evolution of qualitative principles and tools that are customer oriented. These processes and tools for establishing a customer-centric and perpetual cycle are generated from four major components. These are process of performance excellence, DMAIC process of improvement, Benchmarking and market trends and leadership and behavior. The process of performance excellence enables aligning of performance objectives and strategies, while the DMAIC process allows establishing basic tools and principles for improving processes across functions (Xerox, 2014a). Lean Sigma is supported by the process of performance excellence, which aligns the performance objectives and strategies. Market trends and benchmarking process provide best practices and critical reference points for setting performance targets as well as for evaluating better strategies to improve performance. These above framework components are supported through leadership and behavior component. At every level, management processes are modified for inspecting progress of the project as well as assuring that projects are focused towards critical business strategies and gaps that are necessary for success of every business operation. From a solution and services perspective, most of the customer offerings are based on principles of lean sigma. Apart from that, many current and completed projects address key customer issues as well as pain points of buyers (Evans & Linsday, 2011). This is an extremely effective method whereby overall experience of the customer is improved and customer satisfaction is established. Benchmarking process at Xerox Benchmarking process at Xerox is considered as a part of Leadership through quality initiative. It is one of the most popular and largely implemented processes for achieving differentiation. The evolution of benchmarking process started when it was observed that Japanese firms were undercutting the prices of Xerox to a great extent. As a result, Xerox quickly started reducing their cost of manufacturing, which gave rise to the (LTQ) program (Azis & Osada, 2010). Under this program, the company benchmarks its strategies and functions with the industry leaders. The process measures Xerox’s practices, products and services against its most potent competitors and identifies gaps present before establishing long-term and short-term goals. Under the benchmarking process of Xerox, major goals refer to cost advantage, product reliability and quality superiority (Moses, 2007). The company has identified five crucial stages in this benchmarking process. The first stage is planning, where Xerox determines the function or strategy, which needs to be benchmarked and then identifies relevant organizations with best practices in that particular strategy or function. This helps in developing appropriate and unique techniques of data collection. The second stage is analysis, where competitor’s strengths are assessed and overall performance of Xerox is compared with them. In this stage, the present and projected competitive gaps are determined. The third stage is integration, where based on collected data, necessary goals are set. The objective here is to attain highest level performance as well as integration of goals and objectives into Xerox’s strategic planning process. In this stage, Xerox is able to identify new targets or goals as well as various formal and informal processes, whereby these goals can be extensively communicated throughout the organization. The fourth stage is action, where the plans are subjected to implementation. In this stage, ongoing plans and strategies are also assessed periodically and the level of objective achievement is monitored on a regular basis. The last stage is maturity, where Xerox identifies and measures level of performance and successful achievement of objectives (Tsim, Yeung & Leung, 2002). Through the above benchmarking process, Xerox has been able to recognize ten critical marketing factors, which have provided successful competitive advantage. These factors were customer engagement, customer marketing, product maintenance, order fulfillment, financial management, collection and billing, business management, asset management, information technology and management of human resource. Xerox has further divided the above ten factors into 67 sub-processes. Each sub-process becomes a target for greater improvement (Evans & Linsday, 2011). Xerox has subscribed to technical and management databases in reference with numerous trade journals and magazines and also seeks various consulting firms and professional associations. Improvement steps/actions for performance excellence 1. Improving the six sigma process of Xerox Although the six sigma process implemented at Xerox has been a huge success, it needs continuous improvement and up-gradation to be able to cope with the changing internal organizational and external market demands. It is critical for lean sigma to balance the three important dimensions, which are leadership development, cultural change and results and projects. While the Black Belt projects have been economically profitable, it is important for them to adapt with cultural changes occurring across various regions, especially to ensure longevity of the business results. 2. Future manufacturing challenge Drastic changes in the technology such as, introduction of digital based equipments and machines, pose new challenges for the management, given that such changes require a different skill set and less workers. Hence, it is necessary that Xerox employees and workers continuously enhance their skills for adapting to every changing technology. Another manufacturing challenge lies in the choice of low-cost vendors or relocation of the production sites to lower-cost nations. 3. Shifting towards business and quality processes At present, six sigma processes are mainly concentrated on manufacturing processes. However, it is important for the management to establish lean management in business processes such as, operations, IT and legal affairs. It has been observed that for gaining competitive advantage and creating differentiated business strategies, an organization must align every internal and external strategy with its greater objectives. As quality is becoming the critical hallmark for both services and products, it is important to integrate the internal functions of Xerox through better and constant communication strategies and ensure efficiency of the products and services offered. Furthermore, the Xerox management should ensure that improvement is not a one-time strategy, but a continuous process, occurring across all organizational departments and functions. Conclusion The objective of this research report was to evaluate the quality management strategies and processes of Xerox. The report has assessed the major quality management methodologies, processes and models, which are currently being implemented in the company. Leadership through quality was one of the major initiatives incorporated within the firm. Under the leadership process, benchmarking was an important initiative. This process has enabled the management to achieve competitive advantage over rivals. Regular and frequent monitoring and process control in various functional levels such as, manufacturing, inventory and internal communication, has resulted in superior performance. References Assarlind, M., Gremyr, I. & Bäckman, K. (2013). Multi-faceted views on a Lean Six Sigma application. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 30(4), 387 – 402. Azis, Y. & Osada, H. (2010). Innovation in management system by Six Sigma: An empirical study of world-class companies. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 1(3), 172 - 190 Evans, J.R. & Linsday, W.M. (2011). Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence. New York: Cengage Learning. Hinton, M., Francis, G. & Holloway, J. (2000). Best practice benchmarking in the UK. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 7(1), 52–61. Moses, J. (2007). Benchmarking quality measurement. Software Quality Journal, 15(4), 449-462. Su, Q., Liu, L. & Lai, S., (2009). Measuring the assembly quality from the operator mistake view: a case study. Assembly Automation, 29(4), 332 – 340. Tsim, Y.C., Yeung, V.W.S. & Leung, E. T.C. (2002). An adaptation to ISO 9001:2000 for certified organizations. Managerial Auditing Journal, 17(5), 245 – 250. Xerox. (2014a). Lean Six Sigma. Retrieved from http://www.xerox.com/corporate-citizenship/2011/customer-experience/lean-six-sigma.html Xerox. (2014b). Customer Satisfaction. Retrieved from http://www.xerox.com/corporate-citizenship/2011/customer-experience/customer-satisfaction.html Xerox. (2014c). Communication and Marketing Services. Retrieved from http://services.xerox.com/communication-and-marketing-services/enus.html Zairi, M. & Whymark, J. (2000). The transfer of best practices: how to build a culture of benchmarking and continuous learning – part 2. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 7(2), 146 – 167. Read More