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Using Quality as a Competitive Business Strategy
The Challenge
Crane Performance Siding wanted to leverage its operational quality base as a business advantage. Crane contacted Kelly Allan Associates, Ltd. (KAAL) for guidance.
The Outcome
KAAL recognized that without clear prioritization of opportunities, Crane’s progress would be undermined by conflicting objectives. KAAL selected quality guru Peter Scholtes’ “Gemba” analysis model to help the Crane team identify operational areas most essential to durable competitive positioning and to significant cost reduction.
The manufacturing plant floor and the customer service department were identified as the two points on which to focus strategic efforts.
KAAL and Crane then took action:
- Hired a quality engineer: KAAL assisted Crane in interviewing the applicants and conducting assessments of qualified candidates.
- Implemented aspects of Six Sigma in both manufacturing and customer service.
- Incorporated operational quality into company strategy: KAAL helped Crane determine how Gemba departments could impact business strategy.
The Results
Within a few months, significant progress had been accomplished to make both product quality and customer service competitive differentiators for Crane. Differentiation is especially important in an industry in which the pressure to reduce prices is enormous. Crane has been able to reduce costs while increasing quality, which is the classic benefit of using quality as a business strategy.
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“Your assistance in helping us hire a quality engineer has paid off. Our new hire is working out even better than we expected and has already made significant contributions to our overall operation…. Your process improvement work in manufacturing has improved our production levels and responsiveness…. The Six-Sigma work with Customer Service has delivered returns in several areas and I believe will provide a competitive advantage for our company.”
~ Jim Ziminski, President.
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Challenge: Make operational quality a competitive business advantage.
Outcome: Focused efforts onto business areas that offered the greatest potential for competitive advantage; implemented robust Six Sigma systems for leveraging product quality and customer service activities.