Use the information from the case, as well as content from thecourse to support your answers.

Wainwright Industries:

An Entirely New Philosophy of BusinessBased on Customer Satisfaction andQuality

In the early 1980s, Wainwright Industries, a manufacturer ofstamped and machine parts, was facing nothing less than a crisis.Increased competition, along with intensified customer scrutiny,was forcing Wainwright to either improve quality or lose itscompetitive stature. In the face of this challenge, the employeesof the company, led by CEO Arthur D. Wainwright, decided to makeradical changes. It was clear that business as usual with a fewminor improvements would not save the company. What Wainwrightneeded was an entire new philosophy of doing business based onquality and total customer satisfaction.

To determine how to achieve this objective, Wainwright used thecriteria for the Malcolm Baldrige award as a road map. Drawinginput from all levels of the company, the top management team ledthe process by setting goals, developing implementation strategies,and establishing key quality standards. Initially, the companyemphasized three principles:

• Employee empowerment
• customer satisfaction
• Continuous improvement.

As a creative way of demonstrating the importance of workingtogether, the company adopted the duck as its mascot, based on thefact that ducks fly in formation as a means of supporting oneanother in flight. In addition, whenever a duck falls out offormation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying tofly alone and quickly returns to the flock. Wainwright used thisanalogy to support the concepts of teamwork and employeeempowerment, which were integral parts of the company's qualityimprovement efforts.

Along its journey toward improved quality, a number of specificinitiatives were implemented:

• Lean manufacturing
• Statistical Process Control
• Computer aided design
• Cross-training
• Profit sharing
• & Quality minded manufacturing initiatives were put inplace.

Special emphasis was placed on training and bench­marking. Sinceit initiated its quality program, the company has spent up to 7% ofits annual payroll on training. To demonstrate its resolve in thisarea, the company has made training an important criterion foremployee advancement. Wainwright has benchmarked against a numberof companies, including firms in the textiles, chemical, andelectronics industries. For instance, after studying Milliken &Company, a previous Baldrige award winner, Wainwright implementedan employee suggestion program that has been very effective.

Along with the changes mentioned previously, Wainwright also haschanged its culture to make it more egalitarian and quality minded.The employees at Wainwright (including the CEO) now all wear thesame uniform, eat in the same cafeteria, and park in the sameparking lot. Office walls have literally been torn down andreplaced with glass, based on the premise that if the managers canwatch the frontline employees work, the frontline employees shouldbe able to watch the managers work, too. As a result of thesechanges, the managers of the company have become coaches andfacilitators rather than supervisors and disciplinarians. Thisimportant change has helped facilitate the teamwork atmosphere thatis supportive of high quality and total customer satisfaction.

The results of the company's continuous improvement efforts arelinked to five strategic indicators:

• safety
• internal customer satisfaction
• external customer satisfaction
• design quality
• & business performance.

The status of each of these criteria is tracked by "missioncontrol," a room set aside to document the company's efforts. Inmission control, each customer's satisfaction is documented with aplaque, a current monthly satisfaction rating, and a red or greenflag indicating the customer's status relative to objectives.

As a result of these initiatives, Wainwright has met thechallenge. It has not only survived but has emerged as an industryleader. The company has earned the status of preferred supplier toa growing number of quality-conscious customers and has receivedspecial recognition from General Motors, Ford, and IBM­ Rochester.The goal of Six Sigma quality is being pursued. Perhaps mostimportant, in the last decade, overall customer satisfaction hasincreased from 84% to 95%, and the company's market share,revenues, and profits are at record levels. Ironically, the companywas one of the recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige award, the veryaward against which the company benchmarked in its early days ofquality improvement.

Assignment

Answer the following questions in depth in the bookletprovided.

1. In its pursuit of improved quality, Wainwright emphasized twosets of initiatives: one based on improvements in its manufacturingoperations (e.g., just-in-time manufacturing, computer-aideddesign) and the other based on human resource management (e.g.,employee empowerment , profit sharing).
   1. Why was it necessary for Wainwright to emphasize both of thesesets of initiatives?
   2. How are they related?

2. Using the definition of Egalitarianism below, discuss thefollowing question.
   1. How does the development of an egalitarian culture help acompany like Wainwright Industries become more quality minded?

Egalitarianism (fromFrench égal, meaning "equal")—or, rarely, equalitarianism^{[1] [2]} or equalism ^[3] —is atrend of thought that favors equality for all people.^[4] Egalitarian doctrines maintain that all humans areequal in fundamental worth or social status, according to theStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy^.[5] According to the Merriam-WebsterDictionary, the term has two distinct definitions inmodern English: ^[6] either as a political doctrine thatall people should be treated as equals and have the same political,economic, social, and civil rights; ^[7] or as a socialphilosophy advocating the removal of economic inequalities amongpeople, economic egalitarianism, or the decentralization of power.Some sources define egalitarianism as the point of view thatequality reflects the natural state of humanity.^[8][9][10]  

                                                                                                                   (www.wikipedia.com)

1. Jump up ^ "Definition of equalitarianism". The Free Dictionary.Houghton Mifflin Company. 2009.
2. Jump up ^ "Definition of equalitarianism". Dictionary.com.Dictionary.com, LLC. 2012.
3. Jump up ^ "A scientist's view: why I'm an equalist and not afeminist". The Guardian. The Guardian. 2013.
4. Jump up ^ Egalitarian | Define Egalitarian atDictionary.com
5. Jump up ^ Arneson Richard, "Egalitarianism", The StanfordEncyclopedia of Philosophy (2002.) Web:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egalitarianism
6. Jump up ^ Egalitarianism - Definition and More from the FreeMerriam-Webster Dictionary
7. Jump up ^ The American Heritage Dictionary (2003)."egalitarianism".
8. Jump up ^ John Gowdy (1998). Limited Wants, Unlimited Means: Areader on Hunter-Gatherer Economics and the Environment. St Louis:Island Press. p. 342. ISBN 1-55963-555-X.
9. Jump up ^ Dahlberg, Frances. (1975). Woman the Gatherer.London: Yale university press. ISBN 0-30-002989-6.
10. Jump up ^ Erdal, D. & Whiten, A. (1996) "Egalitarianism andMachiavellian Intelligence in Human Evolution" in Mellars, P. &Gibson, K. (eds) Modeling the Early Human Mind. Cambridge MacDonaldMonograph Series

3. Although quality is important for every product or service, itmay be particularly important for the precision auto partsindustry.
   1. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?