Mann (2015) maintains Robert Camp, a logistics engineer, became known as the leader of the benchmarking movement when he initiated the idea at Xerox. To increase its plummeting market share, Xerox Corporation underwent more than 230 process assessments to improve their business between 1981 and 1989. After accepting the concept, the company began to benchmark all aspects of their operations in an effort to improve quality, cost and productivity (Attiany, 2014). Their realization that success comes from superior practices across all companies, not just competitors, caused them to look beyond their competition to all companies for best practices, which included billing practices from American Express, Honda for supplier development, and Toyota for quality management to name a few (Mann, 2015). Further relayed by Mann (2015), was that in those eight years of adapting best practices, Xerox went from a crisis point in their organizational history to becoming a world leader in copiers. Because of its success at Xerox, benchmarking became a strategy known …show more content…
Intrigued with the idea of adding a mobility factor to self-storage, the Durham family started this business to be modeled after the industry innovators called PODS, located in Clearwater Florida. The benefit of mobile storage allows the customer to have units delivered to their door, to be packed at their convenience, and then transported to another location or storage warehouse until needed (Brown, 2016). The owners of TMS, Donald and Lynn Yarboro, along with their sons, have successfully competed in a service industry dominated by larger companies for the last fourteen years. In an industry that has become increasingly competitive, TMS needs to review different management strategies that could improve their market
Lowe’s grew through strategic choice by heavily focusing on key functional areas involving research and development (R&D), marketing, and logistics. Lowe’s important R&D investments included the creation of two prototype stores. The first prototype with 147,000 square feet catered to large markets and the other with 120,000 square feet catered to smaller markets (Rouse, 2005). Lowe’s used these store prototypes to help guide their continued growth and store placement. The prototypes also aided the company in designing future stores more efficiently with respect to energy and sustainability (Lowe’s Companies, Inc., n.d.). Furthermore, Lowe’s marketing strategy concentrated on attracting new customers and enhancing current customer satisfaction. To bring new customers to the store, Lowe’s engaged in a pull marketing strategy (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012). The com...
In 1994, PMH embarked on a comprehensive Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) training program for all staff; this was followed by a “flurry” of departmental and interdepartmental improvement initiatives (Harber, 1998, p. 59). There were several questions with few answers as to the direction the organization was heading and how their goals were to be achieved. To assist with this, the company entered into a partnership with Xerox Quality Services, who had significant experience in the industry and could put PMH on the right track to success. The adoption of a balanced scorecard was crucial for the company’s s...
"Using Cost of Quality to Demonstrate the Economic Value of Improvement, Organizational Excellence and Quality." Quality Texas. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
Benchmarking should not be considered simply a tool of management, but rather an integral part of the business strategy of a firm. When implementing benchmarking, management must consider the overall issues of performance and process re-engineering.
More than 400 locations are currently in business which demands a business structure that is able to adapt to the location or region in where it is operating (Smithson, 2017). The foundational structural comes from a four-tier hierarchy which involves the headquarters, regional offices spread out around North America and the U.K., facilities of storage, and stores (Smithson, 2017). Each tier reports to the tier above it to keep a vertical line of communication going.
Xerox has always prided themselves as a customer-focused and employee-centered organization. Their rich heritage has helped with the company’s profitability and growth. Currently, Xerox is a $22 billion annual revenue multi-national business services and document management organization (Xerox, 2014). The mission statement for Xerox is “to become change agents and innovators - using Xerox Lean Six Sigma to constantly search for a better way to meet our customers' challenges and to create business process outsourcing, IT solutions, new technologies, products and services for world class commercial and government clients that enable better results” (Xerox, 2014). Throughout the years, the company has succeeded through the satisfaction it has provided to its customers. They provide quality and excellent product and services. The company values and empowers its employees to be the best in everything they do. Xerox has created inclusion in all aspects of its organizational culture. The current CEO; Ursula Burns, is the first African American woman to be appointed to the position. This promotion at that time was unheard off in the company. She started as a summer intern and worked her way up to her current position. She is a true meaning of diversity in the work place in modern America. Diversity at Xerox means success. This success has placed the company on the fortune 500 list (#131) of company for the year 2013 (Cable News Network (CNN), 2013).
As stated by Baker and Baker (2014), benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring products, services, and activities against the best levels of performance. It may also be defined as the method of finding which practices are best and recommending what that performance should be in the future. Benchmarking is not permanent it is ever changing, it may be considered time-sensitive and perishable.
In the mid 1980s, and into the 1990s, business leaders realized that a renewed focus on quality was required to continue to compete in an expanding global market. (NIST, 2010) Consequently, several strategic frameworks were developed for managing, and measuring organizational performance. Among them were the Malcomb Baldrige National Quality Award, which was created by and act of congress and signed into law by the President in 1987, and The Balanced Scorecard, which is a performance management tool that was born out of research conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Robert S. Kaplan, and David P. Norton published in 1996 (Kaplan, 1996). Initially the renewed emphasis on quality management systems was a reaction to the LEAN approach
Cost cutting; Technology plays a significant part in package delivery companies capability to assist customers in cutting their inventories which UPS owns. The UPS system processes packages using advanced information technology and are transported by the companies’ own aircraft, fleet or delivery vehicle so UPS does not rely on other companies.
Garvin, David A., "Quality on the Line," Harvard Business Review, September October 1983, pp. 64-75.
At the moment, Xerox had two clear distinct options. First option is to stick with what is best at printing, copying and delivering exclusively the Book-In-Time technology. Meaning, selling Book-In-Time equipment to all those elements of the value chain t...
With consumers demand for 24/7 operations, a scalable, robust storage infrastructure is needed. This is not an easy task, especially considering that the Depot's latest "home improvement" project involves a nationwide storage installation to support nearly 1,400 stores. Home Depot needs a more reliable storage infrastructure to support its expansion and success. Without this, Home Depot is unable to centralize all their systems and will create havoc in the company. For instance, Home Depot unable to have resources to be placed to accommodate retailer’s capacity growth due to ever-increasing volumes of information, incapable of providing sales and inventory information to be available at any time. Therefore this will affect the growth of Home Depot in the future and currently, they could not do anything to
Bacal, Robert. Manager's Guide to Performance Management. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Arrow Electronics is a distributor of electronic parts, including semiconductors and passive components. It was founded in 1935 and has reached number one position among electronics distributors by 1992. Arrow’s North American operations were headquartered in Melville, N.Y. Sales and marketing functions were divided among five operating groups. This case study focuses on the largest of Arrow’s groups, Arrow/Schweber (A/S).
Network Solutions, Inc. is a worldwide leader in hardware, software, and services essential to computer networking (Aguinis, 2013, p.31). In the past, this company has used over 50 different systems to measure performance management. Even with the large amounts of different systems to measure performance, only a fraction of employees were receiving performance reviews, and less than 5% of employees received the lowest category of ratings. Also, the organization had no recognition program for employees with a higher category of ratings. In addition to the lack of employees not receiving reviews, it was noticed in the organization that performance problems were not being addressed or resolved.