Done By: Wafae BOUMAAZ
6 Sigma Effect on Ford Motor Company
“Quality is job 1” was among the first slogans that Ford Motor Company used to introduce its products to the market. The company used the TQM principles to reduce costs and gain market share. However over time Ford made some quality mistakes that have cost it extremely in customer satisfaction and market share. Indeed, the company that used to be No. 2 automaker has fallen behind competitor General Motors Corp. in general quality and now is positioned last among the big-seven automakers. Even though Ford has in recent times faced more than its fair share of very public quality problems, including the Ford Explorer tire disaster, it actually began repairing its quality process some years ago. However, the results take time to show. Ford didn't decide just to fix on its quality methods; it has to characterize again the way it comes up to its business. Instead of working as the powerful manufacturing that it is, the company wants to be recognized as a consumer products company. To do that, the corporation should focus deeply on the customers and have made customer satisfaction its uppermost priority. Because customers that are highly satisfied remain loyal. Therefore, improving customer satisfaction means directly improving the bottom line.
To achieve the vision of becoming a consumer products company and increase the customer satisfaction. Ford decided to apply the 6 sigma. The program name originated from its goal: to allow processes to produce results with no more than 3.4 defects per million. It was initiated by Motorola and was prominent by Jack Welch's General Electric, and employs many of the same tools as TQM, QS-9000 and other quality programmes.
Ford started o use the Six Sigma in late 1999 when the director of quality for Ford's global truck business, Phong Vu, was looking for new ways to improve quality. Then he became the Ford’s Six Sigma leader, officially known as director of...