Case Study

Josel E. Erfe

44581577

Mgmt 5 – Summer 2008: Session I

Case Study 2: Cranston Nissan

1. Categorize the quality problems in the case.

Mr. Monahan came brought his car for boy work and ended up with numerous mechanical problems. Quality problems in this case include:

• Reliability – Although Cranston Nissan was able to fix the original problem, Mr. Monahan ended up with other problems. This entails having to do more work in the car. Reliability decreases with the management’s attitude towards the situation. He could not rely on their (Cranston Nissan’s Service Department) word. They were unable to deliver the car on time, they tried to pass a problem they had caused to the customer, and they billed the customer for something they had told him he would not be billed for. To add to how unreliable they had been, they kept breaking something new every time they try to fix a previous problem.

• Serviceability – It seems that every new problem in his car is a result of fixing and old problem, or incorrectly handling the original problem. There seems to be a chain or a connection between each mechanical part which decreases the serviceability of the car (this may be proved or disproved by looking into how the car was engineered). Another dimension of this is their possible lack of capability to get the job done correctly, i.e. without creating a new problem. As they create one problem after another, their serviceability decreases.

2. What are the probable causes of so many mishaps?

Probable causes of the many mishaps are the following:

• Insufficient Training – it is possible to fix something without creating a new problem. Perhaps the training process is weak; they were not thought how to fix problems without causing new ones.

• Lack of Employee Commitment – the lack of this may cause an employee to do his/her job incorrectly. An employee may not care and simply be...