Sanyo Case Study

Sanyo Case Study

Class: 315 Date:09/08/12

Executive summary:

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the United States received a rude awakening on the importance of quality. Foreign competition, particularly from the Japanese, resulted in the increase of market share for many Japanese companies. And the Sanyo Manufacturing Company is the one. Thanks to globalization and rapid advances in technology, today’s manufacturing environment is increasingly competitive. Manufacturers need to stay focused on finding new ways to design, produce, sell and deliver products. In manufacturing, quality is an important component of all functions. And the ability to achieve world-class status in manufacturing and service depends on a business strategy driven by total quality management. And in this paper, we will learn to understand management approach to quality between Japanese and U.S. and other questions about quality through Sanyo Case.

Question 1: compare and contrast the U.S. and Japanese management approach to quality at Sanyo.

a) What is emphasized?

b) How is quality measured?

Answers:

In the Warwick days, volume and cost were all-important. In other words, Warwick wouldn’t like to pay any extra money to quality problems which occur on the assembly line. But Sanyo is different. Sanyo take improving quality as the number one priority for the plant. If there are some troubles take place on the line, Sanyo will ignore the cost and deal with the trouble as soon as possible. Companies get profit from customers. Customers’ needs must be the most important. Obviously quality is the customers’ basic requirement. Losing quality means losing money.

The quality problems are solved with various measures in Sanyo.

• Clear out the plant, polyurethane the floors. It brings a nice look plant and can protect the equipment...