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Benchmarking Case Study Apparel Quality Management - Ii

Xerox implemented a benchmarking program in the early 1980s as part of a quality improvement initiative called "Leadership Through Quality". The benchmarking process involved identifying best practices from other top companies and analyzing their critical processes to find opportunities for improvement. Xerox then benchmarked key areas like supplier management, inventory management, marketing, and quality against companies like American Express, Cummins Engines, Ford, and Toyota. The benchmarking helped Xerox reduce costs and improve quality to better compete with US and Japanese rivals. The document suggests apparel industries could also benefit from benchmarking key processes against industry leaders to identify weaknesses and implement best practices to improve performance.

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Pooja Gupta
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158 views3 pages

Benchmarking Case Study Apparel Quality Management - Ii

Xerox implemented a benchmarking program in the early 1980s as part of a quality improvement initiative called "Leadership Through Quality". The benchmarking process involved identifying best practices from other top companies and analyzing their critical processes to find opportunities for improvement. Xerox then benchmarked key areas like supplier management, inventory management, marketing, and quality against companies like American Express, Cummins Engines, Ford, and Toyota. The benchmarking helped Xerox reduce costs and improve quality to better compete with US and Japanese rivals. The document suggests apparel industries could also benefit from benchmarking key processes against industry leaders to identify weaknesses and implement best practices to improve performance.

Uploaded by

Pooja Gupta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BENCHMARKING CASE STUDY

APPAREL QUALITY MANAGEMENT – II

POOJA GUPTA
(BFT/17/163)
BENCHMARKING AT XEROX
The case examines the benchmarking initiatives taken by Xerox, one of the world's leading
copier companies, as a part of its 'Leadership through Quality' program during the early 1980s.
In the early 1980s, Xerox found itself increasingly vulnerable to intense competition from both
the US and Japanese competitors. The company's operating was high and its products were of
relatively inferior quality in comparison to its competitors.
The CEO of the company quickly launched a new quality control program, referred to as
'Leadership Through Quality.' As part of this quality program, Xerox implemented the
benchmarking program which encouraged Xerox to find ways to reduce their manufacturing
costs.
Xerox benchmarking model involved tens steps categorized under five stages - planning,
analysis, integration, action and maturity.
Each process of the company is categories into 10 factors then these ten key factors were
further divided into 67 sub-processes. Each of these sub-processes then became a target for
improvement. Xerox then collected data on key processes of best practice companies. These
critical processes were then analyzed to identify and define improvement opportunities.
The company then adopted functional benchmarking and focused on various other best
practice companies to benchmark its other processes. These included American Express (for
billing and collection), Cummins Engines and Ford (for factory floor layout), Florida Power and
Light (for quality improvement), Honda (for supplier development), Toyota (for quality
management), Hewlett-Packard (for research and product development), Saturn (a division of
General Motors) and Fuji Xerox (for manufacturing operations) and DuPont (for manufacturing
safety).
Benchmarking was implemented at Xerox in the following manner:

 Supplier Management System


Xerox reduced the number of vendors for the copier business. To keep the number of
suppliers low, Xerox standardized many parts following the strategy of Japanese
companies. To ensure part standardization, Xerox worked closely with their suppliers
and trained vendor's employees in quality control, manufacturing automation and
other key areas.
 Inventory Management
Xerox's efforts to improve inventory management practices drew inspiration from the
innovative spare parts management practices of its European operations. Each 'family
unit' (a manager and his direct subordinates) was encouraged to identify its internal as
well as external customers and to meet their needs. This process significantly improved
the operational efficiency of the work groups.
 Marketing
Xerox introduced a Customer Satisfaction Measurement System that integrated
customer research and benchmarking activities. The company sent out over 55,000
questionnaires monthly to its customers to measure customer satisfaction and record
competitors' performance. Then this gathered information was used by the system to
develop business plans for improving quality and meeting customer needs.
 Quality
According to Xerox quality policy, it formed a transition team consisting of 24 senior
managers and consultants to help make Total Quality Management (TQM) a part of its
organizational culture. The transition team took action at two levels. Firstly, it conveyed
the message clearly to the world that Xerox was pursuing more widespread use of TQM,
and secondly, it identified and addressed the obstacles that were likely to slow down
the spread of TQM.

APPLICATION TO APPAREL INDUSTRY


In apparel industry, benchmarking can be a valuable tool for improving performance relative
to their peers.
The use of benchmarking is not restricted to for improving profit of an organizations but it can
also handle multiple objectives that are effecting the quality aspect of an industry.
Xerox benchmarking model can be implemented in apparel industries.
The apparel industries are made up of different production and quality related processes like
managing logistics, inventory, garment production, inspections, marketing, maintenance,
collection of payments, preparation of annual report and so-on.
Each process has a large number of factors, for instance, production related factors - labour
employment, material wastage, machine productivity, machines, methods, utilization and so-
on, are to a large extent within the control of management.
Benchmarking these key processes can help to improve the performance in terms of cost,
quality, time, efficiency and response time.
Industries can adopt functional benchmarking like Xerox did and can focus on various other
best practice companies to benchmark its other processes, just like Xerox included Cummins
Engines and Ford (for factory floor layout), Florida Power and Light (for quality improvement),
Honda (for supplier development), Toyota (for quality management), and DuPont (for
manufacturing safety). We can compare these process and provide an appropriate standard
for each process to maintain high standards of quality at every level.
Benchmarking could help these industries to identify their weaknesses and gap in different
branches of operations and present a solution to fill up that gap by comparing their
performance against the other companies. Thus, taking the industry towards the lean
manufacturing.

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