Deming Case Study Essay Example for Free

Deming Case Study Essay 1Introduction 1.1Microsoft Background Microsoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Microsoft was co-founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975.Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Windows line of operating systems. One of Microsofts original mission was a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software. The company also markets both computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse and the Microsoft Natural keyboard, as well as home entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune and MSN TV. 1.2The Aim Of Report The aim of the report is to do an analysis on Microsoft corporation on how the Deming’s 14 point would impact the Company Performance. It will focus on: * Company existing practice  * Qualitative degree of Conformance against the 14 points 2.Quality Chain Reaction 3.The 14 Deming’s Point 1st Point Create Constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service Plan for quality for the beginning for long-term commitment by continuously provides top quality product or even exceeding it. The organization should always predict and prepare for the any future challenges that are to come. Microsoft is currently applying this practice in their Organization. In the 1980 they come up with MS-DOS the earlier version of their Operating System which evolves to Window 95.Here is where the window-line operating system keeps on evolving until year 2012 with the introduction of Window 8.Every operating system it comes with an improvement. Since the emergence of Apple in the PC industry Microsoft now are having a stiff competition in the area where they used to be dominating since 1980’s. Microsoft needs to maintain this system in order to remain competitive in the PC industry. 2nd Point Adopt the New philosophy. Organization need to implement quality not only to its product but to the whole organization process. Rather than reacting to competitive pressure, an organization should focus on the customer need, what exactly they want. The employee of Microsoft been used to all the benefit working with Microsoft such as high speed internet and tend to forget the outside world doesn’t have the luxury they are experiencing and expect the gadget there are using will have the same impact to the outside world. Problem arises when their product are not well accepted by the public since its unsuitable to them since they are lacking the facility to fully used it, Microsoft need to understand what the people needs first before deciding and producing the product. Produce a product that everyone can use and it needs to be the best product and in good quality. Resource http://www.qbrundage.com/michaelb/pubs/essays/working_at_microsoft.html 3rd point Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Deming emphasize that organization need to stop depending on inspection. It is costly and unreliable in the long-run. It function don’t actually improve quality but to find lack of quality. Therefore organizations need to build quality from the beginning of process till its end. Microsoft need to take this into consideration because during Microsoft Surface tablet launching the device crash during its presentation, thus show the incapability’s of its device. If they had implement Quality in the beginning this would had happen. Microsoft should learn from this experience and not depend on inspection during the production. They should ensure any possible problems are eliminated during the production itself from earlier stage by making the sure top quality products are done from every step of the production. 4th point Move toward a single supplier for any one item on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust. By having lesser supplier, an organization can focus on the quality of their output. Other than price, quality is another priority when looking for a supplier. Microsoft need to motivate supplier to improve on their quality and when they achieve it look at them as a partner in quality rather than a business connection. Software and application developer need to provide the very best service so that Microsoft can depend on them to even produce a good product themselves. 5th Point Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity and this will lead to decrease in cost. An organization need to continuously improve their system and process. Deming encourage the use of Plan-Do-Check-Act approach to do analysis and find ways of improvement. The Organization should emphasize on training and education so everyone can perform better in their jobs to reduce waste, improve productivity, effectiveness and safety. Currently employee in the RD department is given the freedom to be creative and innovative in creating Product as long is benefiting the organization. In 2010 spend $9.5 billion for research and development. Microsoft wanted to its employee to be able to find new ways to improve their current product and service. This can be done  through training, providing seminar and outsourcing it employee to perform better. 6th point Institute training on the job By providing a consistence training toward the people an organization will be able to reduce variation. By providing training on the job they will be able to build a foundation of common knowledge. This allows the worker to understand their roles. Encourage staff to learn from each other. In some department of Microsoft some employee are lacking the motivation to improve themselves, these employee lack interest to outperform. Microsoft needs to institute training for them in order to improve their capabilities by encouraging them to attend seminar and courses. This would better prepare the Microsoft for any difficulties since these employees will be able to solve the problem with having to consult the top management. This will also improve the quality of their work since they have the knowledge and the expertise to do so. 7th point Institute leadership-Done The aim of leadership is to make supervisor and managers to understand their staff or worker and the process they are using. The leader should not only supervise but also give guidance rather than punishment. A leader should know what needed to make the individual work at their best. Microsoft actually had a touch-screen e-reader developed in 1998, but Bill Gates ignored it because he didn’t like the user interface and didn’t represent Microsoft. The team that developed the reader was told to stop coming up with new ideas and instead work on software for Microsoft Office which is their comfort zone. Only now after touch screen getting so much coverage they start giving it attention. The top management should be encourage those staff who came up with innovation to pursue their invention. If they were to pursue the idea in the beginning, they would be still dominating the gadget industry. 8th point Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company By eliminating fear its throw away people worry and concern of making mistake thus making them able to perform at their best. The organization needs to let its people them know the management will not place blame if mistakes occur. Ensure those who are supervising the worker are approachable. Encourage open communication between manager and employee to make them feel comfortable in expressing their problem. An article mentions Bosses at Microsoft screams at employees and blaming them for everything, whether it was their fault or not. This creates fear to employee to be cautious when they are working and even driving them to move out of the company. This will have an impact of the quality productivity. Microsoft needs to establish a friendly relation with its employee to ensure their commitment and motivation to perform at the highest level. High morale employee will produce good productivity and service. Resource http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-is-filled-with-abusive-managers-and-overworked-employees-says-tell-all-book-2012-5?op=1#ixzz25ZMiHdwh 9th point Break down the barrier between departments Each department need to recognize each other department function so they can understand which department depend on which. Rather than Departments trying to compromise, they should focus on collaboration and build a shared vision to achieve this. This would improve teamwork and reduce adversarial relationships. For this point it’s trying to say that there were cases in Microsoft that there are boss of each department at times will be only thinking of their department. Only to maximize the performance of their own department without consulting with other department of how they are progressing. It would impact the outcome of the product. Microsoft need to ensure each department will be able to collaborate with each other to achieve their goal to attain top quality outcome. 10th point Eliminate slogan and target for the work force -Done The management need to let its subordinate what they want and not making them  to guess. An unclear slogan such as â€Å"Excellence in service† confused people which area or what kind of excellence are the organization are pointing at. It would be much clearer if it states â€Å"You Can Do Better If You Try†. An earlier mission statement of Microsoft is A computer on every desk and in every home. This doesn’t really tell a clear intention of Microsoft. Soon after a few year the Mission statement changes to a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software .This clearly indicates the intention of Microsoft of providing Microsoft application and software to every computer. This would motivate its worker to work on Microsoft software. Microsoft should now make a clearer message rather than specific Slogan to ensure all it employees understood where the Organization goal and what they wanted to achieve. 11th point Eliminate management by Objective The management needs to see how the process is being carried out, not just on achieving its numerical target. Normally an organization production target produces high output but low on quality. Provide them with support and resource so that high qualities of production are achievable. Microsoft has tried this before with the Zune, which was an attempt to compete with iPod. Microsoft Corporation launches the Zune Mp3 player when Apple iPod was in its Prime. This attempt result in failure as Apple product are way better compare to their. Here Microsoft needs to know it not necessary to try to compete with other but focus on the quality which will meet with the consumer preference than they would have a higher chance of success rather than trying to rival its competitors. Resource http://betanews.com/2011/03/14/ipod-didn-t-kill-zune-microsoft-did/ 12th point Remove barrier to pride of workmanship These points concentrate of the people whose doing the work. It means to allow everyone to be proud of their achievement without being compared from one another. Treat all workers with the same treatment to eliminate competition amongst worker for any rewards. â€Å"If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good  everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,† says a former software developer. â€Å"It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.† This is taken from a former employee of Microsoft, their clearly indicates there are favoritism in Microsoft Top management. This encourages rivalry amongst its own staff. Remove this, and then employee will then be able to focus on their job and produce quality product and service. 13th Point Implement education and Self-Improvement With this point, the management should focus on improving the current skill of its employee. By encouraging them to learn new skill and knowledge it will better prepare them for future challenges and changes In Microsoft Corporation they are lacking the motivation to be more innovative nowadays. They are more concern to preserves their existing product such as extending their office application, Window Operating system and increasing server software window server. Microsoft is not too fond of taking risk into making new product and service. It took them years to come up with Microsoft surface tablet when other developer such as Samsung and Apple’s been doing it for a few years already. They need to implement the 13th point so that its employee will be able to improve their ability and knowledge so that the organization can cope with changes in the future. 14th point Make Transformation everyone’s Job Everyone in the organization have to make changes, the organization will improve overall by having each person in the organization is motivated to produce better quality. To achieve this management will need to make changes in the management principle by applying the Deming’s 14 point into their system. Microsoft needs to analyze each small step and understand how these steps contribute to better quality. Everyone from the lower ranking worker to the top ranking should be able to contribute to their fullest. 4.Conclusion To conclude all Microsoft corporation need to implement the 14 Deming point to ensure its survival in its industry which it previously dominate. For the research done on Microsoft corporation , there are some major area that they need to gives attention too and Deming 14 point will be able to provide a solution if it is to be applied in the proper way. The success of this method will depend on the top management to its lower ranking worker of how well they can adopt to Deming philosophy. 5.Reference Book Mary. Walton (1986) ,The Demings Management Method Dennis F. Kehoe (1997) The Fundamentals Of Quality Management 2nd Edition Website †¢ Hci.com.au (1960) Demings 14 points. [online] Available at: http://www.hci.com.au/hcisite2/articles/deming.htm. [Accessed: 29 August 2012]. †¢ Deming 14 points Philosophy. Available at http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_75.htm. [ Accessed: 27th August 2012]. †¢ Deming’s approach is summed up in his famous 14 points. Available at http://www.1000advices.com/guru/quality_tqm_14points_deming.html. [Accessed: 30th August 2012]. †¢Information of Microsoft available at: http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-server/microsoft-just-like-ibm http://www.about-microsoft.com/ [Accessed:25 August 2012] †¢Information for Microsoft Surface available at: http://psynixis.com/blog/2012/06/surface-the-problem-with-the-microsoft-tablet-vision †¢Information on former employee complain http://betanews.com/2010/02/09/why-former-employees-say-microsoft-can-t-innovate/ [Accessed:25 August 2012] http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-is-filled-with-abusive-managers-and-overworked-employees-says-tell-all-book-2012-5?op=1 [ Accessed:25 August