Tempur Pedic Quality Process Improvement Plan Essay

Tempur Pedic Quality Process Improvement Plan - Essay Example As Hill writes, "top management determines quality priorities, establishes the systems of quality, management and the procedures to be followed, provides resources and leads by example" (Hill, 1991). The concept emerged from the work in statistical quality control at the Western Electric Hawthorne plant in the 1930s and was associated with the work of W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran (Chase, Jacobs, 2003). It was introduced to Japan by the Americans as the occupying force in the immediate post war era and found its greatest expression in Japanese manufacturing industry. Literature review. Two themes in the research literature have been particularly prominent in recent years: "the ways of improvement" as a source of service planning and the debate over the different methods and models of successful production technoques. Up-to-date scholarship on both of these themes is reflected in recent researches R.B. Chase, R.F. Jacobs (2003), N. Slack, S. Chambers, R. Johnston (2003), D. Dow (1999), etc. In their works these authors develop a new theoretical approach which can be applied to practice. The works they provide a lot of example of management teams and their experience in TQM. These researches join theoretical and practical side of strategy, giving recommendations for improvement in the TQM to ensure customer satisfaction. "Production and A big layer of literature concerning this topic belongs to such gurus as T. Hill "Production and Operation Management: Text and cases" (1991), N. D. Harris "Service Operations Management" (1989). Their theoretical studies on improvements based on TQM, sustainable competitive advantage, the role of standards, etc, are still the basis of any research in the field of production and operations management. They examine and discuss the role of different companies for product and service improvement can successfully use TQM. Internal factors. Monitoring of the environment is an important method that helps to search for new trends in operations management. Managers should take into account internal and external factors that influence a potential consumer. The policy of implement restructing sooner rather than later was proved to be correct. There is no two cuctomers with the similar requiments, that is why operations management must respond to different customer needs. Factors Internal to a company are types of workers, organization structure, assumptions about people, technology, vision, mission and values of the firm, n ature of ow nership and management. Tempur Pedic is a Swedish Company which manufactures and distributes mattresses and pillows made from its proprietary "Tempur" pressure-relieving material. This material consists of a visco-elastic material that conforms to the body to provide support and help alleviate pressure points.The company operates in 60 countries around the world. In a time of rapidly changing technologies and ever-shorter product life cycles, product development often proceeds at a glacial pace. In an age of the customer, order fulfillment has high error rates and customer enquiries go unanswered for weeks. In a period when asset utilization is critical, inventory levels exceed many months of demand. The usual methods of boosting performance - process rationalization and automation - haven't yielded the dramatic improvements for Tempur Pedic Company need. In particular, heavy