Quality Improvement
Goodyear is the leading tire manufacturer in the U.S. With a number ofdifferent brands, Goodyear has a tire for almost all types of cars, trucks,agricultural vehicles and off-road vehicles. This paper evaluates the needfor quality improvement in the raw-material supplier, distribution andmarketing of the tires in the U.S. Production and manufacturing areimportant areas where traditionally quality management has been emphasizedand stressed. In recent times however there is an increasing trends byorganizations to also improve the quality of their supply and distributionchannels with the aim of improving customer satisfaction. In theorganizational setting, quality is often defined based on the need of thecustomer and how an organization meets this need. Product performance andperception play an important role in identifying the perception of qualitythat a customer might have. Satisfying customer needs has created a newneed for managing customer relationship and providing the desired service. The customers for Goodyear Tire Company are identified as follows: * The Original Equipment Tire Customers (OEM): This includes the car
This in turn affects the integrity of the IT infrastructure that has to bebuilt. Withthe new system, the company dealers, the independent tire dealers whocarried Goodyear brands and affiliated dealers could directly connect toGoodyear's database and state their request. In an effort to improve the quality of theservice provided to the dealers, the company invested in a new and improvedIT system that would have less downtime and satisfy the needs of thedealers. Information transfer and access are important for both the dealers and thecompany. Goodyear has been exploring a number of options to improve their customerservice. In addition any downtime and service time might also affect thequality of data collected and consequently the type of decision made basedon the data reviewed. While Goodyear had installed an IT system,this system was not robust or adequate for all the transactions that weretaking place over the system. Thecompany has always been involved in optimizing and using quality managementtools within their production and manufacturing systems. Changing procedures andprocesses is difficult. For this infrastructure to be successfully all thedealers and Goodyear have to be accessing information from the samedatabase. The company observed in the late 1990sthat information flow regarding "products, prices, specials, inventoryavailability and order status" was not adequate. * The Replacement Tire market: This market constitutes 70% of the total market. The company's strategic plan is to improve the sales and consequently theprofits generated by the company. The new system also helps the company track the dealerprofile information and the pricing policies followed by the dealer for anyof the products. The dealer plays a very important role in the sales volume and customer satisfaction experienced.
Common topics in this essay:
Assurance GSQA,
Information Technology,
Replacement Tire,
Obsolesce Phase,
Michelin Bridgestone/Firestone,
,
Mazda Toyota,
Six- Sigma,
Customers OEM,
Kerin Peterson,
quality management,
dealers goodyear,
supply chain,
value chain,
replacement tire market,
ibm 2004,
competitive goodyear,
quality assurance,
system system,
help goodyear,
customer satisfaction,
quality management tools,
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Acceptance Essays
