A ford & a Toyota are equally fit for use, but with different design dimensions for different customer markets that results in significantly different purchase prices, thus quality of design comes into pictureDimensions of quality for which a consumer look in manufactured products (cars): Performance: operating characteristic of a car: how well a car handles or its gas mileage Conformance: the degree to which a product meets pre-established standards Serviceability: the ease of getting repairs, the speed of repairs Aesthetics: how a product feels, looks Safety: assurance that the customer will not suffer injury of harm from a car

PROCESS IMPROVEMENT TEAM IN FORD:

Also called quality improvement team; it is cross-business team between suppliers & their customers. A PIT for customer service includes members from distribution, packaging, manufacturing, & HR. Key objective is to understand the process the team is addressing in terms of how all the parts work together. This process is then measured & evaluated with the goal of improving the process to make it more efficient & the product/service better.

THE ASSEMBLY LINE AT FORD

160,000 semiautomatic machines are installed at Fords Highland Park Plant. This assembly is enormously successful. The amount of labour requirement required to assemble a model T chassis is little less than 30 minutes. The average time of most tasks is as low as 60 seconds

MEASURING SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE:

FORD has inventory turns of 36 per year: large amount of inventory is required to satisfy demand; such inventory turn is because of lean production & increased emphasis on quality management& supply chain management: thus managing its supply chain efficiently.

Inventory turns= COGS / Average aggregate value of inventory

Ford carries about 60 days of finished goods supply i.e. for 60 days inventory is available at any point in time. Days of supply: 60 days

Fords fill rate for its high land park plant at a showroom is 67% meaning that when the showroom places an order with the ford distribution centre 67% of the time it is filled within one day