Dell Six Sigma
This semester we chose to develop a Six Sigma analysis on the manufacturing process of computers at Dell, Inc. Our goal was to take the manufacturing process currently in place for the production of laptops and desktop PCs and maximize quality, efficiency, and the longevity of the computers.
Historically, Dell has been known as an industry leader in supply chain management. They have been credited with developing supply chain processes that have come to be recognized as some of the most innovative not only in their industry but throughout all business sectors. All of these accolades made Dell an unlikely choice since there didn’t appear to be much room for improvement, at least from a supply chain standpoint. However, over the past few years Dell’s once firm lead on the personal computer market share has begun to deteriorate and they have since lost their hold of the leading market share to top competitor Hewlett-Packard. They are currently in second place in market share but just over the past fiscal year revenues have fallen 33% from the second quarter of 2009 compared to the second quarter of 2010. Some of this drop-off may be attributed to the economic recession; but regardless of external factors a 33% loss is not something to be ignored especially at a time when these types of losses could potentially become a growing trend.
Our research indicated that over the past few years the amount of complaints Dell has received regarding faulty manufacturing and shortened life spans for their computers has been continuously growing; so we decided to focus our analysis on determining how to improve on Dell’s quality without diminishing their industry-renowned built-to-order process which is based upon speed and efficiency. Dell’s recent losses are a result of decreased quality and these have subsequently created a lack of trust in Dell’s brand. We set out to not only determine specifically what hardware or software issues these errors can be attributed to; but also in
Historically, Dell has been known as an industry leader in supply chain management. They have been credited with developing supply chain processes that have come to be recognized as some of the most innovative not only in their industry but throughout all business sectors. All of these accolades made Dell an unlikely choice since there didn’t appear to be much room for improvement, at least from a supply chain standpoint. However, over the past few years Dell’s once firm lead on the personal computer market share has begun to deteriorate and they have since lost their hold of the leading market share to top competitor Hewlett-Packard. They are currently in second place in market share but just over the past fiscal year revenues have fallen 33% from the second quarter of 2009 compared to the second quarter of 2010. Some of this drop-off may be attributed to the economic recession; but regardless of external factors a 33% loss is not something to be ignored especially at a time when these types of losses could potentially become a growing trend.
Our research indicated that over the past few years the amount of complaints Dell has received regarding faulty manufacturing and shortened life spans for their computers has been continuously growing; so we decided to focus our analysis on determining how to improve on Dell’s quality without diminishing their industry-renowned built-to-order process which is based upon speed and efficiency. Dell’s recent losses are a result of decreased quality and these have subsequently created a lack of trust in Dell’s brand. We set out to not only determine specifically what hardware or software issues these errors can be attributed to; but also in