Santa Cruz Case
Santa Cruz Case
Introduction
Santa Cruz Guitar Company is a small-scale musical instrument company that produces custom high quality guitars. Although Santa Cruz Guitar Company manufactures few guitars a year, compared to competitors, and lack an actual quality department, Santa Cruz Guitar Company is known for high quality instruments.
Dr. Robert W. Edwards Deming was a statistician that had a large impact on quality, as we know it today. Deming realized how management processes could be viewed in a statistical matter. Deming also realized that overall quality could be improved by strong relationships between management, customers and suppliers.
Deming established how overall quality could be improved by fourteen key elements that a company should abide by. He believed that higher quality leads to higher productivity. Higher productivity can be achieved by higher quality due to the reduced amount of rework, which in turn uses less valuable resources, and less delays, because orders can be completed in a timely manner, which include efficiencies.
Deming’s 14 points can be applied to the Santa Cruz Guitar Company’s stance on overall quality and how they are able to achieve such perfection.
Point 1: Create a Vision Demonstrate Commitment * Santa Cruz takes great pride in each guitar that they manufacture, each one is hand made and inspected by a skilled luthier. * Each part of the guitar manufacturing process is meticulously crafted.
Point 2: Learn the New Philosophy * Everyone within each stage of the manufacturing process is involved with the quality of the finished good.
Point 3: Understand Inspection * The guitar will not go to the next process until a lead luthier ensures that the work in process has met Santa Cruz Guitar’s quality standards.
Point 4: Stop making decisions purely on the basis of cost * Santa Cruz uses the best raw materials in the manufacturing process. They select the highest grades of
Introduction
Santa Cruz Guitar Company is a small-scale musical instrument company that produces custom high quality guitars. Although Santa Cruz Guitar Company manufactures few guitars a year, compared to competitors, and lack an actual quality department, Santa Cruz Guitar Company is known for high quality instruments.
Dr. Robert W. Edwards Deming was a statistician that had a large impact on quality, as we know it today. Deming realized how management processes could be viewed in a statistical matter. Deming also realized that overall quality could be improved by strong relationships between management, customers and suppliers.
Deming established how overall quality could be improved by fourteen key elements that a company should abide by. He believed that higher quality leads to higher productivity. Higher productivity can be achieved by higher quality due to the reduced amount of rework, which in turn uses less valuable resources, and less delays, because orders can be completed in a timely manner, which include efficiencies.
Deming’s 14 points can be applied to the Santa Cruz Guitar Company’s stance on overall quality and how they are able to achieve such perfection.
Point 1: Create a Vision Demonstrate Commitment * Santa Cruz takes great pride in each guitar that they manufacture, each one is hand made and inspected by a skilled luthier. * Each part of the guitar manufacturing process is meticulously crafted.
Point 2: Learn the New Philosophy * Everyone within each stage of the manufacturing process is involved with the quality of the finished good.
Point 3: Understand Inspection * The guitar will not go to the next process until a lead luthier ensures that the work in process has met Santa Cruz Guitar’s quality standards.
Point 4: Stop making decisions purely on the basis of cost * Santa Cruz uses the best raw materials in the manufacturing process. They select the highest grades of