The Goal
CASE STUDY 5 – WAINWRIGHT INDUSTRIES: AN ENTIRELY NEW PHILOSOPHY OF BUSINESS BASED ON CUSTOMER
Wainwright Industries is a manufacurer of stamped and machine parts, which provides high quality products and services for the world’s leading automotive and aerospace. Their dedication to quality and consistently supplying customized customer solutions and their exceptional experience, last for more than half a century for which they win both the satisfaction of the customers and the Company the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Their worldwide customers benefit qualitative metal stamping, machining and logistics services due to company’s modern and specialized machinery together with the great job done by a team of experienced “designers, engineers, skilled tradesmen and quality-oriented associates whose focus is on exceeding our customers' expectations”. Having a total annual sales of about 30 million dolars, the company employs 275 associates at its headquarters and main manufacturing facility in St. Peters, Mo., and at a recently opened plant in Grand Prairie, Texas.
In 1980, Wainwright Industries faced a crisis. This was possible because of the fierce competition and the intensified customer control. Therefore, the company found itself in a position of re-designing its structure in order to face this challenge. The only solution to maintain its position on the market and to keep its customers loyal was to re-judge their capabilities and to understand what improvements they should make to be competitive on the long run. The radical changes that came after this crisis help them to remain an important actor in the economy, otherwise their position would have surely decline and would have lead probably to bankruptcy.
What was very clear for the Wainwright Industries was their considerable need for improvement, because minor changes would have only helped them for a short period.
From that moment, Wainwright was constantly looking for ways to
Wainwright Industries is a manufacurer of stamped and machine parts, which provides high quality products and services for the world’s leading automotive and aerospace. Their dedication to quality and consistently supplying customized customer solutions and their exceptional experience, last for more than half a century for which they win both the satisfaction of the customers and the Company the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Their worldwide customers benefit qualitative metal stamping, machining and logistics services due to company’s modern and specialized machinery together with the great job done by a team of experienced “designers, engineers, skilled tradesmen and quality-oriented associates whose focus is on exceeding our customers' expectations”. Having a total annual sales of about 30 million dolars, the company employs 275 associates at its headquarters and main manufacturing facility in St. Peters, Mo., and at a recently opened plant in Grand Prairie, Texas.
In 1980, Wainwright Industries faced a crisis. This was possible because of the fierce competition and the intensified customer control. Therefore, the company found itself in a position of re-designing its structure in order to face this challenge. The only solution to maintain its position on the market and to keep its customers loyal was to re-judge their capabilities and to understand what improvements they should make to be competitive on the long run. The radical changes that came after this crisis help them to remain an important actor in the economy, otherwise their position would have surely decline and would have lead probably to bankruptcy.
What was very clear for the Wainwright Industries was their considerable need for improvement, because minor changes would have only helped them for a short period.
From that moment, Wainwright was constantly looking for ways to