Assignment: CEO and vendors

• The key characteristics and requirements and the pros and cons of each of the following overarching quality programs. The chart should have columns for an overall 1-sentence description of each program, its pros, and its cons.

o TQM
o Juran's Trilogy
o Deming
o Crosby
o Six Sigma

• Provide your view on how a formal process improvement program could help at both vendor locations and inside ABC's own factory.

• Specifically, in the areas of vendor quality and delivery performance, what are the benefits of creating a vendor certification program, and what does it involve?

• Specifically, in the area of ABC's own internal workings, what opportunities for continuous improvement exist, and what exactly would you do?

• How do you get ABC itself to adopt a more continuous improvement mentality?

Finally, and most importantly, all these operational improvements could create a strategic advantage for ABC because most of its competitors have similar internal and vendor quality challenges, as well as internal operational challenges.