Quality management is essential for any business to be successful. Any time a product is recalled by a company it is an example of a failure in quality management. Quality, in business, can be defined as a product or service that is free from defects and provides the best possible product to the consumer. Quality management “has continuously been widened from considering “what” is done to “how” it is done” (Weckenmann, Akkasoglu and Werner, 2015). In a competitive business environment business’ must ensure that their product/service is of an acceptable quality for their consumers and that satisfies the consumers’ needs. Although it is possible for a business to produce a product that is of a high quality and the consumer will not be satisfied, this would not be considered as a failure in quality management. For a business to achieve consistent quality management the entire company must be committed to attaining it.
Within quality management there are many different systems, one of the most successful methods is Six Sigma. Developed in the 1980s, Six Sigma works by minimising errors in a company’s existing quality standards and working to achieve better results and higher consumer satisfaction (Schroeder et al., 2008). Six Sigma improves quality management using five steps which form the acronym DMAIC. DMAIC stands for Design, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control. All companies that manufacture a product can use effectively implement Six Sigma, as they have characteristics that fit into each of the steps.
ISO is another example of a successful method of quality management in business. ISO puts emphasis on consumer satisfaction, top management and constantly improving the system (ISO, 2018). The ISO system can be implemented into small or large business structures as it follows 8 standardised quality management principles. These principles are customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, systems approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making and mutually beneficial supplier relationships (Hoyle, 2017). The application of the ISO system allows for businesses to maintain quality standards in a highly competitive business environment.
For a global electronics company, such as Samsung, having a successful quality management strategy is vital to continue success for the business. If consumers are unsure of whether a product will be of a good quality, they are unlikely to buy it due to the uncertainty. Quality management can give business’ competitive edge over their competitors if the business provides a flawless product compared to their competitor. As Samsung produce a range of different electronic devices they have many competitors in various markets, which means having a successful quality management system is necessary.
For Samsung, their quality management came under fire in 2016 when their new release, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 began overheating and exploding after it had been sold to consumers. Following this incident, Samsung experienced its worse ever decline in sales and it became extremely important for Samsung to revise their quality assurance protocols to regain consumers trust. The strategy of Samsung’s quality management did not find the root of the problem when it arose but instead dealt with the problem by replacing the early versions of the Note 7 with replacement devices. When the replacement devices began to overheat Samsung issued a recall of all Note 7 devices. After the problem was discovered, Samsung switched to using a preventative quality management approach so they could determine future issues before sales began of the product. They also implemented three new and enhanced quality assurance measures to their existing protocol. Samsung’s Quality Policy statement now states that they “deliver, on the basis of an efficient quality system, the best products and services which conform to our customer requirements and expectations” (Samsung, 2018). Samsung managed to effectively implement a more successful quality management system after the Galaxy Note 7 failure, and have since had no extreme quality management issues.