STRATEGIC QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Case Study: Andrew Ryan at VC Brakes

Group 2:
BENIL PHILOMENA NORONHA 18068
Submitted to: BILLE SAI DINESH 18096
Dr. R Jagadeesh DHAARINI J M 18099
KISHOR KUMAAR E 18155
INTRODUCTION
 VC Brakes is an auto parts manufacturer in Middle town, Ohio, which makes parts for
automobile manufacturers as well as for the market for the purpose of repair.
 Founded in 1985, VC Brakes had steadily grown its business on the strength of a
reputation for quality at a time when U.S. manufacturers were still struggling to match
the reliability of their Japanese competitors.
 In 1998, VC Brakes was acquired by Lantana Industrial, a major automotive parts
supplier serving both the Original Equipment (OE) and aftermarket segments.
 The 2008 financial crisis dealt a nearly crippling blow to the automotive industry.
Demand for OE motor vehicle parts fell by nearly 35% as production of new vehicles
fell far short of the 10.5 million vehicles estimated to be the breakeven point for the
industry.
 An expansion in production capacity in 2007 turned out to be poorly timed. Sales
stagnated in the subsequent years, particularly due to the company’s overexposure to
truck and SUV parts, and capacity utilization fell to 65% approximately 10 points below
breakeven.
 As profitability declined sharply, VC Brakes was forced to cut 75 jobs from its
workforce of over 700 employees.
 The effect was compounded by the ongoing consumer shift away from “high-content”
trucks and SUVs to more affordable and fuel- efficient passenger vehicles, which had
less value per-vehicle for parts.
 In 2010, Lantana began divesting businesses that it deemed non-core. The following
year, VC Brakes was sold to Crossroads Corporation, a global manufacturer of friction
systems, supplying automakers, heavy vehicles, and aerospace manufacturers.

Organisational Culture at VC Brakes

 VC Brakes had a reputation for autocratic, top-down management, and both production
employees and professional staff felt the company was unresponsive to their concerns.
 Medved, vice president of engineering, and Andrew Ryan Senior Manager of
Engineering Services had worked hard to change this culture within his own
department.
TQM Implementation:

 In October 2011, Crossroads announced a Total Quality Management (TQM) program

that it would execute at all its subsidiaries. The intention was not only to improve
product quality and management practices, but also to establish a consistent operational
strategy across all of its businesses.

Objectives:
 Provide product and service quality
 Be the lowest cost quality producer
 Manage Through Leadership
 Personally involve all employees through participative activity
 Be comprised of employees who face the job fearlessly
 Improve Management Practices
 Consistent operational strategy across all businesses
 Position as an attractive OE supplier
Ryan and Kante joined the nominated instructors from Crossroad’s other subsidiaries for a
three-week, off-site course to familiarize them with the Total Quality Management materials.

Timeline of TQM at VC brakes

Site instructor begin

3-week off-site TQM TQM training with
TQM implemented training teams

Early 2012 June 2012 Oct. 2012

Oct. 2011 Apr. 2012 Aug. 2012
VC Brakes elects
advisory group Day manager training 10 TQM instructor
executive and site sessions completed
instructors

Andrew Ryan did a great job at VC Brakes in motivating people at the bottom level to take
part in the TQM program. Ryan established a clear vision and provided guidance to the
frontline workers on how they can contribute to improve total quality. However, his overall
approach is ineffectual. He failed to convince the middle managers to embrace the value of the
TQM program and have their support, but only set up the workers’ expectation without being
able to grant their requests. Thus, their contributions and involvement were not appreciated
and recognized. Ryan did not improve VC Brakes hence lost his faith in people and credibility
in the TQM program.

Causes of the problem

 Hierarchy issue
 Long standing divide between Operations and Engineering departments
 The training period of Total Quality Management program was dropped due to cost
issue
Should Ryan go ahead with TQM at VC Brakes?

 There are many things that could be done differently to avoid the current state. First,
Ryan should have communicated well with the TQM Steering Committee members and
Baynard to get a common understanding of TQM objectives to outline the long-term
vision, transform the objectives to arithmetical goals, and establish proper strategy and
evaluation. Ryan thought that Baynard would not need to make considerable changes
at VC Brakes and was new to the TQM’s models. Thus, Ryan did not put much effort
into improving shared understanding with Baynard. This was not right. Ryan might
have personal prejudice against Baynard due to continuing conflicts between operation
and engineering departments.
 Secondly, after having the support and shared understanding of Baynard and other
senior managers, he should have rallied them to launch a system approach to
management, which was to establish a measure and strategy that fit into their overall
goals and objectives, and then have the lower level managers to develop their strategy,
goals, objectives, and measure that tailored to the measure and strategy set by the higher
level managers. The results of measure should then be included in the managers’
personal evaluation so that managers would align their own interest with the overall
improvement of the company.
 Thirdly, Ryan should have included direct managers to the training program for
workers rather than grouping people individually according to their department and
level so as to increase managers’ responsiveness and understanding of their significant
roles in TQM practices. The training program could even be modified to match the
managers’ needs. Such changes would provide managers with a strong sense of
responsibilities and efficiently reduce the divergence of the program’s vision between
managers and workers.
 Along with the training provided he should try to let the supervisors and the workers
know the importance of TQM
 Training program should have been tailored to match the organization and team needs
 There should be a timeline for the goals to be achieved
 Management commitment is needed too
 Crossroads should start and promote Rewards and recognition to motivate employees
 Ryan did a very good job as a TQM instructor, he provided guidance to the bottom
level workers on how to improve quality
 Therefore, Ryan should go ahead and not quit the team