EVOLUTION OF

QUALITY IN XEROX
Presented by,
Group 1
Jappreet S. Bhatia
Lokesh Yadav
Deepak Jain
 XEROX
• Xerox Corporation – 1906 and 1959 - Xerox 914
• Manufactures color and black-and-white printers,
multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production
printing presses
• New players- IBM Kodak, Canon, and Sevin
• David T. Kearns took over as the CEO
• “Leadership Through Quality” in 1983 and Lean Six
Sigma in 2003
• Goal was to achieve superiority in quality, product
reliability and cost
1959
91
4C
op
ie r In
tro
Co du
mp ced
eti
ti on
I ncr
Be ea
nch ses
ma
rki
Qu ng
Sta

1972 1979 1980

Fuj ality rte
i Xe Circ d
rox les
Wo Beg
Lea n D an
de r em

1983
sh i ing
pT Aw
h
Initi roug ard
ate h Q
Wo d u al
XEROX HISTORY

nB ity
1989

ald
ridg
eA
wa
rd
1990s
Continuous
Improvement
 AWARDS

• The Deming Award (Japan) In 1980

• The Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award In 1989

• The European Quality Award In 1992

 ISSUES IN CASE
• During the 1970s, however, IBM and Kodak entered the
high-volume copier business—Xerox’s principal market.
Several Japanese companies introduced high-quality low-
volume copiers, a market that Xerox had virtually
ignored, and established a foundation for moving into the
high- volume market

• Xerox was soon losing market share to Japanese

competitors, and by the early 1980s it faced a serious
competitive threat from copy machine manufacturers in
Japan; Xerox’s market share had fallen to less than 50
percent
 CONTD …

• In comparing itself with its competition, Xerox

discovered that it had nine times as many suppliers, twice
as many employees, cycle times

• That were twice as long, 10 times as many rejects, and

seven times as many manufacturing defects in finished
products. It was clear that radical changes were required
 LEADERSHIP THROUGH QUALITY
PROGRAM AT XEROX
In 1983, company president David T. Kearns became
convinced that Xerox needed a long-range, comprehensive
quality strategy as well as a change in its traditional
management culture .

The strategy for cultural change in Xerox that enables and

empowers people with quality tools and processes to,

1. Meet customer requirements

2. Achieve business priorities

3. Continuously improve
 THE PLAN - LEADERSHIP THROUGH
QUALITY
• 1983-the year of start-up activities
• 1984- the year of awareness and understanding
• 1985- the year of transition and transformation
• 1986 the year when results would achieved
• 1987 the year of approaching maturity
 XEROX QUALITY POLICY STATEMENT
Kearns and the company’s top 25 managers wrote the Xerox
Quality Policy, which states:
“Xerox is a quality company.
Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox.
Quality means providing our external and internal customers
with innovative products and services that fully satisfy their
requirements.
Quality is the job of every Xerox employee”
 OBJECTIVES ACHIEVED
• To instill quality as the basic business principle in Xerox,
and to ensure that quality improvement becomes the job
of every Xerox person.
• To ensure that Xerox people, individually and
collectively, provide our external and internal customers
with innovative products and services that fully satisfies
their existing and latent requirements.
• To establish, as a way of life, management and work
processes that enable all Xerox people to continuously
pursue quality improvement in meeting customer
requirements
 4 GOALS PREVAILED IN XEROX
• Customer goal
- to become an organization with whom customers are
eager to do business
• Employee goal
- to create an environment where everyone can take pride
and feel responsible
• Business goal
- to increase profits and to grow faster
• Process goal
- to use leadership through quality in Xerox
1983 XEROX IMPERATIVE
 BENCHMARKING
• Benchmarked more than 200 processes with those of non
competitive companies
• Ideas for improving production scheduling – Cummins
engine company
• Improving distribution system – L.L.Bean (Logistics co.)
• Improving billing processes – American Express
• More than 40,000 surveys were mailed in one month to
understand the customer satisfaction level, and resolved
the dissatisfaction within no time
XEROX ‘S BENCHMARKING MODEL

Planning
Analysis
Integration
Action
Maturity
IMPORTANT SUPPORTING ELEMENTS

Recognition Tools Transition

and and Team
Reward Processes

Xerox is a
Total Quality
Company

Senior
Training Communi-
Management
cation
Behavior
RESULTS OF LEADERSHIP THROUGH
QUALITY
o Rejection rate fell from 10,000 ppm to 300 ppm
o No inspection was required for the supplied parts
o Number of suppliers were cut down drastically
o Cost of purchase was reduced to 45 percent
o Production time reduced by 60 percent
o Quality improved by 93 percent
o Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction resulted in
increased market share and more profits
 Xerox’s Outcome
Initially:
• Failed to focus adequately on core work processes
and statistics.
• Plan was not integrated with business processes.
• Not tuned to the company culture and the need to
change it.
• Did not pick the right quality czar at the start.
• Did not push the operating units hard enough.
 WHAT XEROX DID RIGHT
1. It made an appropriate diagnosis of how to cure the ills of the
company.
2. Quality was the right process for the right solution at the right
time.
3. The necessary commitment was made by senior management.
4. A constituency was built starting at the top in a very calculated
and deliberate way.
5. Employee compensation was tied to quality.
6. The pursuit of the Baldridge Award was an energizing effort
within the company
5. Information systems use was effectively aligned with
its business objectives and processes to achieve them

6. Executive compensation was tied to quality.

7. Innovations and successes of the TQM program were

well publicized.

8. The pursuit of the Baldridge Award was an energizing

effort within the company.

9. It achieved measured results.

RESTRENGTHENING QUALITY
 INFORMATION SYSTEMS
SUPPORT
• Xerox had over 375 major information systems
supporting the total business.
• Over 175 of these systems related specifically to the
management, evaluation and planning of quality.
• The validity, accuracy and timeliness of information
systems are assured by the use of a Data Systems Quality
Assurance process during the design, construction and
major upgrade of each information system.
 XEROX’S LEAN SIX SIGMA
Performance excellence process
• Supports clearer, simple alignment of corporate
direction to individual objectives
• Clear links to market trends, benchmarking, lean Six
Sigma
• Supports a simple business model – “Baldrige type”

DMAIC
• Define, measure , analyze , improve , control
• Based on six sigma with speed and focus
• Capture opportunities
 XEROX’S LEAN SIX SIGMA
Market trends and Benchmarking
• Reinforce market focus
• Disciplined approach
• Encouraging employees

• Strong linkage between Performance excellence

process and DMAIC
Behaviors and Leadership
• Reinforce customer focus
• Expands interactive skills to have more team
effectiveness
• Faster decision making
• Supports leadership skills
Performance excellence process
 WHAT LESSONS MIGHT THIS EXPERIENCE—PARTICULARLY IN
RESPONDING TO THE NEW CRISIS- HAVE FOR OTHER
ORGANIZATIONS?

• Decreased focus on quality by top management

• Technology downturn
• Led to quality renewal
• New Quality in 2001 and onwards
• Lean Six Sigma
 LEARNING'S

• Customer focused employees

• Quality
• Participation, speed, teamwork based on trust and learning
• Process is objective aligned to the company’s direction
• Benchmarking, both internal and external
• DMAIC- desire, measure, analyze, improve and control
• Lean Six Sigma
“QUALITY IS A RACE WITHOUT A FINISH
LINE” AT XEROX

Quality is a never ending process

New technology

Skill full employees and management

Lean six sigma just a part

 AT MOTOROLA

• Flexible Manufacturing
• 1981 launched a project to improve the quality
• Learnt it from Dominos Pizza
• 2002 won The Baldrige Award
• QSR
• Competitive Benchmarking
THANK YOU