success of Xerox’s Japan brand, Fuji
immense success of Xerox’s Japan brand, Fuji. A team was assembled, and the leadership through innovation system was formulated. The objectives of the new plan were based on customer focus, employee focus and business profitability growth. Xerox benchmarked 200 of its operations and started sending survey emails to their 40,000 clients. The firm promptly resolved any complaints. Further, the organization trained its employees in a span of five years, which cost them $125 million and 4 million work hours. Additionally, Xerox trained its suppliers to incorporate the new plan in their service provision. They also signed a contract with Amalgamated Clothing and Textile labor union, which advocated for employee participation and involvement in the new change. Mangers also role-modelled the move, and as a result, the company’s reject rates reduced from 10,000 to 300 parts per million. The company cut its suppliers from 5000 to 500, reduced its production cost by 20% and increased its overall product quality by 93%.
Variation is imperative in product processes for various reasons. First, organizations that understand variation systems of their machines, tools and operators gain the capability of predicting their performance. Understanding process variations also helps managers establish the correct amount of load that their devices can bear by incorporating slack in the process. Additionally, conceptualizing variations helps top leaders to handle bullwhip effects. They successfully control their organization’s inventory and production levels when a small demand that would potentially affect supply evokes. Besides, businesses that comprehend variations learn how to identify the root causes of difficulties in the production process. Finally, such organizations detect problems that may impact production processes in advance.
The common causes of variations result from two or more complex variation interactions with tools, machines, operators and the environment. They also emanate from changes in a product design and production processes and account for 95% of variations. Their solution lies in product re-design and technology introductions that improve the production process. Examples of common causes of change include poorly trained operators and bad batches of materials from suppliers. In contrast, the special causes of variations result from external factors such as suppliers and inadequate training. They disrupt the random pattern of common causes through sporadic appearances. These special variation causes are easily detectable through statistical methods and are economically easy to treat.