Globe University / Minnesota School of Business

Case Study 3 & 4

Santa Cruz Guitar Company & Orbitz

Huyen T Bui

Week 3 case study for Santa Cruz Guitar Company and Orbitz as part of assignment of
MG705: Management Models for the 21st Century Workforce Instructor: Patricia Angulo

Santa Cruz Guitar Company

Edward Deming is a true management gurus in the quality revolution
with his insights on measuring, managing, and improving quality have
greatly influenced the practices that organizations use today (Evans,
2013). Create and publish to all employees a statement of the aims and
purposes of the company or other organization. The management must
demonstrate constantly their commitment to this statement. Santa Cruz
Guitar Company (SCGC) is a small-scale guitar manufacturing with only 14
craftspeople luthiers that take part in the main production process. Each of
the guitar is hand crafted and can be customized if needed. Even though
SCGC doesnt have a written policy regard TQM, however, they have
embraced the philosophy of Deming and his 14 points of TQM.

As the company only hires those who desire to work in a team environment and
have a passion for guitar making, SCGC place their trust on employees. With 6 workstations at
which the guitars are progressively assembled as they move from station to station, each requires
high level of precise and corrections. SCGC has removed the barriers of micro-managing that
rob people of pride of workmanship, instead, they have driven out fear, created a trusting
environment in which each luthiers allowed to make their own quality decisions, staff each
station. (Evans, 2013)
At SCGC, workers are encouraged to further enhance their skills either
by taking external courses or by a practice that allows them to build two
instruments a year for personal use. These opportunities allow the

craftspeople to explore new techniques in guitar building and become

familiar with the entire guitar building process. SCGC workers are even
encouraged to go out on their own to open a luthier business someday. That
has reflected the philosophy of Deming in encouraging education
opportunities and self-improvement for everyone. (Evans, 2013)

SCGC commits to bring excellence quality into each guitar; clients can
customize their guitar to fit in usage. From choosing raw materials, bending
them into shapes, testing to perfection and continuing after purchase
services that have made SCGC truly an innovative and constantly strive for
best practice.

Orbitz

This case study is about the great customer service experience that
Scott Paton, an editor-at-large for Quality Digest, had with Orbtiz, a traveling
website. Through the story, we learned that he had bad experience with
dealing with customer service either online or call to the hotline center.
However, the process of getting help at Orbitz has made Mr. Paton surprised
and impressed. From the clarity of direction for customer service to the quick
and easy voicemail navigation system that divides calls by type of inquiry. By
input the preliminary information such as phone number, help options, Orbitz
had quickly identify and navigated Mr. Paton to the right representative
whom then helped him with best customer etiquette and problem solving.
From Orbitz case study, we can see that they implemented the Pokayoke methodology as an approach for mistake-proofing processes using
automatic devices or methods to avoid simple human error. Poka-yoke is
focused on two aspects: prediction or recognizing that a defect is about to
occur and providing a warning; and detection, or recognizing that a defect
has occurred and stopping the process. (Evans, 2013) Phone service has
been a nightmare for customer, with long waiting time and numerous of
transferred calls. In order to overcome the challenges, Orbitz has taken Voice
of Customer, a structured methodology for listening to customers that is
promoted by the Center for Quality of Management (CQM) into account;
streamline the process by simplified the options and quick response hotline.
Customer focus is a key requirement of ISO 9000:2000 in this Orbitz case.

For example, in the Management Responsibility section, one requirement is

Top management shall ensure that customer requirements are determined
and are met with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction. (Lindsay,
2010) Orbitz not only solved the duplicate charging problem, but they also
go beyond by sending a $50 discounted gift card for the next purchase.

Bibliography
Evans, J. R. (2013). Quality & Performance Excellence, 7e. VitalSource Bookshelf
version.
Lindsay, J. R. (2010). MANAGING FOR QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE.
VitalSource Bookshelf .