Starbucks Case Study

Total Quality Management Final Assignment

Casie Angela Thanos

Mentari Glorya Bonde

110613129
110613041

Michelle Celine Mandagi

110613163

Stevany Carolin Tanjaya

110613062

Summary and Relevance to Lectures

Starbucks is the largest coffee shop chain in the world. It was established in
1971 at Seattle, Washington. It was famous for its quality fresh-roasted coffee beans
and stylish atmosphere. They have over 9,000 stores worldwide.
They have several product lines such as:

Beverages such as coffee, Tazo tea, soda, and juice.

Pastries, salads and pastas

Whole coffee beans

Coffee-related hardware and equipment

Merchandise such as mugs, tumblers, CDs, and dolls.

Starbucks, as everybody knows, is the leading coffee retailer today. Because of
the continuous profit growth of the company, competitors start to emerge as they see
potential revenues for this kind of industry. But despite the several threats of the
market, Starbucks has still the most effective quality strategies among any other
coffee shop companies. This is seen on the companys earnings that rise up
consistently, its distinguished coffee taste, and quality systems that bring several
recognitions to Starbucks.
In terms of Quality Management, Starbucks is one of many companies in the
world that puts Quality over Quantity. Starbucks uses several quality systems. The
first starts with the baristas on the floor. The drinks are called from the barista on the
point of sale to the barista making drinks. This is then recalled to the first barista.
When the drink is called back it is checked for accuracy as well as making sure no
drinks are missed. After the drink is made the barista checks the drink for accuracy
before handing it off to the customer. A second system that Starbucks use is random
check-ins from District Managers (DM). In these check in the DM talks to the
customers, watches the baristas, and do random checks of drinks to ensure quality.
The final system the Starbucks uses is a third party. Starbucks uses a company called
ECOSURE to perform checks on all the stores to ensure all quality standards are met
every six months. The stores have a copy of the required qualifications that it must
meet to prepare for these checks as well as maintain these standards.
Quality of Design is a cross-functional design team, including members from
marketing, engineering, operations, and other departments are responsible for the
quality of design.
Customer needs are taken into consideration during this process. Starbucks
knows customers are looking for a variety of caffeinated or decaffeinated drinks to
start their day. The CEO of the company added even more choices after spending time
in Italy and loving their blends of coffee. They have experimented with many different
combinations and flavors, which is what makes them so popular today.
Quality of conformance is meeting specifications regardless of what quality
of design was reached.

For example, Starbucks meets specifications by allowing customers to have

their coffee to their liking, non-fat, decaffeinated, foam, a shot of espresso, and other
personalized options. Also, availability, reliability, and maintainability, are important
for conformance. Availability is when the product or the machines to make the product
are up and running. Starbucks has more than one machine in each store and each
employee is trained to service the machine to ensure that its working, which makes
them more reliable as well. To maintain each machine employees clean them every
night and have proper training to use them correctly. The rare occasions it does fail a
new machine is ordered or fixed depending on the severity of the problem and within
three days everything is back to normal.
Field service is customer service and refers to warranty and repair or
replacement of the product after it has been sold.
Starbucks can fix their problem very quickly because if its not to the customers
liking they could just add whatever is missing or make another one to meet the
expectations. Also, field service refers to promptness and Starbucks, although there
are many locations that have a lot of traffic, speed things up by splitting up the work
two people may be in charge of ringing up orders while two others make the drinks or
prepare the food the customer orders.
Some new ideas that Starbucks can use as a system is increase the ECOSURE
checks to every four months. This will help ensure that the standards are better
maintained. A second system that could be put into place could be a way to measure
the drinks weight before handing off to the customer to ensure proper weight.
Compared to other coffee shops, Starbucks has always been, and will always be
about quality when it comes to coffee. What makes their coffee outstanding among
others is that they choose exceptional coffee beans for they believe that quality,
flavor, and complexity cannot come from simple roasting. They place coffee beans in
high altitude, which creates density and in turn would create to flavor. But it is not just
about the altitude. It is on all the things that they do for they have always applied
higher standards to the sorting and grating and not everybody does that. Surely, the
company knows that simply having an Arabica coffee is not enough. They do make
exceptional coffees that outshine others.
Starbucks also uses several quality systems to provide adequate service to the
customers. The company uses random check-ins from district managers wherein they
check the baristas, talk to the customers to acquire feedback, and check drinks to
ensure quality. It also uses EcoSure to perform checks of the required qualifications
every six months for all the stores to ensure that the quality standards are
maintained. Moreover, Starbucks considers empowering employees as a quality
system by mobilizing them to become brand evangelists and providing them with
sufficient employee benefits. Because of the contributions that these effective quality
systems make, Starbucks has been achieving several prestigious awards and
recognition such as No. 1 Best Coffee, Fast Food and Quick Refreshment categories
on Zagats Survey of National Chain Restaurants and Best Global Brands by
Interbrand. The company was also included in one of the The 100 Best Companies to
Work For and Most Admired Companies in America by Fortune. As of May 2013, the

company is as well on the 18th spot on Forbes Worlds Most Innovative Companies
while fifth on Worlds Most Admired Companies, which beat all of its other competitors
in the same industry.
With just a first time coffee experience at Starbucks, one could already see that
the company is really successful beyond the corners of its stores. Compared to its
other competitors, the company is not just simply providing ordinary service to
customers but is strongly committed to achieve its mission that is to inspire and
nurture the human spirit. Innovation and quality would always be in the companys
vocabulary. It has always been consistent in developing quality strategies to provide
genuine service, comfortable and inviting atmosphere, and a superb cup of expertly
roasted and richly brewed coffee to the customers which is why it is always the
leading coffee shop in the world and has the most effective quality strategies over the
others of the same industry.
In the case study, there are 5 questions that are the fundamental strategic
questions under Howard Schultzs guidance, which are as follows:
1. What could Starbucks do to make its stores an even more elegant "third
place" that welcomed, rewarded, and surprised customers?
2. What new products and new experiences could the company provide that
would uniquely belong to or be associated with Starbucks?
3. What could coffee bebesides being hot or liquid?
4. How could Starbucks reach people who were not coffee drinkers?
5. What strategic paths should Starbucks pursue to achieve its objective of
becoming the most recognized and respected brand of coffee in the
world?
We have several ideas and suggestions to answer those strategic questions:
1. Starbucks can make their stores cozy and homier, with earthy tones in
their stores with the use of wooden chairs and tables and earthy colors on
their couches and sofas such as maroon, green and browns. The baristas
can stay behind the counters and welcoming the customers every time
new customers come so that the store dont get too crowded. The barista
should be friendly to the customer. Putting on some jazzy and easy
listening music can also make a huge part in making the stores
atmosphere more calming and homier. They could also give the stores
earthy and coffee fragrance all over the store to give the sensation of
more natural environment. This is so that the atmosphere of the store can
make the customer relax, because it was one of many reason people go to
coffee shops.
2. New tumblers, mugs and provide live music once a week or every
weekend to give new experience to customers. They could also make
events to make the atmosphere livelier and the same time promote
Starbucks itself, such as watch the soccer game together through the TV,
giveaways.
3. Innovate the coffee to be Jelly form. They could make coffee as a room
fragrance, candy, coffee ice cream, chocolates, and make alcoholic
version of coffee.

4. Make flavored ice tea, smoothies, chocolate drinks; crme Frappuccino

that is coffee-less blended crme so they could also reach the non-coffee
drinkers.
5. The best strategy for them to have is to have main focus and vision.
Starbucks is already popular nowadays because coffee is a demand that
people need to help them get through their days from their work and
school. It is a way for them to get energized.