Read Case Study 15-2 (“Quality Management at Sony Global”) in your text (located in the “Chapter Summary” section of CH 15).
Case 15-2 Quality Management at Sony Global
Sony Corporation (Sony) was founded in May 1946. It is involved with the development, design, manufacture and sale of electronic equipment, instruments and devices for consumer, professional and industrial markets, as well as game consoles and software. The Company’s business units include Mobile Communications (MC), Game & Network Services (G&NS), Imaging Products & Solutions (IP&S), Home Entertainment & Sound (HE&S), Devices, Pictures, Music, Financial Services and All Other. The company manages manufacturing facilities throughout Asia, but also uses third-party contract manufacturers.
Sony’s mission, vision and, values are to inspire customers through groundbreaking entertainment. It highly values working ethically in its business relationships.
Sony utilizes a comprehensive system for managing quality associated with its production process. The key elements of the system are presented below.
• The Sony Pledge of Quality declares that “Sony employees will always respect our customers’ viewpoints in striving to deliver product quality and customer service that exceed their expectations.” To this end, Sony makes continuous, decisive efforts to enhance product quality and to reinforce its quality management system.
• Sony has configured its quality management system by defining quality management mechanisms across all processes, from product planning, development, design and manufacturing to sales and customer service. This has included defining the roles, responsibilities and authority of those responsible for product and customer service quality and establishing guidelines.
Based on this quality management system, Sony implements key performance indicator (KPI) measures on an ongoing basis to improve the quality of its products and services. Examples of such measures are given below.
• % Quality defects
• % Processes mapped
• % Processes optimized
• % Process efficiency ratio
• % # Frequency of production delays due to inventory shortages or supply delays
• % # Shutdown overrun for maintenance related reasons
• % Functional departments objectives aligned with the organizational strategy
• % Staff engagement with strategy
Other actions that Sony has taken to support its product quality strategy include:
• Selection of a Corporate Executive in charge of Product Quality who is tasked with coordinating efforts to improve product and customer service quality and ensure timely responses to problems;
• Appointing Quality Officers within each business unit who are tasked with promoting activities to improve product quality and spearheading initiatives to enhance the quality of products and services in specific business areas under the direction and supervision of the Corporate Executive in charge of Product Quality and the head of the relevant business unit;
• Appointing CS Officers to coordinate customer service departments in markets around the world where Sony products are sold who are tasked with spearheading a network of global-level initiatives under the supervision of the Corporate Executive in charge of Product Quality and the individual in charge of the relevant regional headquarters.
• Developing a framework for promoting business unit- and region-specific initiatives to ensure Sony’s products comply with pertinent laws and regulations;
• Meetings of top managers of the electronics business to deliberate and decide on key strategies related to product quality and customer service.
• Regular meetings of Quality Officers from business units held to evaluate the progress of quality-oriented business plans, promote initiatives aimed at achieving targets, and debate specific activities and responses to quality-related issues and common challenges;
• Rules were strengthened worldwide to ensure prompt reporting to the Corporate Executive in charge of Product Quality, when Sony receives information about an incident involving a Sony product that affects customer safety or has the potential to do so. Based on the reports received, the Corporate Executive in charge of Product Quality provides the necessary follow-up and instructs the relevant divisions to investigate the incidents and respond appropriately to the customer. Under a similar system, Sony has been addressing software security issues found in products and managing potential software security issues.
• Sony makes active use of customer feedback to improve its products and customer services. Sony customer information centers promptly and accurately evaluate customer opinions, reports of malfunctions after purchase, questions regarding use, and other feedback. In order to reinforce these efforts, Sony has established the Quality Hotline to gather product quality-related information, including reports of problems, as well as opinions from Sony Group employees.[Page 595]
• Sony has established dedicated quality management organizations in each of its business areas that are responsible for improving the quality of pertinent products in each market.
• Sony recognizes that ensuring its customers’ satisfaction, confidence and trust is one of its most important management tasks and strives to prevent quality-related problems through the systems and efforts described above.
• Sony responds swiftly in the event of a quality-related issue, with the relevant departments working together to investigate facts and take appropriate action on a global scale.
Discussion Questions
- How does Sony address quality control in its quality and operations?
- Describe how the 80-20 rule could be applied to Sony’s management of its quality and operations.
- How does Sony address total quality management and kaizen in quality and its operations?
- How could Sony use a balanced scorecard and dashboard to help it to better manage its quality and operations?
- How could Sony address issues related to sustainability in managing its quality and operations?
Cumulative Case Questions
• 6. How could Sony use teams to enhance the effectiveness in the management of quality and operations?
• 7. What kind of leadership should Sony executives use to enhance the effectiveness in the management of its quality and operations?
• 8. Which theory(ies) of motivation could be applied to enhance Sony’s ability to manage its quality and operations?
References
https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/quality/management/; https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr_report/quality/; https://www.performancemagazine.org/total-quality-management-a-means-for-improvement/; https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview/6758.T; https://www.comparably.com/companies/sony/mission; http://panmore.com/sony-corporation-operations-management-10-decisions-productivity