Fedex: Managing Quality Day and Night

FedEx: Managing Quality Day and Night

1. What is FedEx's "common language" of quality? Is it important for a company to establish a "common language" of quality? If so, why?

FedEx's common language of quality is stated in their goals: 100% customer satisfaction, 100% on-time deliveries, and 100% accurate information available on every shipment to every location around the world. Through this "common language", the employees are well aware of the company's primary quality goals as they function in their day to day operations.

I believe that it is important for a company to establish a "common language" of quality so that there is not a difference in perspectives on the company's quality goals. If the common language of quality is not spelled out, it is easy for management and the employees to create their own interpretation of quality, which may not be the same goals that the company has its focus on.

2. There are several different perspectives of quality, including the operations perspective, the strategic perspective, the marketing perspective, the financial perspective, the HR perspective, and the systems perspective. Which of these perspectives are being emphasized by FedEx? Why?

While I feel FedEx utilizes a mix of the quality perspectives, the one that stands out to me primarily is the HR perspective. FedEx's People-Service-Profit philosophy empowers the employees with the tools they need to obtain the company's primary quality goals. Recognizing that their people are the key element to their success, FedEx has implemented many programs to build the workforce to a level where quality is important to everyone, no matter what their level in the company is. A prime example would be the training that FedEx utilizes while teaching the 1-10-100 rule, which empowers employees to recognize problems early in the process, and not after they have evolved into a larger, more expensive issue.

3. Is FedEx's level of emphasis on quality appropriate? Why or why not?

FedEx's level of emphasis on quality is absolutely appropriate. Striving to be the fastest and most reliable delievery service is not a goal that can be achieved if the primary focus is not on the quality of the product and the employees. While FedEx's emphasis on quality may seem over the top

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