FedEx: Managing Quality Day and Night. Management Essay

FedEx: Managing Quality Day and Night
FedEx is an American firm that works day and night to deliver packages to customers. With the company delivering over 7.6 million packages per a single business day, it is leading the world’s overnight delivery market. This is made possible by its complex system comprising of 280,000 employees, 684 planes, and 80,000 trucks and vans as well as its dedication to quality and fulfilling customer expectations.
Managing quality has been integral in helping the firm attain its three simple goals: 100% customer satisfaction, 100% timely deliveries, and provision of 100% accurate information about every shipment, which can be in any location across the world (Foster, 2013). The company’s full commitment to quality in all of its operations has been vital in helping it attain its goals. All of the operations of the company are underpinned by a philosophy known as Quality Improvement Process (QIP). This philosophy is integrated into the organization such that it is observed at all times, not just on specific occasions. Incorporated in the culture of the company as part of the QIP programs are three interrelated themes: “Do it right the first time,” “Make the first time you do it the only time anyone has to,” and “Q = P” (Foster, 2013).
The third theme, Q=P, translates to Quality = Productivity. This means that it is through observing quality that the firm is able to attain optimum productivity. Without quality measures, a lot of time would be spent by employees working on recurring problems. However, with the commitment to quality, the firm is able to attain optimum productivity. This is in particular aided by “Do it right the first time” theme in its culture. If employees are committed to doing things right during in the first time, problems in the future are prevented. This saves the firm a significant amount of work hours, hence maintaining a high level of productivity. Therefore, it is evident that the Q=P theme in the culture of the company is extremely important to its performance and overall profitability.
The three themes described above are reinforced by the 1–10–100 rule, which is imparted to the employees of the company. The rule has it that if a problem is identified and solved as soon as it occurs, it would cost a specific amount of resources to correct it. However, in the event that the problem i...