Executive Summary

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Executive Summary 
The aim of the assignment was to guide Cookwell Kitchen Appliances with a company-wide 
quality improvement strategy. The first task of the assignment was to identifying the problems 
facing the company. The second task embarked on the analysis of these problems to relate the 
problems to each other resulting in a cause and effect model. Finally, the assignment made a 
recommendation with regards to a holistic quality improvement strategy. 
The student undertook the assignment because it was a requirement of the module. Importantly, it 
allowed the student to know how to analyse and resolve quality problems. The company, Cookwell 
Kitchen Appliances, by virtue of the virtue of the analysis of the problems it faced, could fully 
understand what the actual problem (s) was, what caused such problem (s) and what effects 
resulted from it. Critically, the company-wide quality management strategy recommended by the 
student would help Cookwell to overcome the current quality problems as well as achieve long 
term quality improvements. 
The student collected information from a range of secondary sources such as articles, books, 
newspapers and internet sources. Also, information from different departments of the company 
was collected. 
The student recommended to the company to change its culture in order to truly plan and 
implement a quality-driven environment. It was also advised that the company should consider its 
current leadership that has failed in all aspects of management.

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1.1
 
Introduction 
Quality has been defined in many different ways. There is often a lack of consensus as to what 
quality actually is. One thing is agreed upon by all quality experts, nevertheless, is that achieving 
quality is absolutely essential. Crosby (1979) states, ‘quality means goodness’. Juran (1985), on 
the other hand, insists on being consistent with customer’s use for the product as he defines quality 
as ensuring ‘fitness for use’. This was reiterated further in Juran and De Feo (2010, p.5). One 
definition that combines the essential concepts of quality is offered by Smith (1993, p.237), 
“Quality is the goodness or excellence of some thing. It is assessed against accepted standards of 
merit for such things and against the interests/needs of users and other stakeholders”. 
Cookwell Kitchen Appliances is a company that designs and manufactures a range of electronic 
products including refrigerators, microwave ovens, food processors and coffee making machines. 
It obtains supplies needed to produce the products from external vendors. The company has run 
into difficulties as its sales have declined and the staff turnover has been high recently. The student 
has been employed as its new quality manager. One major responsibility of the quality manager is 
to identify and analyse the problems that are resulting in the aforementioned effects. The other 
responsibility is to propose a holistic quality improvement strategy to steer the company out of this 
critical state both efficiently and effectively.
The report includes three major parts: introduction, main body, and conclusion and 
recommendations. Section 1.2 discusses problem identification and analyses the problems 
identified. The strategy to resolve the main problem is explained in Section 1.3. A conclusion and 
a set of recommendations are offered in Section 1.4 of the report.
Crosby, P. B. (1979) 
Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality.
New York: McGraw-Hill. 
Smith, G. F. (1993) ‘The meaning of quality’, 
Total Quality Management
, 4(3), pp. 235-244. 
Juran, J.M. (1985) 
Quality Control Handbook
. 3
rd
Edition. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill. 

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Juran, J.M. and De Feo, J. A. (2010) 
Juran’s Quality Handbook: The Complete Guide to 
Performance Excellence
. 6
th
Edition. New York: Mc-Graw-Hill.