Week 3

Cases

Questions are student perspectives. Answers are to be judged on level of effort and application of
material from text.

Quality at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

In what ways could the Ritz-Carlton monitor its success in achieving quality?

The Ritz-Carlton can monitor quality in the short run by utilizing customer feedback. It can use
questionnaires in the room, follow-up letters and phone calls by independent services, tracking
complaints, and ultimately occupancy rates. There are, of course, objective measures in many
aspects of hotel operations. These include room cleanliness, quality of food, accuracy of billing,
and reservations.

Many companies say that their goal is to provide quality products and services. What actions might you
expect from a company that intends quality to be more than a slogan or buzzword?

For companies that expect quality to be more than a slogan, we suggest that they follow the ideas
of the text.
 A philosophy of continuous improvement
 Employee empowerment
 Benchmarking
 Just in time (JIT)
 Knowledge of tools

Why might it cost the Ritz-Carlton less to do things right the first time?

The lack of quality will manifest itself in room rate reductions, extra supervision, complaints, and,
ultimately, lower occupancy.

How could control charts, Pareto diagrams, and cause-and-effect diagrams be used to identify quality
problems at a hotel?

This is a great question for class discussion. Control charts can be used for tracking customer
complaints, Pareto diagrams to find where to focus improvements efforts, cause-and-effect
diagrams to analyze the source if causes, in the kitchen, reservations, billing, and so on.

What are some nonfinancial measures of quality?

Some nonfinancial measures of quality might include those noted above: room service, food
quality, customer complaints, and so on.

Green Manufacturing and Sustainability at Frito-Lay

Using resources, regulation, and reputation as a basis, what are the sources of pressure on firms such as
Frito-Lay to reduce a company’s environmental footprint?
 Although cost is typically the number one long-term motivator to reduce resources, Frito-Lay’s
investment in solar power is not yet a cost saver. Being on the cutting edge of being green may
help with advertising and public relations, but a positive impact on the bottom line may not
occur for some time. Second, pressures are generated by various power groups in society,
including customers, environmental groups, and socially conscious investors, as well as
municipalities and counties in which the firms operate (many landfills as well as fresh water and
waste water systems are run by municipalities or counties), and state and federal government
regulations.

Identify the specific techniques that Frito-Lay is using to become a green manufacturer.

Techniques the firm is using to become a green manufacturer include using solar power to
generate electricity, recycling water, selling by-products such as starch as animal feed, setting
specific goals, using biodegradable packaging, motivating both managers and employees to get
the job done with scorecards and action plans, and, perhaps most importantly, leveraging top
management leadership.

Select another company, and compare its green policies to those of Frito-Lay.

The Walmart case in this chapter provides an excellent parallel with actions by a manufacturer
(Frito-Lay) and a retailer (Walmart).