Principles of Operations Management Essay Example

when they bring it back. This prevents ALDI’s from buying new carts every now and then, keeping overheads low.

2. Does ALDI’s low-cost strategy imply that the company offers low quality? Why is quality important regardless of competitive advantage? Although the products are sold at very low prices, the quality is never neglected. ALDI’s buys bulk and always make sure the quality of the products is still very good. ALDI’s quality guarantee and no questions money back guarantee are always present.

The fact that ALDI’s always makes use of small cheap store space, multi-skilled people, making sure people return the carts help to give the customer products at low prices without cutting down on quality.

Excellent quality is one of the most powerful ways to create a competitive advantage. Quality is associated with consistency. A customer who is happy with the first buying experience needs and wants to be equally happy on each further occasion.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach that seeks to improve quality and performance which will meet or exceed customer expectations. This can be achieved by integrating all quality-related functions and processes throughout the company. TQM looks at the overall quality measures used by a company including managing quality design and development, quality control and maintenance, quality improvement, and quality assurance. TQM takes into account all quality measures taken at all levels and involving all company employees.

TQM focuses strongly on the importance of the relationship between customers (internal and external) and supplier. These are known as the "quality chains" and they can be broken at any point by one person or one piece of

equipment not meeting the requirements of the customer. Failure to meet the requirements in any part of a quality chain has a way of multiplying, and failure in one part of the system creates problems elsewhere, leading to yet more failure and problems, and so the situation is exacerbated.