Star Disk Corporation manufactures computer disk drives that it sells under its own brand name to computer manufacturers and to large retail outlets. Several years ago the company's sales volume and market share began to deteriorate. Top management investigated to determine the causes of the decline. Based on a survey of customers, poor product quality was determined to be a major cause of the declining sales. Immediately top management issued a statement to all company personnel that the company's most important mission is the manufacture of the world's highest quality disk drives. A quality campaign was initiated, the supervisor of the most productive manufacturing department was placed in charge of the quality improvement program and given a pay raise, and banners were posted throughout the company proclaiming Star disk drives to be the highest quality disk drives in the world. Inspection of the product was increased, and units that did not meet the quality standard were reworked or discarded.
Required:
Explain why the quality improvement efforts at Star Disk Corporation failed and make suggestions for turning the problem around.