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Competition Drives Consumer Electronics Company Improvements
Bill Mitchell is the manufacturing manager at the mid-sized consumer electronics manufacturer
Vanguard Technologies. Vanguard has been in business about 20 years and has enjoyed more than their
fair share of the market for their products in the geographic region that they serve. In fact, for many
years theirs have been the only products carried by local retailers.
Twelve months ago, a large multi-national firm set up a subsidiary called Everest Innovations in the same
region to compete with Vanguard. At first, executives at Vanguard were not worried as they felt that
their products could easily compete on price with any newcomers. However, as time went on, Bill
Mitchell noticed that their revenues were trending downward, and some customers were not renewing
their long-term contracts. In addition, Bill was looking at the variety of production reports he received
and discovered that they were experiencing higher than normal rates of product defects which were
adversely affecting customer service and leading to higher manufacturing costs.
Bill was sharing his concerns with Allie Stone, one of his supply chain analysts. Unless they found a way
to resolve their quality problems, reduce customer returns and complaints, and competitively price their
products while maintaining a sufficient profit margin, he felt that the entire business could be in peril.
Allie had recently completed her degree in supply chain management from the state University and
suggested that perhaps they could use Six Sigma to collect and analyze data, identify problems, and to
develop solutions.
Discussion Questions:
1. Do you agree with Allie that Six Sigma is an appropriate method to apply to solve their
problems? If you agree, explain how Six Sigma can help Vanguard and their particular issues.
2. As a methodology, Six Sigma has many tools that can be used. Explain what Six Sigma tools Bill
and Allie can use, the order in which they should use them, and what each tool would enable
them to do.
Copyright © Eliot Madow 2023. All Rights Reserved. The people and company are fictional and any resemblance to any person or company is
coincidental. This case was prepared solely to provide material for class discussion. The author does not intend to illustrate either effective or
ineffective handling of a managerial situation. No portion of this case study may be copied, posted, uploaded, or published to any site or
location, in any form without express written consent from the copyright holder.
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