The document summarizes the evolution of quality at Xerox Corporation from 1906 to the present. It describes how Xerox initially dominated the copier market but lost significant market share to Japanese competitors in the 1970s due to quality issues. In 1983, new CEO David Kearns launched the "Leadership Through Quality" program to improve quality, cut costs, and reduce defects. This included benchmarking other top companies, setting clear quality policies, and linking employee compensation to quality metrics. The changes led to major improvements in rejection rates, costs, and customer satisfaction, helping Xerox regain market share. Xerox later strengthened its quality efforts further through Lean Six Sigma and continued benchmarking.

1. EVOLUTION OF
QUALITY IN XEROX
Presented by,
Group 1
Jappreet S. Bhatia
Lokesh Yadav
Deepak Jain

2. • Xerox Corporation – 1906 and 1959 - Xerox 914
• Manufactures color and black-and-white printers,
multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production
printing presses
• New players- IBM Kodak, Canon, and Sevin
• David T. Kearns took over as the CEO
• “Leadership Through Quality” in 1983 and Lean Six
Sigma in 2003
• Goal was to achieve superiority in quality, product
reliability and cost
XEROX

3. XEROX HISTORY
1959 1972 1979 1980 1983 1989 1990s
Continuous
Improvement

4. AWARDS
• The Deming Award (Japan) In 1980
• The Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award In 1989
• The European Quality Award In 1992

5. ISSUES IN CASE
• During the 1970s, however, IBM and Kodak entered the
high-volume copier business—Xerox’s principal market.
Several Japanese companies introduced high-quality low-
volume copiers, a market that Xerox had virtually
ignored, and established a foundation for moving into the
high- volume market
• Xerox was soon losing market share to Japanese
competitors, and by the early 1980s it faced a serious
competitive threat from copy machine manufacturers in
Japan; Xerox’s market share had fallen to less than 50
percent

6. CONTD …
• In comparing itself with its competition, Xerox
discovered that it had nine times as many suppliers, twice
as many employees, cycle times
• That were twice as long, 10 times as many rejects, and
seven times as many manufacturing defects in finished
products. It was clear that radical changes were required

7. LEADERSHIP THROUGH QUALITY
PROGRAM AT XEROX
In 1983, company president David T. Kearns became convinced
that Xerox needed a long-range, comprehensive quality strategy
as well as a change in its traditional management culture .
The strategy for cultural change in Xerox that enables and
empowers people with quality tools and processes to,
1. Meet customer requirements
2. Achieve business priorities
3. Continuously improve

8. THE PLAN - LEADERSHIP THROUGH QUALITY
• 1983-the year of start-up activities
• 1984- the year of awareness and understanding
• 1985- the year of transition and transformation
• 1986 the year when results would achieved
• 1987 the year of approaching maturity

9. XEROX QUALITY POLICY STATEMENT
Kearns and the company’s top 25 managers wrote the Xerox
Quality Policy, which states:
“Xerox is a quality company.
Quality is the basic business principle for Xerox.
Quality means providing our external and internal customers
with innovative products and services that fully satisfy their
requirements.
Quality is the job of every Xerox employee”

10. OBJECTIVES ACHIEVED
• To instill quality as the basic business principle in Xerox,
and to ensure that quality improvement becomes the job
of every Xerox person.
• To ensure that Xerox people, individually and
collectively, provide our external and internal customers
with innovative products and services that fully satisfies
their existing and latent requirements.
• To establish, as a way of life, management and work
processes that enable all Xerox people to continuously
pursue quality improvement in meeting customer
requirements

11. 4 GOALS PREVAILED IN XEROX
• Customer goal
- to become an organization with whom customers are
eager to do business
• Employee goal
- to create an environment where everyone can take pride
and feel responsible
• Business goal
- to increase profits and to grow faster
• Process goal
- to use leadership through quality in Xerox

12. 1983 XEROX IMPERATIVE

13. BENCHMARKING
• Benchmarked more than 200 processes with those of non
competitive companies
• Ideas for improving production scheduling – Cummins
engine company
• Improving distribution system – L.L.Bean (Logistics co.)
• Improving billing processes – American Express
• More than 40,000 surveys were mailed in one month to
understand the customer satisfaction level, and resolved
the dissatisfaction within no time

14. XEROX ‘S BENCHMARKING MODEL
Planning
Analysis
Integration
Action
Maturity

15. IMPORTANT SUPPORTING ELEMENTS
Recognition
and
Reward
Tools
and
Processes
Transition
Team
Training Communi-
cation
Senior
Management
Behavior
Xerox is a
Total Quality
Company

16. RESULTS OF LEADERSHIP THROUGH
QUALITY
o Rejection rate fell from 10,000 ppm to 300 ppm
o No inspection was required for the supplied parts
o Number of suppliers were cut down drastically
o Cost of purchase was reduced to 45 percent
o Production time reduced by 60 percent
o Quality improved by 93 percent
o Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction resulted in
increased market share and more profits

17. Xerox’s Outcome
Initially:
• Failed to focus adequately on core work processes
and statistics.
• Plan was not integrated with business processes.
• Not tuned to the company culture and the need to
change it.
• Did not pick the right quality czar at the start.
• Did not push the operating units hard enough.

18. WHAT XEROX DID RIGHT
1. It made an appropriate diagnosis of how to cure the ills of the
company.
2. Quality was the right process for the right solution at the right
time.
3. The necessary commitment was made by senior management.
4. A constituency was built starting at the top in a very calculated
and deliberate way.
5. Employee compensation was tied to quality.
6. The pursuit of the Baldridge Award was an energizing effort
within the company

19. 5. Information systems use was effectively aligned with
its business objectives and processes to achieve them
6. Executive compensation was tied to quality.
7. Innovations and successes of the TQM program were
well publicized.
8. The pursuit of the Baldridge Award was an energizing
effort within the company.
9. It achieved measured results.

20. RESTRENGTHENING QUALITY

21. INFORMATION SYSTEMS
SUPPORT
• Xerox had over 375 major information systems supporting
the total business.
• Over 175 of these systems related specifically to the
management, evaluation and planning of quality.
• The validity, accuracy and timeliness of information
systems are assured by the use of a Data Systems Quality
Assurance process during the design, construction and
major upgrade of each information system.

22. XEROX’S LEAN SIX SIGMA
Performance excellence process
• Supports clearer, simple alignment of corporate
direction to individual objectives
• Clear links to market trends, benchmarking, lean Six
Sigma
• Supports a simple business model – “Baldrige type”
DMAIC
• Define, measure , analyze , improve , control
• Based on six sigma with speed and focus
• Capture opportunities

23. XEROX’S LEAN SIX SIGMA
Market trends and Benchmarking
• Reinforce market focus
• Disciplined approach
• Encouraging employees
• Strong linkage between Performance excellence
process and DMAIC
Behaviors and Leadership
• Reinforce customer focus
• Expands interactive skills to have more team
effectiveness
• Faster decision making
• Supports leadership skills

24. Performance excellence process

25. WHATLESSONSMIGHTTHISEXPERIENCE—PARTICULARLYIN
RESPONDINGTOTHENEWCRISIS-HAVEFOROTHER
ORGANIZATIONS?
• Decreased focus on quality by top management
• Technology downturn
• Led to quality renewal
• New Quality in 2001 and onwards
• Lean Six Sigma

26. LEARNING'S
• Customer focused employees
• Quality
• Participation, speed, teamwork based on trust and learning
• Process is objective aligned to the company’s direction
• Benchmarking, both internal and external
• DMAIC- desire, measure, analyze, improve and control
• Lean Six Sigma

27. “QUALITY IS A RACE WITHOUT A FINISH
LINE” AT XEROX
Quality is a never ending process
New technology
Skill full employees and management
Lean six sigma just a part

28. AT MOTOROLA
• Flexible Manufacturing
• 1981 launched a project to improve the quality
• Learnt it from Dominos Pizza
• 2002 won The Baldrige Award
• QSR
• Competitive Benchmarking

29. THANK YOU