Challenge
The client competed in a mature, low growth and price-competitive market with the only source of differentiation being final product quality and delivery timeliness. The challenge to the client, and to all printers, was how to create consistency of delivery of a uniquely manufactured article like a print piece that is handled by up to eight different functions in a very short time frame, often in less than twenty four hours.

Tasks and Approach
First, the Client’s top 50 customers were surveyed to see what aspects of the printer’s performance were the most critical for them. Almost without exception the customers saw reliability and consistency as the most required traits. It was felt that the key to achieving reliability and consistency along the print supply chain was to create individual accountability for the output from each function in the chain. The required sense of accountability was achieved by empowering all employees to reject any product they received into their area that was below requirements, then training them how to write and take responsibility for their own Personal Service Plan – how they planned to service their customer, internal or external. The initiative was called the Total Quality Program.