Showing papers in "Harvard Business Review in 1988"

The House of Quality

Abstract: ITT are getting started with it. Ford and General Motors use it–at Ford alone there are more than 50 applications. The “house of quality,” the basic design tool of the management approach known as quality function deployment (QFD), originated in 1972 at Mitsubishi’s Kobe shipyard site. Toyota and its suppliers then developed it in numerous ways. The house of quality has been used successfully by Japanese manufacturers of consumer electronics, home appliances, clothing, integrated circuits, synthetic rubber, construction equipment, and agricultural engines. Japanese designers use it for services like swimming schools and retail outlets and even for planning apartment layouts. A set of planning and communication routines, quality function deployment focuses and coordinates skills within an organization, first to design, then to manufacture and market goods that customers want to purchase and will continue to purchase. The foundation of the house of quality is the belief that products should be designed to reflect customers’ desires and tastes–so marketing people, design engineers, and manufacturing staff must work closely together from the time a product is first conceived. The house of quality is a kind of conceptual map that provides the means for interfunctional planning and communications. People with different

In praise of followers

Abstract: This article discusses how followers dominate our lives and organizations. Our thinking, the authors contend, is preoccupied with leadership which keeps us from considering the nature and the importance of the follower. Qualities of followers reviewed include: self-management, commitment to the organization, competence, focus of efforts, honesty and courage. Steps to cultivate effective followers are discussed. These include: redefining followership and leadership, honing followership skills, performance evaluation and feedback, and organizational structure that encourage followership.

Manufacturing: the new case for vertical integration

Abstract: The article argues that the solid corporation will continue to view vertical integration as a critical part of manufacturing reform. Manufacturing reform and backward integration are related in insidious ways to the three stages of production over which the big manufacturers preside. Without integration, technology-based corporations may wind up pauperizing upstream components producers in order to earn premiums for downstream assembly and distribution operations, businesses that are comparatively flush. The authors elaborate on the production process which are divided into three stages: the assembly stage, the sub-assembly stage, and the component stage; at each there is a separate tier of factories and businesses. They also discuss the implications of the Western companies' leaning toward less integration.

When can you fire for off-duty conduct?

Abstract: Although public figures run the greatest risk of career setbacks arising from their off-stage conduct, people in most occupations may jeopardize their job security if their off-duty activity impairs their acceptability at work or tarnishes their organization's image. This article describes several cases and explains the decisions of the courts and the arbitrators. One of the cases cited is the case of a Baltimore bus operator who, it developed, was also the acting grand dragon of the Maryland chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. His dual capacity became news, whereupon his fellow bus operators threatened a wildcat strike, and the possibility of a public boycott of the whole bus network arose. The Baltimore Transit Company discharged the grand dragon on the grounds that there was a clear and immediate danger of violence. An arbitrator sided with the company.