Case

TESLA Case Study Name: Institutional affiliation: Course: Date: Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc161051952 \h 1Total Quality Management PAGEREF _Toc161051953 \h 2TQL Principles Utilized by Tesla PAGEREF _Toc161051954 \h 2TQL principles that Tesla failed to leverage PAGEREF _Toc161051955 \h 2The Cost of Quality Report (COQR) system and Barriers PAGEREF _Toc161051956 \h 3Tesla’s Balanced Scorecard (BSC) PAGEREF _Toc161051957 \h 3Customer PAGEREF _Toc161051958 \h 4Financial PAGEREF _Toc161051959 \h 5Internal businesses and processes PAGEREF _Toc161051960 \h 5Learning and Growth PAGEREF _Toc161051961 \h 5Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc161051962 \h 6 Introduction With increased number of brands in the market, customers are now opting for products that are of quality and durable. This growing need for quality products has seen companies seek ways to enhance quality management, with majority perceiving quality as the most critical aspect necessary to hit set sales target. Today, Total Quality Management (TQM) is the prefred management for a customer focused organization involving all employees in the necessary continual quality improvement. TQL uses data, strategy and effective communication to enhance quality within an organization (Mizuno, 2020). Through TQM management places emphasis on customer satisfaction, and failure to which long term goals fail might never be realized. Overall effects of incorporating TQM principles into an organization are felt through increased productivity, improved quality, and low manufacturing costs, which automatically translates to business growth and increased profitability. TQM upholds key principles such as employee improvement, customer focus, fact-based decision making, strategic planning, continuous improvement, and communication (Aslam et al., 2020). This report analyzes Tesla’s performance with the solutions to its current issues provided through the analysis in this report. Specifically, the TQM and Balanced Scorecard (BSA) approach will be used to identify key areas of improvement and develop strategic recommendations to address Tesla's current challenges and enhance its overall performance. Total Quality Management TQL Principles Utilized by Tesla TQM refers to the management approach that aims to help an organization achieve its long-term goals through continuously meeting its customer needs. The management process entails reorganization and improvement of products, processes, and services in ways that meet the ever-changing customer expectations. TESLA has utilized key principles of TQL namely employee involvement, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction. According to Agnihotri & Bhattacharya (2022) Tesla has over 127,000 full time employees and despite this huge number the company still has a robust plan in place that promotes employee satisfaction, employee wellbeing, and productivity. It attains employee satisfaction and productivity through employee recognition and autonomy as well as competitive compensations. With continuous improvement, Tesla has always been ahead with new ways of improving production coming up almost yearly. All through 2010 to date, Tesla’s focus has been focused on being proactive, measuring and increasing safety, reducing injuries at its factories, and creating the safest cars for both customers and employees. Other successful TQM principles adopted by Tesla include communication with aspects of communication given the seriousness it deserves. More so, the improvement across its operations are customer focused with Model is considered one of the most successful Tesla innovations that meets customer needs. While it has recorded improvement, it has more improvement lined up including creation of training centers where employees learn lesson on manufacturing, role of ergonomic, and how to work safely even before entering the company’s production line. TQL principles that Tesla failed to leverage While Tesla recorded major success over the years, problems exist that continue to impact its competitive advantage negatively (Mizuno, 2020). First, Tesla has failed to create a strategic and systematic approach over the past few years. The company's long-term strategy was to build a wider range of cars as well as fully eliminating gasoline-driven cars. For example, Tesla had a goal of producing 5000 new model 3 electric cars weekly in 2018, by so far it has never managed to produce even half of that number. When asked about what happened, Elon Mask responded, “excessive autonomation was a great mistake” and “human beings were underrated” (Tesla, 2023) Strategic planning starts with having clear and realistic goals based on a realistic plan, something Tesla failed. Going into the future, Tesla needs a clear strategy which can help it challenge competitors today and in future. As at now, Tesla enjoys a huge market base because few electric car manufacturers exist. But with more companies embracing electric cars, the company might not stay competitive. Strategic plan and systematic approach call for partnership, realistic goals, and a possible shift from high end car units to low priced units to leverage on economies of scale (). Other areas of TQM that have gone wrong in Tesla include the lack of fact-based decision making, unclear customer focus strategy, and gaps in continuous improvements. While the company seeks to continually meet customer needs the lack of fact-based decision making has seen the company produce a high ration of flawed electric cars into the market. The high number of cars recalls and issues such as paint job inconsistencies, panel gaps, among others have raised questions on Teslas’ customer focus strategy. Ideally, while continuous improvement is a goal approaching it strategically is important because failing to consistently identify and address all areas of improvement, as is the case with Tesla, leads to recurring issues which impact other vital areas such as customer focus. The Cost of Quality Report (COQR) system and Barriers Improving qual...