CASE STUDY: “SOLUTION”

EURASIA INTERNATIONAL:
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN THE
SHIPPING INDUSTRY
SYNOPSIS:
This Case gives an account of how a ship management company was able to set itself apart from competitors and from its clients’ own in-house technical and crew-management capabilities by embracing a culture of continuous improvement and by implementing Total Quality Management systems. The shipping industry was not alone in having regulation imposed upon it, but its distinctly international nature made ship managers, as cost-cutting practitioners, particularly open to criticism. A ship management company’s very existence hinged upon its ability to convince ship-owners that it would preserve their valuable assets and maximize
Broadly speaking, the TQM philosophy is founded on several conceptual principles: * A definition of “quality” in terms of meeting the customer’s requirements. Anyone producing work output may be considered a supplier, while any party receiving work inputs constitutes a customer. The customer relationship is held in esteem and a supplier’s responsibility is to understand and meet the customer’s requirements.

* Quality is achieved by undertaking the right action the first and every time.

* The organization requires a proactive approach to ensure that quality is achieved, thus a system of prevention must be coupled with a reactive system of inspection.

* Quality must be continually measured; a measurement framework can determine whether organizational resources are being deployed optimally.

Eurasia’s President, Rajaish Bajpaee, recognized that a changing regulatory climate, the global dispersal of his industry and intensifying competition among ship managers meant a robust quality assurance system was needed to keep his organization focused on customer value. With complicating factors on so many fronts – the global distribution of labor, variety in the types of vessels under management, maritime regulations, procurement and logistics, risk and liability – encouraging cross-functional collaboration would increase the flow of information, improve problem-solving capabilities and