Gillette Argentina TQM
BAB003
7/10/00
Quality at Gillette Argentina
Jorge Micozzi, President for Latin America of The Gillette Company, looked up from the report on Argentina’s Total Quality Management (TQM) program that was going to be delivered to the corporation’s quality council in early 1999. “As you can see from these business measures,” he told the casewriter, “our TQM program has been very successful. This has been my most important program and Victor Walker, program manager, was the key to its implementation.” Micozzi described the early days of the TQM program when, as general manager of the
Argentine subsidiary of Gillette, he assigned Victor Walker as total quality manager, “When this program was launched, Victor helped us see how to implement it. This program has changed the company’s culture. We now believe that we have experienced a 40% benefit in our business as a result of TQM.” He pointed around him at the small, elegant building in a suburb of Buenos
Aires that housed the professional and administrative staff of the Argentine affiliate: “This building was designed and built in 10 months by nine quality action teams tackling everything from furnishings to moving. The move occurred over a weekend. It’s tangible proof of our program.” Micozzi had recently been promoted from his position as general manager of the
Argentine affiliate to group President. His intention now that he had responsibility for all of
Latin America, was to assure that every affiliate adopted the model that Argentina had developed: “I’m going to tell them, ‘Go, see and implement in your own subsidiaries’.”
Background
Every working day at a Gillette plant in … South Boston, 200 men lather up their faces and scrape away the fifteen thousandths of an inch their 10,000 whiskers have grown over the previous 24 hours. Peering into side-by-side mirrors, these volunteers are evaluating razors of the future for sharpness of blade, smoothness of
Anne Donnellon and Susan Engelkemeyer, Associate Professors,
7/10/00
Quality at Gillette Argentina
Jorge Micozzi, President for Latin America of The Gillette Company, looked up from the report on Argentina’s Total Quality Management (TQM) program that was going to be delivered to the corporation’s quality council in early 1999. “As you can see from these business measures,” he told the casewriter, “our TQM program has been very successful. This has been my most important program and Victor Walker, program manager, was the key to its implementation.” Micozzi described the early days of the TQM program when, as general manager of the
Argentine subsidiary of Gillette, he assigned Victor Walker as total quality manager, “When this program was launched, Victor helped us see how to implement it. This program has changed the company’s culture. We now believe that we have experienced a 40% benefit in our business as a result of TQM.” He pointed around him at the small, elegant building in a suburb of Buenos
Aires that housed the professional and administrative staff of the Argentine affiliate: “This building was designed and built in 10 months by nine quality action teams tackling everything from furnishings to moving. The move occurred over a weekend. It’s tangible proof of our program.” Micozzi had recently been promoted from his position as general manager of the
Argentine affiliate to group President. His intention now that he had responsibility for all of
Latin America, was to assure that every affiliate adopted the model that Argentina had developed: “I’m going to tell them, ‘Go, see and implement in your own subsidiaries’.”
Background
Every working day at a Gillette plant in … South Boston, 200 men lather up their faces and scrape away the fifteen thousandths of an inch their 10,000 whiskers have grown over the previous 24 hours. Peering into side-by-side mirrors, these volunteers are evaluating razors of the future for sharpness of blade, smoothness of
Anne Donnellon and Susan Engelkemeyer, Associate Professors,