Getting customers’ views onto the plant floor Available to Purchase

Struggling to keep plant managers and plant personnel motivated about customers, manufacturers have spent a lot of money and tried various methods to make plant personnel sensitive to the needs of customers. The methods to do this, development of internal customers, continuous improvement circles, visits to customer sites and others, are expensive and have not been very effective. For small firms it is especially difficult. However, retaining customers is considered critically important by academics and management consultants. This article offers a method to directly link customer satisfaction with targeted manufacturing processes and management decisions that occur within the plant. By identifying the component attributes of a major plant process that can have an affect on customers, firms can find out more specifically how a specific plant process is helping or hurting the manufacturer’s ability to retain important customers. This knowledge can ultimately affect make/buy decisions, investment in new equipment, strategic plans, managerial decisions, and operational procedures.