Quality Management W5A2

Quality Management – Dell Corporation 1

Quality Management – Dell Corporation 6

Quality Management – Dell Corporation

Thea Younge

Quality Management | BUS4101 S01

Faculty: James Ziegler

Quality Management of Dell Corporation

Dell Inc. (Dell) is a company based in United State (US) and involved in, designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing and supporting systems of information technology. The products offered by the company include printers, desktops, laptops, storage devices, etc. Apple Inc. is a company that designs, manufactures and markets mobile communication devices and personal computers, media devices, and portable music digital players. The company offers a wide range of media devices and mobile communication plus numerous related software, peripherals, networking solutions and third-party digital content solutions.It was named after its great founder, Michael Dell. The company is best known for the innovations it made on the management of supply chain and electronic commerce, mostly the model for direct sales and configure to order approach which they used in management to deliver customer’s specifications of configured PCs (Michael Dell 2009).

Dell considers quality of its products since that is used to gain access to their position in the external market. Dell maintains the quality of its products by making sure it keeps up with the increasing technological advancements and also producing laptops according to the customer’s specifications therefore gaining a strong position in the market. Quality of laptops will provide a basic background for competition with other companies that produce similar products like Apple.

SWOT analysis of Dell Computer Corporation

Majorly, the strength of Dell comes because of the Direct Model which is considered as one the greatest assets of the company. The Direct Model gives consumers a chance to customize their laptops since the market is becoming more educated and every individual needs a laptop that will meet their needs especially in terms of performance and portability. Direct Model gives a fast delivery of services to the customers as it allows customers to place their order and receive customised computers within a short period of time therefore making it possible for a customer to directly buy an item from the factory.

One of the greatest weaknesses of Dell comes from the fact that it tries to attract college students which only makes a segment of the market. The sales revenue from educational institutions accounts for a low profit to the organisation (Bennett 2003). Another weakness comes from the aspect that the buyers cannot physically see or touch the products they are intending to buy and therefore makes many computer buyers to be wary of the products they are unable to examine personally before doing a purchase and sometimes, an eager buyer can be forced tom wait for quite a number of days before the computers they ordered be delivered to them.

One of the great opportunities that Dell has to maximise its dependence on for its growth is the fact that personal computers are being purchased and used more often than the desktop computers. Dell should therefore focus on higher production of laptops to expand their market and increase their revenue. Another great opportunity comes from the fact that most consumers have become more educated and therefore know what they want in a personal computer, the. The improved communication and technological advancement has also created a great opportunity for Dell to grow in the competitive market. The increased technology allows customers to go to the internet to place an order for a computer, personalize their computers, or merely get relevant information concerning Dell products. The online display of products and information makes it easier for customers to get services without direct contact with the company officials (Michael Dell 2009).

One of the greatest external threats to Dell is the squeezing price difference among brands. Customers, instead of waiting for Dell’s customised computers, can opt to choose other brands which can therefore threaten its price conscious base for customers. Computers change constantly in the current world in terms of their software, hardware and accessories which get introduced at the speed of lightning (Coventry 2006). This is now forcing Dell to be on the lookout and produce computers that are of high quality but with low price in order to compete in the market. Technological advancement is however a double edge sword since it dictates the fastest and up to date products as the most popular in the market and Dell has to keep up with this advancement in order to compete well and avoid decline in performance.

Most customers of Dell Computers Corporation comes are students from different institutions who needs the laptops for their studies, business organizations and home use personal computers. These customers arise both internally and a large number externally (Coventry 2006).

On the basis of customer’s needs, Dell has opted to minimise the delay that usually occurred between purchase and delivery of its products and strategized on manufacturing their goods close to the customers which allows them to implement their just in time mission (JIT) to reduce the inventory cost involved. The company has business support centres which are entitled to the provision of the business hours telephone support for customers with Collect and Return services. Moreover, the company has also developed a telephone based troubleshooting program and a mission critical option meant for those customers who have a high level of support for their hardware assets thereby expanding their connection with the customers to be able to get the opinions of the customers on the quality of the computers they produce. The company also provides protection services, support for multivendor hardware and even advisory services for customers who are diagnosing and troubleshooting their assets and also provide a customer access to crisis centre through Dell ProSupport approach which enable them to handle problems caused by natural disasters. Dell, through its customer service objectives, gives customers the opportunity to adapt services that fit to the taste of their requirements (Michael Dell 2009).

Dell should liaise with other technological organizations in order to keep their up-to-date and quality products since technology is fast improving and they have to keep pace in order defending their market.

References

Bennett, R. (2003). International Marketing Strategy, Planning, Market Entry &Implementation. London: Kogan Page Limited.

Coventry, J. (2006). Apple III Chaos: What Happened When Apple Tried to Enter the Business Market. Low-End Mac.

Michael Dell (2009). Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry, Harper Business.