Fedex Quality

FedEx Equals Quality

FedEx was incorporated in June 1971 and officially began operations on April 17, 1973. Conceived by Chairmen and Chief Executive Officer Fredrick W. Smith, a man that would soon expand the small 14 aircraft fleet he started with into a $29 billion network of companies with 652 aircraft, 69,000 vans and trucks, and over 250,000 employees. FedEx did not become the largest shipping company by chance, they did it by focusing on their customers needs and making quality in their services a top priority.

FedEx uses many different systems to maintain, monitor, or improve quality. The main quality control system is called (TQM) Total Quality management. This TQM system incorporates programs such as a formal Quality Improvement Process (QIP). The philosophy of the QIP program is that quality must be a way that FedEx does business not part of the time, but all of the time. As a result sayings such as “Do it right the first time”, “Make the first time you do it the only time anyone has to”, and “Q=P” (quality = productivity) are important parts of the FedEx culture. To maintain these mottos the company teaches all of its employees the 1-10-100 rule. According to the rule, if a problem is caught and fixed as soon as it occurs, it costs a certain amount of time and money to correct. If a mistake is caught later in a different location, it may cost 10 times that much to repair. And if a mistake is caught by a customer such as receiving a wrong package that perhaps got mixed up during the shipping process it may cost up to 100 times as much to fix. FedEx also utilizes quality action teams (QAT) and (IT) information technologies to continuously improve FedEx’s quality. QATs design work processes to support new product and service offerings. A set of service quality indicators (SQI) has been established to determine the main areas of customers’ perception of service. All of this data is processed through SQI teams and information technologies such as FedEx services. FedEx services employs more then 6,100 high tech professionals to support, operate, and continuously improve its information systems.

FedEx’s quality system closely follows most of W. Edwards Deming’s theories. FedEx is constantly trying to improve the system. They thoroughly train their employees and put everybody to work doing the same overall job, meeting the customers’ needs.

FedEx is the leader in the shipping industry.