Lanier is one of the leading providers and distributors of the office equipment offering a wide range of products for individual users, small workgroups, larger offices, etc.
Lanier’s Specific Programs aimed at ensuring providing the customer-driven services:
- Performance Promise
- Customer Vision
The company sells specialized document and printing solutions aimed at overcoming business and workflow challenges.
Performance Promise
- If the product sold by a company does not perform to the customer’s satisfaction, it can be replaced. The replacement requires no charge. The product is replaced either with the same model or a model with comparable characteristics.
- Five Year Guarantee for the services, parts, and supplies
- Ninety days money back guarantee
- Free loan systems for in case of unexpected circumstances
- Ninety Four percent guaranteed uptime
Customer Vision
- building strong relationships with the customers
- creating a customer-friendly environment for doing business
- improving the products according to the customer needs
- working on constant innovations to the products and services
Importance of Development of Specific Programs
(Performance Promise and Customer Vision)
- The implementation of the programs helped the company to change its vision and the corporate culture
- The programs enabled the company to provide increasing of the service quality and quality of the goods and engaging in the trustful and stable relationships with the customers
- The programs helped the company to discover new niches in the market and become the leader in setting new standards in the industry
- Execution of the CI strategy was crucial to enhancing the overall performance of the company due to the significant impact of CI on the effectiveness of all operations within the organization
- CI is necessary for maintaining the continuous flow of the high-quality processes within the company
- continuous improvement promoted by effective CI strategy implemented in the programs is essential for introduction and development of the innovative solutions aimed at improving the quality of performance of all departments within the organization, as Lanier is a complex and sophisticated mechanism with the codependent functioning units
- Effective CI strategy implemented in the discussed programs ensure that different parts and departments of the organization develop and evolve simultaneously and reflect the company’s aim towards Total Quality Management
CI Tools and Techniques Used for reinforcing the importance of quality services to customers and employees
- Total Quality Management (aimed at establishing the appropriate corporate culture, which will contribute to the development of the continuous improvement)
- Implementation of Kaizen principles (feedback, efficiency, and evolution)
- Lean manufacturing (aimed at reducing the waste and promoting corporate social responsibility resulting in better relation with the customers)
Total Quality Management
- aimed at the improvement of the quality of the products and services
- encouraged the implementation and development of various programs
- contributed to changing the mission of the company and discovering a possible way of the service and product development.
- assisted in emphasizing the importance of the quality of the services to its clients and employees
Implementation of Kaizen principles
- gradual improvement instead of radical changes
- realization of small improvements made over a long period resulting in significant positive changes in the company services
- constant evaluation of process performance as a ground for innovations
- effective assessment of the scope of existing problems and the effects of employed improvements
- effective assessment of opinions of all people involved in the process of providing the services
- focus on maintaining strong personal discipline
Lean Manufacturing
- identifying waste, finding the cause and eliminating it
- reducing the batch size, which enables to monitor the quality a reduce the likelihood of quality being poor in future batches
- building flexibility into the production
- accepting no defects and encouraging people to do things right from the first time
- reducing overproduction
Is Lanier Successful?
The effective CI management has contributed to the development of the company’s sufficient corporate image and ability to remain the market leader with the assistance of the continuous improvement techniques, tools, and strategies.
Proofs of the Company’s Success
- The company remains the leader in sales in the office equipment segment
- The applied programs cover all the areas of company’s activity requiring improvement in term of the service and product quality
- The company has managed to change the fundamental principles of its corporate structure and emphasize the quality as a primary value of the organization
Two main factors have contributed to the company’s success
- continuous development effectively managed in all departments and areas simultaneously to provide functioning of the organization as a complex mechanism
- consistent collection of measurements to develop the understanding whether the quality of the processes and services is evolving in the positive direction
Continuous improvement is an essential element for the enhancement of the quality of products and services. Effective CI strategy employed by Lanier through its programs has ensured the company’s compatibility and success.