— Look at the statements below and the views about improvement processes on the opposite p

— Which company (A, B, C or D) does each sentence 1 - 7 refer to？

— For each sentence 1 - 7, mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.

— You will need to use some of the letters more than once.

A

"We're ahead of our competitors in that every year we invite customers to headquarters to discuss their expectations for the next five years. In addition to customers, the meeting includes approximately 100 employees and suppliers. We parade our five-year plan, including such things as service, quality and on-time delivery, and involve everyone in a feedback process. The outcome becomes part of our long-range strategic plan, which is communicated to every employee in the organisation - a process we call management by planning."

B

"The approach we find we need to take to increasing customer satisfaction is systemic. There isn't an easy way to do it. Everything is interconnected and builds. In order to delight customers, you need smooth manufacturing processes, which means you need an accurate warehouse, which in turn relies on a good manufacturing requirements system and good suppliers. You can't accomplish one in isolation."

C

"As part of our improvement process, employees participate actively in raising customer satisfaction. They establish the areas in which they will be measured that translate into quality performance: things like, 'How quickly do you respond to a call？' or 'How effective are your dealings with the customer？' Feedback is provided regularly to employees. They analyse the data to determine when additional instruction and support are needed, or when processes need to be re-worked or improved, or when our goals need to be changed. They are also encouraged to keep an eye on the competition and how they are doing. These data are used for planning purposes."

D

"Our senior managers are constantly pulling the competition's products apart to see what they're doing. They've also done some benchmarking against our better competitors. There are a few good ones that make us run faster and harder. But, to be honest, in terms of new service initiatives, for example, we've had to look outside our industry to find what could be called 'best of breed'. We've milked our own industry."

Staff are invited to set the standards that are used to assess their productivity