Advantage: Chrysler Labour and Management Agree on Quality

Abstract

This article argues the role of quality on the Canadian auto industry in the midst of plant closures, lay-offs and recent North American content disputes. Human resource management plays a crucial role in regard to quality of products and customer satisfaction. Maintaining good quality historically had direct links with human resource management, rewarding employees for their good work, a good quality training for employees, and employee satisfaction. Quality reduction has attributed to many plant closures and employee lay-offs in the North American content disputes. Since then, high quality human resource training and employee hiring has been adapted by the Windsor auto plant which resulted in winning the Canada Award for Business Excellence (CABE) in quality category. Their motto was that the secret to success is a workforce committed to quality. Although, the study focuses on best quality in the Canadian context, it fails to draw on the experiences from the Japanese auto industry who is doing an extra-ordinary job at providing great quality products to the international markets. It becomes obvious that quality control can create better customer satisfaction which in turn increases job security for individuals working within a particular plant. It is further argued that teams form the base of an organization, and ultimately, teamwork can create a positive organizational environment where productivity and quality can easily be fostered.