In the Quality in Practice (QIP) Exercise, you will read the information below on Samsung. After thoroughly reviewing the information, you will answer the questions at the end of the QIP exercise. The QIP exercise aims to help you understand and learn the importance of quality in the global economy. It is not sufficient to state your opinions alone; you must be able to back up your responses by applying quality management concepts and topics from the text with the information that supports your findings.The minimum response length is five sentences per question. Please restate the question you are answering in your QIP exercise.

Quality in Practice: Six Sigma Integration at Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co. (SEC) of Seoul, Korea, was founded in 1969 and sold its first product, a television receiver, in 1971. Today Samsung is well-known in the home, mobile, office networks, and core components businesses. Since its inception, SEC has used a variety of quality tools and approaches, but Six Sigma was added to upgrade its approaches and improve SEC's competitive position in world markets.

Strategically, SEC wants to be a borderless, global brand that is a household word wherever its products and services are available. Its strategic objective is to create both qualitative and quantitative growth and deliver competitive value to all stakeholders?customers, partners, and shareholders?while maintaining profitability. To accomplish this objective, their emphasis is on optimizing the supply chain to make operations as efficient and timely as possible. SEC integrated Six Sigma into its entire business process as a way to perfect its fundamental approach to product, process, and personnel development (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Samsung's Integration of Six Sigma (same as 6E)

. Secure best cost competitiveness and speed management structure. . Secure customer- and market-oriented optimal processes. . Create a competitive IT infrastructure. Sales Services Customer Supplier Development Procurement Manufacturing Logistics Marketing Six Sigma