This is a comparative study between two international business - Honda and Harley - Davidson Motorcycle Company adapted from the text book: Bed, K. (2006). Quality Management. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

2. • Established in the year 1903
• Monopoly company – after World War II
- motorbikes market
• Competitor: Honda

3. • - market share and production
• Quality of the product became a secondary
consideration
• Turnover of inventory 4 times
• 1978 – implement the quality circles concepts

4. • Honda entering the marketing and cutting into
its market shares.
• Quality of product of Honda was better:
manufacture quality motorbikes at a much
lesser cost.
• 3 reasons for their success: - kaizen, just – in –
time, and extensive use of statistical methods
to measure quality.
• JIT – turning its inventory 20 – 30 times

5. • Quality of product was not of
customers expectation
• Employee involvement was
less

6. • Focused on quality
• Avoid sending rigid rules and regulations
• Increased employee – involvement:
employee involvement groups (EIG)

7. • Harley – Davidson is a full – fledged employee
involvement programme
• Does not quantify the cost benefits
• Financial recovery and manufacturing
improvements

8. • Proper total quality management is important
since it contributes majorly to the success of
the business.
• Employee involvement is another one of the
major contributing factors of the success of a
company whether big or small.