Background of the Study

Currently, the ability to propose new product especially mobile phones to the market in a

rush way while satisfying the customer expectations is getting more importance in the business

industry. There are lots of strategies in mobile phones to satisfy the customer and to gain

advantage in the market. The value of quality management lies in the ability of companies to

improve the reliability, durability and performance of their products. Best strategy in different

business will help to achieve the goal of the company.

In addition, many continuously improving and quality management and initiatives have

been adopted by other country, Some of these initiatives are QFD (Quality Function

Deployment), TWI (Training within Industry), Deming Cycle/SPC, Zero Defects, TQM (Total

Quality Management), Lean, and TOC (Theory of Constraints) appear to have been introduced

as an all-encompassing panacea to an entire organization’s problems that is, until the next

imitative was introduced (Schoen, 2007).

In today`s competitive marketing, customer has their own standard in a specific brand

particularly in mobile phones. They need to address customers' needs and comply with the

highest quality standards (Picincu, 2018). To have a good feedback in the quality of the

products, quality management of the business must be implemented. It helps to improve the

products, incorporating changes and eliminating defects.

To achieve higher performance, most of the businesses use customer satisfaction

activities to test if the quality strategy of the business that implemented is effective or not.

Customer satisfaction is the key in creating a long-term relationship with the customer

(Chambers, 2019). Having a relationship with the customer will lead to the customer`s loyalty in

a specific brand.
 In connection to the quality of mobile phones, it has a big impact to our society as a

technological-based generation. Mobile phones are efficient communication devices and make

life easier (Contributing Writer, 2019). New mobile-phone has its own features to meet the

needs of the consumer. In addition, having a quality mobile phone that uses the best strategy

will meet the customer satisfaction.

In mobile phones markets, it is very hard to implement quality management in a fast and

correct way in order to meet the quality of the product, since the demands of the customer are

not consistent. The practiced quality management which is Quality Function Deployment was

first use in 1972 by Professor Mizuno to Mitsubishi`s Kobe shipyard site in the design of super

tankers. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a critical aspect of the quality control policy of

an organization. It is a process for translating customer requirements into manufacturing

standards (Stewart, 2017). It is used and very powerful as it includes the customer needs so

the final output will meet the customer expectations.

There are companies who used the quality function deployment namely Nokia mobile

phone which conducted a studies. Nokia was the first producer to introduce replacement

parts for mobile phones to the customer. It also benefited from the quality function

deployment methodology in aiming to improve the quality of product development process of

mobile phones.

Although Quality Function Deployment practices has been applied to the product of

mobile phone, any specific study regarding the design of the phone have not been found in

the study. According to Fiorenzo Franceschini, author of “Advanced Quality Function

Deployment,” QFD doesn’t work well with the divisional or departmental organizational

structures and environments seen in many large businesses (Lohrey, 2017). This is because

an effective Quality Function Deployment requires initiative, innovation, teamwork, and

information sharing. The problem of this quality strategy is it focuses mostly in the

expectations of the customers.

There are other strategies that are not only focus in the customer satisfaction but also

the quality and revenue and cost. Six Sigma is generally dated to 1979 and credited to Bill

Smith, a senior engineer at Motorola (Wyatt, 2018). This strategy is best in quality

management of mobile phones. It developed and formalized a deterministic approach to

identify and prevent defects in production using a scripted method, statistics and traditional

quality tools (Schoen, 2007).

In conclusion, there is no single official body authorized to conduct Six Sigma. Many

different companies have developed guidelines and offer training and certification. Six Sigma is

a rigorous and disciplined methodology that uses data and statistical analysis to measure and

improve a company's of operational performance by identifying and eliminating "defects" in

manufacturing. This “Six Sigma Strategy” is typically summarized as improving financial results

by improving all aspects of all business processes (Antony, 2004). Six Sigma are business

management strategies commonly used in production industries to improve process efficiency

and quality. It aims predominantly to make process more uniform and precise through the

application of statistical methods.

This research will also bring to high what all factors a customer considers at the time of

purchases of new mobile phones. It helps us to know what is the basis on which a customer

chooses a particular brand when he purchase an handset. It basically helps understanding the

brand preference of customers with regard to mobile phones.