"Grandma Bama," and her son, Paul, founded Bama Pie, Limited in 1937. Since that time, Bama Pie has grown from selling pies at a corner drugstore to supplying the McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Nabisco companies with a variety of fresh, frozen bakery products. Today, Paul Marshall's daughter, Paula Marshall-Chapman, serves as CEO of Bama Pie.
Bama Pie's commitment to Total Quality Management evolved out
of McDonald's ultimatum to improve Bama's product quality.
McDonald's suggested that Marshall-Chapman implement a plan which
would increase the number of inspectors at the end of the
production process. Such a plan would have increased costs
without affecting the quality of the product. So Marshall-Chapman
set out to find alternative ways to solve Bama's problem. In her
search for potential solutions, Marshall-Chapman introduced
herself to Total Quality Management through Phil Crosby's book entitled
Generally, Bama's Quality Process focuses on customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. Specifically, the Quality Process utilizes Bama's mission, vision, and values in conjunction with quick customer response, employee empowerment, and long term, comprehensive planning.
As a result of the Quality Process, Bama has achieved significant results. The company has increased the number of employee training hours from 0, to over 9,000. Customer satisfaction of all biscuit products has increased to 93 percent. Inventory has been reduced by 90 percent and accident rates have been cut in half. Bama even managed to cut its baked apple pie price by 10 percent.
Bama's mission, vision, and values working in conjunction with quick customer response, employee involvement, and planning, have made the organization a success. The success of the Bama Quality Process is encouraging news for any organization implementing Total Quality Management.