The integration of TQM and technology/R&D management in determining quality and innovation performance

This paper presents an empirical study which examines the co-alignment between Total Quality Management (TQM) and technology/research and development (R&D) management in predicting organizational performance in terms of quality and innovation. This study improves our understanding of the relationship between TQM and innovation based on the following two major issues. First, this study contributes to the understanding of the co-alignment between TQM and technology management along with R&D management by bridging the gap between the two areas which are often addressed in a separate fashion. Second, this study also examines the impact of the integration between TQM and technology/R&D on quality and innovation performance which have been considered as the primary sources of a competitive advantage. The empirical data was drawn from 194 Australian organizations and analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. The findings indicate that TQM shows a strong predictive power against quality performance but no significant relationship against innovation performance. On the other hand, technology and R&D management shows a significant relationship with quality performance but at a lower level than that of TQM, and shows much stronger relationship with innovation performance. In addition, there is strong and positive correlation between TQM and technology/R&D management. The major implication of this study is that technology/R&D management is an appropriate resource to be used in harmony with TQM to enhance organizational performance, particularly innovation.     

TQM in health care: mistaken identity?

Total Quality Management is a powerful tool in health care today. The definition of quality improvement in the medical literature focuses on improving patient outcomes. However, most quality initiatives in the health care field focus on improving productivity, cost-effectiveness, market share, employee morale, and efficiencies of processes. This disparity between the medical definition of quality and the actual application of quality improvement may have the effect of alienating many physicians, the very people who must be involved. The semantics are important to address in a TQM initiative.     

Coaching für Führungskräfte im Krankenhaus Baustein einer Strategie zum Total Quality Management

Coaching of managers in hospitals as component of a total quality management strategy The author delineates the changed conditions of hospitals at the beginning of the new millenium. In order to be up to date with the growing challenges and the need for change a Total Quality Management (TQM) is necessary. This TQM sees the satisfaction of clients and of employees as crucial for all reorganization processes. The realization in everyday hospital life requires a total personnel development concept, with special regard to the managers and their specific needs for support by supervisors resp. coaches.     

A model for an integrated manufacturing system implementation in China: a case study

This paper describes a process which a company adopted to enhance her manufacturing system in a step-by-step manner. In order to increase the competitiveness of the company, the authors have identified a number of improvement strategies which were specific to the economic and political environment in China. The center of the strategies is a vision of an integrated manufacturing strategy. The detailed design and implementation of this vision is conducted through the proposed systematic manufacturing strategic analysis. The integration process encompasses various elements such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRPII) and Real-Time Monitoring System (RTMS), it emphasises not only the use of appropriate modern technology but also the management of technology change. In this paper, a concept model is used to describe the integration process, the detailed implementation is also elaborated using a proposed implementation process model. By adopting the integrated manufacturing system, and through continuing improvement, the productivity and hence the profitability of the company is increased. It is anticipated that the integrated approach to the design and implementation of manufacturing systems will be an important contribution towards the manufacturing strategy in a labour intensive environment such as China.     

DEVELOPING SOPHISTICATED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT APPROACHES THROUGH BUSINESS-ACADEME COLLABORATIONS: INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE

The pursuit of better performance has led to a number of business-academe collaborations. These collaborators have developed a number of sophisticated approaches that go far beyond such traditional simple methods as benchmarking against the best company, Ishikawa diagrams on feedback and control, Pareto diagrams, incentive systems based solely on output or quality, standard process control charts, and separate treatment of control charts and product inspection. The authors in this special issue report on approaches like benchmarking industrial performance through industry studies; the use of an artificial-intelligence statistical-tree growing method to analyze complex customer service data; an incentive system based on the total quality management (TQM) concepts of continuous improvement, teamwork, adaptation to change, and a focus on customer satisfaction; and integration of product inspection and process control. Because of the continuing widespread interest in TQM, there is an opportunity to take stock of how successful TQM initiatives have been and how we should consolidate and further extend the knowledge in TQM. Two of the papers report on the gap between what organizations espouse as TQM and what they actually implement and on the literature on TQM.     

Customer–supplier relationship management in an intelligent supply chain network

Outsourcing is leading to more and more complex industrial organisations. This can be attributed to the fact that several decision centres interact. As a consequence, changes in customer–supplier relationships can be noticed. In recent years, these relations have strongly evolved to lead to better internal management of each partner and a better general performance to satisfy customers. These evolutions created a new approach to the relationship between companies, called ‘industrial partnership’, in the form of a network. Networks induce a need at customer–supplier relation control level. The contribution and participation of each of the partners are thus fundamental to make supply chain management (SCM) a successful project. The control system of each actor partner must thus be adaptable enough to satisfy the production requirements. Our contribution to the improvement of customer–supplier relationship is a decentralised self-organised control model based on the concept of holon. In this model, the decision system manages a group of actors’ operations who are in a partnership. In this paper in particular a process for the evaluation of the suppliers network is discussed.     

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND AN AGENDA FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Total quality management (TQM) is a revolutionary approach to effective management. The research in TQM has emerged from practical needs of organizations embracing this philosophy, and the literature is mostly conceptual and practitioner-oriented. There is a lack of sound theoretical framework classifying past efforts and guiding future research. To fill the void, a study of the published TQM literature is undertaken. A review, classification, and analysis of the research in TQM spanning the last two decades is presented. A total of 226 TQM-related articles are identified from 44 refereed management journals published from 1970 to 1993. These articles are then classified and analyzed using the following two-dimensional scheme: (1) article orientation (conceptual, case study, empirical, analytical, simulation, and overview) and (2) article focus using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria. The analysis of the literature presents pertinent developments in each of the seven criteria. In addition, it provides future research directions as well as a ready reference of the TQM literature. The suggestions for research should guide future developments in the TQM field and help transform it into a formal discipline.     

Integration of BPR and TQM: Past,present and future trends

During the past decade, some efforts have been put forth by researchers towards integrating Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) principles. The results of the majority of research work carried out in this direction have been scattered and have not been applied in practice. In this context this paper is being brought out with the aim of reporting the literature survey conducted with the objective of evolving future direction of research imperatives for integrating TQM and BPR principles. The literature survey was carried out by using CD-ROM journal called Anbar Electronic Intelligence (AEI) (published by MCB University Press, UK) and by visiting the site maintained by Emerald Library, UK. On systematic analyses, it was found that the integration of BPR with the quality strategies identified in a theoretical Strategic Quality Management model would make a meaningful start in this direction.     

A contingency view on the impact of supplier development on design and conformance quality performance

This study extends contingency theory’s account of organisational size and culture by exploring the relationship between supplier development and internal quality performance. Drawing on supplier development research, the study aims to examine the moderating impact of organisational size and culture on the relationship between supplier development and design and conformance quality dimensions. Using survey data of 518 UK manufacturing organisations, we found that larger organisations with greater access to resources and a strong supply chain orientation culture tend to place the most weight on supplier development programmes which in turn yield higher internal quality performance. These findings contribute to ‘Operations Management Practice Contingency Research (OM PCR)’ and will raise awareness among operations managers of their future sourcing decisions.     

A TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT-BASED INCENTIVE SYSTEM SUPPORTING TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION

Although there have been many cases of total quality management (TQM) success, embracing TQM does not always lead to performance improvements. Many companies resist the changes in organizational processes such as compensation and performance appraisal systems that are required to link TQM efforts to bottom-line performance. We present the basic structure of a TQM-based compensation system that can provide incentives based on a variety of performance measures, including an explicit incentive for the reduction of variability in product variables. As a result, this approach encourages the continuous improvement central to the TQM philosophy, rather than serving as a disincentive for such improvement as do many traditional compensation systems. The set of performance measures can be adjusted periodically to focus on those measures deemed most likely to yield significant increases in customer satisfaction, further supporting the core elements of TQM. The approach is described using examples from the paper manufacturing operation where it has been successfully implemented. A longitudinal analysis of several performance measures is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new compensation system.     

Role of Government in an Era of Total Quality Management (TQM) and Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities

This article addresses the changing role of government in the rapidly changing environment of globalization, a process through which worldwide integration is pursued by forces of global capitalism. Government is challenged by conflicting and contradictory forces of globalization of corporate capitalism seeking absolute profit, while at the same pressures for quality services and quality assurance are mounting worldwide. As a result, an impossibility theorem develops, with new challenges and opportunities facing governments. Alternative theories of government are presented, and suggestions are offered on what government should do to promote quality assurance and TQM in the age of globalization. An original version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Total Quality Management (TQM), Tehran, Iran, December 18–20. No quotation without permission of the author. Please send comments to the author at the above address.     

Swiftness and Intensity of Administrative Innovation Adoption: An Empirical Study of TQM in Information Systems

Considerable attention has been directed toward developing a more complete understanding of innovation adoption by Information Systems (IS) departments. Much of this research has focused on the adoption of technological innovations, and limited research has focused on the adoption of administrative innovations. This paper focuses on an administrative innovation that is increasingly becoming popular among IS departments, namely Total Quality Management (TQM) in systems development. A synthesis of the IS innovation and TQM literatures was conducted to identify environmental, organizational, and task‐related factors that should relate to both the swiftness and the intensity of TQM adoption. The relationships between the identified variables and TQM adoption were examined using data collected from 123 IS departments in Fortune 1000 firms and large government agencies in the U.S. The results indicate that TQM adoption in systems development is influenced by the host organization's quality orientation and factors internal to the IS department including IS management support for quality, the presence of a separate quality assurance function, and the structural complexity of the IS department. Implications of this study for theory, future research, and practice are discussed.     

Total quality management and information technology

Total Quality Management is now well-established as a central method for improving the efficiency and competitive position of firms and organizations. Developed in a manufacturing environment, it has shown the same attributes in administrative and service industries. In this paper we examine the potential for use in the Information Technology sector. Little impact has been made by TQM in the IT industry. We use the famous 14 points of W. Edwards Deming to discuss the potential and the pitfalls awaiting such implementation. The particular nature of the industry means that the techniques are not transparently transportable, and we develop some initial ideas for using TQM in situations which are traditionally seen as one-off and not susceptible to process analysis and measurement. We illustrate the idea of designing in quality by focusing on software design for reduction of maintenance costs and also touch on the role of the IT sector in corporate TQM development.     

The systemic perspective of service processes: underlying theory,architecture and approach

As competition in the service industry grows, delivering high-quality service to meet customers’ needs and expectations becomes paramount. In order to achieve a thorough understanding of customers, companies are increasingly adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives. However, CRM does not have the process vision necessary to cope with complex and cross-functional processes. This problem is better handled by Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives, which, by their turn, struggle to built-in customer intelligence in their systems. Based upon systems theory, we discuss the roles of CRM and BPM in an integrated approach to deliver customer fulfillment. As the evolution of service-oriented approaches requires us to consider both customer interactions and experiences as key elements of service processes, we present a broader perception of service processes involving these two perspectives. Also, we discuss the architecture of a customer-facing system comprising customer processes that are aimed at better dealing with customer interactions.     

Revisiting the stock price impact of quality awards

In an event study, Hendricks and Singhal [Hendricks KB, Singhal VR. Quality awards and the market value of the firm: an empirical investigation. Management Sci 1996;42:415–36.] find evidence that firms that win quality awards are further rewarded with a stock price increase on the day of the award announcement. We revisit Hendricks and Singhal (1996), extend their research and find four reasons why management, owners and analysts should be cautious about expecting an abnormal return when a firm wins a quality award. First, in our sample of Baldrige Award winners, the evidence of a stock price response on the announcement day is only marginally significant. Second, in our sample of State quality award winners, the announcement day relationship between stock returns and winning awards is not significant. Third, in the most recent subperiod, 1992–1997, we find no evidence of positive abnormal returns. Fourth, the marginally significant Baldrige results are actually driven by just four companies. A company-by-company microanalysis reveals that only 50% of the award winners experienced positive abnormal returns. The diminishing stock price response on event day does not necessarily imply a lack of stockholder rewards. Evidence from other studies suggests that the stockholders are rewarded for successful total quality management (TQM) implementation, but the rewards can come long before and after the formal award is presented. From a shareholder value perspective, TQM still matters but the award ceremonies may not.     

Universal versus contextual effects on TQM: a triangulation study using neural networks

The objective of this study is to extend previous research on total quality management (TQM)-context-performance relationships and ‘fit’ using multiple methods. We combine artificial neural networks (ANNs) with structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse several hypotheses and propositions. This is the first study in this area of research that utilises ANNs and a triangulation technique in the presence of several contextual factors. The SEM analyses suggest that company size and industry type may have contingency effects on some of the TQM practices and/or TQM-performance relationships. However, the ANN models have shown that these two contingency factors do not moderate TQM outcomes, implying that all organisations can benefit from TQM regardless of size and type. As well, these models show that formal TQM implementation and/or ISO certifications do not add any predictive power to the ANN models except in one case: TQM implementation and/or ISO certification added to organisational effectiveness and customer results to predict financial and market (F&M) results. The results further indicate that even though implementing TQM alone has a bigger impact on F&M results than obtaining ISO certification alone, combining the two will have an even greater impact on these results. Joint implementation leads to greater improvements in organisational effectiveness, which, in turn, has a positive effect on customer results and consequently F&M results. This is a unique finding within the context of moderator effects on TQM-performance relationships.     

Hoshin Kanri: Implementing the Catchball Process

Involving employees in strategy deployment is an active topic of strategic management, but has been difficult to achieve in western companies. The methodology known as Hoshin Kanri has proved an effective strategy deployment process in Japan where it has been extensively applied for integrating strategy and Total Quality Management (TQM), but its adoption in the West has been low, except for a few innovatory companies. The application of Hoshin Kanri relies on a process called “catchball” to gain consensus on the deployment of Hoshin targets and measures in a team environment. This paper presents a process design based on an adaptation of the Delphi technique for the effective implementation of catchball, to reinforce the link between the corporate strategy and annual planning cycle. The catchball process described was implemented at the Rover Group, a UK-based automotive company, to develop the company's quality strategy based on Hoshin Kanri principles.     

A grounded theory research approach to building and testing TQM theory in operations management

Total quality management (TQM) has continued to develop as a strategic business improvement approach in organisations and within the Operations Management literature. Strategic TQM is a dynamic phenomenon, reflecting the complexity and technology development in the business environment. Therefore, this conception of TQM has led to significant challenges with regards to developing suitable models and research methodology where traditional, and normative research data, includes survey responses associated with deductive theory and testing. Such data, and its use, is often premised on cause and effect rationality and fails to supply deep rich data to address meanings, phenomena and complex socio-political events, which is a feature of strategic TQM.     

A Model for Measuring Supplier Risk: Do Operational Capability Indicators Enhance the Prediction Accuracy of Supplier Risk?

The purpose of this study was to develop a supplier risk assessment model for buyers to estimate supplier risk. It is one of the few empirical studies that considers both operational capability indicators and financial indicators; a standard logit model with five key variables (switching cost, operating profit margin, asset turnover ratio, quality capability and technological capability) was suggested as a practical tool. This model not only enhanced the accuracy of supplier risk assessment, but also served as a core element of a new supply chain management tool, ‘supplier management at risk’. More practically, the model enables purchasing firms to assess supplier risk and take proactive measures against the estimated risk.