Managing quality effectively in supply chain: a preliminary study

Abstract

Purpose

Operations management literature prescribes various practices in supply quality management (SQM). However, few studies have described the SQM practices being conducted in Asian countries, especially in Hong Kong. The purpose of this study is to identify the critical SQM practices that conducted in Hong Kong.

Design/methodology/approach

We used in‐depth industrial interviews and extensive literature review to identify some critical items for evaluating SQM practices. Accordingly, an instrument was developed. We validated this instrument with 90 leading manufacturing related companies in Hong Kong by using SPSS 9.0.

Findings

Finally, we extracted ten critical factors for describing a SQM system. These factors could be clustered into three major groups namely supplier selection, supplier development and supplier integration.

Research limitations/implications

This paper has not discussed the relationships among SQM practices, supplier quality and organisational quality. For future study, it will be worthwhile to consider these interrelations.

Originality/value

The newly developed instrument could be used to measure the practices of supply quality management in Hong Kong.

Citation

Lo, V.H.Y. and Yeung, A. (2006), "Managing quality effectively in supply chain: a preliminary study", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 208-215. https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540610662103