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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb002917. When citing the article, please cite: J.M. Asher, (1988), “Cost of Quality in Service Industries”, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 5 Iss: 5, pp. 38 - 46.

Discussing quality as a series of customer‐supplier relationships, the writer shows the need for cost of quality evaluation in service industries and outlines the differences between cost of quality evaluation in service and other industries. The use of cost of quality as a tool for quality improvement is discussed.

Attempts a contribution to the area of health care quality by presenting a framework for thinking about, and improving our understanding of, measuring quality in health care. To achieve this object, addresses the multidimensionality of quality management in health care. Delineates the dimensions of quality measurements in health care, focusing on both output and process issues. Stresses the need for the measures to relate to patient requirements and shows how these measurements can be driven back into care services as a means of facilitating quality improvement in the health care environment. Concludes by discussing the implications of the framework for managers and by providing direction for future research within the context of the framework.

Crown's parent is of course part of Reed International, itself an industrial as well as consumer‐orientated company. And Crown ‘mirrors’ Reed. It has an industrial arm which is equally vigorous and just as successful in its own markets as Crown's retail arm is in the consumer market. We have been closely identified with many outstanding developments in industrial finishing technology over the years. For instance, in print finishing, the lamination of oriented polypropylene film to board is made possible by adhesives first developed and marketed by Crown which are now the standards by which all other film‐to‐board laminating adhesives are measured. Or take coil coating, the art of prefinishing metal. Crown is a founder member of the European Coil Coating Association and probably supplies more coatings to this industry than any other UK paint supplier. So we are old hands at industrial finishing — and at supplying ‘state‐of‐the‐art’ high technology finishes.

TQM is a philosophy mainly dominated by large companies. Small businesses are lagging behind larger ones when it comes to introducing and adopting new managerial philosophies and advanced technology. Many small companies have stopped at quality system certification, such as ISO 9000, in their quality journey rather than pursuing further continuous improvement efforts through TQM. Small businesses must understand the need to go beyond the quality system stage and work towards a total approach for quality. Only through this total approach will their quality effort be a success. Discusses the various issues confronting small businesses when embarking on TQM. First, reviews the subject of TQM and the quality initiatives undertaken by small businesses (which are treated as small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs)) such as ISO 9000 and TQM. The small business characteristics are also examined. Second, presents a case study conducted in a small manufacturing company. Culminates with conclusions and discussions drawn from both the review and the case study with suggestions for future research directions.

Larostate 520, a cost‐effective antistat providing superior lubricity, humectancy and electrical conductivity is now available from Jordan Chemical Company, here.

The recent expansion in tertiary education in India, an increased student enrollment as well as global competition have created a challenge for the existence of the institutes. It has been realized that a quality of service is associated with customer satisfaction and it is one of the key points for survival for any organization as it minimizes the various risks associated with an organization. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an empirical study conducted to obtain the impact of various academic systems on student's satisfaction across the institution. Second, it focusses on minimizing various risks by providing an optimum combination of parameters of different academic activities.

This empirical research investigates customer satisfaction on support services of academic process and focus on minimizing various risks by finding an optimum combination of parameters of academic activities.

It identifies the levels of sensitivity of the various factors affecting the academic process of technical education that might influence the management to design the technical curricula to increase student's satisfaction.

The study demonstrates the impact of statistical process control (SPC) and Taguchi parameter design to monitor the academic process of the institution and finding an optimum condition of the various parameters involved with the process, which would maximize customer satisfaction across the institution. The result suggests that this approach may add more value to both academics and practitioners.

It is an original contribution to integrate SPC and Taguchi robust parameter design in assessing customers’ satisfaction in Indian scenario.

The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents and effects of environmental management (EM) and its related factors on firm performance from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Most previous studies have focused on determining the effects of environmental efforts on environmental performance. This study aims to illustrate that effective EM – along with other factors such as customer emphasis, recognition and capabilities – generates positive firm performance for SMEs. Additionally, the stdy aims to show evidence that EM is worth proactively pursuing rather than being viewed as a burden and being subject to reactive task by SMEs.

The authors collected data via a questionnaire from 300 SMEs through a professional research company. They then used the data to assess a model and determine the relationships between the different constructs using structural equation modeling.

The results testify to the optimal structure between the study’s constructs: customer emphasis on EM, recognition and implementation of EM, capabilities and the performance of SMEs that have implemented EM. The main finding is that EM has a positive relationship to firm performance.

This study’s findings could likely persuade SMEs and policymakers to more proactively engage in EM. It also contributes to offer evidence that customer orientation plays an important role in SMEs’ implementation of EM and its impact on firm performance.

Applications of systems like total quality management (TQM), total productive maintenance (TPM) and just‐in‐time (JIT) have been studied mainly in large industries with little attention being paid to small and medium industries (SMIs) in developing countries. This paper discusses the state of implementation of TPM in SMIs and the effects of lack of productive maintenance. The main hypothesis is to determine if SMIs have understood the importance of a productive maintenance system as a constituent of manufacturing management. A survey methodology has been applied for this test. The outcomes of some case studies are kept in mind. All these show that the implementation of TPM or preventive maintenance in SMIs is still low. Therefore, more effort should be given to developing a better understanding, motivation and participation for implementation of productive maintenance systems. Finally, an implementation methodology is proposed.

Quality management (QM) cannot be assured unless some objective assessments are undertaken. A number of tools and techniques are available to conduct such analysis. Although some of them are product or service specific, however, a few basic tools and techniques are commonly used in manufacturing firms. This study focuses on the state of application of QM tools and techniques in small and medium industries (SMIs). The findings reveal that by‐and‐large, lack of methodical analysis is a major weakness of SMIs. Still some rule‐of‐thumb and subjective observations are dominating over objective evaluation in the process of quality control decisions. A few case studies which have been conducted, and one that has been briefly reported here, also support this conclusion. The methodology of the study has three folds: literature review, survey in SMIs and case studies.