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The purpose of this paper is exploring the effects of segment dynamic and temporal dynamic triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic on classifying service quality attributes, thereby formulating improvement strategies to satisfy customers and respond to threats.

Given the dynamics of the attractive quality theory, this paper designs a framework with four phases by embedding techniques of text mining and deep learning based on evidence from online reviews.

This paper figures out dynamics of service quality attributes for distinct segments and their dynamic proportion along with different stages of the pandemic. Another finding demonstrates segment dynamic and temporal dynamic effects of sentiments toward service quality attributes on customer satisfaction under the impacts of pandemic. Classification results and improvement strategies are derived for varying segments at different pandemic situations.

This paper reveals dynamic effects on classifying service quality attributes, which contributes to assisting hospitality practitioners from different segments in improving service quality when facing with the challenges of crisis and potential risks.

Given hospitality industry is time- and segment-sensitive, the authors achieve the quantification of dynamics of attractive quality theory and extend it into hospitality marketing and crisis management from the perspective of dynamics with evidence from online reviews.

ISO 9000 is now a widespread quality management practice in Hong Kong manufacturing industries. There is a pressing need to investigate the critical success factors that can help those ISO 9000 registered companies to plan for the continuous maintenance and improvement of their quality systems. With this in mind, the authors have recently conducted a study to identify the critical issues of ISO 9000 maintenance in the Hong Kong electronics manufacturing industry. This paper presents the critical maintenance issues identified during the course of this study, which could facilitate the manufacturers in maintaining their ISO 9000 quality systems. The findings will be of use to the Hong Kong electronics manufacturing industry and will provide a good reference to other industries and other countries as well.

Streak defect and dynamic harmonic excitation (DHE) loading play important roles in machine operating conditions. The purpose of this paper was to assess the effects of streak defect and DHE loading on the tribological properties of surface-contact friction pairs, for example the differential gear end-face on the washer, via experimental investigation.

Streak defect was artificially introduced into the washer surface, which was loaded with DHE loads produced by a spring-connecting weight system. The wear scar of the washers and the monitored friction force signals were respectively scanned using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and analyzed using wavelet simulation.

The friction force curves, SEM images and discrete wavelet transform results indicate that DHE loading tends to increase friction force, to accelerate plowing damages and result in side-flow of material and plastic deformation on the surfaces of the washer. Whereas, streak oil-channel textures on washer specimen can be machined to modify the lubrication condition in the running-in stage so as to improve the tribological properties of the sliding pairs which were even subjected to DHE loading.

On the basis of this thesis research, the effect of streak defect and DHE loading on tribological performance of surface-contact sliding pairs is discussed. The results of wear form and friction state with the effect of streak defect and DHE loading facilitate to optimize the operating condition of mechanical parts.

Quality function deployment (QFD) stresses customer‐driven planning, continuous improvement and people participation. This paper elaborates a six‐stage QFD approach based on an empirical study of the provision of the library and information services (LIS) in a technical organisation in Hong Kong. Customer requirements are identified through the focus‐group brainstorming and critical‐incident interviews with users. The study identified 45 critical incidents, and translated them into 23 satisfaction items. Two iterations of house of quality (HOQ) were finally constructed for meshing the quality improvement efforts. The paper identifies the key quality dimensions and illustrates how the QFD approach can lead to effective quality deployment in the provision of LIS. The approach provides a practical means that helps organisations to identify customer satisfaction criteria, and integrate improvement strategies and plans into management decision‐making processes.

This paper seeks to describe the development of a web‐based system for managing and assessing suppliers, presenting the system design and interface of the prototype and discussing the applicability of the system.

In this paper critical assessment criteria and factors for managing supplier quality (MSQ) were identified through literature review and a mail survey of manufacturers in Hong Kong. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process methodology, a self‐assessment model comprising these criteria and factors was developed. Industry experts were invited to determine the relative weighting of these criteria and factors. A software was developed to support the assessment system.

The findings in this paper identified criteria addressed strategic alliance, supplier development and supplier monitoring. The critical factors encompassed buyer‐supplier partnership, technology and information sharing, sourcing strategies, supplier evaluation and motivation, and issues on performance measurement and improvement. A self‐assessment model comprising these criteria and factors was developed.

The paper shows that in future work, more best practices of supplier management will be identified to enrich the knowledge base of the system in order to further develop the assessment system to an expert system.

The findings in this paper were incorporated to develop a prototype web‐based system for self‐assessment with promising industrial validation results.

In this paper, a novel self‐assessment system was developed for supplier quality management. It is of great value for quality management theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distribution of conflict over various NPD phases and identify the main sources of conflict and the five conflict handling styles in new product development (NPD) from the context of buyer‐supplier collaboration.

A list of the sources of conflict was developed and five conflict handling styles in NPD were identified based on literature review and the opinions of manufacturing experts in Hong Kong. An empirical study comprising a series of personal interviews and a mailed survey was conducted to acquire empirical findings from industry practitioners and suppliers on the conflict issues in collaborative NPD. The relationships between NPD performance and conflict intensity as well as conflict handling styles were analysed. Both reliability and construct validity of the study construct were measured.

The study identified 16 sources of conflict and demonstrated that conflict has a significant negative relationship with NPD performance in terms of product quality, and meeting of target development costs and delivery schedule. The results also showed that cooperative styles (i.e. integrating and obliging) are effective and uncooperative styles (i.e. dominating and avoiding) are ineffective, whereas compromising is a neutral approach.

This research was based on four industry sectors including electronics, toys, machinery, and watches and clocks in Hong Kong. Generalisability to other industries or countries may be limited.

The findings verified that a negative relationship exists between conflict intensity and NPD performance. Both the clients and suppliers should maintain a sustainable level of conflict and should enhance their conflict handling efforts and skills for effective conflict resolutions.

From a suppliers' viewpoint, this paper provides some insights into how client‐supplier collaboration and conflict resolutions could improve NPD performance.

Client‐supplier collaboration in new product development (NPD) has been a strategy in response to fierce global competition. Traditionally, Hong Kong suppliers collaborate with worldwide clients through original equipment manufacturing (OEM) arrangement in which suppliers manufacture products according to clients’ design. In recent years, a growing number of Hong Kong suppliers have transformed to original design manufacturing (ODM) in which they are assigned a design responsibility other than manufacturing products. The ODM arrangement necessitates a close interaction between clients and supplier, which brings about intense conflict. Conflict has been recognized as an important factor affecting NPD performance including product quality. This paper studies the conflict handling practices of Hong Kong ODM suppliers based on 87 survey data. The results show tha tthe suppliers frequently adopt effective conflict handling practices by which they can develop products of good quality through better design decisions. The results also suggest that the use of ineffective conflict handling behaviors, particularly avoiding, should be reduced for better product quality.

Innovation fuels organizations evolving them to withstand rapid changes in markets and challenges from competition. While diversified concepts of innovation are examined, a generic framework for managing organizational innovation is established to portray the notion in a methodical approach. Substatiation of the determinants for organizational innovation is carried out in order to examine the framework against the practical situation. Subsequently, expectations and actual accomplishments of the determinants for organizational innovation from the industry are determined so as to understand the industrial view towards the framework. This paper summarizes the empirical findings of a survey of organizational innovation with a sample of 208 electronic and electrical manufacturing companies in the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD), China. On one hand, the survey findings confirm the readiness of the generic framework from the practical perspective of the industry. On the other hand, rankings are obtained for the expected importance and company accomplishment of the determinants for organizational innovation, namely in the areas of management leadership and commitment, employee capability and attitude and strategy development for innovation. The improvement area is also verified by the shortcomings of the expectation in comparison to the company accomplishment in each dterminant. Meanwhile, it is believed that a directional attitude towards the determinants can facilitate the accomplishment of the determinants of organizational innovation. Further results will be generated from a more in‐depth analysis of variables. The confirmed framework will be further developed into an assessment system for organizational innovation with the support of best practices in each determinant.

Supplier quality management (SQM) is considered as a proactive approach in the buyers’ perspective to seek for continuous supply quality improvement and collaborative ongoing alliance between buyers and suppliers. Therefore, it is important for the buyers to understand their circumstances for managing their suppliers, and thereby to search for an improved way to rectify managerial deficiencies, if any. This paper aims to identify the critical factors of SQM, and then propose a hierarchical framework which can facilitate the assessment of their SQM performance in the buyers’ perspective and also serve as a working tool for managing supply quality performance.

Most process FMEA systems in the market simply fill out the worksheet/form, and can not effectively express, organize, and utilize process failure knowledge of production process during process planning. This paper proposes a knowledge‐enriched representation model for enhancing process FMEA in process planning. This model can effectively represent the process FMEA knowledge other than specific process failure instances or data. Furthermore, in order to effectively utilize the previous process FMEA knowledge, an algorithm is proposed to calculate the similarity among process failure problems based on “concept distance”. A knowledge‐enriched process FMEA tool has been developed by adopting Web technique so as to provide cooperative process FMEA services for process planner on the Internet or Intranet.