Search results

Implementing total quality management (TQM) is not without difficulties and achieving its promised benefits is not easy. The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to TQM successful implementation.

A literature review has been done to explore the major reasons for the failure of TQM programmes.

An examination of 54 TQM empirical studies identified 54 obstacles to successful TQM implementation. There are both theoretical and practical difficulties in applying TQM in organisations. An ineffective TQM package, inappropriate TQM implementation methods and an inappropriate environment for implementing TQM are the main reasons for TQM failure. The most frequently mentioned reasons for TQM implementation failures include insufficient education and training, lack of employees’ involvement, lack of top management support, inadequate resources, deficient leadership, lack of a quality-oriented culture, poor communication, lack of a plan for change and employee resistance to the change programme.

The review was limited to articles written in English language during the past 30 years (1980-2010).

TQM does deliver better performance when an appropriate model of TQM is appropriately implemented in a supportive environment. The findings of this paper provide managers with a practical understanding of the factors that are likely to obstruct TQM implementation. Managers should overcome these barriers to achieve the TQM benefits.

Understanding the factors that are likely to obstruct TQM implementation will help organisations in planning better TQM models.

Many healthcare organisations have found it difficult to implement total quality management (TQM) successfully. The aim of this paper is to explore the barriers to TQM successful implementation in the healthcare sector.

This paper reports a literature review exploring the major reasons for the failure of TQM programmes in healthcare organisations.

TQM implementation and its impact depend heavily on the ability of managers to adopt and adapt its values and concepts in professional healthcare organisations. Unsuccessful TQM efforts in healthcare organisations can be attributed to the strongly departmentalised, bureaucratic and hierarchical structure, professional autonomy, tensions between managers and professionals and the difficulties involved in evaluating healthcare processes and outcomes. Other obstacles to TQM success include lack of consistent managers' and employees' commitment to and involvement in TQM implementation, poor leadership and management, lack of a quality‐oriented culture, insufficient training, and inadequate resources. The review was limited to empirical articles written in the English language during the past 30 years (1980‐2010).

The findings of this article provide policy makers and managers with a practical understanding of the factors that are likely to obstruct TQM implementation in the healthcare sector.

Understanding the factors that obstruct TQM implementation would enable managers to develop more effective strategies for implementing TQM successfully in healthcare organisations.

This paper aims to report and analyse the lessons learned from a case study on the implementation of a quality management system within an IT Division in a higher education (HE) organisation.

The paper is based on a review of the relevant literatures and the use of primary sources such as document analysis, participant observation and interviews to develop a case study that describes and evaluates the implementation process.

The case study identifies four factors central to the effective implementation of the quality management system within a Division of a HE institution: senior leadership and sponsorship; stakeholder engagement; the management of culture change; and implementing quality processes.

The case study reveals that the implementation of quality management systems requires sustained effort, continuous leadership, and the long term commitment of resources and systematic auditing of performance and is best done on an incremental basis.

The paper is based on a single organisation case study, and utilises a variety of data collection methods to generate findings. The study findings illustrate that HE institutions may achieve greater success in implementing quality management systems if they focus on a particular division rather than an organisation‐wide approach.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical success factors for total quality management implementation and implications for sustainable academic libraries in Ghana. This study is part of a PhD project that focussed on selected technical university libraries in Ghana.

This study adopted a quantitative approach to collect the data. Samples of 124 participants were involved in this study. PLS-SEM (Smart PLS3) software was used to analyse the data. Convergent, discriminant validity assessment was computed. Eight variables of critical success factors were tested in relation to total quality management implementation at selected academic libraries in Ghana.

This study established that out of the eight variables tested, six of them (i.e. top management commitment, employee innovation employee training, organisational culture, teamwork and effective communication, quality performance) indicated a significant positive relationship with total quality management implementation apart from strategic planning and human resource management.

This study was limited to eight variables as the critical success factors mentioned in the previous paragraph. The use of one methodology might be a limitation as the use of multimethod might have given a more comprehensive picture than the case. This study was limited to only technical university libraries in Ghana hence caution must be exercised when applying the results to contextually different academic environments. The results are applicable to academic universities library in Ghana and beyond if they are adjusted to suit the context.

This study is timely as it may lead to effective total quality management implementation and the sustainability of technical university libraries in Ghana and Africa in general.

The proposed model can be used to enhance the smooth implementation of total quality management in academic libraries in general and Ghana in particular. The framework is termed as Eddie and Pat's Achievement of Quality Performance (EPAfQP) model.

The perceived advantages of the implementation of TQM are generating improved quality and efficiency, increasing customer satisfaction, thus improving competitiveness. However, there is a high failure rate in the implementation of TQM. The key issue in this regard is that companies have devoted relatively little attention to human resources management (HRM). Several academics and practitioners have asserted that synergy and congruence among HRM practices are critical to the implementation of TQM. However, there is relatively little empirical evidence to support this contention. The purpose of this research is to conduct an empirical study on high‐tech firms, in order to analyse the impacts of HRM practices on the implementation of TQM.

In this study, a research framework related to HRM practices, TQM practices, and quality performances was developed. Based on the framework, a questionnaire was designed and sent to the HR managers or chief executive officers (CEOs) of high‐tech companies in Taiwan to investigate the effect of HRM practices on the implementation and practice of TQM.

The study confirms that HRM significantly affects TQM practices. The study concluded that HRM practices have a significantly positive effect on the implementation of TQM. Implementing HRM practices can also have a significant effect on employee and customer satisfaction. It also positively affected “employees' quality awareness” and “corporate image”. The quality performances were also significantly affected by the implementation of TQM.

The research limitation is that the empirical study was on high‐tech firms in Taiwan only. However, the framework can be easily extended to other industries if survey results are available.

Overall, successful implementation of TQM can lead to an increase in customer satisfaction, and then benefit corporate image. It can also improve the satisfaction and quality awareness of employees. Enterprises that devote themselves to the implementation of TQM also need to perform HRM aggressively, if they are to increase the firm's performance significantly.

In this research, a conceptual framework related to HRM practices and TQM practices was developed, which is a valuable reference for future research. This study confirms the impacts of HRM practices on the implementation of TQM, and several key practices can be investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation activities involved in certifying a quality management system to the ISO 9000 quality management system standard. This includes developing the best business performance measures that will serve as indicators of an effective quality management system. This paper aims to establish a relationship between implementation activities involved in the quality system and specific business performance measures that can be used to assess the system's effectiveness.

Data were collected using an online survey combined with publicly available financial reporting information. Regression and other statistical techniques along with text clustering and association of the survey comments were used to analyze the data.

Emphasis on implementing a documentation system were found to be linked to business performance as measured by the return on assets financial measure.

Future research should explore various documentation system aspects such as knowledge management and information sharing in greater detail. A larger sample focused on a specific industry might provide useful information for industry appropriate performance indicators.

The practical implications of this research focus on the design and implementation of an organization's quality management system in areas that will provide the most benefit to organizations seeking ISO 9000 certification. A baseline measurement can be used prior to implementing the system to strategically manage the implementation process. By understanding how best to implement the quality management system, fewer resources are wasted on ineffective quality management system certification projects and some of the skepticism around the implemention of an ISO 9000 certified quality management system is eliminated.

Few quality system researchers target the implementation process for analysis. Combining survey data and publicly held financial represents is a new method for studying ISO 9000 implementation.

Lack of strict compliance to the principles of total quality management (TQM) by construction organizations has brought about poor quality of the finished building projects. This has been blamed for the incessant structural failure reported in Nigeria. This study appraised TQM implementation in the Nigerian construction industry, with a view to mitigating structural failure rate of construction projects. To achieve this aim, the study aims to assess the practice level of TQM and the factors hindering TQM implementation on construction projects.

The study utilized a well-structured questionnaire and convenient sampling method in the gathering and sampling of data among construction professionals in Imo state, Nigeria. Data analyses were done using, frequency, percentage, mean analytics and Pareto analysis.

The study revealed that major practice of TQM principles with respect to structural failure rate are purchasing: ensuring the procurement of materials of the specified quality standard, ensuring the use of a quality improvement construction process of the organization, site management responsibility: this entails ensuring quality supervision by the project management leadership and monitoring and control of quality during the construction to guarantee firm observance quality standards. Also, the major factors hindering TQM implementation on construction projects are: inadequacy of the necessary machineries, equipment, tools and facilities for the effective execution of work on construction site; breakdown in communication and information exchange between the management and supervisory teams on site; poor attitudes and strategies toward maintenance of equipment, tools and machines; and absence of prompt salary and incentive payment. It was recommended that construction firms must require the suppliers of construction materials to strictly comply with quality specification evidence in quality certification of delivered materials to mitigate structural failure.

This study appraised TQM implementation in the construction industry of Nigeria, with emphasis on Imo state. The study underscores the practice level of TQM and the key factors hindering TQM implementation on construction projects. Following the localized geographical limitation of the study area, a similar research in other part/states of Nigeria or even in other developing countries of African is necessary.

The practices level of TQM and the factors hindering TQM implementation were identified. This will be useful in guiding construction firms, other industry's key stakeholders and regulatory agencies in bringing about a sustainable quality management system for improve profit and value maximization and avoiding incessant structural failure.

This is one of the few studies that have assessed the practice level of TQM and the factors hindering TQM implementation on construction projects in Nigeria. This study took place in Imo state with records of periodic structural failure and building collapse.

This study aims to investigate the impact of quality management practices on performance and the extent to which industry rivalry and entry barriers moderate the relationship between the implementation of quality management practices and quality management performance.

A survey questionnaire was administered for this research using Powell's quality management framework. The respondents were required to indicate their degree of implementation of quality management practices and to rate their TQM performance in relation to overall performance, the firm's competitive position and the nature of the impact of quality management on the organisation. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that firms with high levels of executive commitment to quality management and those that pay close attention to customer needs tend to improve their competitive position, view quality as being positive for the organisation, and improve overall performance. The results suggest that the degree of quality management implementation is positively associated with entry barriers, which would mean reduced level of threat from new entrants; whereas the industry rivalry issues were not significantly associated with either quality management or organisational performance. The findings also show that existing firms' ability to create entry barriers facilitates increased opportunities to improve their organisational performance.

The sample was relatively small, subjective measures of organisational performance were used which may be biased due to respondents' interpretation of their own firm's performances, and there is a possibility that many firms with low levels of QM implementation may not have participated in the study, leading to self‐selection bias. These factors may limit the generalisability of the research findings to other settings. Therefore further research is required to ascertain whether the same practices are evident across organisations of different sizes and industry groups within a broader sampling frame.

The findings suggest that quality management implementation by firms within an environment where higher levels of entry barriers exist results in higher organisational performance due to the firms' relative protection against new competitors.

This is one of the very few papers to investigate the role of Porter's industry analysis framework in relation to quality management implementation and firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate issues related to the application of Lean Six Sigma (L6σ) in a service industry. By adopting a case‐study approach this paper analytically explores the critical success factors that affect L6σ implementation.

The study adopts a qualitative approach attempting to explore the nature of L6σ application in a service context. In particular, two case studies from the telecommunications industry have been selected. Secondary data were collected through an analysis of companies' documents, written procedures and quality assurance policies. Moreover, primary data were collected through a number of interviews with managers and quality experts.

There are particular factors that influence the implementation of L6σ in organizations, that can be distinguished in facilitators like Top Management Involvement & Support, Quality‐driven Organizational Culture, Quality‐driven Training, Top Down & Bottom Up Project Selection, Customer Satisfaction, Prior implementation of other quality improvement programs and Supportive Performance Management & IT Systems, and inhibitors such as Lack of Awareness for L6σ, Lack of Awareness for the Need of Continuous Quality Improvement Programs & L6σ, Lack of Strategic Orientation, Working Mentality & Habits.

The main limitation of the study is the fact that in both cases only managers and top administrators were approached. Frontline employees who are directly involved in L6σ approach may offer a clearer view on issues related to the impact of critical factors on L6σ application.

This study has four major advantages. First, it expands our understanding regarding the implementation of L6σ in a service industry, in which the application of management models is more complex and problematic. Second, it focuses on the responses of managers, who always play the most significant role in the adoption of such techniques. Third, it explores the quality management initiatives in the telecommunications industry. Finally, it provides future studies with a L6σ multi‐factor application approach that can be further tested and developed.

Examines the associations between ten integrated quality management constructs and the resulting product quality. Analyzes responses from plant managers of 449 auto‐parts firms using stepwise regression. Notes three primary predictors (customer focus, empowerment, and supplier quality management) explaining 26 per cent of variation in product quality. Examines the role of top management commitment in TQM implementation by splitting the sample into firms with high and low top management commitment based on the mean score on this construct. Concludes, first, that firms with high top management commitment produce high quality products despite variations in individual constructs, and, second, that in firms with low top management commitment, four other constructs, i.e. customer focus, supplier quality management, empowerment, and internal quality information usage are primary predictors of product quality.