A Total Quality Management implementation for small and medium sized manufacturing industries

• Main Author: Idris, Mohd Azman
• Published: University of the West of Scotland 1998
• Subjects: 658; Management & business studies
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.265932

This study was conducted out of a need to examine the Quality Management practices of firms from the manufacturing industry sector, a sector which is becoming very important to Malaysia, one of the fastest growing countries of the Pacific-Rim. Since there has not been much research investigating the Quality Management Practices, especially on ISO 9000 and TQM among Malaysian Manufacturing SMEs, this study could be regarded as an exploratory study. SMEs are defined as firms with less than 200 employees. The main aim of this study was to develop a TQM Implementation Model (SMET Model) for SMEs application which considers the effects of quality activities on business performance of the organisations, the current approaches to TQM implementation, the characteristics of the organisations, and the step-by-step TQM implementation approaches which consider Housekeeping (5-S), Production Planning and Control (PP&C), Quality Control Circles (QCC), Quality Improvement Practices Scheme (QIP), Quality Management System (ISO 9000) and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) as improvement steps towards TQM. Three main research methods were employed in developing the model: a postal questionnaire survey, structured interviews and practical implementation of the model at a small manufacturing company. 247 responses from the postal questionnaire survey were obtained (38% response rate). Structured interviews were conducted within 23 manufacturing companies to get in-depth views of the implementation of QIP, ISO 9000 and TQM. On the whole, the overall results from this study showed that, the SMET Model is a practical model for the implementation of TQM in SMEs. It considered the needs and limitations of SMEs. In addition, SMET Model Implementation Framework was developed to assist the implementation of SMET Model. The model consists of seven Key Quality Activities, namely 5-S, PP&C, QIP, ISO, TPM and TQM plus a number of supporting Quality Activities. The step change proposed by the model will assist the SMEs in sustaining their quality initiatives such as ISO 9000 and TQM in the long term and also averting failure at the very first attempt. The model has been accepted and currently adopted by SIRIM in promoting quality and productivity awareness among Malaysian SMEs at national level, thus further proving the practicality of the model