Chi-Kuang Chen

Diagnosing and prognosticating the quality movement – a review on the 25 years quality literature (1987–2011)

The purpose of this article is to create a snapshot of 25 years’ quality movement. The creation process of the snapshot, as well as the result of the study, aims to help in diagnosing the current status of quality management (QM) and further contribute in understanding and shaping its future direction. For this purpose, all published articles during the last 25 years’ period (1987–2011) under the subject of Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Excellence (BE), quality tools, techniques as well as core values/principles have been collected through the ABI/INFORM complete periodical database. The collected data were analysed and reflected in order to show the current status, evolution trends of the past, and the predicted future directions. The results show that the total number of articles under the subject of TQM has been decreasing after having reached its peak in 1995. However, papers focusing on techniques and tools within the QM framework in terms of Lean, Just-in-Time/Toyota Production System, Benchmarking, and Six-Sigma Quality have been increasing. In addition, papers focusing on core values/key principles needed to build a quality culture in terms of leadership, people-based management, continuous improvements, management based on facts, and focus on the customer have been slightly increasing during the last decade. The findings indicate that QM is now at a more mature stage where focuses have shifted from being initially on TQM to tools, techniques, and core values which are needed for building a quality and BE culture. Based on its evolution, it is concluded that TQM can be understood as a management innovation, if not a management revolution.

Business excellence models: limitations, reflections and further development

The use of business excellence models (BEM) has become popular in the last two decades, and several companies have learned how to use them and gained from such models. More companies, we assume, have experienced problems when using such models because of various weaknesses such as too-sophisticated assessment criteria, excessive paperwork, cumbersome procedures and a lack of focus, which have limited its use in practice. To respond to some of those problems, a new overall business excellence framework (BEF) has been developed which recommends adaption instead of adoption of existing BEM. The suggested overall BEF helps to integrate BEM with management tools/techniques and the organisational culture/characteristics for guiding an organisation towards business excellence. A document-based empirical case of a world-class company, Boeing Aerospace Support, was investigated to illustrate how the overall BEF may work in practice as a complement to an existing BEM when companies adapt such models to their specific contexts.

A customer‐oriented service‐enhancement system for the public sector

This paper develops a customer‐oriented service model for the public sector. Although customer‐oriented service models have become popular since 1980, most studies have been restricted to the private sector. In addition, they have emphasised the management of service operations rather than system design. This paper proposes a customer‐oriented service‐enhancement system (COSES) for the public sector. The model employs two dimensions: design and management of a customer‐oriented service system; and the fostering of organizational service culture. In this COSES model, the best practices of public agencies are empirically examined with respect to: the types of customer‐oriented service activities that can be developed; and how they can be developed.

An empirical study of industrial engineering and management curriculum reform in fostering students’ creativity

The objective of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of a creativity-fostering program in industrial engineering and management (IE&M) curriculum reform. Fostering creativity in students has become a crucial issue in industrial engineering education. In a survey of previous studies, we found few on IE&M curriculum reform. In particular, no study has dealt directly with fostering students’ creativity. In this study, we propose an IE&M curriculum reform program. The core of this program is intended to enhance students’ creative problem solving ability. Based on this concept, three required courses were developed: industrial communication, creative problem solving, and scientific research methodology. To investigate the effectiveness of this curriculum reform program, we conducted a two-year follow-up study. One hundred seventy-seven IE&M undergraduates from Yuan-Ze University participated this study, and Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) were used to measure changes in their creativity. The results showed that the students, after completing this reformed curriculum program, had significantly improved their creativity.

Quality Excellence in Taiwan: Theories and Practices

We are happy to have this opportunity to edit this special issue of the TQM and Business Excellence (TQM&BE) journal titled Quality Excellence in Taiwan: Theories and Practices for many reasons. First of all, Taiwanese academic researchers have achieved remarkable success with their publications in the TQM&BE journal: Taiwan has now become the number one country in the world based on the number of accepted papers per year in this journal. Second, the Chinese Society for Quality (CSQ), which is the most active nonprofit organization promoting quality in Taiwan, has now celebrated its 50th anniversary (at the end of 2014). Third, the intense focus on quality in Taiwanese universities and in Taiwan’s business organizations has driven a great deal of salient theories and best practices to sustain Taiwan’s wish to become one of the most competitive countries in the world. The result is that Taiwan is now ranked as the 11th of 60 countries in the 2013 IMD World Competitiveness Survey. In this special issue, we have collected 15 articles which aim to give the readers an understanding of the developments in quality management in Taiwan during the last 50 years (the Past), the situation right now (the Present), and the critical aspects to focus on if the quality evolution is not to stagnate (the Future). Based on the first article written by Professor Chi-Kuang Chen et al., A review of the development of quality management in Taiwan, we found that quality practices in Taiwan have always kept up with the world trends. For instance, quality management has been popular and widely used in Taiwan since the 1960s. Quality Control Circle (QCC) was introduced to Taiwan from Japan in the 1960s and the first QCC was established in 1967. This quality improvement approach has stayed popular until now. It is thus a fact that Taiwan was one of the earliest countries in the world to adopt QCC. Another factor is that the Taiwan National Quality Award (TNQA) was established in 1989, and at that time it was one of the earliest countries in the world to inaugurate a National Quality Award – only two years behind the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) and two years ahead of the European Quality Award (EQA). Today, this award has been instituted for 25 years and has been given to 126 recipients of 1190 applicants. In order to promote TQM&BE, all the winners have been invited to join an association called Chinese Excellent Management Association (CEMA) which is a cross-industry benchmark platform for pursuing excellent quality management. In order to examine in detail the history and the evolution of quality management in Taiwan since 1970, it was decided to review all articles published in ‘Quality Magazine’, the most popular quality management journal in Taiwan, assuming that those papers can be regarded as a mirror of the quality evolution in Taiwan from 1970 to 2012.

An empirical analysis of customer-oriented service activities in the Taiwanese public sector

Abstract This paper investigates the performance of customer-oriented service activities in the Taiwanese public sector. Customer orientation is one of the most important components of total quality management (TQM). Although TQM has been popular in manufacturing industry since 1980, the suitability of using it in the public sector has been debated for years. However, no empirical studies have been conducted in this area. The present study uses a customer-oriented service-enhancement system (COSES) model (Chen et al. 2004) as a conceptual framework to investigate 24 Taiwanese public agencies. The study reveals significant performance gaps among the five phases of the customer-oriented service system. Because the linkage of the performance gaps looks like a big bird flying, the present authors refer to this phenomenon as ‘roc flying’. The implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.

Developing a process re-engineering-oriented organizational change exploratory simulation system (PROCESS)

In the past two decades, business process re-engineering (BPR) and organizational restructuring (OR) have been two of the most popular approaches to improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of an organization. However, a review of the relevant literature reveals that the two approaches have been studied in isolation. The theoretical gap in academic research is also reflected in practice. The present paper therefore proposes a customer-oriented and process-focused two-stage framework, entitled the ‘process re-engineering-oriented organizational change exploratory simulation system’ (‘PROCESS’), to address these theoretical deficiencies. Two key concepts are introduced in this two-stage framework. The first is the ‘process module’ (PM), which indicates a set of common sequential activities that can be grouped as a subunit of a business process. The second is the ‘macro-process’ (MP), which indicates that a set of business processes have similar characteristics or functions. The two concepts serve as ‘stepping stones’ between BPR and OR. Based on these two concepts, the decision rules and the mathematical/simulation model can be developed under this two-stage framework. The paper then presents a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ‘PROCESS’.

Assessment and cultivation of total quality management organisational culture – an empirical investigation

The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical study on the role of total quality management organisational culture (TQM OC) in enabling Taiwanese companies to achieve a high level of business excellence. TQM OC is defined by TQM artefacts (also called practices), TQM core values (which indicate management commitment, customer focus, focus on fact, total participation and continuous improvement), and TQM underlying assumptions (which assume TQM benefits individual, organisation and society) that organisational members share about the appropriate behaviours prevailing in an organisation. In this study, seven Taiwanese companies, who are either National Quality Award winners or finalists, are investigated by using the approach developed by Chen, Ponce, and Jang [(2013) An approach on the cultivation of organizational culture toward TQM culture. The 16th QMOD conference, Portoroz, Slovenia]. It is intended to make an assessment of TQM organisational culture and come up with the necessary actions followed by the assessment to improve TQM OC. The result reveals that the performance of business outcome in the seven companies is positively correlated to their TQM OC. The implications of research findings in this empirical study are further discussed in the text.

ERA Model: A Customer-Orientated Organizational Change Model for the Public Service

Abstract This paper proposes a customer-oriented model for organizational change in the public service. Four significant performance gaps have previously been identified in the customer-oriented service system of a public agency. How to bridge these performance gaps to enhance service quality in the public services becomes an important issue. The present paper develops an organizational change model for this purpose. The model involves three phases – evaluation, re-evaluation, and action (ERA). The model is described and an empirical case study is reported to demonstrate how the ERA change model can be implemented. The results show that the ERA model is able to facilitate the change process. Compared with other change models, the ERA model provides a more detailed picture of how the micro-processes of change work in an organization.

Development of quality management in Taiwan the past, present and future

Quality management (QM) has been popular and widely used in Taiwan since the 1960s. However, it has been found that a review of its development is lacking. Hence, this paper aims to examine the history and the evolution of QM in Taiwan, and to take a step further to look for cues for shaping its future development. The research purpose of this paper is more specifically to review the development of QM during the period from 1970 to 2012. Quality Magazine, the most popular reading material on QM in Taiwan, has been selected as the search database. The overall review result shows that the development of QM in Taiwan has three developmental phases: (1) the quality technologies and tools focus period (1970–1985); (2) the QM system integration period (1986–2000) and (3) the quality in service industry development period (2001–2012). In light of the overall as well as the detailed review results, senior quality experts were invited for consultation, discussion and prediction of the needs and the future development of QM in Taiwan.