Veeri Arumugam

TQM practices and quality management performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between total quality management (TQM) practices and quality performance with special emphasis on ISO 9001:2000 certified manufacturing organizations in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data was drawn from 122 ISO 9001:2000 certified manufacturing organizations in Malaysia. The data were analyzed using correlation and multiple regression analyses.Findings – The findings revealed that TQM practices were found to be partially correlated with quality performance of the Malaysian ISO 9001:2000 certified manufacturing organizations. It is also found that where customer focus and continual improvement were perceived as dominant TQM practices in quality performance.Research limitations/implications – This research paper was limited by excluding non‐ISO 9001:2000 certified organizations in the selection of manufacturing firms in Malaysia, making this a possibly biased selection, which might not adequately represent the Malaysia...

Self‐assessment of TQM practices: a case analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the current level of TQM practices within a major computer hard disk USA based manufacturing company in Malaysia and to identify improvement opportunities.Design/methodology/approach – Original research using self‐administered questionnaires, distributed to all staff within this organization, is thoroughly reported. The study sample consisted of 299 employees, resulting in a response rate of 66.4 percent. The data were analyzed using descriptive and multiple regression analyses.Findings – The analysis revealed that the strengths of the company, in its quality management implementation, lie in customer focus and process management. It was also perceived to attain a “good” level of practices in leadership, strategic planning, human resource development and management. On the other hand, supplier relationship and information and analysis both received only moderate scores. This suggested that more effort needs to be focused on improving supplier quality and re...

Does total quality management reduce employees' role conflict?

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the total quality management (TQM) practices of both manufacturing and service firms in order to determine the relationship between the multidimensionality of TQM practices and role conflict of employees., – Questionnaires are distributed to 433 employees of 98 different firms from manufacturing and service industries in Malaysia., – The results support significant negative correlation among all TQM practices (i.e. leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, human resource focus, process management and information analysis) and role conflict. By employing multiple regression analysis, leadership, process management and information analysis are found to have significant and negative relationship with role conflict. Human resource focus is reported to have a significant and positive relationship with role conflict., – This model is ideal for practical usage by managers to evaluate the perceptions of role conflict of employees in TQM‐oriented firms. The findings suggest that firms should look into ways of developing the major roles of leadership and process management as well as improving efficient use of information analysis in order to reduce the detrimental role conflict of employees. This finding may also help administrators and individuals to attain a fine‐grained understanding of different dimensions of TQM in relation to role conflict., – TQM practices appear to be related to role conflict, addressing an apparent noticeable gap in the literature of TQM and the psychological well‐being of employees. This paper also lays the foundation for formation of a theoretically based model which integrates the elements of TQM and role conflict.

Integration of EFQM framework and quality information systems

The main purpose of this paper was to improve the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model through integrating the model and quality information systems. Despite the supportive role of information systems in quality management, this concept has not been included in any quality management model. This study attempts to fill this gap. In order to integrate the EFQM model and information systems, this research studies the relationships between the dimensions of information systems, including information flows and information technology (IT), and the criteria of the EFQM model. A structural model was proposed, including 26 causal hypotheses. The model not only explains interrelationships among EFQM criteria, but also illustrates the contributory impacts of both information flows and IT on the EFQM dimensions. Data were collected from 228 Iranian manufacturing SMEs by means of a structured questionnaire to examine the model using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that interrelationships among excellence criteria in Iranian manufacturing SMEs follow the assumptions of the EFQM model. Also, data accentuate the supportive effects of information flows and IT on different dimensions of the EFQM model. This study generates valuable information for managers to be benefitted from information systems in their quality management programme.

The influence of TQM practices on supply chain collaboration: a proposed model for the service industry

This study proposes a research framework of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices towards the supply chain collaboration level. The proposed model is based on the extensive literature review; this study develops a model of TQM practices that influence the supply chain collaboration level. The findings from this study would provide a basis for developing an advanced model of TQM towards the supply chain collaboration level. The organisations that would like to implement supply chain collaboration will be able to make managerial decision based on the TQM practices from this research. This study also makes a significant contribution by developing a model of TQM and supply chain collaboration in service industry. Furthermore, the organisations could use this framework to conduct a pre-test baseline measurement and periodically assess the effect of TQM practices.