International Journal of Applied Quality Management最新文献

The article presents a concept to implement total quality management (TQM) in small and medium sized enterprises (SME) and is based on a yearlong collaboration between a college and local SME's. An annual course is developed and offered to both company participants and students who work together in project teams and in genuine projects at the companies. The course curriculum is presented and analyzed and the ability of the course to facilitate the companies' long-term quality strategies is discussed. The outcomes of the course, as reported by the companies, show that the collaboration has supported their long-term implementation of TQM.

The objective of this project is to develop a decision support system (DSS) for expenditure budgeting. The system will support current expenditure budgeting according to the same principles as the fixed expenditure (capital) budgeting. The framework of the analysis is based on an ex ante version of the traditional (ex post) du Pont system presenting the profitability of the firm as a function of asset turnover and profit margin. The present approach depicts the relationships between sales and the alternative classes of expenditure, expenses and assets by means of a mathematical model expressed as a DSS in an EXCEL spreadsheet framework. The model assumes that the average absorption time and revenue lag structure for expenditure classes are constant in time. However, the monetary productivity of expenditures is a second-order parabola of the amount of expenditure. The use of the model is demonstrated in two illustrative cases (SIEMENS and ABB) using published financial statement data. The estimation of the revenue function is based on an interactive analysis and simulation with past data.

The intent of this empirical research is to identify the critical factors that are potentially fatal to productivity improvement programs and to analyze these factors relative to management leadership concepts. From this analysis we determine that these “fatal” factors can be prevented by the pre-existence of a leadership-based program that requires participative involvement of all members of an organization through good performance measurement and a sound reward system.

An earlier contribution to this journal focused on Leadership for Business Excellence, as reflected in business and performance excellence models which provide the criteria for various international quality prizes. Consideration of leadership in such models is bent toward competencies and their deployment and, also, to involvement in non-delegable activities deemed critical to the organization's competitive position. Herein a leadership core value set is developed, deployment of which can contribute to systemic leadership throughout the organization. Two subsequent contributions to this journal will examine leadership core value deployment and assessment of Leadership for Business Excellence.

The primary objective of the research reported in this article is to examine whether the performance effects of ABC are contingent upon the competitive strategy being deployed. The empirical findings of the study show that the use of ABC is associated with better performance at the business unit level. However, this association appears to be driven primarily by the group of business units following a product differentiation strategy, as contrasted to the group following a cost leadership strategy.

The study explored the quality management practices, specifically addressing cost of quality reporting, of Australian manufacturers certified to AS/NZS ISO 9000. The findings suggest that firms have responded to the demands of the new manufacturing environment and have implemented quality management initiatives in an effort to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The minority of respondents prepared cost of quality reports. For those firms reporting quality costs, the motivation was to identify high-cost problem areas. Firms not reporting quality costs cited lack of management support and the belief that quality was part of the firm's culture.