Quality Management Maintenance and Practices-Technical and ... - Core

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 65 (2012) 688 – 696

International Congress on Interdisciplinary Business and Social Science 2012 (ICIBSoS 2012)

Quality Management Maintenance and Practices- Technical and Non-Technical Approaches Tiong Kung Leong a, Norhayati Zakuan b, Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman c a, b

Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia c Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

Abstract There are few major types of quality management maintenance and practices theories, but not much studies show the connections between those theories. This paper determines the new research area of technical and non-technical approaches in quality management, and also shows the connection of technical and non-technical approaches with the other major theories of quality management maintenance and practices. A thorough review is employed to sort out the literature and develop the framework of paper. The review is concentrated on all the major theories which have contributed to technical and non technical approaches. There are lack of researches to define and study the application of technical and non-technical approaches. Moreover, non-technical approach is partially related with human behavioral issues and the it can influence overall management system to balance up with technical approach so that continuous improvement in quality management system can be achieved. Hence, this paper provides useful implications into the similarities between human behavioral issues and non-technical approach researches. Therefore, this paper should be exceedingly valuable to researchers who intended to enhance the study of technical and nontechnical approaches.

© 2012 2012The Published ElsevierbyLtd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of JIBES University, © Authors.by Published Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Jakarta and peer-review under responsibility of JIBES University, Jakarta Selection Keywords: Quality management, Maintenance; technical approach; non-technical approach

1. Introduction Quality has been recognized broadly as one of the key factors to success in the global market for all kind of business. Quality is describe as products’ or services’ totality of features and characteristics which

1877-0428 © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Selection and peer-review under responsibility of JIBES University, Jakarta doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.185

Tiong Kung Leong et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 65 (2012) 688 – 696

can support its ability to fulfil both listed or implied requirements (Tam, 2000) while quality system is "a set of interdependent processes that function harmoniously, using various resources, to achieve the objectives related to quality” (Karapetrovic & Willborn, 1998). Both quality and quality systems have become hot topics and issues which are grabbing worldwide attention gradually (Chan, 1996; Docker, 1991; Low, 1992; Lowe & Seymour, 1990; Walters, 1992; Yates & Aniftos, 1997). As a domino effect of quality issues, implementations of quality management system become very common over the past few decades in various industries especially in manufacturing and construction industries. Quality management is generally referred to the identification and administration process of the activities in order to achieve the quality objectives of the organization. Besides, quality management has been explained as those quality activities which are used to manufacture a product, manage services or processes including prevention and appraisal (Burati, Jr, & Ledbetter, 1992). The main purpose of the quality management is to get competitiveness by improving quality performance (Deming, 1982; Garvin, 1988; Steeples, 1992). In addition, quality management is explained as a key factor to obtain competitive advantage (Badri, Davis, & Davis, 1995). In order to improving quality performance constantly, quality management system of a company must have proper maintenance where the company has to be selfmotivated and develop for better internal and external quality services persistently. Though the auditing processes can be considered as part of the maintenance's functions in quality system but the full overview of maintenance activities is lacking in the literature on quality management (Water, 2000). A researcher stated proper maintenance as using technical approaches and non technical approaches (socio-cultural) to monitor, control, assess and improve existing management system constantly (Stewart, 1995). There are some few findings showed that the some organizations put more concentration to the technical approaches and instrumental tools compare to the non-technical approaches (Low, 1993; Seymour & Low, 1990) when they try to improve the current quality management system. Nevertheless, a balance development of technical aspects and socio-cultural aspects has been used widely and effectively in some organizations in manufacturing sector. The purpose of balancing is to improve service quality and it is necessary to implement if the organizations in manufacturing sector want to maintain their quality management system effectively (Spekknink, 1995). The concept of balancing the technical requirements and theoretical approach is illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Technical and non-technical approaches to improving service quality

689

690


2. Research methodology Technical and non-technical approaches theories have been review thoroughly. Then it is used as based theory when searching for related quality management theory and researches. Those relevant theories have been categorized in order to compare and determine linkage towards technical and nontechnical approaches. Subsequently, all the findings are listed and written in the paper. 3. Background of Technical and Non-technical Approaches The evolution of technical and non-technical approaches can be traced back to the early theory of quality management maintenance and practices. Some of the theories have contributed as fundamental theory for technical and non-technical approaches while some theories are interrelated with the element of technical and non-technical approaches. An overview of all the theories of quality management maintenance and practices are shown in Fig. 2. The quality management maintenance has been defined by merging the concept of quality management matrix with maintenance concept (Blanchard, 1986; Gits, 1984; Torres Peraza, 1995). The “quality management matrix” is introducing the relationship of the structural system and the social dynamical aspect of quality management (Fisscher, 1994). The social-dynamical aspect concerns of employees' thought, feeling and interest which are very critical when the organization wants to emphasize on the existence of potential human qualities. The system structural is all about written procedures in ISO-Norms (Water, 2000).

Fig. 2 Overview of the theories in quality management maintenance and practices

Furthermore, quality management maintenance has been defined as “The application of management concepts to aspects of the process of quality management with the objective of keeping this process in a perfectly well defined state, to keep the introduced philosophy highly involving for the organization's members, to bring it into a state seen fit to control all aspects of quality.” In fact, social dynamical aspect has played an main role in the definition above (Simon & Hoes, 1994). The criteria of proper quality


management system maintenance is suggested to include monitor continually, control, assess and improve by implementing the technical approaches and non-technical approaches (socio-cultural approaches) (Stewart, 1995). Moreover, the Quality Management literature also illustrates that Quality Management practices are developed into two categories: Hard Quality Management practices and Soft Quality Management practices. Hard or Core Quality Management practices are explained as technique and methodology oriented practices include the use of quality data and information, process of product design, and use of statistical process control (SPC) and other process improvement techniques (Zu, 2009). Soft or Infrastructure Quality Management practices are described as people and culture oriented practices focusing on organization change and developing of areas in management commitment and leadership, relationships with external customers and suppliers, and the management of human resources (Evans & Lindsay, 1999; Flynn, Schroeder, & Sakakibara, 1995; Wilkinson, 1992). In addition, the quality system model is suggested to be mainly divided into technical system and management system (Evans & Lindsay, 1996). The management system is emphasizing on the processes including plan, organize, control and other human resources management processes which are related with quality initiatives. Human resources are concerned as a key area of the management system including employee involvement, teams, solving problems and etc. The technical system consists of two processes which are the quality design and performance process and the quality conformance process (Evans & Lindsay, 1996). On the other hand, definition of Total Quality Management (TQM) in BS 7850 is stated as the philosophy of management and company practices in an organization that intend to harness the human and material resources to meet the objectives of the organization by using the most effective method (BSI, 1992). Total Quality Management is used as an approach in the past exclusively to enhance the organizational effectiveness. Besides, it also provides a strategy to improve performance of business (Wruck & Jensen, 1994) and leads firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantages (Ahire & Ravichandran, 2001; Arumugam, Chang, Ooi, & Teh, 2009; Punnakitikashem, Laosirihongthong, Adebanjo, & McLean, 2010). In a proposed framework model, Total Quality Management is suspected will bring effect to the organizational performance indirectly by affecting the organization staffs' learning level. As a result it also can bring influences to the knowledge which has been applied to their tasks and the direction of learning. Besides, it is affecting some behavioral factors including motivation to work, satisfaction of work and organizational commitments (Montes, Jover, & Ferna´ndez, 2003). Total Quality Management’s criteria can be categorized into “soft” and “hard” according to the synthesis of the literature. The “soft” criteria are concerned with the behavioral aspects in the working life such as leadership, human resource management, supplier’s relation and also customer focus. But “soft” criteria are usually more open to interpretation because it is hard to assign a numerical value to that. Meanwhile, the “hard” criteria has been defined as tool and system that give support to implement the “soft” factors (Black & Porter, 1996). However, there are only some studies which have carried out empirical researches to find out the degree to which the soft and hard criteria of Total Quality Management have been implemented in the organizations with ISO 9001 certified (Gotzamani & Tsiotras, 2001; Samson & Terziovski, 1999). It is commonly accepted that the Standard in older versions are not strong in “soft” criteria (Gotzamani & Tsiotras, 2001; Samson & Terziovski, 1999) even though there is a study indicates that human factors affecting the acceptance of total quality management (Fok, Hartman, Patti, & Razek, 2000). Hence, the new version of total quality management visibly recognizes the critical of human factors in quality management which are including effective leadership, human

691

692


resource development and human resource management (Caudron, 1993; Flynn, Schroeder, & Sakakibara, 1994; Wilkinson, 1992). From reviewing all the major theories, it is obvious that all the theories are majorly divided into two categories. One of the categories always try to fulfill the requirements which have been set up in quality management system while the other category will concern about human behavioral aspects which will affect the effectiveness of quality management system directly or indirectly. All of these theories have linkage and effects to the theory development of technical and non-technical approaches. 4. Technical and Non-Technical Approaches In 1990s, there are few researches (Low, 1998; Low & Omar, 1997a, 1997b) started to explain, define and enhance study of technical approach and non-technical approach to manage quality management system from a researcher’s theoretical framework and observation (Kanter, 1994). The technical approaches are referred to the requirements which have been set out in Clause 4 of the ISO 9000 standards when those ISO certified companies implemented quality management systems. Technical approaches are also explained as segmentalist approaches because segmentalist structure will arise when an organization over emphasize on ISO 9000 standards requirements. Segmentalist structure will insist on traditional mechanistic bureaucracy which is having isolating effects betweens department and department, level above and level below, site office and headquarter office, management team and labor, male and female. It also highlight the importance of making boundaries uncross between the function teams for effective management (Low & Omar, 1997b). However, excessively bureaucratic organization will stifle the initiative of individuals, risk taking behavior, and sense of worker empowerment (Hage, 1980). Conversely, non-technical approach or integrative approaches are referred to the methodology of implementing quality management systems to form integrative and culture that enhance an organization towards ideal egalitarian and meritocratic (Low, 1998; Low & Omar, 1997a, 1997b). There are seven ingredients have been identified to improve, tuning and balance up technical approaches so that continuous improvement in quality management system can be achieved (see Fig. 3) (Kanter, 1994). The non-technical approaches have been categories into several themes including organization structure, communication and coordination, teams, decentralization of resources, employees' participations and responsibilities, intersecting territories, culture of pride and climate for success, and training during analyzing and discussion in a case study (Low & Omar, 1997b). Besides, there are eight non-technical aspects have been discussed in a study in order to achieve high quality of decisions. Communication and Appropriate Participation are two of the aspects have been emphasized when making decision in quality management (Rausch & Anderson, 2011). 5. Conclusion There are lots of studies in the literature discuss quality management practices and human behavioural issues which are relevant to technical and non-technical approaches, but there has been little research into the definition and application of non-technical approaches. The results also show the potential to merge all the theories with technical and non-technical approaches since all these theories have linkage and effects towards technical and non-technical approaches. Thus, technical and non-technical approaches in quality management have become new research area to redefine and clarify so that fundamental theory of quality management maintenance can be standardized and improved during application.


Fig. 3 Kanter’s theory for maintain quality management systems effectively

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Vot. 4F093 (MOHE), MyBrain15 (MOHE) and UTM Johor Bahru.

693

694


References Ahire, S. L., & Ravichandran, T. (2001). An innovation diffusion model of TQM implementation. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 48(4), 445-464. Arumugam, V., Chang, H. W., Ooi, H.-B., & Teh, P.-L. (2009). Self-assessment of TQM practices: a case analysis. The TQM Journal, 21(1), 46-58. Badri, M. A., Davis, D., & Davis, D. (1995). A study of measuring the critical factors of quality management. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 12(2), 36-53. Black, S. A., & Porter, L. J. (1996). Identification of the critical factors of TQM. Decision Science, 27(1), 1-21. Blanchard, B. S. (1986). Logistic Engineering and Management (3rd ed.): Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. BSI, B. S. I. (1992). BS 7850 Total Quality Management. London: British Standards Publishing Limited. Burati, J. L., Jr, F., J.J. , & Ledbetter, W. B. (1992). Causes of quality deviations in design and construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 118(1), 34-49. Caudron, S. (1993). Keys to starting a TQM programme. Personnel Journal, 72(2), 28-35. Chan, A. P. C. (1996). Quality assurance in the construction industry. Architecture Science Review, 39(2), 107-112. Deming, W. E. (1982). Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position: MIT Centre for Advance Engineering Study, Cambridge, MA. Docker, P. B. (1991). Quality assurance standard: for the building and construction industry. South Australian Builder, March, 15-17. Evans, J. R., & Lindsay, W. M. (1996). The Management and Control of Quality (3rd ed.). Minneapolis, West. Evans, J. R., & Lindsay, W. M. (1999). The Management and Control of Quality: South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, OH. Fisscher, A. M. (1994). Kwaliteitsmanagement en bedrijfsethisch handelen. Faculteit der Technische Bedrijfskunde, Universiteit Twente, Enschede. Flynn, B. B., Schroeder, R. G., & Sakakibara, S. (1994). A framework for quality management research and an associated measurement instrument. Journal of Operations Management, 11(4), 339-366. Flynn, B. B., Schroeder, R. G., & Sakakibara, S. (1995). The impact of quality management practices on performance and competitive advantage. Decision Sciences, 26(5), 659-692. Fok, L. Y., Hartman, S. J., Patti, A. L., & Razek, J. R. (2000). Human factors affecting the acceptance of total quality management. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 17(7), 714-729. Garvin, D. (1988). Managing Quality. Free Press, New York, NY. Gits, C. W. (1984). On the Maintenance Concept for a Technical System - A Framework for Design. Helmond, Dissertatie Drukkery Wibro. Gotzamani, K. D., & Tsiotras, D. G. (2001). An empirical study of the ISO 9001 Standards' contribution towards total quality management. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 7(4), 247-260. Hage, J. (1980). Theories of Organization: Form, Process and Transformation: John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, NY. Kanter, R. (1994). The Change Masters: Corporate Entrepreneurs at Work. Routledge, London.


Karapetrovic, S., & Willborn, W. (1998). The system’s view for clarification of quality vocabulary. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 15(1), 99-120. Low, S. P. (1992). Quality assurance: technical provisions and implementation for the Singapore construction industry. Building, Singapore Institute of Builders Journal, February, 22-32. Low, S. P. (1993). The rationalisation of quality in the construction industry: some empirical findings. Construction Management and Economics, 11(4), 247-259. Low, S. P. (1998). Managing total service quality: a systemic view. Managing Service Quality, 8(1), 34– 45. Low, S. P., & Omar, H. F. (1997a). The effective maintenance of quality management systems in the construction industry. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 14(8), 768790. Low, S. P., & Omar, H. F. (1997b). Integration, segmentalism and the maintenance of quality management systems in the construction industry. Building Research and Information, 25(1), 36-49. Lowe, S. P., & Seymour, D. (1990). The quality debate. Construction Management and Economics, 8(1), 13-29. Montes, F. J. L. n., Jover, A. V., & Ferna´ndez, L. M. M. (2003). Factors affecting the relationship between total quality management and organizational performance. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 20(2), 189-209. Punnakitikashem, P., Laosirihongthong, T., Adebanjo, D., & McLean, M. W. (2010). A study of quality management practices in TQM and non-TQM firms: Findings from the ASEAN automotive industry. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 27(9), 1021-1035. Rausch, E., & Anderson, C. (2011). Enhancing Decisions with Criteria for Quality Abstract. Samson, D., & Terziovski, M. (1999). The relationship between total quality management practices and operational performance. Journal of Operations Management, 17(4), 393-409. Seymour, D., & Low, S. (1990). The quality debate. Construction Management and Economics, 8(1), 1329. Simon, J. C., & Hoes, F. (1994). Standard based quality - the use of ISO 9000 standards and total quality. EOQ, 169-178. Spekknink, D. (1995). Architect's and consultant's quality management system. Building Research and Information, 23(2), 97-105. Steeples, M. M. (1992). The Corporate Guide to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. BusinessOne Irwin, Homewood, IL. Stewart, R. (1995). “Alive and kicking – quality assured: getting it was hard work, but keeping itmeans constant improvement”: The Chartered Builder, The Chartered Institute of Building. Tam, L. W. H. (2000). Quality management theory and practice: some observations of practices in Australian academic libraries. Library Management, 21(7), 349-356. Torres Peraza, M. (1995). Planen fur den Tag danach. Global Quality Management, 6, 694. Walters, W. (1992). The road to quality - getting started. Chartered Builder, Chartered Institute of Building, May, 16-17. Water, H. v. d. (2000). A maintenance model for quality management. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 17(7), 756-770. Wilkinson, A. (1992). The other side of quality: ‘soft’ issues and the human resource dimension. Total Quality Management, 3(3), 323-329. Wruck, K. H., & Jensen, M. C. (1994). Science, specific knowledge, and total quality management. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 18, 247-287.

695

696


Yates, J. K., & Aniftos, S. (1997). International standards and construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 123(2). Zu, X. (2009). Infrastructure and core quality management practices: how do they affect quality? International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 26(2), 129-149.