Implementation of TQM Practices in Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan

Implementation of TQM Practices in Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan Implementation of TQM Practices in Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan Subhan Ullah MBA (Management) Student Department of Management Sciences Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore Email Id: Subhankhan_dir@yahoo.com Abstract To study the implementation of TQM practices and analyze the key success factors (KSF) in manufacturing sector of Pakistan, a detail questionnaire was designed covering the nine dimensions of TQM practices, like top management orientation, top management participation, feedback, quality policy, allocation of human resource, empowering of employees, benchmarking, Strategic Planning Process of Quality and Quality Information Availability and Usage. For successful implementation of TQM practices in manufacturing sector of Pakistan, along with the top management participation, effective feedback system, trainings and capacity building of employees on TQM are necessary. Some of the dimensions like Top Management Orientation, Quality Policy, Strategic Planning Process of Quality Management, Quality Information Availability and Usage and Empowering Employees play a critical role in the implementation of TQM practices in manufacturing of Pakistan. And some factors in the few dimensions of TQM practices are weak like Feedback system, Human Resource allocation and Top Management Participation. Keyword: Key Success Factors (KSF), Human Resources, Total Quality Management (TQM), 1. Introduction From the teaching of Drucker, Juran, Deming, Ishikawa, Crosby, Feigenbaum and numerous other people that have studied, practiced, and tried to implement TQM practices in the organizations to refine the process of organizational management till now TQM practices are passed from many phases. And it is the most popular topic today. TQM is a collection of principles, techniques, processes, and best practices proved effective. My topic is about implementation of TQM practices in manufacturing sector in Pakistan. We analyzed the different dimensions of TQM practices in manufacturing sector of Pakistan. This research is important because of today international market and all other stakeholders trend. In today s businesses as world is global village, there is a growing recognition with in the manufacturing sector that isolated improvements in particular parts of business are no longer acceptable and that a holistic strategy is needed to bring competitive advantage in the market place and this can only be achieved by adaptation and implementation of total quality management practices, which is not just concerned with services and process development and customer delivery but also stakeholders and even the contribution of all employees no matter where ever they work in the organization. Manufacturing sector, the world over, is considered backbone, on which the International Journal of the Computer, the Internet and Management Vol.20 No.1 (January-April, 2012) pp57-62 57

Subhan Ullah development of the country depends. To a great extent, the growth of a country and its development status is generally determined by the quality of its manufacturing companies and their capability. Manufacturing participates to increase the GDP, which share by 30% of GDP in Pakistan, according to the Daily Times report (May 29, 2009). This is a second important sector of economy contributing towards national income and is source of generation of employment. Christos B. Fotopoulus & Evangelos L. Psomas (2009) and Kumar, Dixit Garg and T.K Grag (2009) discussed the impact of TQM practices on quality management results and explains the relationship between different soft TQM practices like leadership, strategic quality planning, employee management & involvement, supplier management, customer focus, process management, continuous improvements and their effect on quality management results in the form of market benefits like increase in profits, improved competitive position, improved performance and increased sales. While customer satisfaction is measured by decline in customer complaints, increase in loyalty, and customer retention rate. 2. Introduction of The Organizations and Organization s Business Sector The companies selected for this project are different manufacturing units in Pakistan. These include Pharmaceuticals, engineering and food manufacturing companies. The pharmaceutical companies are involved in the production of tablets, syrups, injections, vaccines, suspensions, creams/ ointment, lotions/surgical scrubs, anti-septic solutions, Schachts and capsules. Engineering manufacturing companies deals with the air cooled condensing unit, machine tools, dies, traffic systems and global positioning system, broadcasting equipments, product for aviation and wire harness for automobiles & electrical appliances. Food company s products are chilies powder, snacks and different spices. Manufacturing companies are chosen for this project as these companies are Pakistani owned/national companies and they cater with the health and social life of public/ community so they are of significant importance and play a vital role in the country development. Manufacturing industries have significance for the country in term of self-reliance to a great extent. The organization s business sectors are pharmaceutical products, engineering equipments and food production. Pakistan has energetic and forward looking pharmaceutical industry. Today about 400 pharmaceutical units including 25 multinational are manufacturing different pharma products (PPMA). The industry provides a vital support to the healthcare needs and meets the demand of the country. The national pharma industry has show a progressive growth within short period of time. Currently the industry has the capacity to manufacture a verity of different product ranging from simple medicine to oncology and value added products. Pakistan engineering industry is the back bone of the country and has pace to meet the country demands. This business is consists of electrical/electronic and mechanical manufacturing. It ranges from very small equipments to large machineries, from home appliances to aviation products and from traffic signal system to machine tools are locally manufactured. A large number of food processing units are working in Pakistan and manufacturing different food products with different taste. The industry is enough mature and some units have national as well as international clients. It includes snacks, biscuits, cereals, fruits & vegetable, poultry processing, Diary and bread & bakery manufacturing units. 3. Objectives and Significance To study Total Quality Management practices in the chosen organization 58

Implementation of TQM Practices in Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan Analyze the key success factors (KSF) required for implementing quality management system in the industry. To give recommendation for improvements This study describes the current adoption and culture of TQM in manufacturing sector of Pakistan. This will also help in near future for implementing and improvement in TQM practices in any manufacturing company as we have manipulated the different dimensions of TQM practices. This will help out the quality control manager, production manager and operation manager of manufacturing companies in Pakistan to improve or implement the TQM practices. The result will help out the top management of manufacturing sector to improve their TQM system because in this study the key success factors of total quality management system were analyzed. The top management will improve the different dimensions required for the implementation of TQM program. Apart from quality policy, commitment, participation top management will educate employees on TQM so it will help to reduce extra work and cost and will be succeeded for customer satisfaction. They will empower their employee and will realise them their responsibilities and role. Top management will focus on quality information and data for decision making. They will also study and consider the work of competitors and other world leaders to make improvement and innovation in their products. 4. Methodology 75 questionnaires were circulated to General Manager/ Plant Manager, Production manager, quality control cell or quality control manager in 25 (target populations) different manufacturing companies including pharmaceuticals, Foods and Engineering companies. In which 33 questionnaires returned completely filled. Four (04) companies refused to participate in the survey and return blank questionnaires (12). So participation response is 44 %. Quota sampling technique was applied to select a sample of 30 respondents, in which 15 are from ISO certified and 15 are from Non ISO certified manufacturing units. Employees or managers of the selected organization are the primary source of data. A questionnaire was circulated to the Quality control manager, production manager and general manager / plant manger of selected manufacturing units to collect data and web sites of companies, other research papers and business magazines. The data was collected through questionnaire which is adopted from Powel (1995). In which 48 questions are laid out in 09 different key areas shown in Table 1. 5. Data Processing, Analysis and Interpretation Microsoft office excel 2003 was used to enter and process the collected data. The data was entered in each dimension against each respondent. Five point Likert Scale was used, where 5= strongly agree, 4= agree, 3=undecided/neutral, 2=disagree and 1= strongly disagree. Mean for individual question and over all mean for each dimension were calculated to analyze the perception of importance and practices. The overall mean range from 4.28 to 3.87 shown in Table 1. The mean score 4.05 according to five point Likert scale, of Top Management Orientation clearly indicates that according to the respondent top management has formulated clearly a quality policy, top management give importance to quality as main issue and give importance to quality on cost. This table also shows that somehow top management lack in the provision of all kind of resources for the implementation of TQM program and leadership by translating plans into actions. International Journal of the Computer, the Internet and Management Vol.20 No.1 (January-April, 2012) pp57-62 59

Subhan Ullah The mean score 3.93 according to five pint Likert scale, of Top Management Participation shows that they lack in the review of ongoing TQM program, although they provide fund, time and attend policy reviewing meetings for implementation of TQM programs. The mean score of feedback 3.87 according to five pint Likert scale, shows that feedback system is unsuccessful, either employee do not provide feedback, the top management do not give importance to their feedback on TQM program or Top management do not spend time with employee. The internal audit system is weak. Changes in the implementation plan are not addressed properly. The top management does not give any importance to evaluation of TQM program and suggestions of employees in TQM meetings. The mean score of quality policy is 4.10, which indicates that Quality Policy is appropriate for the purpose of organization, communicated to all employees within organization and easily available in every department. Empowering Employees has the means score 4.00, that indicates that according to the respondents, employees are empower. They have defined responsibilities, directory of duties for each post and roles according to ISO requirement. They take responsibilities and top management motivates them at work. The mean score of Strategic Planning Process of Quality Management is 4.20, which clearly specify that Quality management is given top priority; customer satisfaction is the focal point and top management support long term quality improvement. The mean score of Human Resource allocation is 3.87, it shows that top management do not support TQM related learning and development to employees, most of employee do not responsibilities for how one should treat other employees and customers/clients and they hired the employee, who lack in skills needed for TQM. Training programs are not review regularly. According to five point Likert scale, Quality Information Availability and Usage mean score is 4.28, which shows that quality data is easily available to all managers, supervisors and employees on time and when ever required and they use quality data in decision making. The mean score of Benchmarking is 3.99 according to five pint Likert scale, which shows that top management studies best practices and compare quality with competitor s product/service but they lack to compare their quality level with world leaders. 6. Conclusion & Recommendations All the respondents are agreed on the importance and vital role of Quality Information Availability and Usage, Strategic Planning Process of Quality Management, Quality Policy, Top Management Orientation and Empowering Employees in the successful implementation of TQM practices. Respondents are very close to agree on Benchmarking Data has confirmed that Top Management Participation is negligible in the implementation of TQM Feedback system is weak Human Resource allocation is not proper Organizations lack in Trainings and capacity building of their employees Top Management should have to participate in TQM meetings and should have to review the ongoing TQM program. A strong and effective feedback system should be in place, which include: Feedback from employee on TQM at work and during TQM meeting Strong internal audit to measure TQM implementation 60

Implementation of TQM Practices in Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan Top management has to spend time with employee at work, appreciate feedback and team work and provide trainings and support and build the capacity of employees on TQM Adapt merit for hiring new employee and give proper orientation to new comers and Ensure that each individual clearly understand quality policy and can understand any action identification against TQM Study and adopt the best practices of others and compare with the world leaders as world is a global village Feedback F1 3.87 F2 3.90 F 3 3.97 F 4 3.80 F 5 3.87 F 6 3.77 F 7 3.83 F8 3.50 F9 3.73 F10 4.13 F11 4.23 3.87 Table1 Rank of different dimensions with Standard Deviation & Mean Dimension Standard Dev Mean Quality Information Availability and Usage 0.64 4.28 Strategic Planning Process of Quality Management 0.89 4.20 Quality Policy 1.03 4.10 Top Management Orientation 0.89 4.05 Empowering Employees 0.87 4.00 Benchmarking 0.95 3.99 Top Management Participation 0.98 3.93 Feedback 0.83 3.87 Human Resource allocation 0.98 3.87 Quality Policy Empowering Employees F1 4.43 F2 4.00 F3 4.17 F 4 3.93 F 5 3.97 F1 4.07 F2 4.07 F3 3.77 F 4 4.00 F 5 3.93 F 6 4.17 F1 3.73 4.10 4.00 Table 2 Mean of each factor and over all mean of every dimension over all Dimension Factors Mean mean Top Management Orientation Top Management Participation F 1 3.97 F 2 4.27 F 3 3.87 F 4 3.97 F 5 4.30 F 6 4.07 F 7 3.93 F 1 3.97 F 2 4.00 F 3 4.07 F 4 3.70 4.05 3.93 Human Resource allocation Strategic Planning Process of Quality Management Quality Information Availability Usage Benchmarking and F2 4.00 F3 3.97 F 4 3.87 F 5 3.77 F 6 3.90 F1 4.07 F2 4.27 F3 4.27 F1 4.37 F2 4.17 F3 4.30 F1 4.00 F2 4.17 F3 3.80 3.87 4.20 4.28 3.99 International Journal of the Computer, the Internet and Management Vol.20 No.1 (January-April, 2012) pp57-62 61

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