مطالعه مبتنی بر فرآیند تحلیل سلسله مراتبی عوامل مهم برای پیاده سازی مدیریت کیفیت جامع (TQM) در صنایع تولیدی شانگهای

In recent years, many organizations have looked upon continuous improvement and total quality management (TQM) as the means by which they could maintain a competitive edge. This paper investigates the critical factors and sub-factors that determine the adoption and implementation of TQM in the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and foreign joint ventures (FJVs) in China with particular reference to the Shanghai manufacturing industries. It incorporates the main findings of a recent study, in which an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach was employed to prioritize the relative importance of four critical factors and sixteen sub-factors among SOEs and FJVs in China. The findings advocate that these enterprises would stress the soft TQM factors of organizing, and culture and people rather than the hard TQM factors of the systems, techniques and measurement, and feedback. Top management commitment, leadership, education and training are among the most important sub-factors. The results suggest a generic hierarchy model for organizations to prioritize the critical factors and formulate strategies for implementing TQM in Shanghai, as well as other cities and regions in China.

Total quality management (TQM) is often regarded as a philosophy that aims to achieve customer satisfaction through continuous improvement and teamwork (Dean and Bowen, 1994). The transformation towards TQM is coupled with its spread, from the manufacturing to the service sector and onto public services (Dale, 1999). Implementation of TQM becomes a top management agenda in many organizations in the pursuit of positive business benefits, such as better product quality, higher customer satisfaction and less quality costs. Some recent studies advocated that many organizations launched TQM programs have gained any positive results (Hua et al., 2000; Miller, 1992; Pun, 2001). There have been several approaches and models suggested for the TQM introduction and implementation (Dale, 1999, NIST, 2000 and Tan, 1997). This paper presents the main findings of a recent study that investigated the critical success factors affecting the implementation of TQM in organizations in Mainland China with particular reference to the manufacturing sector in Shanghai. The Shanghai manufacturing industries had undergone fast pace economic developments with significant efforts of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the foreign joint ventures (FJVs). This study attempted to identify the critical factors and sub-factors for these organizations to implement TQM using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach. Based on two evaluator groups from SOEs and FJVs, the relative weights of individual factors were computed. A generic hierarchy model was elaborated to help prioritize these factors and formulate strategies for TQM implementation in China.

Implementation of TQM requires thorough organizational transformation, especially in the areas of operation mode, organization structure and corporate culture. The complexity and difficulty of TQM implementation predestinate organizing to be the most fundamental and important factor. It appears logically that top management commitment, leadership, and education and training were the three most important sub-factors found in the study of the TQM implementation in the Shanghai manufacturing industries. In addition, establishment of a harmonious and participative organization culture will not only facilitate TQM implementation, but also facilitate the long-term development of both the SOE and FJV enterprises. The study findings suggest that the hard factors (e.g. quality systems, performance measurement, communication, and quality improvement techniques or methods) are an indispensable part of TQM implementation. However, it is impossible for the hard factors to bring on high quality alone as their effectiveness would rely significantly on the support from the soft factors of TQM implementation, and more importantly, the people who utilize them. Despite focusing on the Shanghai manufacturing industry sector, the results of the study provide good insights into identifying and prioritizing the critical factors and sub-factors for the implementation of TQM in the SOE and FJV enterprises in the Mainland China. It also proposes a generic hierarchy model for assessing the relative importance of both identified soft and hard factors that would affect the TQM implementation and the development of TQM strategy and practice. Different organizations can make use of the model to serve their specific circumstances and needs. For instance, a cross-functional evaluating team can be formed with members from different departments (e.g. quality management, design, engineering, purchasing and production), as well as other external consultants or experts. The model can help organizations identify the differences between the desired and current situations, and then identify the improvement areas and develop the strategies for the TQM implementation. In addition, the company can also use the assessment results as a benchmark with competitors and other ‘best-in-class’ organizations.