International Journal for Quality Research

10

Authors: Anwer Khurshid, Ashit B. Chakraborty

Measurement error effect on the power of control charts for zero truncated Poisson distribution and ratio of two Poisson distributions are recently studied by Chakraborty and Khurshid (2013a) and Chakraborty and Khurshid (2013b) respectively. In this paper, in addition to the expression for the power of control chart for ZTBD based on standardized normal variate is obtained, numerical calculations are presented to see the effect of errors on the power curve. To study the sensitivity of the monitoring procedure, average run length (ARL) is also considered.

11

Authors: Goran Markovic, Snezana Nestic, Pavle Popovic, Dejan Raonic

A telecommunication services have trend of fast growing in sence of market share, innovations, offer business support etc. One of its crucial aspects is quality of services because rising global competitivity. It is reason why is necessary to modify "classic" way of strategy development to quality strategy development using different offer approaches. In the paper we presented basic elements of approach designed to override difficulties of business strategy alignment to quality strategy in propose to make effective process of quality strategy development process.

12

Authors: Amare Matebu, Birhanu Dagnew

Designing of lifting, pushing and pulling activities based on the physical and physiological capabilities of the operators is essential. The purpose of this study is to analyze manual material handling (MMH) working posture of the operators using 3D Static Strength Prediction Program (3DSSPP) software and to identify major areas causing long last injury of operators. The research has investigated the fit between the demands of tasks and the capabilities of operators. At the existing situations, the actual capabilities of operators have been computed with the help of 3DSSPP software and compared with NIOSH standards. Accordingly, operators' working posture is at an unacceptable position that exposes them for musculoskeletal disorders. Then, after the improvement of the design of MMH device (cart's roller), the result showed that the forces required by the operators to push and pull the sliver cans have been reduced from 931.77 Newton to 194.23 Newton. Furthermore, improvement of MMH cart's roller has reduced the awkward posture of operators and the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. The improved manual material handling design also saves about 1828.40 ETB per month for the company.

14

Authors: Igor Klopotan, Kresimir Buntak, Ivana Drozdjek

In this paper the important parameters of customer loyalty and impact of education, gender and age of the respondents will be tested. The study was conducted in the Republic of Croatia, as part of research relevant parameters of customer loyalty, loyal consumer behavior and the role of social networks in building and maintaining a loyal behavior. The concept of loyalty has a strong foothold in marketing theories and in theories of intellectual capital companies. Loyalty has been related to the management of intellectual capital, especially relational capital, as a component of intellectual capital. In terms of loyalty, series of key parameters that describe it or have an effect on it, and thus impacting the company's business appear.

14

Authors: Rathish Raghupathy, K.S. Amirthagadeswaran

Sound and accurate castings reveal the quality of a foundry unit. In this case study, an attempt has been made to optimize the production of grey cast pump adapter castings using Box - Behnken design of experiments (DOE) approach in a foundry producing grey cast iron components. Process parameters like Clay percentage, Moisture percentage and Mold hardness were found to be dominant factors to control during the production process. Three different levels of each factor were considered for experimentation using BBD. Experimental trials were conducted using the design matrix and response in each experiment was measured and the results were tabulated. Design Expert software was used to analyse and optimize process parameters for confirmatory experiments. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was conducted to identify significant parameters. The parametrical settings of the confirmatory experiments produced defect free pump adapter castings. The effects of variation of the process parameters and their influence on the quality of the castings were discussed. The research concluded that careful adjustment of process parameters is necessary since bonding strength is directly related to these parameters; in turn have an effect on the quality of castings produced.

16

Authors: Jelena Jovanovic, Heena Shah, Aleksandar Vujovic, Zdravko Krivokapic

The paper is focused on evaluation of environmental impacts in the Pilot organization using multiple MCDM methods. The aim of this study was to determine the objectivity and reliability of the MCDM methods for the purpose of evaluation of the significance of environmental impacts, which is considered as a key step in the implementation of ISO 14001 standard (Environmental Management System). For this purpose, multiple methods AHP, AHP Entropy, TOPSIS, VIKOR and Entropy VIKOR have been used in the paper. The results of this comparative analysis were carried out on concrete data.

10

Authors: Yurij Vasilkov, Ludmila Gushina

In this paper we consider the problem of analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of management systems that are relevant, especially in the implementation at the enterprise requirements of ISO 9001, 14001 and others. Research management system based on a systematic approach focused on the disclosure of its integrative qualities (i.e. systemic), on identifying the variety of relationships and mechanisms for these qualities. It allows to identify the causes of the real state of affairs, to explain the successes and failures. An important aspect of a systematic approach to the analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of production control management is the multiplicity of "stakeholders" interests involved in the production process in the formation of operational goals and ways to achieve them.

12

Authors: Ilija Djekic, Nada Smigic, Nikola Tomic Andreja Rajkovic

This paper gives an overview of the food packaging process in seven food companies in the dairy and confectionery sector. A total of 23 production runs have been analyzed regarding the three packers' rules outlined in the Serbian legislation and process capability tests related to statistical process control. None of the companies had any type of statistical process control in place. Results confirmed that more companies show overweight packaging compared to underfilling. Production runs are more accurate than precise, although in some cases the productions are both inaccurate and imprecise. Education / training of the new generation of food industry workers (both on operational and managerial level) with courses in the food area covering elements of quality assurance and statistical process control can help in implementing effective food packaging.

13

Authors: Eduardo Gomes Salgado, Carlos Eduardo Sanches da Silva, Carlos Henrique Pereira Mello, Elizabete Ribeiro Sanches da Silva

Quality Management Systems (QMS) are designed to continuously improve the performance of organizations aiming to constantly improve their services seeking to overcome their results. Thus, for the services and/or products offered to transmit confidence and credibility, they should be designed within appropriate norms and standards. This research aims to assess the difficulties encountered by the incubated companies participating in the PRIME-FINEP project and developing projects for certification of their QMS in accordance with ISO 9001:2008. An exploratory survey was performed in nine incubated technology-based companies (TBC), through a questionnaire with 21 questions totaling the opinion of 20 respondents. After analyzing the data it is concluded, with statistical meaning, that the TBC's with little incubation time present difficulties in implementing the quality policy (5.3), difficulty not identified in other studies conducted in large companies. However difficulties similar to those of the large companies are present in the incubated TBC, and are the following: documentation requirements (4.2) present in all incubated companies (regardless of incubation time), and design and development (7.3) present in companies with little incubation time. The difficulty in implementing the quality policy (5.3) is reflected in the achievement of the QMS certification project in accordance with ISO 9001:2008.

14

Authors: Gezahegn Tesfaye, Daniel Kitaw, Amare Matebu

The Government of Ethiopia is promoting the manufacturing sector to join the global market in a large scale. Due to its comparative advantages, the Ethiopian leather and leather products industry have been given due attention. To fully utilize such advantages, the country shifted its export items from hides/skins to footwear products. Nevertheless, the performance of the leather sector in general and footwear sub-sector in particular is far below the desired standards. The improvement strategies applied hitherto were mainly to tackle a small portion of their total problems. If the Ethiopian footwear companies have to become globally competitive, their entire business spectrum has to be assessed and appropriate improvement strategies must be selected. In this research, we used a Total manufacturing solutions (TMS) technique to identify areas of improvement and improvement strategy of one of Ethiopian footwear companies. For this purpose, we conducted two surveys using structured questionnaire. The first survey was to test the TMS technique against the context of footwear industry. The result proved that the original TMS model can be used to measure the performance of footwear companies. The second survey was done to identify company's total problems, map its current position and select appropriate improvement strategy. The result revealed that the company has company-wide problems and its current position is a plodder. For plodders which have company-wide problems, the improvement strategy must include aggressive application of BPR; and the implementation of best practices to develop workers skills that encourages networking and promotion, a market-led manufacturing strategy, employee involvement and team work cultures. According to the findings of this research, we suggested that a BPR technique followed by a continuous improvement programme could be an appropriate improvement strategy for this company. The company requires long-term improvement programme to achieve the category of world leaders.

14

Authors: Slavomir Bednar, Vladimir Modrak

It is well known that high level of customer requirements and rapidly changing environment both induce complexity. The main reason for the failure of majority mass customized applications and projects is an increasing overall complexity of the system while relevant solutions for the overall production complexity reduction are still missing. The paper presents an overview of variety induced complexities in assembly operations capable and assessing the impact of assembly variety on performance, and reveals problems arising between quality and complexity. This paper aims to describe the current views to complexity, its measurement and management within assembly processes in mass customized productions and presents proposals for future development in the area.

16

Authors: Jagadeesh Rajashekharaiah

Different governments and professional agencies have set up a number of awards to recognize and reward quality initiatives. Deming Prize is one such award and ever since it was open for companies from outside Japan, maximum number of winning companies are from India, with 20 companies winning the Deming Prize and four among them also winning the Deming Grand Prize. This paper traces the path taken by these companies to know how these companies embarked a journey of Total Quality Management (TQM) and reached their goal of winning the prestigious Deming Prize. The common working principles of these companies and the various tools and techniques used by them are described in a concise manner in this paper. Further, the paper highlights the lessons from these companies to inspire others. The data taken from the respective websites of the companies has been used to list out the objectives, methodologies, and the benefits accrued by the companies.

10

Authors: Magdalena Niewczas

In this paper the results of survey conducted among 712 consumers in south-east Poland are presented. Respondents were asked to evaluate their level of knowledge about food. As a result it was shown that consumers usually assessed their knowledge as average or good. Women assessed their knowledge of food as better than men did. The most popular sources of knowledge about food among consumers are: the Internet (66.6% of ndications) and television (58.8% of indications). Respondents were also asked about their knowledge about HACCP/ISO 22000. Most of them do not have know ledge about these systems. Most respondents declared that they don't know what HACCP or/and ISO 22000 is (28.5% and 20.5% of indications). Men more often that women declared the lack of knowledge about HACCP and ISO 22000.

12

Authors: Birhanu Beshah, Eshetie Berhan

Effectiveness of quality management in the effort to satisfy customers' expectations has been questioned both by academicians and practitioners. In the course of the evolution of quality, very important theories have been developed in the field but failed to satisfy customers' expectation. The aim of this paper is to examine the challenge and develop a new method to address it. Following a literature review on the evolution of the concept of quality, confusions and limitations in the present paradigm are clarified. Then the future quality paradigm is proposed, and two practical cases are presented to substantiate the new approach. Quality management evolved from product inspection at the final stages of the production process. Basically, manufacturers take care of quality up to the point where a product is delivered to a customer. Product failure occurs due to various reasons after purchase. However, this happened or discovered during operational phase of the product which subsequently result in dissatisfaction for the users after purchase. To address this misalignment, all inclusive approach called Lifecycle Quality came into being as the future generation's paradigm. Misalignment between the manufacturer and the customer's desire in the operational phases of a product life - time leads to market loss to the former and dissatisfaction to the latter. Considering lifecycle quality of the product will definitely resolve the occurrence of such undesired outcomes affecting the two parties.

12

Authors: Zulnaidi Yaacob

It has been demonstrated within the literature that the practice of customer focus is significantly associated with customer satisfaction. However, the possibility that the construct of customer focus may affect other relevant measures remains underexplored. As such, this paper discusses the effect that customer focus has on organizational performance, operating upon the premise that customer satisfaction is an end result of other relevant performance measures such as employee satisfaction, innovation, and cost benefits. Data were collected from 205 managers within the public service sector, all of whom were directly involved with the process of customer focus. The results of this study revealed that customer focus is a significant predictor of employee satisfaction, innovation, and customer satisfaction. The structural model developed also indicated that there is an indirect relationship between customer focus and customer satisfaction, as determined by employee satisfaction. In addition, the effect of customer focus on innovation is mediated by employee satisfaction. Therefore, this model implies that the practice of customer focus may enable public firms to increase their levels of performance.

14

Authors: S. Arun Vijay

A lengthy and in-efficient process of discharging in-patients from the Hospital is an essential component that needs to be addressed in order to improve the quality of Health care facility. Even though, several quality methodologies are adopted to improve such services in Hospitals, the implementation of Six Sigma DMAIC methodology to improve the Hospital discharge process is much limited in the Literature. Thus, the objective of this research is to reduce the cycle time of the Patients discharge process using Six Sigma DMAIC Model in a multidisciplinary hospital setting in India. This study had been conducted through the five phases of the Six Sigma DMAIC Model using different Quality tools and techniques. This study suggested various improvement strategies to reduce the cycle time of Patients discharge process and after its implementation; there is a 61% reduction in the cycle time of the Patients discharge process. Also, a control pl an check sheet has been developed to sustain the Improvements obtained. This Study would be an eye opener for the Health Care Managers to reduce and optimize the cycle time of Patients discharge process in Hospitals using Six Sigma DMAIC Model.

16

Authors: Srdjan Nikezic, Radmila Mikovic, Dejana Prodanovic

In her lectures, Mary P. Follett pointed to key moments of leadership, management, group membership, coordination and participation as relevant elements for the exploration of human relations that are of interest today in the same way as they were eighty years ago. Model of thinking applied by Mary P. Follett is deeply linked to current strong needs for the creation of leadership and management professions that are linked to changes and long term strategic goals of big companies and world economy as a whole.

20

Authors: Maha Mohammed Yusr, Sany Sanuri Mohd Mokhtar, Abdul Rahim Othman

The relationship between TQM practices and innovation performance had drawn the attention of several scholars during last decade,however, this relationship still not clear and inconclusive. Therefore, this study is one of the attempts that aim to clarify the nature of this relationship. Reviewing the past studies reveals that there is somewhat ignoring in examining the indirect relationship between TQM and innovation performance. Thus, to determine and explore the effect of applying TQM practices within the organization on innovation performance, this study is aiming to investigate the relationship between TQM practices and technological innovation capabilities in Malaysian context. The obtained result of SmartPLS statistical analysis confirmed the positive effect of applying TQM practice on technological innovation capabilities. Moreover, the findings also provide an indication regarding the level of occurrence of technological innovation capabilities among Malaysian manufacturing companies. According to the output several recommendations have been highlighted to the managers of the companies.

8

Authors: Zdravko Krivokapic, Olivera Crnogorac, Aleksandar Vujovic, Jelena Jovanovic, Sasa Petrovic

Research subjects of this study are certified companies and their commitment to innovation, as well as their own development and implementation of innovation. Certified companies are those companies that have set one or more standards: ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001: 2004, HACCP, OHSAS 18001, ISO 17025:2006, ISO 27001. The research is based on 60 certified companies in Montenegro and 165 certified companies Republic of Srpska. The research was conducted at certified companies from all regions, for every activity and sizes. For this purpose it was used questionnaire with 91 questions and it was filled in like interview.

12

Authors: V. Vineet Kumar

Quality is an important aspect for every firm in modern era of competition. Every product has tough competition in terms of market reach. The factor, which actually makes any product long run in market, is quality and hence quality is the stepping-stone for success of any firm. For everyone meaning of quality is different. We have seen several economists who have defined quality by considering different factors, but what all of them have common in them is Customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate result of quality. In three-dimensional graphical representation of quality, optimum quality is obtained by using three-dimensional graph by considering some important factors governing quality of any product, limiting factor, and customer satisfaction.

14

Authors: Ephrem Gidey, Birhanu Beshah, Daniel Kitaw

Quality and productivity concepts were confusing and sometimes used interchangeably by experts both in industry and academics. Though researches, to some extent, tried to show the developments of quality and productivity, as yet, no research was devoted to study their evolution in a way to know how they reached into their existing form and their relationship, whether it existed. This study intends to disclose the reason behind the confusion and concept - intermix by studying the main advancements in the evolution of the two concepts. Their evolution is chronologically determined by grouping basic advancements in to distinct timeframes and their corresponding relationship is identified using natural selection and biased mutation approaches of evolution. The paper revealed that in the first period there was Seemingly Productivity; in the second Primarily Productivity; in the third Primarily Quality; in the fourth Primarily Quality-based Productivity (i.e. one after the other norm); and in the fifth period both quality and productivity will be equally primarily focus of firms (Primarily Quality and Productivity). Through logical justifications, observations made in the existing literature, and based on the nature of future competitiveness orientation, future relationship between the two concepts needs intelligence in that they will be equally, seemingly with trade-off, and concurrently important for organizational growth, agility, and excellence; one will never exist without the other, and after the other.

14

Authors: Revathy U. Thandapani, S. Sivasangari, Jamaiyah Haniff

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editor (ICJMJE) members require all clinical trials to register as a condition for publication. This policy applies to clinical trial starting enrolment after July 1, 2005. The National Medical Research Register (NMRR) was designed to meet this requirement yet extending it to include all types of medical research beyond clinical trials. Characteristics and flow of registered medical research as reported in the NMRR system is analysed; in terms of time trend time and differences in characteristics as a function of clinical specialty. A dataset comprising all research registered from year 2007 until 2012 in NMRR was downloaded on 26 Dec, 2012, and entered into a relational database to analyze aggregate data. The number of registered researches in NMRR system increased from 206 (September 2007) to 5107 (September 2007-Dec 2012), and the number of missing values in the data elements has generally declined. Most researches registered are those from student (57%; 2888/5107) and the rest from Ministry of Health (MOH) site researches (43%; 2219/5107). Most of the Interventional trials were phase III (56 %) and very small number of phase I. Heterogeneity in the reported methods by clinical specialty, sponsor type, therapeutic area, disease area, and research type was evident.

18

Authors: A. Sailaja, P.C. Basak, K.G. Viswanadhan

In modern industries, much emphasis is given to quality as it is the most effective tool which can capture, retain and enlarge customer base. The customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of business and no other strategy can achieve it other than attaining best quality. An improvement in quality enhances customer satisfaction, taper s manufacturing costs and of course in turn, increases productivity. But in business scenario, improving quality should be considered along with the expenses associated with it. The strategy should be to achieve high Quality in a most economic way. So identifying effective methods for the analysis of economics behind quality and reduction of costs associated with achieving quality is a serious potential management problem and should be looked in to and analyzed. Economics of Quality analysis which is also termed as cost of quality or quality cost analysis has emerged as a powerful management tool for assessing the present quality level of the organization and to identify the improvement opportunities and also supports in decision making. This paper presents a study on quality cost analysis of two manufacturing units and tries to analyze the interrelationships between quality cost categories using statistical methods. The secondary data collected from the financial records of two firms under manufacturing sector is used for this analysis. The Pearson product momentum correlation coefficient between different quality cost categories provides insight to the relationships between different quality cost elements and in turn helps management to set action priorities to be addressed to achieve good quality at lower cost. The regression analysis helps the management in estimation or prediction of the unknown value of one variable from the known value of the other variable.